Archive for November, 2009
Giving Up and Returning to the Working World… Part 2
Dumb Money
Now I’ve been fairly passionate about not trading time for income and asking at what point do you pay yourself? This is why it’s a difficult concept for me to grasp that I’m actually thinking of returning to the working world!?
I can confirm that the working world is definitely DUMB & EASY MONEY. It is a hell of a lot harder to generate passive and alternate income streams. Wake-up, on with the uniform, show up at 9am, look busy, leave at 5pm, pay check every Wednesday. Repeat.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – Mr Einstein.
Since joining the free world, I’ve discovered that I am purveyor in the fine art of procrastination. Making the transition from the working world where I had someone else’s tasks to avoid doing, versus avoiding and procrastinating over my own work is a sticking point. You (I) have been moulded since day one into being told what to do. Nick’s guest post talked about his One Week Freedom Sample Project and much to my anguish my results have been all too similar.
I thought I’d be easily able to transfer my 65 hour work week into 65 hours of my own personal productive time. Imagine that, 65 hours! But alas, procrastination, a lack of external pressure and focus and the bank balance credits have swelled to a whopping $320.
Phase II of Operation Free World
My main motivators for saying goodbye to the working world were to clear my head, stick it to the man, kick-start some extra curricular schemes and dedicate more time to my software muse. In my two months of freedom I’ve been able to start-up my extra projects and it has become apparent that the software thing doesn’t require my full time attention. My extra projects I’ve started will generate an income but will take some time to promote and build-up. These factors combined with a gentleman’s $600k of property investments lends itself to this escapee heading back to the big house to rent out my brain for 40 hours per week.
Phase II of my foray into the free world has taken on a new definition. Test and tweak a few small income generating projects, cancel out the noise of the hundreds of ‘helpful’ resources out there and only focus, study and implement a select few, make the transition to location independence, continue writing for the free world and build up all of my side projects while still maintaining the dumb income source.
The Idea of a Job Makes Me Throw Up in My Mouth a Little…
So while I successfully escaped from my previous maximum security prison where I was serving a long sentence, guilty of renting my mind for peanuts, I’ll be temporarily re-admitted to a minimum security/day release type establishment where I’ll be trying my best not to spend 8 hours of my day pretending I’m not surfing the internerd researching my next muse, reading an eBook or looking at stock charts.
Give yourself a free world sample; turn off your TV for a week, do your food shopping at a local market garden, exercise, read, minimalise, de-clutter from all of your junk & maybe do some free world research?
Next time you see a tall, robotic, corporate uniform wearing, miserable looking soul on the way to work, actually nevermind, that’s everyone!
Tell me about your free world or convince me to NOT look for a job in the new year! Leave a comment below this post or sign-up for the RSS feed or emails. Now that I’ll be heading back to the working world, expect plenty of new insightful tirades!
Giving Up and Returning to the Working World… Part 1
Ah, the free world. What a glorious time it’s been so far. Not commuting in peak hour traffic, being able to set my own to-do lists, taking control, discovering a massive location independent network, no collared shirts and trousers… life is good.
“I’ve seen the promised land, and it is good!”
Let me quickly jump in and say I’m not giving up! I still want to be the poster child for the free world, ‘automated’ (yeah right!) income and quitting work to launch a successful start-up. But let’s continue…
My sabbatical from the working world has cleared the air. Everything I do in my own time in regards to freelancing, web design, options trading or product development is targeted and concise – How can I use my time in the most effective way to get from zero to $$ in the most effective way?
No career path bullshit, no office perks, no future opportunities with company X, no job security trollop, just action. After all, no matter who you are working for (yourself included) you’re still trading your time for dollars, but it’s nice to enjoy what you’re doing along the way.
This two-part article serves a few purposes; an explanation, a page full of excuses and an attempt to convince you (and myself) that I shouldn’t even be thinking of returning to the working world, albeit temporarily.
Phase I of Operation Free World
Courtesy of Brian Armstrong's 'Breaking Free' eBook. Click the image to grab a copy!
