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Life

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The Link between Security and Complacency

security and complacency?
Image by PhotoGraham

Here’s a theory: the more secure we are, the less productive we become. The less risk and uncertainty we have in our lives, the more likely we are to amble along, getting by just fine but never really doing anything worth talking about.

Think about the sophomore album from bands that finally got their big record deal after years of struggling along. The first album is awesome; the second, mediocre.

Think about the reputations of professors at the last university you attended. If they were untenured (but on a tenure track), chance are they were more productive than tenured professors who had already obtained permanent job security.

You can probably think of other examples – bureaucrats, for example, who have safe but boring jobs.

Yes, there are exceptions to all of these. Some bands put out great sophomore albums, and some tenured professors become more prolific in their academic security. These exceptions, however, stand out because they are so unusual.

To simplify: complete security equals at least partial complacency.

I write this because we are living in uncertain times, at least financially speaking. Unless you have been living under the proverbial bridge, you’re probably aware that the U.S. economy hasn’t been performing as expected lately.

Where are our 15% a year gains? How come mortgages keep falling? And why are stocks still going down even though oil prices are also declining?

Someone else will have to answer those questions in more technical terms than I. Last week, I heard someone on Twitter say, “My 401k has become a 201k.” Ha ha. Except we’re not laughing, because as of right now, a great deal of wealth has disappeared into thin air.

As for me, I haven’t logged in to my Vanguard account since March or April. It kind of sucks, but what can you do? If you sell your retirement fund now, you’ve locked in your 30% loss. Better to stick it out, I say, and focus on what you can control.

If you were 100% secure, according to the theory of security and complacency, you’d become nonchalant about your most important work.

Complacency means you aren’t hungry. You don’t get out of bed in the morning excited about the day ahead. You don’t go the extra mile, and you settle for “good enough,” because you correctly suspect that most people won’t notice the difference.

This is sad, but common. I’ve let it happen to me many times.

I’m not sure why some people are able to succeed without any uncertainty. All I know is, I am not one of those people. I’m best as an untenured underdog. I’m best when the risk of failure is high and success is far from certain.

Give Me Neither Poverty Nor Riches

Because security can be such a demotivator, the opposite is true as well: a healthy amount of insecurity helps us Get Stuff Done. For example, I told you when I started writing here that I would post three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

You know what? I’m scared of missing a day, because I know if it happens, it will become a lot easier to miss another day sometime. I’ll discover that the world doesn’t end and no one is really that mad or anything. But then, I’ll get complacent. And that, I am absolutely certain, is NOT a good thing for me at all.

Steven Pressfield writes about this in The War of Art, the best little book (it really is little) I’ve ever read about the need for scheduling your creative work. Thus, I keep the schedule. I haven’t missed a day yet, even though there are a couple of times I’ve finished something at 11:45 p.m.

A Short Unconventional Guide Update

I’ll post up the promised analysis of the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself launch on Wednesday, but in short, it’s gone very well. A lot more people than I expected have purchased the guide, and in the beta-test for the new affiliate program (invitation-only for now), several affiliates are also having good results around the internet.

I talked to another blogger on the phone a couple of days before the launch, and I said that I hoped it sold well “but not too well.” He thought that was odd and had never heard someone say something like that before.

I realized he was right: it is odd. It’s just what works for me, and I don’t necessarily recommend you follow this model.

All I can say is that I want to keep the focus on the main group of readers, not just the small subset who choose to buy something from me. Anyway, I’ll give you all the details on Wednesday.

For now, bring on the uncertainty! The work will be better because of it.

Stay eager. Stay tough. Get up and fight. Nothing is guaranteed.

What else is there?

###

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Unconventional Guides:

Working for Yourself: Creating Personal Freedom
Discount Airfare: Surviving Stress and Maximizing Fun

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Travel

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9 Overrated Tourist Destinations (and 9 Great Alternatives)

In my trips around the world, I’ve been to a lot of conventional places and a lot of off-the-grid places. Among other things, these experiences have led me discover that some of the best destinations for travelers are not always “undiscovered.”

Many places have a well-deserved reputation for being cool, and some other places you’ve never heard of maintain that status for a good reason. Still other places have gained undeserved reputations for being somewhere you “must’ visit before you die – but whenever I’ve gone there, I’ve felt a bit disappointed.

I’ll tell you about 9 of those here, but…

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Gratitude

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The African Dichotomy of Hope and Despair

Hope and Despair
Image from Madagascar by ArtWerk

I was going to write about marketing today, but I found something more important: today is Blog Action Day, where at least 9,000 bloggers are writing about poverty. Here’s my contribution to that, and we’ll talk more about marketing next week.

***

Hope and Despair

A lot of people have asked me to write more about Africa, and I feel somewhat conflicted about it. I’ve been waiting for a while in part because I’m not sure where to start, and in part because I want to avoid all the clichés and generalizations we tend to slip into when considering such a big subject.

The Blog Action Day inspired me to go ahead and get started with the process, and I know that some of you won’t hesitate to let me know if you think I’m on the wrong track.

A few years back, when I first started thinking seriously about writing (this came before the actual writing, ironically), I assumed I’d end up writing mostly about Africa. I figured I’d write a series of essays on my views of international development and a memoir of my time on the continent.

I even had a great name for it. Are you ready? Here it is:

Hope and Despair: Four Years in the Poorest Countries of Africa

Isn’t that great? Well… not really. The problem, as I found out the more I read, was that almost everyone who writes about poverty in Africa ends up using a similar theme.

This is because when it comes to the status of poverty in Africa, there is a lot to be hopeful about, and a lot to be sad about.

It’s fashionable these days to present positive images of Africa, which is good since a lot of people still picture famine, war, and desperate poverty when they think about the continent. That is not the only Africa, and I’m glad to read about a detective agency in Botswana, for example, where life is simple but good.

The problem, of course, is that many Africans still live in the desperate poverty we don’t see from the positive images. Many of them are still threatened by war or other violent conflict – in Somalia, Sudan, Central African Republic, the D.R. Congo, Angola, Guinea-Bissau – just to name the places that come to mind right away.

To avoid this fact seems to be untruthful. If some people are suffering and you talk only about how happy some other people are, you’re only giving one side of the story. I’ve been to too many refugee camps, usually with thousands of people living in tight spaces and depending on handouts from the U.N., to do that.

Sierra Leone was the first African country I visited, which was (and still is) ranked #177 out of 177 countries on the U.N. Human Development Index. In other words, you could credibly say it was the poorest country in the world.

It was a country of joy and sorrow, and thus we come to the clichéd dichotomy that is hard to escape. When I think about Africa, I can’t forget either one.

The Campaign to End Sell Poverty

In addition to one-sided hopeful stories, I’m also troubled by the marketing of poverty on the other end. While I do think it’s good that caring about what happens in Africa is now fairly mainstream, I find it jarring that images of poor people are regularly used to induce guilt and solicit money – in which case, the donor’s guilt is relieved until the next war or natural disaster.

I realize it’s probably for the better that people in the West are now actually paying attention to what happens in the rest of the world. Surely it’s better than not caring, which has been the norm for decades. But still, I think “cause marketing” has a long way to go, and I suspect that a few years from now we’ll look back and realize how pathetic some of it was.

A couple of years ago, it was fashionable around the University of Washington to wear Stop Genocide in Darfur t-shirts and bracelets. I confess to feeling somewhat cynical about that – although let the record be shown that I never tried to discourage anyone from being informed, because that would be evil.

But the heart of my cynicism, truth be told, came from the indisputable fact that wearing clothing with a nice slogan does not really help anyone. If a bracelet can prevent people from being killed and removed from their homes, I remember thinking at the time, will I help twice as many people if I wear one on each arm?

