Archive for the ‘free world’ tag
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!
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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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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