Prior to resigning from the 9 – 5 I had been toiling away researching life after employment and working on my first muse courtesy of reading the Four Hour Work Week. I’d set up a proprietary limited company (Incorporated Company for ya’ll in the US) and was nearing the completion of product development for the software start-up.
I had a few other post-employment plans that I hadn’t had time to kick-start but would implement once I escaped Alcatraz and had a bit more time; options (stock) trading, set up a website, starting a couple of professional service side projects and finally launch the software muse. Sure, I’d be fine in terms of an income.
After two months in the free world, total income generated = $320.
I’m not overly concerned at the lack of income as I hadn’t planned on any cash credits until the software project kicked off. I’d made a conscious decision months before escaping prison to save hard, budget and cut my expenses down in order to pay myself. I wouldn’t be living a life of luxury for a while but I’d be investing my own money and buying time. What’s the point of having cash reserves if you’re not going to use them? (Much easier in theory than in practice) I needed a new plan…
Are you stuck in the 9 -5 with plans to break free? Watched prison break too many times & got a full body tattoo of Tim Brownson’s ‘How to be Rich and Happy’ to use as your escape blue print? Currently toiling away at a muse or disgusted that I’m thinking of getting a job? Jump right in and leave a comment!
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The Great Freedom Sample Exercise
Well it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who likes to procrastinate in the free world. Back when i was serving my sentence I used to marvel at the thought of turning my 65 hour work week into my ‘own’ productive time. Once I get past the sleeping in, nipping to the shops and putting off jobs, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Nick Bryan, a fantastic writer from feeding the black dog took time out of his suspense filled comic strip drama of hats, tea cosies and beanies at behatted and was nice enough to write a guest post for the free world.
The Great Freedom Sample Exercise
Recently, I took a week off work, for no particular reason. Well, there was a clear justification, namely to use up my paid holiday. But I’d been to Ireland for a holiday with my girlfriend fairly recently, didn’t have any drive to go anywhere else and, above all, am reliably awful at organising anything.
So, with nothing to do, I decided that my week of nothingness would serve as a Great Freedom Experiment. I could work out whether I could organise my own time, launch a project, push it, exploit my tiny amount of contacts and, above all, drastically increase the number of tweets on my Twitter account. Did I succeed?
Well… kinda.
Beginning
I’d been toying for a while beforehand with the notion of launching a “Proper Blog” and trying to run it in an efficient, meaningful manner. Make my name as an Internet Writer, try to earn a few pennies from stringing words together, feed the tiny boxed ego that longs to be published in any form, all that stuff. This seemed as good a time as any.
Luckily, much of the tedious blog-starting stuff had already been done. So Monday, my first day of fake-freedom, was launch day. And I’m pleased to report it was pretty excellent, perhaps even too excellent.
The blog went live, people emailed me, I was spotlighted by a helpful friend, comments happened, I wrote more. It felt good, verging on awesome. But, as you will know if you ever see a movie, when a new venture starts off awesome, the reality check is inevitable.
Middle
Things kept going well for a while, but by Wednesday it began to feel… subdued. I hadn’t gone out for a while; the obvious victories weren’t coming as quickly. I even started chatting to work people via IM about, um, the work I was meant to be on holiday from.
And yes, that tweet count shot way up. I sighed, organised a few social occasions and duly escaped, telling myself I’d at least achieved something.
End
Around the end of the week, or perhaps the weekend, I started to worry I wasn’t handling my semi-mancipation especially well. I was a little lonely, very unmotivated and had started procrastinating to a degree that swallowed hours in a single gulp.
Eventually, I wandered off back to my parents’ house, and spent a fairly enjoyable few days of drinking with old friends and blogging on their sofa. Which, all told, was an upbeat end to a lukewarm week.
So, Can We Learn Anything From This Farce?
There’s a lot of writing about the joys of freedom and whatnot, especially in the “blogosphere”. So much so that the ongoing bloody hard work involved, as well as the degree of single-minded concentration, may be somewhat overlooked.
Did I fail? Not exactly. I think it might be something I could enjoy if I were able to establish a routine. (Perhaps one involving a decent laptop and writing in differing locations.) But nor did I take to it like a fox to an overflowing trash can.