I believe the Generation X prophet known as John Mayer put it best in his song Belief:

Is there anyone who Ever remembers Changing their mind from The paint on a sign Is there anyone who Really recalls Ever breaking rank at all For something someone yelled real loud one time

Unfortunately, that’s not how genocide in Sudan will be stopped. Neither will shopping at the Gap or having a red iPod instead of a white one introduce a cure for AIDS.

Sorry, again. But because hope co-exists with despair, there is usually some good news along with the bad.

The goal of any good anti-poverty campaign, as I understand it, is to help people become rich enough to choose for themselves.

Hope relates to the ability to make your own choices. When you can make choices about healthcare and nutrition, you have more freedom. When you can make choices about the kind of employment you pursue and what kind of education your children get, you have even more freedom.

Despair is related to the lack of choices, and thus the lack of freedom. When poverty prevents you from choosing much of anything, it’s hard to be hopeful.

Food aid sent to Zimbabwe from Nebraska does not help increase wealth or opportunities for Africans to choose for themselves. Governmental aid in general, for the most part, doesn’t usually help either – at least it hasn’t for the last 40 years.

The best solutions usually come down to helping people create the opportunities to make their own choices. There are a variety of ways to do this – eradicating malaria so that children and elders don’t die from a mosquito bite, bringing clean water to villages, helping women become entrepreneurs and thus more independent, and so on.

The Action Plan (What We Can Do)

It’s not fair to tell you what I think is wrong with our understanding of poverty without telling you what I think can be done to help.

Here’s a few ideas:

Give freely of your time, not just your money. Yes, you can do something more than write a check. Really. There are local charities that need board members to serve and people to help host events. There are immigrant populations, and often resettled refugees or asylum seekers, in most major Western cities. These groups usually need help with all kinds of things, from grocery shopping to English lessons.

I believe that everyone should take the time to discover what they can give that no one else can. This sometimes takes a while, and it can be a process with a lot of false starts, but in the end, it’s worth it for everyone. And in the beginning, it’s OK to just start helping wherever you can. If you’re brave enough to start helping anywhere, you’ll probably figure out what you’re best at before long.

Create a strategy for financial giving instead of using the shotgun approach. In North American and European culture, it’s considered modest to underestimate your wealth. But don’t underestimate too much. If you’re reading this, the chances are you are incredibly rich. Seriously.

Where much is given, much more is required. After spending so much time in Africa, I could lose everything I had and I would never think of myself as poor. I’m not saying it would be fun; I just mean that I’m well aware of my privileged status in life. I don't always give as much as I should, but I'm trying to help as much as I can.

When in doubt, give anyway. Naturally, you should be careful about who you give your money to, but being too careful isn’t good either. One time Jolie and I met a couple on the bus ride from North Seattle to our apartment in Wallingford. The guy kept looking at us, and I decided to be a nice city-dweller for once and say hello.

He told me a story about how he and his wife were down and out, trying to find work, so on and so forth, but all he needed now was $15 to get transportation somewhere.

I’d heard similar stories many times over, and I wasn’t convinced. Jolie had a good vibe about them, though, so we went with her judgment and helped them a little. And as she put it later, what if we were wrong? We could afford the cash, which was less than we had just spent on dinner an hour earlier.

In the worst case scenario, we were wrong, they had lied to us, and we were out $15. It’s not that bad. What would really be bad is if they were telling the truth and we had refused to help when we were able.

Emergency relief efforts are important, but they rarely help with long-term development. A little-known secret of international development is that most emergencies are greatly overfunded, but most ongoing development projects are not.

I ask CARE, World Vision, and the other organizations I support to not send me “appeal” mailings. These are the emergency requests that arrive right after any major world disaster. They are effective because people tend to respond better to an urgent crisis than to something that will help people improve their lives for long in the future.

In reality, the best charities are focused not only on disaster response (which is often well-funded by governments) but also on long-term projects of 15 years or more that will truly help families and communities have more choices.

I like the model of CARE, which has made a number of courageous decisions to back away from accepting government funding that is tied to questionable practices. If you're looking for an organization to support, they do good work in 69 countries.

I will probably remain hopeful about some aspects of world poverty and not hopeful about others.

I wish it could be simplified further, but I don’t know how to do so. I'll keep trying to think through it, and I hope you'll do the same from your side over there. Regardless, I hope you'll agree that poverty is too pressing of a problem to ignore.

Today is a day where many of us are thinking about it, but I hope it won't be forgotten after the day is over.

###

More Reading:

  • For an older (but still stimulating) perspective, check out E.F. Schumaker’s Small Is Beautiful

  • Jeffrey Sachs and William Easterly have an ongoing feud about the solutions for world poverty. I think Easterly is probably closer to the truth, but I admire Sachs’ persistence. See The End of Poverty and The Elusive Quest for Growth

  • Mountains Beyond Mountains, the story of Paul Farmer and Partners In Health, is one of my favorite books of all time. After I read it the first time, I bought six copies to give to friends. Then I read it again. It’s that good.

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Working for Yourself: Creating Personal Freedom
Discount Airfare: Surviving Stress and Maximizing Fun

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Life

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How to Fight Authority (and Win)

resist-authority-example
Image from Copenhagen, Denmark by ilmungo
“I fight authority; authority always wins.” –John Mellencamp

Citizens, consumers, and rebels of all kinds have been fighting authority for as long as history has been recorded. Sometimes they lose, as John Mellencamp sang in a great rock song, but other times, the underdog manages to unseat the strong and mighty.

I should say from the beginning that I don’t necessarily think all authority is bad. I’m in favor of gentle government regulation, general law and order, and checks and balances that prevent abuse of power by anyone. For this, you need authority. Anarchy is not a useful system of governance anywhere.

But sometimes, authority is dangerous and outright harmful. In these cases, it should be resisted in full force. Other times, authority may not be that bad, but it is used to prevent you from doing something that would be good for you without being harmful to anyone else.

In many of these cases, it’s worth it to stand up to authority… but you need a strategy.

From authority wielded by college administrators to world dictators, here’s how you fight it.

First, count the cost.

Be convinced you’re in the right before taking action. Fighting authority can be a long and lonely road, so take the time to make sure you believe in your campaign enough to sacrifice for it. (Yes, there will usually be sacrifice, and we’ll come back to that in a minute.)

Second, count the rewards.

Because the cost can be great, you have to decide if it’s worth it to you to challenge deep-seated authority. What will happen if you win? How will your world – and hopefully more than just your own world – be different?

In the Civil Rights Movement, for example, the reward of equality was clearly worth fighting for, but it was only fully achieved for a future generation – the children and grandchildren of the movement’s participants. Regardless, the participants believed in their cause so much that they were willing to suffer for something that would not be fully realized right away.

Other challenges to authority may not have the same level of rewards as an entire social movement, but there will always be a relationship between cost and rewards. Since you can only fight so many battles at a time you might as well pick something important.

Then, decide on Direct vs. Indirect confrontation.

One decision you’ll have to make when fighting authority is whether to do it directly or indirectly. The indirect way will usually be easier. You may be able to get what you want by simply going around the authority and finding your own way.

Direct confrontation is another beast altogether. Fighting authority one-on-one can lead to bloodshed – or at least hours on hold with customer service – but sometimes, there’s no other way.

To help you make the decision, first answer these two questions:

#1: “Is there another way to do this?”

When you’re confronted with authority that tries to prevent you from achieving your goals, think about whether there is any other way you can do what you need to do.

For example, there is usually another way to graduate from college, another way to earn a living, another way to get the airline to waive the baggage fee, another way to get a visa to Pakistan, or almost anything else.

Again, count the cost and count the rewards. If the traditional path isn’t that difficult, save your authority-fighting for something more important.

#2: “Can I simply ignore the authority standing in my way?”

Direct confrontation can be dangerous, because authority does not like to be challenged. Sometimes you can simply ignore authority and go through the back door.

In most of the African countries I lived in from 2002-2006, the government was relatively weak. Most citizens paid no taxes and lived nearly all their life outside the realm of the law. Disputes were resolved personally or by small, informal authority figures such as tribal elders.

If the citizens in most of these countries were to directly confront the government, the government would put up a fierce fight to put them down. No expense would be spared, and the fight would be brutal since no one likes to give up their power. But if the citizens were to just live their lives without challenging authority, the dictators (often benevolent, sometimes not) who ran the country would look the other way when the people chose to ignore many of the laws.

(In this system, citizens receive few benefits from the state, such as law and order, legal protection, and recognized home ownership, so it’s not necessarily a good way to live – but that’s another story.)

Next Stop, Sacrifice

A fundamental principle of lifestyle design is that you can usually have anything you want if you’re willing to work for it, but you can’t have everything. Tradeoffs must be made, and if you’re fighting authority, you may lose time, status, sleep, money, or worse. The bigger the challenge, the higher the risk of great sacrifice. Consider yourself warned.

***

Successful Challenges to Authority

Let’s look at two examples of successful (but quite different) challenges to authority: the American Revolution, and the rise of online resistance to the mega-corporation.

Benjamin Franklin - the American Revolution
Image by wallyg
The Pursuit of Happiness
“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.” –Thomas Jefferson


The American Revolution was remarkable in that it changed the norms of government for most of the Western world. Until America declared independence from the British Monarchy, most people took it for granted that a king would always be around to tell them what to do.

Just a few years later, the French Revolution followed the American one. In a short time, two of the world’s most powerful monarchies were dismantled or permanently weakened. Every world democracy, especially those who have overthrown monarchies or dictators to install a system of self-governance, owes a debt to the instigators and sustainers of the American Revolution.

Later, the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) followed the path of these revolutions by exposing the great conflict in American society: that even though “all men were created equal,” until the CRM, some were more equal than others.

***

consumerist-fight-authorityShoppers Bite Back

Challenges to authority need not be governmental in nature. Consider the popular site The Consumerist. This is a great example of how the internet and adoption of social media has helped underdogs (consumers) fight authority (corporations).

For a long time, consumers who had somehow been cheated by corporations had few places to turn to for assistance. Sure, advocates like Ralph Nader helped us get seat belts and deal with major injustice, and perhaps the local news station’s investigative reporter could help once in a while, but for the most part, consumers were left to suffer the perceived injustice on their own.

Not so now. When a company like Best Buy screws someone over (judging from the site, it appears that Best Buy is a frequent target), the Consumerist posts up all the details. Thousands of people read it within minutes… and so does the company, because they are finally beginning to understand the destructive power of negative P.R.

In contrast to their preferred methods of communication, corporations have been forced to respond to many consumer complaints posted on the site. They do not always give in, but accountability has been introduced to the marketplace because of sites like the Consumerist.

Wrap-Up

I’ll have more to say about authority later, because this is a big topic… but for now, what do you think? What are some other examples of authority being successfully (or unsuccessfully) challenged?

###

P.S. A quick note to everyone in Canada who is reading today -- Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you guys are enjoying your holiday. There is no need to fight authority up there at the moment, unless someone tries to take your pumpkin pie.

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Discount Airfare: Surviving Stress and Maximizing Fun

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Trip Reports

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My City for One More Year

seattle-pike-place
Image by Busse

First, thanks to everyone who has purchased my new product, the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. You guys are so great… but you know that already. Please make sure you’re on the list for free updates, and let me know if you don’t receive the download links .

And now, on to traveling life – or in this case, life at home.

***

After a lot of contemplation, Jolie and I recently decided to stay in Seattle for one more year. We originally came here for my graduate school program in 2006, and I finished that a few months ago. We looked at some other options, but finally decided that until we start a new adventure next summer, we’ll continue to base out of Seattle.

I’m working on the book contract and growing the readership for the site, and she is building an art portfolio so she can launch her career as a painter.

Having written previously about my inability to get around very well in my own city, I’ve decided I might as well start learning more. Here are a few of the people and places I’ve come to know well over the past two years of living here.

Aladdin Gyrocery and Deli - Seattle, Washington
Image by Travis
The Gryocery

The Gyrocery on University Way in the U-District has the best falafel sandwiches anywhere. And I don’t mean just anywhere in Seattle, I mean anywhere in the world.

When I went to Jordan for the first time in early 2007, I ended up eating falafel every day for about 10 days straight. I was a new vegetarian and had no Arabic, so falafel was pretty much all I knew how to order. The falafels in Jordan were decent, but when I came back home and revisited the Gyrocery, I decided they were a lot better over here.

I thought it was just me, but a few months ago I was back in Amman for a one-night layover. I met up with my friend Dimitar who was studying Arabic for a semester. Ironically, Dimitar and I used to go to the Gyrocery to eat lunch once in a while back at home, and there we were in Jordan. He took me to a nearby falafel place around 11pm, but before we went he warned me that it was “no Gyrocery.”

Indeed it wasn’t. The falafels were fine, but the Jordanian guys who run the Gyrocery have obviously improved on the original recipe. The only problem is that the falafels in Seattle are $5 and in Amman they are 50 cents, but the huge difference in quality justifies the price. Really.

I also know Samir up the street, who is from Beirut, Lebanon. I met him just before I went to his homeland. “Hey, aren’t you from Lebanon?” I asked him. “Yes!” he said, with a smile that turned to a frown. “But it is not good there right now. We can not go back because it is unsafe.”

“Oh,’” I said. “I’m going there next week.”

“In that case, you will have a great trip!” he said, and we both laughed.

(In the end it was completely safe while I was there, although unfortunately it wasn’t for other people a few days later.)


Image by Rakkadeer
Ly the Donut Man

Ly (pronounced Lee) runs a donut shop called, fittingly, Ly’s Donuts. It’s up on 45th and Roosevelt, and as far as I can tell, Ly works there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Most of the time I go there, he slowly rises from a big chair like a sleepwalker to greet me, so I got the impression from the beginning that he spends a lot of time behind the counter.

One time after several visits, I went in and someone else was there. I was disappointed not to see Ly, but glad that he finally got some help.

A couple weeks later I was back, and I mentioned to Ly that an employee had helped me on my last visit. I said that I hoped he had a good vacation, but Ly looked confused.

“The white guy helped you?” he asked.

“Yeah, the white guy,” I said. “Where were you?”

“I must have been sleeping in the back.”

Go and see him sometime; he’s virtually guaranteed to be there.

food bank, seattle washington
Image by Imprints Group
The Food Bank

Every Thursday when I’m in town, I visit the Food Bank near the Public Library in Wallingford. Before someone accuses me of stealing from homeless people, I should note that this particular food bank is for anyone who lives in certain zip codes. There is also plenty of surplus food to go around; you just have to wait a while for it sometimes.

Since I’ve made this discovery, I’ve tried to figure out whether it’s worth my time or not. On any given week I get at least $20 in free bread and usually anywhere from $10-50 in other groceries. On the low-end weeks, it’s probably not worth the 40 minutes it takes to walk up there, wait in line, get stuff, and walk back.

But on the high-end weeks, it’s basically free grocery shopping with a few nice surprises. I also think of like a food reality show. It might not always be good, but if I didn’t go one week, I’d worry about what I was missing.

Every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, you can get a free ham or turkey in addition to the regular selection. Since neither of us eat hams or turkeys, I always decline the offer, but this creates a lot of nearby interest.

The first holiday week I was there, a fight almost broke out as three people simultaneously asked if they could have “my” turkey. I ended up giving it to a Vietnamese lady who was very excited. She offered a couple of onions to thank me for “regifting” the turkey.

