2015 : The Art of Non-Conformity

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Profiles

The Wall Street Banker Who Became a Monk: Rasanath Dasa’s Quest

This is a quest case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)

Sometimes when we get what we want, we realize we were wrong about our own ambitions. Rasanath Dasa spent his entire young adult life getting a great job in finance only to realize that a frenetic, money-driven lifestyle wasn’t for him. Here’s what he did to change it.

Tell us about yourself.

I had wanted to work on Wall Street since ninth grade. Living in Mumbai, I saw Wall Street on TV, and immediately dreamed of owning a yellow convertible and a blue motorboat (yes, I was very specific about the colors!). I graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, worked for Deloitte in New York City, got an MBA from Cornell, and finally landed a job at Bank of America as an investment banker.

Et Cetera

6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XXXII

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Vietnam: A Road Story -- A fun look at trains, rain, and a few of the millions of motorbikes that are used as primary transport in Vietnam

Today is Not Tomorrow -- A grandmother's lesson from a weekend phone call

Stop Telling Women to Smile -- An interactive documentary on street harassment in Mexico City

What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living -- "People say we're 'rich in other ways,' but most farms are unsustainable

The Making of Black Messiah -- Behind the scenes of an album 14 years in the waiting

New York Man Finds Himself Alone on Delta Flight -- He even received a personal safety briefing

Life

What Do People Say At the End of Their Lives?

If given the chance, what do people choose for their last reflections and comments? A veteran hospice chaplain gives an unflinching answer:

"They talk about the love they felt, and the love they gave. Often they talk about love they did not receive, or the love they did not know how to offer, the love they withheld, or maybe never felt for the ones they should have loved unconditionally.

They talk about how they learned what love is, and what it is not.

This is how we talk about the meaning of our lives. That is how we talk about the big spiritual questions of human existence."

Link: What People Talk About Before They Die

Et Cetera

Living With Gratitude in a Modern Age

Jonathan Fields is one of the most generous people I know. He is always helping me and many others. I try to help him in return but the ratio is at least 4:1 in his favor.

In this post he explains something he’s done for a while:

While I do have a standard sig-file that gets added to my emails automatically, I type the words “With gratitude” by hand. Slowly, with intention, owning a sense of genuine gratitude as I type. In doing so, it becomes a mini-meditation. A momentary honoring. An opportunity to acknowledge gratitude dozens of times each day. And, strangely enough, when I do this, it makes me feel different. I know, weird.

It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it does take conscious time.

Travel

Live and Work from Anywhere: You’ve Heard the Story, Now It’s Your Turn

I get a lot of questions from people about how they can make money WHILE traveling. To help provide answers, we teamed up with Nora Dunn (a friend and successful long-term digital nomad) to craft this in-depth, comprehensive resource: --> Working on the Road: The Unconventional Guide to Full-Time Freedom

By picking up this guide, you'll get access to:

Job reviews and interviews with professionals in different on-the-road careers
Options and tips for landing online work (freelancing, teaching abroad, telecommuting, working on boats, starting or running a business, and much more)
Logistical solutions and tools for working from afar, budgeting, and managing a virtual lifestyle
Resources for mobilizing your location dependent operation (and the whole family)
A 100% Satisfaction Guarantee (it will help you, or you don't pay)

--> Check it out over here

Et Cetera

A Million-Dollar Secret and 13 Keys to Success (Yep, really.)

Link: Brand-New Video about Love and Marketing (don't worry, it's good)

Greetings, friends and readers! As mentioned last week, my friend Marie Forleo is preparing to relaunch her mega-popular B-School course. As part of the process, she’s releasing three free videos that aren’t just teasers—they all include more than 25 minutes each of non-salesy, helpful tips on running an online business.

The second one is now out, and you can watch both of them by joining the pre-list at the link.

In this video, you’ll learn:

Why “Marketing” is Simply About Helping People (note: I wrote a lot about this in The $100 Startup)
How to Win by Giving, not Getting (so true)
The 13 Keys to Online Business
Why Marie’s First ebook Was Almost a Huge Flop

Travel

Mission Accomplished! The Full Report from the 2015 Dining Dash

We did it! As mentioned, last week my travel hacking colleagues and I took on a mini-quest of going to 12 specific restaurants in Portland in a single day, all in pursuit of miles and points.

On Friday morning, we set out at the crack of ~~dawn~~ 8:30am with an ambitious goal: To visit 12 restaurants throughout the city. We wanted to achieve all 12 of our qualifying “dines” (any purchase at the participating restaurants, no minimum) to earn VIP status with Rewards Network in a single day.

My friend Stephanie and I did this last year in a more limited (though still awesome) fashion. This time, we wanted to increase the challenge. We invited another friend, Tyler, to come along, and we also invited others to participate virtually.

At the end of the night we had a small celebration at the Triple Nickel, a hilarious—in the best of ways—pub in my Southeast Portland neighborhood. To recap, here are the rules of the challenge:

Travel

How to Earn Money While Traveling: Fact and Fiction

Want to make money while on the road? It’s definitely possible, and more and more people are doing it all the time—but you may need to change your thinking to make it happen.