With no deadlines or superiors hovering over you, motivation becomes your own task. It’s something I’ve never had to do, and I’m fast realising I have to practise. Balancing this with day-to-day tasks and, y’know, having a life, it wouldn’t be easy. But this is the real world, and occasionally realism kicks idealism. We’ll just have to see what happens.
Recently, I took a week off work, for no particular reason. Well, there was a clear justification, namely to use up my paid holiday. But I’d been to Ireland for a holiday with my girlfriend fairly recently, didn’t have any drive to go anywhere else and, above all, am reliably awful at organising anything.
So, with nothing to do, I decided that my week of nothingness would serve as a Great Freedom Experiment. I could work out whether I could organise my own time, launch a project, push it, exploit my tiny amount of contacts and, above all, drastically increase the number of tweets on my Twitter account. Did I succeed?
Well… kinda.
Beginning
I’d been toying for a while beforehand with the notion of launching a “Proper Blog” and trying to run it in an efficient, meaningful manner. Make my name as an Internet Writer, try to earn a few pennies from stringing words together, feed the tiny boxed ego that longs to be published in any form, all that stuff. This seemed as good a time as any.
Luckily, much of the tedious blog-starting stuff had already been done. So Monday, my first day of fake-freedom, was launch day. And I’m pleased to report it was pretty excellent, perhaps even too excellent.
The blog went live, people emailed me, I was spotlighted by a helpful friend, comments happened, I wrote more. It felt good, verging on awesome. But, as you will know if you ever see a movie, when a new venture starts off awesome, the reality check is inevitable.
Middle
Things kept going well for a while, but by Wednesday it began to feel… subdued. I hadn’t gone out for a while; the obvious victories weren’t coming as quickly. I even started chatting to work people via IM about, um, the work I was meant to be on holiday from.
And yes, that tweet count shot way up. I sighed, organised a few social occasions and duly escaped, telling myself I’d at least achieved something.
End
Around the end of the week, or perhaps the weekend, I started to worry I wasn’t handling my semi-mancipation especially well. I was a little lonely, very unmotivated and had started procrastinating to a degree that swallowed hours in a single gulp.
Eventually, I wandered off back to my parents’ house, and spent a fairly enjoyable few days of drinking with old friends and blogging on their sofa. Which, all told, was an upbeat end to a lukewarm week.
So, Can We Learn Anything From This Farce?
There’s a lot of writing about the joys of freedom and whatnot, especially in the “blogosphere”. So much so that the ongoing bloody hard work involved, as well as the degree of single-minded concentration, may be somewhat overlooked.
Did I fail? Not exactly. I think it might be something I could enjoy if I were able to establish a routine. (Perhaps one involving a decent laptop and writing in differing locations.) But nor did I take to it like a fox to an overflowing trash can.
With no deadlines or superiors hovering over you, motivation becomes your own task. It’s something I’ve never had to do, and I’m fast realising I have to practise. Balancing this with day-to-day tasks and, y’know, having a life, it wouldn’t be easy. But this is the real world, and occasionally realism kicks idealism. We’ll just have to see what happens.
Head over to feeding the black dog for a nice dose of daily cynicism or for something a bit more light hearted check out behatted.
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Four Hour Work Week – My Arse!
4HWW - Australian Edition
My arse indeed Tim Ferriss. Let’s get things straight, I’ve read the Four Hour Work Week (4HWW), I love it and it’s consumed my life for the last 9 months. I’ve recommended it to a dozen people and given away about three copies. (Affiliate commission cheque in the mail?).
The concept is great, create an automated income stream by developing a muse product to sell online, and thus scaling your own work commitments back to only four hours per week, while having your bank account swell to fund your custom designed lifestyle of jet-setting, traveling, dancing around in South America and learning foreign languages.
You spend 4 hours a week at work making coffee.
You’ll finish reading this book and have a sense of drive, hopefully you realise that your current situation of converting your time for an income is ridiculous. Do you want a successful career or automated money, deposited into your bank every week, offering you the freedom to do whatever you like? Your friends don’t care that you put in 60 hours at the office this week, but they’ll sit up and take note if you’re cashed up and DON’T have to go to the office.