Fights don’t break out that often, but there’s usually something interesting that happens each week at the food bank -- another good reason to make the Thursday afternoon trip. Last week, some guy asked the staff if they had any stuffed animals to give out. (They usually keep a few on hand for kids.)

The man at the desk said, “Sure, hold on.” As he picked one out of a nearby box, the guy said, “Thanks! My dog is really going to love this!”

To his credit, the man at the desk didn’t bat an eye. “I hope your dog has fun,” he said.

origami-guy - seattle, washington
Image by Bus Chick
The Origami Guy

An elderly Japanese-American man frequently rides the bus around our parts of the city, sitting in the front and making origami birds for other passengers out of old newspapers. He looks like Mr. Miyagi from the old Karate Kid movies, and whether you want to or not, he’ll try to involve you in making the origami.

Mr. Miyagi also shares a numbers of observations while he’s making his gifts. “Mechanics,” he says frequently, perhaps out of explanation. “Holy Spirit,” he says when he gives out the dove – a nice touch, I suppose.

He usually gives the origami presents to women—my theory is that they are less threatening to him, and more likely to be friendly—but sometimes he’ll give them to men as well. One time I saw a business guy (not that typical in Seattle) try to decline the gift. The origami guy just kept offering, and by the third time the business guy gave in and ended up holding the paper crane for the next few stops. When someone gives you origami on the bus, resistance is futile.

Update: Bus Chick, who writes for a Seattle newspaper, spotted the same guy and has a picture.

Overheard on the Bus

Speaking of the bus, there are some great Overheard sites out there—see here and here — and I could probably create my own from riding Seattle’s buses. One time, coming back from the airport on the local 174 (one of the city’s longest routes, which means a lot of interesting people ride it), we heard a woman behind us talking loudly on her cell phone.

“Yeah, the doctor sent me home from work. What’s that? Oh, it’s so I don’t have an episode… the last time that happened, the police had to come… no, I wasn’t fired… after I got out they let me come back.”

Another time someone was calling his pharmacy about medication of a more personal kind.

“I need a refill on my medication… Well, it’s not working very well… It’s a sex medication and I think it needs to be stronger…. I took three last night but nothing happened… ”

***

These notes about living in Seattle served as a break from some of my other writing. Next week, I’ll be back with regularly-scheduled programming: How to Do What You Really Want on Monday, and an analysis of the recent product launch on Wednesday.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

###

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Entrepreneurship

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How to Create an Incredibly Convincing Satisfaction Guarantee

satisfaction-guaranteed
Image by whalt

Here’s an idea: if you sell something, think about why prospects don’t buy from you.

I don’t mean the unqualified people – there are always good reasons why people should not give you money.

But for the qualified prospects -- people for whom your product or service is a good fit -- why don’t they buy?

Maybe you haven’t done a good job with the sales copy, maybe they’re not in the right place at the right time, or something else. But at the heart of the matter, people are afraid, skeptical, or just plain not convinced.

To help prospects come over to your side of the fence, you need an incredibly convincing guarantee. This guarantee has to go far beyond an offer to get your money back.

The basic, “money back within 30 days” guarantee is no longer very convincing. It’s expected. It is the norm.

For Example

I haven’t eaten at Taco Bell in a long time, but ten years ago when I didn’t care about my health, I used to spend quite a lot of time and money over there.

Back in the day (and maybe now still, I have no idea), they came out with what they positioned as an amazing guarantee: “If you don’t like it, we’ll eat it.”

In other words, if you weren’t happy with your cinnamon crisps, they would refund your 59, 79, or 99 cents. I was new to marketing at the time, but I still remember feeling skeptical about this offer. If I hadn’t already been a Taco Bell customer, did they think this offer would bring me in the door?

I mean, my average bill for a full meal was about $2.70, so the risk was very low. They were promising to give me $3 back? Not convincing.

This is why you need to go above and beyond to convince skeptical prospects.

Not many businesses get this, but some do. Look at Zappos, which has done very well selling shoes and service. At Zappos, they actually encourage you to order multiple pairs of shoes and send back the ones you don’t want. They pay the shipping both ways, so you have effectively no risk. That’s incredibly convincing, since the idea of buying shoes online used to be considered strange and unmarketable.

For another good example, look at Kiva, provider of economic empowerment from Afghanistan to Zambia. Kiva facilitates loans between rich people (like you and me) and motivated entrepreneurs in poorer countries. They currently have a 98.6% repayment rate, which is good because the first objection most people have when they hear about loaning money to a farmer in Uganda is, “Does that work? How will I get my money back?”

98.6% is pretty convincing, I think, especially when our own banks in New York and Frankfurt aren’t doing so great these days.

As for me, you may have noticed that I will be releasing my second information product on Wednesday.

It’s called the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself: Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business.

I’m excited about it, and I know it will help many people. Since I’ve previously explained who it won’t help, I thought it would be fair to explain who it will.

Here is the goal:

  • In the short-term, the guide will help a lot of people start very small businesses which earn at least $200 a month.

  • In the long-term, some of those people will build out a series of very small businesses to escape the tyranny of traditional employment.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

I don’t want to guarantee too much, because as I’ve said before, self-employment is not for everyone and it takes a lot of work. But I also don’t want to guarantee too little, so that’s why we’re doing something unique.

The 60-Day, $2,400 Guarantee

First, the typical satisfaction guarantee applies. If it doesn’t rock your world, you get your money back. No problem.

But here is the second part.

In the first section of the new guide, I will be asking everyone to take the time to set a couple of goals for the new business they are going to start.

My second guarantee is that I will refuse to accept your money if it doesn’t work for you, according to these specific metrics:

Satisfaction Effectiveness Guaranteed

If, after 60 days, someone has read the guide, listened to the audio files, and put in a fair effort on their part (they will be the sole judge) but has not been able to start a project that earns at least $200 a month, then they get their money back even if they like the guide.

In other words, the burden is on me to deliver, or I don’t get paid a dime.

A minimum of $200 a month x 12 months = $2,400 minimum. There are no geographic restrictions or other fine print.

See, I want my products to actually help people. I’m interested in mass accountability, and this is the latest experiment.

What You’ll Get

The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself consists of an online guide and downloadable MP3 files:

  • 55-pages of strategic and tactical info in a professionally designed report

  • 3 25-minute MP3 audio downloads

  • 1 Special Bonus (it’s not from me, so I’m not allowed to say more yet)

  • Free Updates for 6 Months

There are no shipping charges and everything will be delivered through instant download right after purchase.

As for the cost, in the future I will probably price the guide in the $60-89 range, but we’ll kick it off this week for less than that – probably around $45 or so, with a small discount for everyone on the newsletter list.

And in the end, the people who buy it will succeed at a measurable rate far greater than the purchase price, or I will insist that they keep their money. No exceptions.

Fair enough?

Oh, and one more thing: since I know this won’t be for everyone, to make it fun for the whole group we’ll be posting a few specific case studies beginning 45 days after the launch. The goal is to feature real-life stories showing exactly what kinds of "very small businesses" have been created as a result of this project.

Since I don’t know exactly what will happen, this should be interesting… but my hope is that we’ll get some people willing to show actual web sites and sales figures.

***

What do you think? Am I crazy to offer this kind of guarantee?

AND… if you already have a business, what kind of Incredibly Convincing Guarantee can you offer your customers? Is there a way you can rock their world so they keep coming back to you?

See you all on Wednesday morning…

###

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Travel

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Working from Anywhere on the Planet

1) Working for yourself, especially while traveling, is not as easy as most people think. The fantasy and the reality are quite distinct, and it takes a lot of work to be successful. 2) Working for yourself, even while traveling, is awesome! The freedom is great, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Both statements are completely true, but naturally, we tend to view the idea of self-employment and extensive travel through only one of the two statements. I'd like to look at it a bit deeper.

