This is my third video for Survivor. It’s been my dream to get on this show since episode 1. I think I would be both entertaining and competitive. If nothing else, I think fans would enjoy watching the man who cycled the world embarrass himself at the physical challenges. Wish me luck!
My award arrived in the mail for the anniversary edition of Falling Uphill. Yay! You could call this my coming of age journey. The sequel is planned for 2037. I imagine I’ll have some interesting perspective as I do it all again. Well… maybe not the whole world via bicycle. Thank you Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Please visit our new website Dreamplay. It’s been 4-years in the making. Along with our new book, “Dream it!” We’re dedicated to teaching kids how to dream and how to turn those dreams into reality using our formula: Dream it! Map it! Play it! And, to do that we use traditional pencil-and-paper games and evidence-based… Continue Reading
This summer our website celebrates its 20th birthday. Stay tuned for some new stories from our favorite adventurers. And we'll be modernizing our site a little bit. We've been doing this in stages. Last time it took months to move almost 1000 pages into a database. Our website is so old — predating blogs, wordpress and every kind of content management system — that everything was hand-coded page by page—and that had to all be stripped out manually! We still have a lot of work to do as we try to unify our brand. It seems a lot of our peers our are giving up websites and moving to social media platforms.
Whoa! Surprising news. The new 10th-anniversary edition of Falling Uphill has won a finalist award at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in Memoirs (Personal Struggle). Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest not-for-profit awards program for independent publishers. What a big honor!
Super big, life changing news. After 4 years in development, we're excited to announce that Dream It! will be published by Magination Press "Self-help books for kids and the adults in their lives, written by experts and published by the American Psychological Association." We feel this is the perfect publisher for the Playbook's themes of passion, optimistic thinking and social emotional learning. We couldn't be more excited. The Dream Playbook has grown bigger than us and we just couldn't do it alone.
Why did I write an anniversary edition? Because a lot of friends and fans have been wondering how my life has turned out since the big trip, and because I wanted to include a new afterword about my biggest discover yet, one that could only occur after many years of integrating everything that I had learned from my trip. This is what makes Falling Uphill different than most travelogues — it doesn’t end happily ever after in some foreign land, but continues after the return home, profound culture shock and the difficult struggle to integrate everything I had learned. Are you wondering if the trip was worthwhile, did it change me or make the world a better place? Are you wondering whether to make your own big journey or change? Then this is the book for you.
Since we last spoke, I've also written a new book about monarch butterflies. This was part of a year-long author-in-residence project at a local elementary school. I didn't think it would take a year, but it required a lot of organizing, and we did so much more than just make a book. We actually increased the number of monarch butterflies in our neighborhood. Read all about how we helped save the monarch butterflies. I'm super proud of this. We donated over 600 books to students, teachers, schools and libraries.
Ooh! I'm honored to be among the great legends of bicycling in this new book by Anna Hughes. Pedal Power: Inspirational Stories from the World of Cycling. Synopsis: A bike can be so many different things—a simple way of navigating busy city streets or enjoying quiet lanes, a cross-country steed to take a rider up hill and down dale, or even a world-beating racing machine. What unites everyone who rides is that they each have their own cycling story to tell. This book collects inspirational stories from riders around the world, both ordinary and extraordinary, from the London cyclist who rode 10,000 km in a month, to the daredevil trials rider who hops from building to building, to classic tales of grand-tour rivalries and legendary cycling records of days gone by. Essential reading for anyone who loves life on two wheels. Available on Amazon.
Pay It ForwardI've been donating my time to schools and children in need for over a decade. I'm running out of time and money. Then I saw this inspirational video, Pay It Forward With Pizza, and thought I should try it. So, I did. Please help me, buy a book signed by the author (me) for a child that otherwise couldn't have one. I've donated books to teachers Peace Corp volunteers in Paraguay and recently I shipped a box of books to Kenya, which I'm told will most likely be stolen by the post office. So, I will need to try again with a special hand-delivered courier. So please visit our bookstore and buy a book for a kid. This book will be donated on your behalf. Buy now.
Read Falling Uphill: The Secret of Life for free online to see the kind of kid's book we are donating. Of course we give the kids a real paper book. If the books make it to Kenya, we will begin illustrating a Swahili version.
The word argonaut is synonymous with adventurer. I recommend you read about the original Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts (or the illustrated kid's version) including the history, culture and the actual story. I've been collecting this info for years; and I find it fascinating how this myth has embedded itself in our culture. Or read about: What is an argonaut?
"Life is like riding a bicycle." by Albert Einstein is one of my personal favorites, and which our website made famous. Back in 1999 hardly anyone had heard of these quotes. Now “Life is like riding a bicycle” is probably the most famous bicycle quote of all time. See how Life is like riding a bicycle quote has been shortened, or paraphrased, over time. And see the Top 100 bicycle quotes of all time.
Scott asked himself, "If I could do anything, what would I do?" His answer was to ride a bicycle around the world and search for happiness and the meaning of life. This was one of the first circumnavigations around the planet on a bicycle using only paper maps. Discover what happened during the 4-year journey. Read about the trek around the world on a bicycle.
Above: The map of Scott's quest. One of the first circumnavigations around the planet on a bicycle. Below: Re-imagine the journey in the best-selling independent book Falling Uphill.
2017. New Anniversary Edition. In one week, Scott Stoll lost his job, his best friend, his girlfriend and his confidence. Disillusioned with society, full of angst, a lost and wandering soul with nothing left to lose, Stoll asked himself a question: “If I only have one life, one chance, if I could do anything, what would I do?”
His answer resulted in a 4-year and 25,752-mile odyssey around the world by bicycle, seeking answers to the great mysteries of life, vowing to find happiness or die trying. The quest wasn’t easy. He was imprisoned, held hostage, mugged, run over, suspected of terrorism, accused of espionage, trampled, diseased, heartbroken—he nearly died a dozen times. But more importantly, in the most unlikely places, he also discovered the wonders of the world, kindness among strangers, the meaning of life, peace, love and — Yes!— happiness — in the last place to look — and much more than he imagined possible.
Re-live and re-imagine a journey around the world on a bicycle as a man stumbles through moments of pure survival and moments of pure enlightenment. More info. or Buy now.
Falling Uphill The short film: A montage of photos and videos from Scott's 4 year, 26,000 mile bicycle tour around the world. Previously a Youtube Feature Video and specially requested for the Boston Bicycle Film Festival. "I nearly cried watching this video. Just a normal guy and look what he has achieved." ~ Ingrid K.
Scott funded most of his adventures, this website and a lot of school projects with the profits from years of working in the advertising business. Scott worked as either a senior graphic designer or art director in some of the best advertising agencies in the country, including TBWA\Chiat\Day when they won the prestigious Ad Agency of the Year Award. Not only did he design dozens of bicycle logos, but he also designed thousands and thousands of ads, posters, billboards, websites and much more.
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Scott is still available for graphic design, illustration or web design. Profits support this website and our work with schools. Contact us.