The Art of Non-Conformity: Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work, and Travel

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Image by quaisi

I recently got an email from a reader who said the best thing about the manifesto was that it kicked him in the ass and made him get back to working on what mattered to him.

I laughed and wrote back, “No problem. We all need a good ass-kicking sometimes.”

That’s exactly what I’m going to tell you about today—why being kicked in the behind can be a significant benefit for your productivity and focus.

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Image by DDanzig

I head out in the morning for what I plan as a 6-8 mile run. I’ve never been here before, so my route is somewhat flexible. I Google “Warsaw running” and find a couple of ideas, but mostly what I decide is to simply head north. I’ll run for half an hour or so, then change streets and run back the other day.

If Erbil is a city on the rise, Warsaw is a city that has already rose. There is little here to indicate that Poland was once a very poor country. Instead, it looks like any number of other European cities—Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, or even London.

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Image by Shefaet

I do. It gets lonely out there traveling by myself, spending entire days without talking to anyone sometimes, hanging out in countries where I don’t speak the language and am obviously a foreigner.

My work suffers and I make a lot less money than I could if I stayed in one place for a while; sometimes I don’t make any money at all. It’s funny how people expect you to do something for them when they pay you.

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Image by andyinnyc

My friend Jonathan Fields wrote a post once about how the road to blogging success is paved with insanity. Being a conventional blogger is not only boring, as Jonathan noted, but it also fails to lead to much attention.

The same is true in most small companies and organizations. If you’re running Proctor & Gamble, you might be able to get away with being boring. But if you’re a solopreneur or small business owner, boring is unremarkably average.

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