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Entrepreneurship

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Good Reasons to Keep Your Money

Money - Keep it
Image by moal

Marketers tend to deliberately over-hype their products in an attempt to break through a crowded marketplace. In an environment where we receive 3,000 advertising messages on an average day, the idea is to be bigger and better – but if that’s too difficult, the theory goes, we can at least be noisier.

I’m coming out with my second information product exactly one week from today, and instead of trying to sell you on it, I thought I’d tell you why not to buy it.

On Monday I’ll explain how to create an Incredibly Convincing Guarantee. The idea is that most promises of “satisfaction guaranteed” aren’t that convincing at all anymore. Almost everything we buy has some kind of guarantee, but we still end up ignoring most of those 3,000 messages each day.

Since I’m in the marketplace of ideas, I’ve decided to create a guarantee for my own product that goes beyond the usual. I think I’ve found something unique, and I think it will resonate. I also can’t wait to tell you more about the guide itself – which currently runs to more than 55 pages and also includes several 25-minute audio segments.

I was going to write about both of those things today, but then I got worried… what if I’m writing for the wrong people?

See, I want to deliver great products to the right customers, and I am the first to point out that there are usually a number of good reasons to keep your money instead of exchanging it for something else. Therefore, I need to do some disqualification for your benefit and mine.

The next product will be called the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. The subtitle is “Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business,” and that’s basically what it’s all about:

Creating Freedom = finding a way to work for yourself instead of someone else, or at least finding a way to bring in additional income that allows you to do more of what you want and be less dependent on a job

Through a Very Small Business = not trying to start the next Google or Amazon.com, but instead building a microbusiness that brings in at least $200 a month, and potentially a series of these opportunities that eventually allow you to quit your current job

Please understand that this is not for everyone. Not everyone values freedom over traditional employment, and not everyone wants to have a business of any kind, even a very small one.

The ever-insightful Tim at Soul Shelter recently wrote a post entitled In Praise of Salaried Employment. Reading it was an affirmation that I (still) don’t want a “real job,” but I see Tim’s point -- and it also served as a good reminder that not everyone wants to work for themselves. Like most art forms, the way people on the outside perceive self-employment is quite different from the way it actually works for most of us who practice it.

Why Not to Buy the UG to Working for Yourself

As mentioned, there are many good reasons to not buy any particular product or service. A few of them for this one are:

If you’re looking for the quick path to riches. Feel free to keep looking for that – but please, not here. If I had found such a thing, I would probably not be selling it in a low-cost ebook. I might still travel around the world, but I don’t think I would sleep on the floor of airports from Rome to Dallas to save money.

If you don’t like to learn or aren’t willing to work. I use a lot of irony in my writing, but there is nothing ironic about this. A lot of people are simply not comfortable with learning new things, and if you have never worked for yourself before, there’s a lot of things you have to learn.

One of the things I mention in the guide is that you don’t have to be especially intelligent to earn money without a job, but you do need to be willing to work.

If your primary goal is to build a huge business. I have nothing against huge businesses for the most part; I just don’t know anything about building them. I’m far more interested in finding a way to pay the rent so I can do what I want.

On a higher level, I’m also interested in convergence and alignment, where my whole life is related to what I want to do for myself and how I think I can best help others. But in a nutshell, this guide is just about starting a very small business. Getting the cash flow coming in. Ready, fire, aim – that kind of thing.

If you are a complete beginner to technology. I write almost exclusively about online business because that’s what I’ve done for ten years. If you don’t know how blogs work or how Google makes money (for example), there will be more of a learning curve. The guide is targeted to the low to mid-intermediate level – not the guru who knows everything, but also not the complete beginner.

Don’t worry too much about this if you’re on the fence – I am a fairly low-tech person. I write on a $500 laptop and don’t do any programming or complex work at all. But I mention this because if you are going to work online in some kind of business, it does help to be fairly proficient with the world of computers. You should know what eBay is, you should probably have your own internet connection, etc.

***

Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business

I do not know how to create internet millionaires because I am not one myself. What I have done instead is find a way to create a lifestyle that works for me and gives me a great deal of freedom. It’s not a four-hour work week, but I spend a lot of time doing exactly what I want to do instead of being tied to a desk somewhere.

For me, the freedom itself is the most important thing – it is definitely the highest goal and most significant benefit of working for myself. That is what I know how to do, and that’s why the subtitle of the guide is “Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business.”

It can sometimes be unpopular to say so, but money and freedom are related to a certain point. Is there anyone who can argue that it’s fun to be poor? Let’s be honest: it sucks.

So you have to do something to avoid that, and if inheritance or litigation is not an option, then you either have to work for someone else or work for yourself.

I have chosen to work for myself. And if you’re interested, I’ll tell you all about what I do and how you can work towards creating your own freedom, doing it your own way, creating your own rules. By popular demand, I’ll include a lot of personal stories (especially “big mistakes” I’ve made along the way) and a lot of specific, actionable items you can take to get started right away.

The time for that will be Wednesday, October 8, at 10am EST / 7am here on the West Coast.

On Monday I’ll tell you all about the unique guarantee, what you’ll get, how it works, how much it costs, and so on.

Sound good?

For Everyone Else

I needed to address the fact that the Working for Yourself guide is not for everyone – which will hopefully be clear now. If it’s not for you due to any of the reasons mentioned above (or something else), you won’t be left out of the party entirely.

I write three times a week and will never charge for that. I’m currently writing the sequel to the World Domination Manifesto, which will be released in January. I have more plans for the next 6-9 months that all involve scaling up the project without putting ads on the site or selling anything other than a few more teaching products like this one.

And as we did last time, I’ll also post a detailed analysis after the launch with what went well and what I could have done better.

Here is the launch schedule:

Friday, October 3: Working from Any Country in the World
Monday, October 6: The Incredibly Convincing Guarantee
Wednesday, October 8 (10am EST): The Launch

Thursday, October 9: Chris retires! (Wait, probably not yet. It may take a few more days.)

Thanks for listening, and see you all next time. Feel free to share your feedback in the comments section.

###

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Site Updates

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Site Update: September 2008

guild-theatre-seattle
Image by Godzilla

Live from Seattle

I went to Egypt and Sri Lanka this month, but I’m now resettled back in my home city – and I expect to be here until mid-December. It’s nice to stay in one place every so often.

Each month I look back at what’s happened with ChrisGuillebeau.com in the previous month. If you’ve missed some articles, you can catch up here.

Writing

LIFE – I wrote about Swimming from Regrets, Developing Your Own Philosophy of Travel, and Beware of Potential.

WORK – I wrote about Insane Business Strategies (the Roundup), Your Questions on the Next Unconventional Guide, 15 Resumé Mistakes that Can Cost You a Job, and Time Is Money.

TRAVEL – I wrote about Productivity and Vacations, Five Days in the Valley of the Kings, and Midnight Notes from My 100th Country.

I also posted a Travel FAQ that provides more information about how and why I travel.

Travel

My final overseas trip of the year took me to Egypt and Sri Lanka, along with brief stays in Panama and Qatar. (I didn’t spend much time at all in Qatar, but since I have to go back there sometime next year, I decided to go ahead and put it on the list.)

I traveled on my OneWorld Round-the-World ticket for most of the trip, but between Doha (Qatar) and Colombo (Sri Lanka) I bought a one-way ticket for about $180 on Qatar Airways.

Sri Lanka was my 100th country, an important personal milestone. I came back home after a short visit in NYC and will now be in Seattle for at least three months. The whirlwind travel of the summer was fun but tiring, so I’m happy to be home for a while.

