business : The Art of Non-Conformity

Work

Build a Business Where You Can’t Get Fired

A while back, a friend of mine who worked in publishing was laid off. He was at the height of a career and by all accounts had done an excellent job for his employer. He lived in New York City, perhaps the center of the universe for many things, but definitely not known for being affordable. Oh, and he also had a large family, with at least two kids who would be going to college soon.

When he was laid off, I thought, “Wow, if that can happen to him, it can happen to nearly any employee.”

Thankfully, he’s landed on his feet and now works in a senior role with another publisher. Still, what if there was a better way?

Profiles

“Freedom is the ability to travel”: Creating Multiple Sources of Income as a Millennial

Evan Tarver is a location-independent entrepreneur who, through multiple income streams and careful business growth, has the freedom to travel nationally and internationally. Right now he’s in Austin, but who knows where he’ll be next month!

Fresh out of college, I tossed aside a degree in Finance and Economics to take a retail management job with Target because it paid well (mistake!). Well, you guessed it, my happiness quickly waned and I decided to pull up roots, quit my job, and travel Europe until my bank account ran dry. And so I did, traveling to more than 7 countries and maxing out my last credit card to change flights from Geneva to Paris to make it home in one piece.
These days I'm a San Francisco-based millennial-entrepreneur who faces constant success and failure. I’m passionate about both writing and entrepreneurship for the collective freedom they afford. While a lot of my contemporaries in Silicon Valley are caught up in the "scale or die mentality," I focus on building my businesses very carefully so that they give me the freedom I covet. For me, freedom is the ability to travel.

Life

Only Floss the Teeth You Want to Keep

That’s what dentists tell you. You don’t need to floss all your teeth—just the ones you need to keep.

When it comes to your business, your life, or your relationships, a similar principle applies. You don’t have to pay attention to everything and everyone. But you do have to pay attention to what matters most.

It may help to identify some priorities. In my business I track only two metrics on a consistent basis:

1. Email subscribers
2. Product sales

My thinking is that if these things are going along okay, everything else will fall into place. I don't check other statistics or track anything else. Checking my bank accounts will not make more money.

This year I added a "relationship metric":

Every day I will write or call at least one friend.

It’s simple, but effective (at least for me). So far this year, I haven’t missed a day.

63 Comments

Work

A Tale of 9 Startups

Jon was inspired by a blog post that told him to quit his job and start a business. He dutifully did so, firing off a farewell message to his boss and former colleagues. Having heard about becoming “location independent,” he bought a backpack and went off to the world. What was it about that business thing? How would he actually make a living? He would figure it out along the way, he assured himself ...

Work

The Audience Is Listening (Hopefully)

“People used to expect companies to take care of them,” he said. “Now you’re in charge of your own destiny, for better or worse.” -From a recent article about the decline of the app-making industry as a road to riches.

Work

Want to Increase Income? Take a Quick Survey for Our Next Project

I'm excited to make an (early) announcement about our first business project in more than a year. This project is all about helping people improve their business—or create a successful new one—by understanding why people buy, and what they really want. If you're just getting started, you can spend a grand total of $13 and pick up a copy of The $100 Startup, which now has more than 100,000 copies in print around the world ...

65 Comments

Life

How to Do Big Things

If you want to change the world, follow a dream, or otherwise find your own identity, you need to be able to do big things. In addition to being a prerequisite for growth, doing big things is also a lot of fun. But how do you do them? What steps do you take? Thankfully, much of the work required to do big things relates to the mindset of deciding to do them. With that in mind, consider these suggestions for your own pursuit of meaning and adventure ...

Life

Moonlight in Alaska

I'm off the grid this week on my first vacation since ... forever. It's a little disorienting, but I'm working on it. A few items of random interest: The $100 Startup continues to race up the charts, returning to the New York Times Bestseller List again this week. Thanks so much for your support! We're planning to do more events in local cities during the first week of September.

44 Comments

Work

The Six-Step Plan to Establish a New Income

Most people want at least one of these things:

a) more freedom

b) more money

Whether you want to quit your job as soon as possible or just establish an additional source of income to have more freedom, you have to take specific action. This post will show you how.

22 Comments

Work

The Decision to Go (Also known as “Now Is the Time!”)

Greetings, friends and readers. This week I'll be in Milwaukee and Columbus, then flying over to London for the first international stop of the new tour. I hope to see many of you on the road! Dates and schedule here.

45 Comments

Work

The Lesson of Convergence (Also known as “How to Change the World”)

The book is out, and I'm on the road!

The launch party in New York was extremely fun. Last night I was in Boston at the Harvard Coop, and tonight I'm heading down to Washington, DC. We're hitting a new city almost every day for the next four weeks. Tour dates here. And by the way ... THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! It's going very well so far, and we hope to keep it going for a long time.

Work

Professional Listening

If you're trying to figure out what you're good at, or trying to start a business for the first time, there's a simple strategy that will help.

Start by listening.

Pay attention to what people ask you about. Chances are, there's something you're good at that other people want to learn.

53 Comments

Work

1,000 Days After Overnight Success

More than two years ago, I wrote a free manifesto on becoming a professional writer in less than a year. It was called 279 Days to Overnight Success, and the purpose was to outline the roadmap I had followed in crafting a new career after moving back to the U.S. from overseas and finishing grad school. Somewhere around 15% of the total AONC readership can be traced to the worldwide interest in this manifesto, so I thought I'd take a quick look back at the lessons from it.

56 Comments

Work

Business Secrets from a Cambodian Tuk-Tuk

In Phnom Penh, Cambodia I met Mr. Rhet, who held up a copy of my book to greet me at the arrivals area. Mr. Rhet, also known as Rhett or just Ret, is a professional tuk-tuk driver. The open-air taxis of Southeast Asia, tuk-tuks serve as an interesting introduction to life in the region, and I've had both good and bad experiences with them. In Cambodia last weekend (and plenty of other places), all was well in tuk-tuk land, and I felt safe using them as my primary means of transport. In fact, I enjoyed my time with Mr. Rhet so much that I decided to learn more about the whole tuk-tuk industry.

36 Comments

Life

2010 Annual Review: Business Lessons

As I look back on the year during my Annual Review, I think about what went well and what didn't in my business work. I've been self-employed for most of my life and have never had a real job, but the learning process over more than a decade now has been entirely through trial and error (lots of trial, lots of error—but I just keep trying things).

1 2 3 Next »