In the book, Tim Ferriss establishes a protein/supplement product which he sells on line. This is used as his vehicle for automation, dealing with clients, outsourcing tasks, streamlining website sales and generating an income stream.
So there I was, sitting in the airport and pouring through my copy of 4HWW. Almost hiding it from view from people who passed by as if I’d been let in on a secret; lifestyle design, escaping the 9-5 and all that jazz and I didn’t want anyone else to know about it until I’d cracked the code myself.
Skip the first couple of chapters.
If only Tim Ferriss had released a precursor to the Four Hour Work Week. He managed to gloss over it in the book, but in order to build his company and finally crack under the workload of a hundred hours per week, he actually had to build a company. He didn’t manage to fund his ideal lifestyle by:
- writing google Adwords ads to shitty online products and collect an affiliate commission from Clickbank,
- writing some fluffy self help eBook about freeing himself from work and how you can to, by buying the fluffy eBook, which is about how to write your own fluffy eBook and sell it,
- starting a blog, building subscribers and a sense of trust and then try and sell them a product.
Nope, he started a legitimate business & product that provided REAL, tangible and direct value to the customer. Dealt with sales issues & keeping customers happy and then removed himself from the decision tree in an effort to automate.
He started his own company & launched a product, built a client base, managed sales, worked his arse off and then outsourced & automated.
I wish someone had told me this before I read the 4HWW. Everyone reads the book, gets a fuzzy notion that you can sell a crappy product, set up a website, buy a few keywords from google and point them at your site to drive traffic. Now you only need to sell 8 alarm clocks per day to fund your ideal lifestyle.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the 4HWW has sold a truckload of copies. So now everyone has had a wake-up call, sadly every man and his dog are trying to think of the next muse, the next product that can be manufactured in china for 30 cents and drop shipped to needy customers all over the world.
I’d still recommend the book to people, as a starting point. I’m still getting strange looks when I tell people I’ve thrown my job in to finish off my muse, build a client base and focus on marketing and sales.
The 4HWW is a snap shot of what Tim had accomplished; it glossed over his hard yards and focused on the jet setting, the automation and the lifestyle. It makes a good story and acts as a good first step for people who are stuck in the 9 – 5 to realise that there ‘might’ be something else out there. I can definitely credit the book with giving me the kick in the arse I needed.
What’s been your experience since reading the 4HWW? Have you read it? Are you still trying to think of the ever elusive muse?
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Why You Don’t Need to Go to School to Be Successful
When I started leadersofthefreeworld.org, one of the objectives was that it could act as a forum for everyone to unite against the norm! I’m very pleased to publish the very first guest post on Leaders of the Free World! Oscar Del Ben from freestyle mind was kind enough to contribute his personal experience as to why you don’t need to go to school to be successful.
Why You Don’t Need to Go to School to Be Successful
I always wondered why schools suck the way they do. I left school when I was 18 because I was simply not learning something useful at that time.
This happened over four years ago. Once I left school, I went to work for more than one year doing manual labor tasks for small companies. I didn’t enjoy it and my parents (along with everyone else) were saying to me that without school I was going to be stuck with laboring for my whole life.
Of course I knew it was just bullshit and after one year I established my own company and started doing consulting. Now, four years later, I’m expanding my business on the internet as I want to create (and live) off passive income. It’ll not be easy but that’s not a reason for me to give up just yet.
What does this story have to do with school? Well, in these four years I studied a lot, I devoured hundreds of books and learnt a foreign language (english).
At some point during the past four years, I realized that the reason people are not successful is simply because of what they learnt at school, or better what they didn’t learn at school.
Being successful is primarily a state of mind. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, you’ll be never be happy. On the other side, having the right mindset makes it straightforward to achieve success.
The problem is that they don’t teach you how to be successful at school, you have to learn it yourself.
School prepares people to join the corporate world, they teach you how to work in a corporate environment, and not how to become a leader.
Here I’m talking about 90% of schools, because I haven’t attended Stanford University, so I don’t know what they do, although most of their courses are available for free online.
And here’s the point – If you want to learn how to be successful and how to develop a successful mindset, you can learn it from books and videos thanks to the Internet.
And you don’t have to buy some secret guide that someone is trying to sell online, you can go just fine with what you can already find for free.
Having said that, schools are not that bad, simply don’t expect them to teach you how to be a leader, because you have to learn it yourself.
Oscar Del Ben is a personal development blogger. He writes about productivity, success and personal growth. You can read his blog at freestylemind.com.
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Is Your Boss a Used Car Salesman?
Is your boss a used car salesman? At least if you go to the caryard, you can spot them from a mile away; cheap suit, slick hair, usually a big stupid grin. They ask you how your day is going, lovely weather outside, anything you’re interested in? “Oh no don’t worry, I just want to chat mate”… Yeah right.
At least you KNOW their motive, they are trying to sell you something. Their sole purpose from 9 – 5 is to get you to buy something. The test drive, have a sit inside, see how it feels, the new car smell, it’s all aimed at getting you to buy their car. They have a motive; it’s out there for everyone to see.
Your boss and everyone above you in the corporate world have a motive, but it’s not always clear to you and me. You think they are really interested in how your weekend was, your family and your interests outside of work?
The ideal employee wouldn’t have family, interests or any free thought! Or checking out websites during the day might I add! 
The motives of the corporate are many and are more often than not sold to you as ‘career opportunities’.
- Working overtime & extra hours, you’ve just become a lot less of an expense! Your employer is getting way more out of you than they’re paying for.
- Their promotion & moving up the ranks, you make them look good.
- Share holder profits, executives have one main driver, profits for the shareholders.
I’ll never forget being told, “You’re never going to be able to have more of an effect on the share price than at this company son!” Big deal, I don’t own any shares!
The Working World of Old
There are a number of common themes that used to be applicable to the working world; loyalty, years served at a company, punctuality, friendly service. These days the working world is all about conversions; how many sales have you made? When will you be finished your current task to start the next? Can you work Saturday to meet the deadline? Push push push.
Too many workplaces are focusing on a big corporate image without having any substance or core business. Sure they’ve got a flash website and glossy brochures, but what are they actually trying to sell you?
Work = Money
This concept hasn’t been explored enough, that not only are customers being sold bullshit, but employees are too! The world needs a good slap around the ear, you’re working for your pay, not to build a company image, not so that your executives will look good in front of a board of directors, not to do work Saturday mornings for free. Plain and simple, work = money. Work is that 8 hour inconvenience in your day that allows to you enjoy your time off & your family.
Next time you’re at work have a good look around, are you being sold a lemon? If you want to tell the world about your used car salesman, leave a comment.
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Monday Mornings – One Thousand Seven Hundred To Go…
Hip hip hooray, we’ve survived the worst of the Global Financial Crisis… Wait, what? What crisis? Oh that’s right, consumers in too much debt, over their heads, and banks giving it to them. Or was it the media talking about a ‘looming’ crisis, so we stopped spending our money and guess what happened? – A crisis. Make a prediction, instil fear, sit back and watch it pan out, confirm prediction, rinse, repeat.
How does this help you and me and can we learn from it? So we’ve had the GFC, now I’m in the middle of a QLC – Quarter Life Crisis for those of you wondering. I think we can learn from big business and the state of the working world and embark on our own individual QLC, instead of sitting around and waiting for it to happen.
Are you stuck in a job you don’t particularly like? Your finances a bit out of control? Heading down a road that doesn’t look too appealing? You can stop it all and act now, or wait until you’re 35, overweight, sitting on your couch with your second husband/wife and three ‘miracles of life’ running around the house screaming their heads off.
Your own personal business (you) has assets, an income stream, has a research & development department (potentially) and you could (should) also have a business plan, your future goals.
Numbers Game
Let’s say you’re successful, worked hard, took time out to travel in between and managed to retire at 55. Now at 55, you can start enjoying yourself…
Sorry to spoil the party, but you;
- Worked for about 70,000 hours
- Enjoyed getting out of bed 1,700 times on a Monday morning
- Spent almost 15,000 hours commuting in peak hour traffic
And you know those annoying co-workers who gave you the shits? You’ve had to say hello to them every morning – about 8,000 times.
You must have REALLY enjoyed your job.
Hopefully, you’re a few years away from your own personal QLC, so you can ready yourself and be prepared.
The Alternative?
Let’s say you don’t mind a nice holiday, you could spend the next 6 months saving your butt off for your one month holiday, but why not spend the next 6 months setting up a location independent job/income stream and travel indefinitely? Sure it’s nice to go to Bali for a week because everything is SO cheap, but what if you could live wherever you wanted, spend rupiah/pesos/thai baht and continue to earn dollars or pounds?
You don’t know what you don’t know…
If you spent 20 minutes of your lunch break researching, everyday for the next year, that’s the equivalent of 80 hours full time study, two whole weeks! Imagine what you could learn about in two weeks? Here’s the kicker, and you might have to read this slowly for it to hit you, you don’t know what you don’t know. The ultimate chicken/egg conundrum.
Here’s a shortlist of what you could learn in two weeks;
- How to profit unbelievably from a company’s shares that plummet downwards!
- How to make money from a website/blog
- How to reduce your tax rate to around 12-16%
- How to make some pocket money easily using Google
- How to develop a website from scratch in an afternoon!
- How to control $27,000 worth of stock for $1,500.
- How to live a location independent lifestyle, turning your current employment situation into one of no fixed address…
The list could go on for a long while yet, but the idea is to inspire you to take some action! You really ‘don’t’ know what you don’t know, you should have been taught along the way, maybe at a… ‘school’? But hey, if you were taught how to make money without working, then you wouldn’t go to work, follow the ‘normal’ path or be under some sort of …. ‘control’? There’s something to think about! (And too much of an issue to delve into here!)
28 Days in the Free World
If and when you decide to ‘have a go’ and step out of employment, take a chance on yourself and see what it’s all about, you don’t have to tell the world! Or launch a website and tell everyone what you think of the working world! Unfortunately, or fortunately, I did?…
I could tell you that the free world outside of employment is all sunshine and lollipops, it will be soon, but establishing things does take some initial time & effort and in spite of everything I’ve read that clearly says “don’t quit your job first”, I chose to ignore that!
You know that feeling you get when you resign from one job, and are yet to accept another? Complete freedom, like a childhood summer holiday from school, 3 months off, sunshine, sleeping in… Well that’s never going to happen again! Once you make a commitment to pay yourself for a few months, now who are you ripping off if you sit around and waste time during the day, no more paid facebook unfortunately…
The first 28 days in the free world has been an eye opener, but very productive. There’s no longer a 5 day working week. Life, work, play, socialising and exercise, everything rolls into one….
Here are the highlights of the first month;
- ‘Finally’ figured out how to get free $ transfers to the US (options trading)
- Made $3,280 from a $1,200 investment (Very excited about the prospects of this!)
- Took some cool photos of my rather annoying nieces1
- ‘Found’ Locationindependent.com (thanks Wayde!)
- Have had A LOT more time to work on the software development side project (coming soon)
- Got asked to write a guest post for website-in-a-weekend.net (about being a complete beginner but learning how to develop websites)
- Setup a small business for some summer pocket money
- Made my first ‘premium’ website!
All of the above was MUCH better than being stuck at work. This next month will be more of the same, possibly setup a photography side project1, toy around with a few other websites, write a few more articles for the free world, who knows? But I do know that I won’t dread getting up on a Monday or have to commute in peak hour traffic.
If you’ve got a spare minute, head to Location Independent, they’ve got a truck load of resources and articles to read through. Read the last paragraph of ‘one idea’ and take a look at any of the free resources there.
I’d like to hear from you. What are you working on? What do you want to work on? Is work killing all of your motivation? Want anymore information or have you got any suggestions for article topics? Feel free to leave a comment, share this with your friends or send me an email. I’ve read more than my share of books & start-up guides, there’s a fair chance I’ll be able to help if you’ve got an idea you want to launch!
What else can you do? I’m going to focus my upcoming articles on a bit more in-depth ‘how to’ get involved in some of the things i’ve mentioned previously in this article, subscribe to the site (below) and you’ll receive the latest articles in your email.
And keep in mind, if you don’t initiate your own Quarter Life Crisis, you’ve got 1,700 Monday mornings ahead of you!
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