The Affiliate Program

Now that the Discount Airfare Guide has been out for a while and my second product is coming next week, I have created a low-key affiliate program that pays 51% commission for a few carefully-selected partners who wish to offer my products for sale to their readers or customers.

The program is still in beta mode, but several travel bloggers are using it to promote the first product with good results. If you have a blog, other web site, or newsletter list and are interested in learning more, read this here and then contact me.

What’s Coming Next

Travel – I expect to stick to a 20-mile radius over the next month, and my passport is safely tucked away in the filing cabinet. Rest assured that I’ll be dusting it off for some good trips in early 2009.

Essays - The thrice-weekly essays will continue to be posted each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

This month I’ll write about the following topics, among others:

  • How to Do What You Really Want

  • The Hidden Messages of Passport Stamps

  • 880,000 Frequent Flyer Miles for a Few of My Closest Friends

  • Entrepreneurship for the Chronic Procrastinator

I hope you enjoy my writing, and I always welcome your feedback.

The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself

Thanks to everyone who sent in title suggestions, questions, or general feedback about the next information product. After much consideration, I decided that the title will be the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself with a subtitle of "Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business."

In addition to the written material (which is currently more than 50 pages), the guide will also include at least two 25-minute audio sessions I’ve recorded to help in a different way.

I’ll have a lot more to say about all of that over the next week and a half, and I expect to launch the guide next Wednesday, October 8. Before then I’ll be giving you several reasons why you might not want to get this product, and a special guarantee that will be included for those who do. As usual, I’ll also share more information with the newsletter list before the launch.

Audience Participation

You can participate in the development of this project in several ways:

Leave a comment at the bottom of any essay. Feel free to add to the discussion at any time, and include a link back to your own site if you have one.

Join my newsletter announcement list or add me to your RSS reader.

Follow my real-time updates on Twitter.

Send other feedback. Use my contact form here to tell me what you think so far.

Tell your friends, or tell the world by submitting my essays to StumbleUpon or other social networking sites.

I appreciate the time you spend here. Don’t forget to change the world the way you think it needs to be changed.

-CG

Catch up on Previous Updates Here:

August 2008 (Seattle)
July 2008 (Karachi)
June 2008 (Amsterdam)
May 2008 (Vancouver)
April 2008 (Syria)
March 2008 (Los Angeles)
February 2008 (Seattle)
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Travel

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Midnight Notes from my 100th Country

colombo sri lanka
Colombo by Night -- Image by Dimitri

I’m sitting in a hotel lobby in Colombo, Sri Lanka, listening to the cover band play Lionel Ritchie from the back of a wedding reception where I’m obviously an outside observer. Sipping a 12-ounce Heineken I bought at the gas station across the street, I reflect on the last two weeks.

The final trip of the year.

And also, my 100th country. How did I come this far?

Before I can fully consider the question, we have a brief diversion as the band segues into a toast for the bride and groom -- or so I presume, since the bandleader is speaking Sinhala, the local language. I hear the word champagne and everyone stands with a glass in hand. I raise my Heineken can and smile. No one notices me, which I take to be a good sign.

In Which I Sleep Through the Entire Day

The flight to Sri Lanka (from Doha, Qatar) did not go so well. I was told at check-in that the morning flight was totally full, but if I wanted I could switch to the red-eye flight leaving at 12:50 a.m. Since I don’t usually sleep on planes, I’m not a big fan of red-eye flights, but I asked how full the flight was before making a decision. I was told that the midnight flight was fairly empty and I could have a whole row to myself near the front of the Economy section. OK, I said. I’ll take it.

You can guess what happened – the flight was totally packed and I was in the next-to-last row in the back. How does that work? Why did they lie to me?

It’s all about expectations, and in this case I was not prepared to fly 5 hours through the night in the very back of a crowded plane. Thankfully, every bad flight has to end at some point, and at 8:30 a.m. local time, it’s all over.

Upon arrival at the airport in Colombo, I’m tired from not sleeping at all the night before. I negotiate the taxi price down from $25 to $15 (it’s a long way from the city), and ride into town to a local hotel. I’m not especially jet-lagged, since I’ve been traveling incrementally this time (Panama City, Madrid, Cairo, Doha, and now Colombo), but the red-eye flight has definitely taken its toll.

I lie down and sleep for five hours straight, about three hours more than I planned.

I wake up when someone knocks on the door to ask about cleaning. "No thanks," I say, and go back to bed. I sleep for three more hours, and then three more after that. After 11 hours of sleeping, which I think is a personal record for me, I finally wake up at exactly midnight local time. I can’t believe I’ve slept this long!

I decide there’s not much to do except get up and pretend it’s morning, since there’s no going back to sleep tonight after a day of sleeping 11 hours.

Colombo from Midnight to 7am

I take a shower and sit down at the desk to do some writing. I have been trying to finish the next Unconventional Guide for weeks now, and I finally manage to force myself to work on it for three good hours.

At 3:00 a.m., I decide it’s time to go exploring. Sri Lanka itself is not exactly a safe place (there is an ongoing civil war between government forces and what is considered a rebel army in the north), but ironically this means that the capital of Colombo is actually more safe than it would otherwise be. This is because almost everywhere you go, armed soldiers are standing guard 24 hours a day at intervals of only 100 meters apart. There are security checkpoints throughout the city, and a big section of downtown is blocked off from traffic for most of the day.

I walk along the beach and am stopped at each post along the way by guards who are surprised to see a foreigner out walking in the middle of the night, but they don’t bother me too much. I pass by a group of kids about 7-10 years old who are all out flying a kite on the beach. As to why they are doing this at 3:00 a.m., I have no idea, but they are friendly enough. They all run up to me and start talking, but after we exchange names, there’s not a lot to say.

“Please, tell me what time it is,” one of them says. I tell him the time and he thanks me.

The next one speaks up. “Please, tell me what time it is,” he says. I repeat the same answer and he thanks me. It seems this is as far as the English lessons go in the 4th grade over here, so I wave goodbye and keep walking.

An hour later I’m on my way back to the hotel and it’s close to 4:30 a.m. I know this because I encounter the group of kids on the beach again. They all wave and come over. “Please, tell me what time it is,” one of them says again. “What is your name?” another one asks for the second time.

I give them the answers (again) and they all wave me off. The guards are less anxious now that I’m going back where I came from, and the sun should be up soon. I read until 6:30 a.m. and then go down to breakfast, which effectively also serves as lunch and dinner from the day before. It’s a big meal, thankfully.

100 Countries

A long time ago, I had a dream to visit 100 countries. I was traveling through Eastern Europe for the first time, and I counted up all the places I had been and thought about everywhere else I wanted to go.

This was nearly four years ago.

Dreams only go so far – they have to be turned into goals, or else they tend to remain dreams, like winning the lottery. I did the math and figured out that it would not be terribly difficult to visit 100 countries as long as I was willing to give up some other things. I set the goal and started planning several overseas trips a year.

Along the way I had to make a number of other decisions and very real sacrifices. I had to be away from home a lot, spend most of my disposable income on Round-the-World plane tickets, endure a few stressful and uncomfortable situations, and so on. While I enjoy many aspects of travel and many places around the world, there are certainly others I don’t care for as much. With travel, like anything else, sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. It’s just part of the deal.

When it comes down to it, though, when I first started thinking about the goal of 100 countries, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I knew that I would always regret it if I didn’t try, and that knowledge has made all the difference. I think about that often, especially when it gets hard. This summer had some hard times, but now I’m sitting on a small island in South Asia, and I’ve already been to more places than most people will visit in their lifetime.

