Around the world: Michigan man speeds across globe in quest to break Guinness record

NORTHVILLE, Mich. — Michael Zervos intends to travel the globe in a record-breaking journey of happiness.

After a year of planning, Zervos, 35, recently set out to break a Guinness World Record by traveling to every country in the world, one after the next, faster than anyone's done it before. The current record is held by Taylor Demonbreun of Alabama, who in 2018 achieved the feat in 554 days.

Since his departure on Jan. 17, Zervos has been to Russia and Turkey. He's currently making his way through Africa, one country at a time.

But Project Kosmos, as Zervos calls the epic adventure, is about more than a globetrotting trip focused on how fast he can get in and out of the 193 United Nations countries, plus two "observer states," that Guinness says a person must visit for a shot at the record.

Along the way, he also plans to film snippets of happiness and share those stories with the world on his Instagram page.

“I realized I did not want to just travel and break this record if that was the only thing I was getting out of it, just the thrills,” he said. “I wanted to get something I could share with other people. I wanted to create art out of it."

So he thought: "What is something that I could ask people? What is something valuable I could learn from this that will outlast the record?"

Records, he knew from the beginning, are meant to be broken.

After auditioning a number of queries with friends and strangers, Zervos finally decided on the one question he’ll ask people across the globe: What is the happiest moment of your life? 

A long state of creative depression

For Zervos, a 2006 graduate of Northville High School in Michigan, inspiration for his trip around the world came gradually.

After college – his mother says he was practically born with a camera in his hands – he started a filmmaking company and has since lived in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dallas.

Things went well in the early years, but over time he found himself falling into what he calls a “long state of creative depression, or just straight up depression.”

“Maybe five or six years ago, I traded my creativity, my passion, for a paycheck,” he said. “I was doing a lot of cut-and-dry Fortune 500 commercials, where you can close your eyes and just envision what executives are going to say before you even walk in. And when you get on set, you could probably do some of these commercials sleepwalking.

“It’s a good living. You can retire on it, but it wasn't fulfilling.”

Then the pandemic hit, and things got worse. The film industry shut down, no one wanted to talk about new projects, and Zervos found himself at his lowest point.   

It was around that time he read about Anderson Dias, a Brazilian who visited every country in the world and claimed he beat the time of Demonbreun, although that record has not been recognized by Guinness. 

"I thought, ‘Man, that is such a cool thing. You're going to countries you may not have a reason to go to, and you're challenging yourself beyond anything you've ever dreamed you could do,’” Zervos said.

Zervos, who had previously traveled to 55 countries, jumped out of airplanes, eaten bugs in the Amazon during a “survival week,” and gone on numerous other adventures, was ready for more.

“I enjoy the aspect of learning that traveling provides, and I also like culture shocks,” he said, noting that, in order to qualify for the record, he’ll need to visit those 55 countries again. “I like to challenge my worldview by looking from the outside in, and that's what traveling gives me.”

The happiness question

After struggling with his own depression, Zervos knew he wanted to talk to others around the world about the joy they've found in everyday life.

“I know a lot of Gen Z and millennials are experiencing the same thing,” he said. “They have the world, but they don't have their happiness."

The questions Zervos tested on friends and strangers included, for example, "What makes you happy?” or “What is happiness?”

Those, he found, evoked general answers like family, money or success.

“Then I found that middle ground of ‘What is the happiest moment of your life?’” he said. “That makes somebody their own storyteller. I've asked now a hundred people this just in the States, and I've realized that people are quite animated when they pull out from themselves a story that evokes such a powerful feeling like happiness.”

And so what started as a thought experiment became the foundation of a plan to break a record and create art.  Project Kosmos was born.

Hardest countries first

From his experience flying around the globe to shoot movies, Zervos knew he'd have the most energy at the beginning of his trip.

“I wanted to start with the hardest countries first, the ones that were going to be the most rigorous when it comes to travel,” he said. “Africa is by far the hardest to traverse. The infrastructure is really tough, flights are sparse. Traveling across borders by land can be unsafe, so you have to know when and where. Then there's disease, malaria and meningitis.”

To help facilitate safety and fund the trip, Zervos lined up a number of sponsors, including Moosejaw, a Michigan outdoor retailer who provided the backpack and gear he will carry throughout the trip, along with some financial support.

Other sponsors include iVisa, who helped secure 69 visas, and Untamed Borders, a company that will see him into some of the more “inaccessible countries” on his itinerary.

“They're taking me into countries like Turkmenistan or Eritrea or Guinea-Bissau or Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.

The U.S. Department of State currently has travel advisories warning Americans of dangers related to political instability, crime, terrorism and other threats in those and many other countries.

After visiting the 54 countries of Africa, he plans to head to the Middle East, then through parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands before heading back around through New Zealand. From there, he’ll head to Australia and then back into southern and central Asia before heading into Europe.

“That's kind of the halfway point,” Zervos said, noting he intends to conclude the European part of the tour in Portugal, then head to Brazil and into South America, the Caribbean and Canada before finally coming back to the U.S.

In each country, he expects to stay from one to five days and has made some – but not all – arrangements ahead of time.

“I'll be going camping in Yurts in Turkmenistan outside of this massive flaming pit that's called the Gate of Hell,” he said. “I'm camping with the Dinka people in South Sudan.”

A scientist in Angola, he said, has invited him to tour a geological site.

Even though he'll be staying just a short time in each place, Zervos isn't worried about missing out on the whole experience of any one country.

“This is about people and collecting their stories,” he said. “I will never know a country if I spend a month or two months there. Some of these countries are so complicated, they have a hundred different languages. It's not the purpose for my trip, but I’m hoping it'll give me an idea of the places I want to revisit later.”

Back home

For Christmas, Michael Zervos' parents, Mary and Angelo Zervos, gave him a large map of the world that currently hangs in the library of their Novi home. Every time he visits a new country, they'll put a gold pin in the map.

Mary Zervos knows the eldest of their four adult children – she calls him an old soul – has prepared thoroughly, as he always does.

His itinerary, visas, sponsorships, currency, packing, vaccinations, travel insurance and more were all lined up and triple-checked before he left. Still, it has been an emotional few months that culminated when they dropped him at the airport on Jan. 17.

“It was a really tough day, but I tried to be strong for him,” Mary said through tears, noting it was hard to even look at her son for fear she'd break down. But she’d given Michael her blessing, as he requested. “I told him to come home safe and sound, and I told him I knew he was going to break the record."

Once he is back home, Zervos hopes his trip will resonate through the stories of happiness around the world.

“I'm going to break the record, but then somebody else is going to break it,” he said. “That won't matter so much afterwards because I'm hoping that my contribution to help other people will be meaningful.

“There's so much negativity and suffering and jealousy and FOMO and politics and animosity on social media. I'm hoping that if my stories pop up in your feed on Instagram or on TikTok, that it can make you smile and it can remind you that it doesn't matter who you are or where you are in the world, that happiness is accessible to you.”

Follow Michael Zervos’ adventure on Instagram @theprojectkosmos or on his website at www.project-kosmos.com.