Alex Shares How She Tries To Give Life Her Best Shot Whilst Remaining True to Her Values
In today’s LEGEND LIFE STORY interview I talk to Alexandra Pastollnigg. Originally from Austria and now based in Switzerland, Alex worked for 12 years in investment banking, before becoming a social entrepreneur and founding Fair Voyage. A travel platform that looks to curate tailor-made socially and environmentally responsible trips to mid and lower income countries and help you minimize your environmental footprint whilst empowering local tourism workers and communities.
Alex is also a Board member of the International Mountain Explorers Connection, a non-profit organization committed to improving the working conditions of the porters on Mount Kilimanjaro through the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP).
Alex has travelled extensively and actively looks to challenge herself physically and mentally. Her adventures including climbing Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro. She has also successfully completed Tour d’Afrique an expedition that crosses Africa from north to south, covering almost 11,000 km in four months.
In our talk Alex shares how she came to start Fair Voyage at a time when she was looking to make a career change that would make her work more meaningful. She shares how when climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, she experienced firsthand the exploitation that local people often face in the tourism industry. Something that lead her to write the book—Kilimanjaro Uncovered.
Kilimanjaro helped here to realize that it was not easy for travelers to discern which organizations were in fact sustainable and those which were simply “green-washing” their practices. It revealed to her an opportunity to ensure that travelers were undertaking trips that were socially and environmentally responsible, and Fair Voyage was born.
Alex also shares about her own adventures and what is on her personal bucket list. She also shares some of her life lessons she thinks would be of value to others and also what her definition of what living a legendary life is.
I hope you are as inspired by Alex’s story as I was. If you would like to learn more about Alex and Fair Voyage you can visit her website and Fair Voyage’s website and Instagram and Facebook.
Let us know what you think about the interview in the comments below.
Feeling inspired? You can find more Legend Life After 40 stories here.