Back at the Wedding Reception

I’m in Sri Lanka for three more days, and it’s a nice place to hang out for your 100th country. I go to a Buddhist festival, an international book fair, and an Anglican church service. One taxi driver I meet tells me it’s 42° (107° Fahrenheit) the first morning I’m there, and I believe him. My clothes are soaked with sweat after half an hour of walking mostly in the shade, and I’m quickly defeated. I hire a tuk-tuk and go to the civic center for the book fair.

On the day of departure, my flight out to Hong Kong doesn’t leave until the awful hour of 1:45 a.m., so I have a final evening to spend before heading back out to the airport. After walking for a while, I pass the time hanging out at the previously-mentioned wedding.

From a sign at the entrance I see that this wedding is for Mr. Shahib Praseen and his lovely bride Tenga. Thank you, Shahib and Tenga, for letting me sit in the back of the room and write these notes while listening to Stuck On You being performed in traditional Asian hotel band style.

Classic Asian hotel band style, if you didn’t know, consists of five musicians but rarely a drummer – fake drums are provided via MIDI keyboard. There is often a female singer, but all of the musicians are men. You can hear the same synthesizer sounds all over Asia, and usually the same songs too.

I head out to the lobby to buy something to eat, where a competing band is playing Shania Twain.

Looks like we made it
Look how far we’ve come now baby

There’s one thing I like about going to places like Sri Lanka – I can afford to eat at real restaurants, and sometimes stay in nice hotels. In Brussels the $3 sandwich I’m eating would cost $14, and would the band really be playing Shania Twain? Come on. You want to hear Stuck On You or Still the One performed in full MIDI glory, you’d better come to Asia.

As I’m leaving, the band has moved to Carolina in My Mind, but I have no more time or interest. In my mind, I’m going to Colombo airport.

On the ride to the airport we have what I assume will be the final installment of worldwide taxi driver commentary on the U.S. election. In previous installments, we’ve heard from drivers in Pakistan and Egypt, and tonight my driver (in a small tuk-tuk, not a full taxi) tells me that America will not elect Obama because he is Muslim.

“Actually, he is Christian,” I say, feeling a little annoyed. You can like Obama or not like him, but I’m troubled to hear that the lies being spread about him have made it all the way to Sri Lanka.

Alas, my driver is not swayed. “No, he is Muslim. He has a Muslim name. You can not be Christian with that name.”

I briefly consider taking another taxi out of protest, but this is Sri Lanka, after all, and I do need to get to the airport. I guess if Fox News ever decides to broadcast from South Asia, this guy can be a commentator.

***

After waiting at the airport for two hours, I sleep-walk on to the plane at the 1:25 a.m. boarding time. I’m going to NYC before heading home to Seattle, and I don’t even want to think about what time it is in either of those places. The Cathay Pacific flight takes off for Bangkok and then continues to Hong Kong on the same aircraft. This all feels very familiar – the flight back from Karachi last month was almost the same, with a late-night boarding time, then a three hour hop to Bangkok followed by two and a half hours to Hong Kong.

I sleep on the plane out of exhaustion, but it’s all good. I made it. 100 countries down, and I’m on my way home.

The Future

This was my final “big trip” of 2008. I’ll be at home for the next two and a half months before planning my travel for 2009.

As I’ve said a couple of times, the next 100 (or technically, 92+) countries will be far more difficult. I’m rapidly running out of “easy” countries. There are a lot of countries in Africa I haven't really planned for, and two entire regions (Central Asia and the South Pacific) I haven’t even started in.

But for right now, I’m not ready to think about how hard it will be. It does feel somewhat monumental to have come this far, and that’s where I’m going to leave it for now.

It was totally worth it, and I hope I can say the same at the next few milestones.

Thanks so much for reading and being a big part of it. You guys are awesome.

###

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Life

Time Is Money?

time is money?
Image by Planetina

I came back into Seattle last night after two weeks traveling around the world. In the morning I went up to my local Starbucks, on 45th Street in Wallingford. These two corporate guys were sitting there, wearing suits and carrying briefcases.

In Seattle, you don't see people dressed like that as much as you do in other cities. Over here, a shirt with a collar is considered “dressing up.”

As they were talking, one of them said, "Well, we should go. Time is money."

I looked up from my nearby table. Time Is Money, hmmmm.

Have you heard that one before? Hold on, we'll come back to it.

First, think about something. Amazon.com has at least 270 books on time management, but most of them fail to consider a basic question:

How can someone actually manage time?

When you manage people, you give them tasks to complete and check in on them once in a while.

When you manage a project, you make neat little spreadsheets, break out the Getting Things Done book, and chart your progress along the way.

But with time, none of those things apply.

You can't tell time what to do.

You can't give time a raise when it performs well and fire time when it doesn't meet your expectations.

Nope, you can't manage time. Too bad about all those books. Someone should have said something before the 270th author started writing.

Like it or not, time just marches on.

More Bad News

Unfortunately, there's more bad news about time. (Sorry.)

Like money, time is limited. But unlike money, once time is gone, there's no getting it back. You can't earn back what has been spent.

Time is closely related to the concepts of regret, inaction, indecision, and wistfulness.

All those things we left behind at some point.

Damn… don't you hate that?

***

Time can not be managed, and when it's gone, it's gone forever.

But if you're waiting for good news, you won't be disappointed.

Here it is:

THERE'S STILL ENOUGH TIME FOR WHAT YOU NEED.

There's still time to start that business, take that trip, start running those two miles that will help you run the marathon six months from now.

Or better yet, fill in the blank for yourself based on what you've always wanted to do (but have kept putting off for some reason).

Ready?

“There is STILL TIME for me to ____________________”

Got it?

If not, you may need more than a few seconds to think about it. It's worth your full consideration, even though time is money.

Whatever you choose, hold it close to you. Make it your focus, and don't let anyone take it from you. (Any number of people will try to.)

Back to Starbucks

The guys in the suits have left, but I'm still thinking about what they said: "Time is Money."

According to the time-is-money people, I've been wasting a lot of time this year.

  • I traveled to Iraq, Mongolia, Pakistan, and 20 other countries -- all without an agenda, or anything really important I had to do there

  • I spent an absurd number of hours standing in line or sitting on park benches waiting for train or bus stations to open up all over the world

  • I opted out of the next phase of graduate school and worked toward building a career as a full-time writer

Before that, I spent four years working for free in West Africa, so you can probably guess what I think about the link between time and money. No, there's nothing to that idea. So much for that, right?

But wait. Maybe I've got it partly wrong too.

Time is not the same thing as money, but it does have tremendous value. I don't want to be like the Ozymandeus that Percey Shelly wrote about:

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair."

Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Nope, don't want that.

Instead, I want to treat valuable time with the respect it deserves. I WANT TO DO SOMETHING REALLY GREAT with the valuable time I have.

How about you?

The Best Strawberry

Oh, and by the way -

Research shows that the average user clicks away from blog posts somewhere around the 300 word point. Since you've broken the curve and made it further than that, here's an old story that always makes me smile.


Image by myriorama

The story is about a Zen student who is running from a tiger in the forest.

The tiger is catching up to him, and the only way out is to jump over a cliff that leads to certain death on the rocks below.

With no real options, the Zen student jumps over the cliff, and just manages to grab on to a branch halfway down.

Beside the branch is a bush of wild strawberries, and the student reaches over with one free hand and takes one.

With the tiger above him and certain death on the rocks below him, he slowly eats the strawberry.

And as he does, he thinks, "This is the best strawberry I have ever tasted."

***

Thank you for your attention. Now, get back to work.

Because Time Is Money… right?

###

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Trip Reports

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Five Days in the Valley of the Kings

cairo, egypt, pyramids
Image by CG

What can I tell you about Cairo, Egypt? To start with, there’s nothing average about it. Cairo is a city of highs and lows – high hassle, high history. High temperatures (98° every day I was there), high culture.