Our first Unconventional Guide of 2015 launches this Tuesday morning. It’s all about what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to heading out into the world as a long-term (or at least frequent) traveler.

The premise might surprise you: On its own, traveling has little to do with earning money. You earn money by making or sharing something that other people find valuable. That's it. If you’re going to get paid while abroad, you have to think about what you can do that’s relevant and interesting to others.

What can that be? Let's first consider the most common things people think of when they think of “getting paid to travel.” As we’ll see, they’re all problematic in some way.

Work

“What do you do for a living?” “I confound expectations.”

Bob Dylan gave a rare 35-minute speech at a MusiCares event for the Grammys last night. It's all interesting, but here's my favorite part:

"Critics have made a career out of accusing me of having a career of confounding expectations. Really? Because that's all I do. That's how I think about it. Confounding expectations." "What do you do for a living, man?" "Oh, I confound expectations." You're going to get a job, the man says, "What do you do?" "Oh, confound expectations." And the man says, "Well, we already have that spot filled. Call us back. Or actually, don't call us, we'll call you."

Here’s the full transcript.

Travel

For Another Side of North Korea, Watch This Ultimate Time-Lapse Video

Apparently Pyongyang isn't just rationed electricity and a lack of lunch options: Check out this video

"North Korea was the last country seemingly immune to change—but no longer. Recent years have witnessed mobile phone penetration, a surge in tourists, and even a marathon. Numerous special economic zones have been launched in cooperation with China, Russia, and South Korea, with railways planned linking all countries in the region."

Maybe it's time I plan that extended vacation in Pyongyang...

Et Cetera

6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XXXI

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Travel Blogger Hits the Reset Button After 5 Years of Writing - Adventurous Kate reevaluates and sets new goals for her next 5 years of adventures

Meet the Dad Who Wears Tattoos of His Son’s Doodles - Every year, he takes a design by his son and has it tattooed on his own right arm

This Video Game Only Allows One Move a Day - Need some help battling instant gratification?

How to Quit Being a Perfectionist - Because perfectionism KILLS progress

Can you name these cities just by looking at their transit grids? - I scored 9/10... but I’ll admit the clues helped

How Many Grapes Make One Bottle of Wine? - As you might suspect, not all grapes are created equal

Life

The Working Day in North Korea

What’s it like to live and work in one of the most mysterious countries in the world? A new book shines a spotlight on the working day in Pyongyang, North Korea. Here are a few of my favorite points, as reproduced by the Guardian:

Apartment life is a challenge.

"Those who live on higher floors may have to set out for work or school a little earlier than those lower down. Due to chronic power cuts, many elevators work only intermittently, if at all. Many buildings are between 20 and 40 storeys tall – there are stories of old people who have never been able to leave. Even in the better blocks elevators can be sporadic and so people just don't take the chance. Families make great efforts to relocate older relatives on lower floors, but this is difficult and a bribe is sometimes required."

Electricity requires coordination.

"Every day people liaise with their neighbors about the electricity situation. A large proportion of Pyongyang operates an 'alternative suspension of electricity supply' system, meaning that when buildings on one side of the street are blacked out, the other side of the street gets power. When the alternation time arrives there is a mad rush of children as they head for their friends' apartments across the road."

Life

It’s Okay to Schedule “Real Life” Into Your Calendar

While looking for people who have their "Dream Job" or career to to profile as case studies for my upcoming book, I came across a great quote from Kaitlin on one of the initial survey forms:

"I've accepted that it's okay to schedule 'call parents' in my calendar so long as it helps me actually do it. It doesn't make me a bad person for scheduling real life into my calendar.”

I completely agree with this. You shouldn’t feel bad about “scheduling real life.” If you thrive on business goals and struggle with relational ones (that was me all last year), try being intentional about the relational goals.

One of my relational goals this year is to write or call one friend every day. So far I’m well on track—and having it written down as a stated goal is what makes it happen.

Profiles

An Annual Series of Micro Quests : Nancy Howell’s Way of Thinking About Birthdays

This is a quest case study. (Read others or nominate yourself.)

Over the last decade, Nancy Howell has dedicated the first five months of the year to completing an ever-growing series of micro-quests: adventures and new experiences that take her outside her comfort zone and daily norms.

What inspired you to start going on micro-quests?

As I approached the age of 30, I found most of my friends were married and starting families. In contrast, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone on a date, and I’d never had a long-term relationship. I flash forwarded to the months leading up to my birthday, imagining myself brooding until then. Distracting myself with thirty new things sounded like a much better plan.

Travel

Top 5 Credit Card Signup Bonuses for Miles & Points: February

Every year I earn well over one million Frequent Flyer miles and points. About 250,000 of them come through actual travel, and the rest come through travel hacking: the art of seeing the world on a budget.

One of the easiest ways to earn a lot of miles all at once is through credit card signup bonuses. This post contains the best current card offers as of Wednesday, February 4. If getting every card from this post, you'd earn 215,000 points or miles. Happy travels!

In this edition:

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