$100 Startup : The Art of Non-Conformity

Profiles

Connecting the Dots to a Dream Job in the Hemp Industry

Annie Rouse has been passionate about hemp ever since she was a kid growing up in Kentucky. While she knew she wanted to help change the restrictive hemp policies in the U.S., she’s also had some interesting jobs along the way that helped her out in surprising ways.

As a leader in the hemp industry she's now started a hemp foundation, a certification program, and a commercial marketplace.

My job history is like that Steve Jobs quote “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” While giving out free beer, designing sunglasses and monitoring water quality didn’t seem connected at the time, now I can look back and see how all the different jobs have helped get me where I am now.

Work

Creative Ways to Succeed in the Knowledge Economy

Reading:

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I enjoyed each of these stories that have been floating around.

If you want to be negative, there’s at least one major point you could critique about each of them. The woman making tons of money on Etsy isn’t actually handcrafting most of her items, which is the guiding value of Etsy. The Rideshare Guy is essentially trading time for money. The poets, well, I guess you could say it’s more of a party trick than real poetry.

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Big in Japan: The $100 Startup Is Now in Manga!

I haven’t spent nearly enough time in Japan, but we have a great community there and I hope to visit more often in the future. When the local version of The $100 Startup came out two years ago, it was a mega-bestseller, selling 100,000 copies in a short period of time.

I went over for a 36-hour visit that consisted of meeting journalists and talking to business magazines. In the evening we had a small meetup with friends (hosted by M.E. Hori, a popular blogger) and I left thinking: “I should have stayed longer.”

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.

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The Donut Man of Seattle Speaks Out—With a Big Complaint About a Book I Wrote

Ever get a totally unexpected email? A blast from the past? This week I heard from someone about a passing encounter that took place eight years ago. Here’s the story!

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“Make Ideas, Not Art”: The Sketchnote Workbook by Mike Rohde

If you’re like me, you have no drawing skills whatsoever (which means you’re probably not like me). No matter if you’re a closet M.C. Escher or can’t draw a basic stick-person – if want to improve how you capture ideas and share them with others, there’s hope. Remember our friend Mike Rohde, who illustrated The…

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Service Is Free to Offer But Incredibly Valuable: Lessons from an Airport Shuttle Driver

At the Hyatt Dulles, my shuttle driver was named Abdullai. He was extremely enthusiastic about welcoming his early-morning travelers on board for the ride to the terminal. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “Welcome to my shuttle. I’ll be taking you to the Dulles airport this morning. The journey will take exactly 13 minutes.” Then he…

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Most People Want to Work On Their Own (and It’s Not Just a Dream)

For all the Millennials out there, NPR just said that you lack competence and initiative. In other words, it’s okay to dream but soon you’ll need to join the real world. Isn’t this what people have said about every younger generation?

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The ATM Machine on Your Phone

Like many of you, I enjoyed a recent article about an iPhone photographer who made $15,000 in one day by selling his Instagram prints for $150 each on his birthday. “I’m not an entrepreneur,” he says in the article. But essentially, that’s exactly what he was—he acted on an idea and people responded! It was…

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The Big Trip (AKA “One Small Thing Can Change Your Life”)

In 2006 I was living abroad in my final year on the hospital ship. I’d been moonlighting by building a new business, and later that year I’d move back to the U.S. and relocate to Seattle. There was a marketing conference being held in Chicago, and it caught my attention. I was all the way…

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Travel

$100 Startup Launches In Japan

I woke up yesterday and there was a typhoon outside my window. Whoa. I usually miss all the fun, but in this case I managed to stick around for part of the storm.

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Welcome, New Readers! (And old readers too …)

We've had a lot of new readers join recently, so I wanted to say hello (hi, everyone!) and explain more of what it's about.

This blog (AONC) started in 2008 along with my goal to visit every country in the world by my 35th birthday earlier this year.

Throughout the past five years it's grown to much more than a travelogue. Our core mission is to support and encourage non-conformity or unconventional thinking, as defined by this mission statement:

You don't have to live your life the way others expect. You can do good things for yourself and for others.

479 Comments

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Win an $1,800 Scholarship to Adventure Capital

Four weeks ago, we launched Adventure Capital to a small group of beta members.

We're now gearing up to launch it more widely... next week! Wednesday, May 29 is the day when our initial group will be available to refer new members, and a few special partners will be writing about it as well.

But first! In the spirit of adventure, we're giving away two full scholarships to the entire year-long program.

Win a Full Scholarship (Short Version)

It's very basic. Adventure Capital is all about helping new business owners increase income by taking deliberate action over the course of a year. To enter, simply comment in this post about what kind of business you'd like to start, improve, or grow.

We'll choose two winners on Sunday night at 6pm PST.

-->Enter the contest here

Travel

On the Road Again: “Oppan Startup Style” Trip to Korea

I'm very excited to head out to visit Seoul, Korea for most of this week. I've been to Korea before, including a brief trip to the north, but I've never given lectures or held public events before. This week I'll be working with my local publisher and speaking at several events, filming for Korean TV, and signing at bookstores.

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Leading a Horse to Water

There's an old story about a salesperson who was disappointed in losing an important sale.

He talked with the boss about why it didn't work out. "I guess," he said, "It just proves you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

"Maybe," said the boss, "But let me give you some advice: your job is not to make him drink. It's to make him thirsty."

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