The hassle factor, unfortunately, can’t be easily diminished. Visiting there on a typical itinerary, you can expect to get annoyed (or even angry) several times a day with all of the people looking for business. The percentage of professional hustlers is especially high in Cairo, and they are amazingly multilingual – willing to extract your money in Arabic, English, French, German, and Spanish. There’s no way around this, and it can easily get on the nerves of any traveler.

Before I went out for my first long walk the morning after arrival, for example, one of the staff at the hostel I was in asked if I wanted help with any Arabic words. Always eager to expand my 5-words-in-every-language vocabulary, I said yes.

"Okay,” Hassan said. “First, you need to say ‘please leave me alone.’”

That’s the first thing I need to know?

“Yes,” he told me. “Next, you need to know how to say ‘go away now.’”

Thus the lesson continued with phrases like tourist police, and now in addition to greeting people and being polite, I can proficiently tell people to get lost in Arabic. Unfortunately, it’s an appropriate skill to have in a place like Cairo.

When Does Everyone Sleep?

On the other hand (there always is one), Cairo offers a lot of good reasons to visit. It’s an easy city to travel in, there are lots of nearby places to visit, and the people who are not trying to take your money all the time are genuinely nice.

For the first few days, I stayed at a place called Wake Up! Cairo Hostel. I was initially put off by the name – I think I would have preferred a Good Night! hostel – but it turned out to be one of the better places I’ve stayed at recently. Since I was there for several nights, they sent a driver to meet me at the airport -- a kindness I appreciated, since there was no shortage of taxi drivers and “helpers” ready to descend on visitors arriving without an escort.

I checked in close to midnight after 17 hours of flying (MIA-PTY-MAD-CAI), but everyone was wide awake watching a soccer match. Three hours later, I finally went to bed… but everyone else was still awake. When I got up at 9:00, however, they were all awake. I wasn’t sure if this was the Ramadan effect or the Wake Up! hostel effect.

If you don’t know, Ramadan is the month-long religious holiday for Muslims where everyone fasts during the day. From approximately 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Muslims all over the world don’t eat or drink anything, including water.

This leads to a fairly sleepy city during the day, a manic traffic situation in the late afternoon, and every restaurant in the city being packed at exactly 6:00 p.m. for the iftarmeal that breaks the fast.

I’ve been in the Middle East several times, but never during Ramadan, so naturally I was curious to be a part of it. Non-Muslims are not required or expected to fast during the day, and I didn’t, but it still felt weird to be the only person in a restaurant while five servers stood around doing nothing.

The Latest Commentary on the U.S. Election

I always enjoy talking to taxi drivers, who often speak some English and can be informative and entertaining at the same time. The first part of the conversation usually involves finding out where I am from and then discussing politics in the U.S. (as perceived from afar) and whatever country I’m in.

Lately, most taxi drivers have been talking about the U.S. election. In Pakistan, my driver told me that the Taxi Drivers’ Association of Karachi had endorsed Barack Obama, which of course I found highly entertaining.

Here’s how it went down this time:

"Oh, you are from America? New president coming soon, we are happy."

"Yes, early next year. You know about the election?"

“Yes, of course. Obama is very interesting man! But also small.”

“Small?”

“Yes, very small man.”

I’m not sure what that means, so we move to another topic: I ask about John McCain.

“McCain, he is old man. Not beautiful.”

“Is he small?” I want to ask, but the driver is not done yet.

“Yes, very old,” he continues, but then smiles. “However, McCain is smart man. He choose beautiful woman to be president with him! Zara Pullom.”

“Sarah Palin?” I ask after making sure I’ve heard him right. Word spreads quickly here, it seems.

“Yes, Zara Pullom.”

He goes on for a long time, and we have a long time, since the drive out to Giza City is about half an hour. “Zara Pullom” is beautiful, but so is Hillary Clinton. Upon some consideration, he decides that Laura Bush is also beautiful, but Jenna and “the other girl,” as he calls her, are the most beautiful of all. Since Jenna and the other girl are 20-30 years younger than everyone else he’s named, I’m not too surprised.

We wrap up this edition of Cairo Observations on U.S. Politics by talking about Jimmy Carter, whom I’ve noticed is always very popular in Arab countries, and he concludes with the observation that Rosalyn Carter was beautiful a long time ago, but is now old like John McCain.

I wish I could bring all the taxi drivers I meet and put them on Meet the Press to debate who is the most beautiful and whose policies are the best for transportation unions around the world. I guarantee it would provide more entertainment than Saturday Night Live, and at least as much information as most real political shows.

Did I mention the Pyramids?

In between eating during Ramadan and talking with taxi drivers about beautiful U.S. politicians, I also got out and about to see the usual sites. The pyramids, I am pleased to report, are impressive. If you’re coming to Egypt, you should see them.

What else can I say? I’m not your average travel writer. I assume someone else has written about seeing the pyramids at some point in history, so all I can add is that they are as worthy of attention as advertised.

I suppose if I had paid for one of the many professional hustlers to be my guide, I would have learned all about how they were made and the significance of everything. Instead, I just stood at the base, looked up, and thought, “Wow! How did they do that?”

Here's a few photos:

On the half-mile walk to the pyramids entrance, I decided to count the number of people who came along to offer their assistance. I think one or two of them might have been repeat hustlers, but I believe I met at least 11 guys who all had a similar pitch.

I said goodbye to my 11 new friends (and a few others) on the walk back to the hotel I had moved to for my final two nights, passing up the chance to buy cigarette lighters and alarm clocks in the shape of the pyramids. Alas, no one on my Christmas list will have a Sphinx magnet in their stocking.

Departure

When the week was over I headed out on Royal Jordanian, one of my favorite airlines and a solid partner in the OneWorld alliance I’ve been traveling on almost exclusively this year. Royal Jordanian has a nice new lounge in Amman and at least half of their passengers are not Ramadan-observers, so I didn’t feel strange eating lunch.

Connecting in Doha, Qatar, I flew out on Qatar Airways to Colombo, Sri Lanka – my final stop on my final overseas trip of the year.

And guess what? Sri Lanka also happened to be my 100th country. How about that?

Yes, I was pretty psyched. I’ve been thinking about visiting 100 countries for at least three years now. And now I've made it!

After clearing immigration and negotiating a ride to my guesthouse, I walked out into the night with the driver. I looked up and the sky and said… wait, hold that thought. I’ll tell you more on Friday, when I tell you more about Sri Lanka itself. It’s also a nice place, and a good country to conclude my record-setting summer and fall travel schedule.

For now, I’m in transit back to Seattle via New York, working on my projects and rewriting the book proposal for the third time. I’ve also completed the second Unconventional Guide, and all the news about that will arrive early next week.

It’s going to be fun! Thanks for being a big part of it. ###

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Travel

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What I Talk About When I Talk About Travel*

The title comes from Haruki Murakami, who in turn took it from Raymond Carver. *** Since I started this site in March, I’ve been to more than 20 countries in pursuit of my goal to visit every country in the world. It’s going well so far, and I've made even more progress than expected. Next year I suspect it will get much harder, but we’ll take things one trip at a time. As the community here has grown, I’ve noticed that I receive at least several emails a day with the same kinds of questions about travel. I’m making a full FAQ later for the upcoming site redesign, but I thought I’d go ahead and publish this one now.

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Life

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Beware of Potential

I’ve known a lot of artists, writers, and musicians. Without fail, they all had some degree of talent and skill. There is no shortage of talent in the world. But I’ve noticed that something happens along the way with a lot of these talented people.

With a few notable exceptions, most of them give up on their goals at some point.

As a fellow creative, this really troubles me. Why do talented people stop working on what other people say they are good at?

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