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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
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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:
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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.
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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...
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Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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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From The Diary of Anne Frank:
"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death.
I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”
Part of why I believe this too is that the alternative is too depressing to consider. So what happens when people hurt us, or when someone else does something to us that's totally unexpected? I guess we have to think about context, try to see it from their perspective, and so on.
And even when we’re wronged, I think we have to have grace. Again, what’s the alternative To refuse grace only hurts us in the end.
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I joke about this with my friends: “Oh my God, travel is so hard. Sometimes the Business Class flights attendant brings still water instead of sparkling! Sometimes the hotel forgets the chocolates on the pillow during turn-down service!"
That’s why I was so excited about the A380 on Qatar Airways. As soon as I boarded the flight, I was impressed right away. The cabin is gorgeous, the seat is fantastic, and from the way I was greeted I could tell that the service would be flawless.
And it was. Still, though, I've had many experiences like that. These days I’m earning and spending more than one million miles a year (more than 2 million last year, actually), so if I’m flying more than three hours, I’m almost never in the back of the plane anymore.
Much of the time, I go through life jaded. But not on this flight—and you know my favorite part? The washrooms.
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A German filmmaker reimagines the art of the staycation: Check out this film.
“In our everyday life, we seem to be unaware of new experiences. But is it just a matter of perspective?
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Don Miller is the kind of guy that I implicitly trusted the first time I met. Not to psychoanalyze too much, but in general I’m not a very trusting person. I believe that most people are good, but I don’t necessarily trust a lot of people. With Don, though, I felt comfortable discussing personal stuff right away.
After a lunch meeting, he wrote me an email with more advice. I asked him if I could share part of it, and he agreed. Maybe it helps some of you, too? Here's Don:
"Rapid success is much more difficult to manage than failure, I believe. It's just like walking a tight rope. I think the thing is, success changes you radically, but nothing around you from the old life changes, so now you're a different person and to some degree larger than the small walls you've been living in.
But it's all a bunch of tricks and lies. What matters in the end is taking the folks who loved you early with you into the new life as gingerly as possible."
Check out Don's book, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy.
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I appreciated this illustration on unconventional storytelling from Tom Gauld:
When talking about adventures, I often relate the plot outlining of blockbuster movies and video games. What if the synopsis of a big summer movie was "So and so had to save the world from evil... and then they did?"
We'd think, "That's it?! How did they save the world ... what happened along the way? Did they lose something and have to recover it? How was the hero changed throughout the journey, and what was different at the end of the story?"
Challenge is the essence of adventure, and struggle is the root of any great story.
In fact, sometimes the struggle is the entire story. If the struggle is good enough, we're willing to overlook anything else. Why did the aliens invade the earth? Who cares—we have to defeat them!
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Air travel has changed a bit over the past few decades—and mostly for the better. Back in the day, an average transcontinental airfare would run you at least $1,500 in today's dollars, compared to $400 or so now. Yikes.
There were no budget airlines, and—shocking—there were no Frequent Flyer programs where average people could earn large amounts of miles and effectively travel for free. Still, a little nostalgia never hurt anyone (or does it?).
In another example of people who devote an incredible attention to detail, I loved seeing how a collector and a photographer recreated an entire Pan Am flight experience, down to the tiniest experiences like the precise menu, baggage tags, and even the dress code of passengers who were recruited to join in for the unconventional journey.
Take a look for yourself:
