Greetings from midtown Manhattan, where a large amount of coffee is about to be consumed in a corner room at the Doubletree hotel.

Today is the day.

After three years of research and writing, it’s finally here.

The $100 Startup is going out to the world!

Hundreds of people from all over the world have helped in the making of this book. It’s their story of freedom and your blueprint for change.

The central message of the book is:

If you want to create more freedom and security for yourself through a “very small” business, the skills and the money you have are all you need. Don’t wait!

You can pick up the book from any major bookseller:

• Amazon
• B&N
• Chapters/Indigo
• 800-CEO-Read
• Books-a-Million
• Your Local Bookstore

We had a couple of pre-order promotions already, so for now I’ll just mention one thing. Publishing is a strange industry with a lot of quirks. One of these quirks is that the success of your book depends a great deal on what happens during the first two weeks.

If you’d like to help—and if you’re interested in the book—now is the time. I do most of my work for free and don’t accept donations or sponsorship on AONC. I’d like this book to do well, so for once I’ll say: if you’ve been waiting to pick it up, now is the best time.

If you have a blog or website (of any kind), I’d be extremely grateful for your links and reviews as you read the book over the next month. I owe you cupcakes and gratitude.

The Tour Begins Tonight!

The world’s first 7-continent book tour begins tonight with the official launch here in NYC. We’ll be at Housing Works (130 Crosby Street) at 7pm. Everyone is welcome. AONC events are not “readings” and I usually talk for 20 minutes or less. The rest of the time is Q&A and informal hanging out with fun people.

Sign up for an upcoming location over here. (Yes, tickets are FREE!)

Thanks so much for being part of this. The goal for this book is to help thousands of people quit their jobs and find freedom by making something valuable that improves the state of the world.

As I said yesterday, whatever success we’ve had thus far comes from the support of you, the readers. The same is true of this book, and I hope it makes a strong connection with your own journey.

Onwards and upwards!

P.S. No comments today, but you can head back to yesterday’s post if you’d like to chime in.

###

Greetings from East 42nd Street in New York City.

I’m here to begin a new journey as The $100 Startup goes out to the world tomorrow. Here are a few notes on the early beginnings.

***

It all started back in 2009. I had established the blog and began a new way of life: writing for a living. Or mostly, writing because it was what I wanted to do more than anything else.

I was traveling a lot, working my way through the middle part of going everywhere. I wrote posts and created products, adapting as I went along.

Not everything I wrote was amazing; not everything I published was a mega-hit. I made some mistakes.

But I kept learning, asking questions, trying different things.

A couple of things helped, and the best thing was that I met people. Introvert that I am, I learned to host meetups and connect with readers as I went on the road. This made a huge difference. I suddenly realized that it wasn’t just faceless people out there on the other side of the screen—they were real people with fascinating lives.

It was no longer just about my own little blog or quest to see the world; in many cases these people had their own quests and big projects. They were doing exciting things of their own.

I went back and regrouped, determined to learn more about them.

Among others, many of these people were what I called unexpected or accidental entrepreneurs—those who had created freedom for themselves by following their passion and creating something valuable. Most of them didn’t have MBAs or any real business training; they just did found a way to craft a business model around something they loved.

Since I had always worked for myself, I was intrigued with their stories. I collected a couple dozen of them of them and created a product called the Empire Building Kit.

J.D. Roth and I launched EBK on board the Amtrak Empire Builder train, selling $100,000 in copies on day one as we rolled along through North Dakota. Then we closed it for a month and did another $100,000 the next day it was open. It was clear we had a hit, but more important, it was clear that people were eager to learn about a specific way to create their own escape plan.

***

My first book, The Art of Non-Conformity, came out that September. I went on the road to all fifty states and all ten provinces in Canada, meeting more readers and hearing more stories at every stop.

There was James in South Carolina, who had packed up from Seattle and drove a Mustang “down south” to open an authentic coffee bar in the land of iced tea and biscuits.

There was Bernard from Croatia, who answered my survey questions from a beach in Thailand while working for clients in the U.S.

In California, Brett Kelly told me about making $120,000 from an ebook. The money was great, of course, but what it represented was even better: It allowed his wife Joana to quit her second job. Brett now works at home and the ebook continues to sell by the bucketload, at least $300/day in largely passive income.

Most of these people had started on their own, without a lot of money, but in a few cases, they needed money and found a creative way to get it. Emma in Hong Kong couldn’t get a bank loan for a business, so she asked for a car loan instead. She used the money to start the business and repaid it early. (There never was a car.)

Shannon Oakey told me about going to her community bank to ask for a loan. She had all her finances in order and had supported the bank for many years, but they still turned her down. Shannon decided to do it herself through a Kickstarter campaign. She got more money than she needed and mailed a printout of the result, with a lollipop wrapped up inside, to the loan officer who turned her down.

The stories went on and on, and I began paying closer attention, asking for details and filing away various notes. Then I realized the obvious: this needs to be a book.

***

While I was in the middle of the first book tour, I drove from North Dakota to South Dakota. We were in the final negotiations for what would become The $100 Startup, and I had to make a choice between competing offers. I talked to my great literary agent on the phone, made a decision, and that was it—the deal was done.

I pulled over in Brookings, South Dakota and made a stop at the “Choco Latte” coffee shop. I ordered an Americano (“no choco, please”) and felt a rush of relief as I settled down to relax for the first time in a while.

This feels great, I remember thinking. Now I just need to write the book.

Fast forward to last year. I rearranged my travel schedule to be home for three whole months, a world record. We began a comprehensive research study, looking for people who would fit our model of “unexpected entrepreneurs.”

The respondents had to be able to talk about money in specific terms. How much did they make? How did expenses compare to income? What was the initial startup investment? What went right—and wrong—along the way?

Most important, what could the rest of us learn from these people? What were their secrets?

From a pool of more than 1,500 respondents, I chose the top 100 for further interviews. I made phone calls to Thailand, Dublin, London, and elsewhere. I wrote and received email after email. After a month, we had thousands of pages of data in Google Docs, Evernote, and scattered around various hard drives.

And then I wrote. 1,000 words a day for 90 days—not all consecutive, but almost every day. (This is how you write a book. The basic process is pretty simple.)

And then we edited. Wow. Talk about process. The whole manuscript was rewritten three times. Entire chapters were discarded. It was painful but worth it, all in pursuit of something that would be both inspiring AND useful to those who wanted to create their own independence and freedom.

Fast forward another six months. After returning from the Sudan, I spent the entire month of April at home in Portland. I got up at 6am and went to Crossfit with J.D. He drove while I made various notes about the launch plan, MacBook sitting on my knees. Back at home, I made breakfast and answered more emails.

Then I settled into a daily 5-hour routine. Every day, I did back-to-back media interviews of various kinds and wrote all sorts of guest posts, Q&A features, and op-eds, all set to go out over the next two weeks.

I did this every day, six days a week. On Sundays I went for a long run and to brunch with Jolie, but then I got back into the written interviews in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Wes Wages was traveling the country, visiting New York, South Carolina, Oregon, and California to document some of the people in the book. The initial results were compiled into a great book trailer (240,000 views so far!) that featured several of the inspiring stories from the book.

Finally, the day came—yesterday. I got on a plane and flew to New York, capital of planet earth and a place I love dearly. I’ve been going on walks, seeing friends, going out to dinner, and getting ready.

Tomorrow morning I’ll go for a run in Central Park, and tomorrow night we’ll begin the tour.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

I thought I’d share the backstory behind this project for those who were curious, but make no mistake—the book isn’t about me at all.

This is truly a revolution, friends. The best is yet to come, and The $100 Startup is just one part of the story. The rest of the story is up to you.

The goal of the book is to share these case studies and teach readers to do this too. One of the best things I hear is when someone quits their job to go it alone. I’d like to hear it a lot more often, and I think this book will help.

It’s not a self-help guide, it’s a blueprint for change and action. It’s a mission to connect the twin concepts of freedom and value. You create value by helping people, and you can earn a good living for yourself.

I’ve done everything I can to make the book a success, but now it’s up to the rest of the world.

See you tomorrow?

###

*The $100 Startup debuts tomorrow—look for it online or ask for it at our favorite bookstore. Tour dates and cities are here—all tickets are free. There may also be cupcakes!

Image: See-ming Lee

Home for a month before setting out on a new adventure, I resolve to make some changes in my life.

It starts with exercise. I’m a committed runner, a casual yogi, a beginning swimmer, and every week or so I head to the gym for an unfocused session of strength training.

In other words, it’s too random—so I resolve to change it up.

I now wake up at 5am, usually without an alarm. Am I that well-rested? Not at all… I’m just paranoid of being late for an appointment, worried I’ll sleep clear through to 8am if I don’t constantly wake up throughout the night to check the time.

I answer a few early emails, say hi to everyone on Twitter, and then fly out the door on my bike in the pre-dawn streets.

My appointment is 6:10am, outside an apartment building next to a storage lot and Portland’s own Voodoo Donut. From there I’ll meet my friend J.D. Roth, and we’ll hop in his car for a 20-minute drive outside the city to a small gym in the interior of a parking garage.

The first day I made the appointment, I also made a big mistake—no jacket. Yikes! Icicles formed on my legs and two of my fingers become frostbitten on the short ride to J.D.’s place, or so it seemed. The next day I put on the jacket and switched my running shorts for tights. Much better.

J.D. and I go to the gym to do Crossfit. The interesting thing about Crossfit is that it will kick your ass… and you’ll go back again the next day. You’ll spend 50 minutes warming up and learning various exercises, and then 10 minutes getting hit by a truck.

You will gladly pay $200 a month for this ass-kicking. You will hobble out the door feeling vaguely nauseous, and you’ll say, “That was great!”

On the second day I went and didn’t feel it was that difficult. No truck! Yeah, I’m tough… it was just that first day that killed me; I must have still been a little jet-lagged from the last trip. But then I returned on the third day, and the truck was right there waiting for me. Bam!

Set one of the routine was tough. If it was my own self-directed workout, I would have been done after set one was over. I would have congratulated myself for pushing it and had an extra slice of pizza that night. Yeah, I’m hardcore! But no—I still had two more sets.

By the end of set three, I was the last guy in the gym to finish the workout. Everyone else was cooling down and cheering me on, which I hate. It reminds me of running marathons, where complete strangers call out your number on mile 22 and say that you are “looking good” when obviously you aren’t.

“Excuse me, do I know you? Why are you cheering for me?” I always want to ask.

Apparently some people feel that this kind of support is helpful, so to be polite you are supposed to smile and wave.

At Crossfit I somehow manage to finish the hardest 10-minute workout in the world (Truck 1, Chris 0), and then I collapse on the ground. I finally stagger out to the car to meet J.D., who doesn’t look tired at all and has been glancing at his watch while I bring myself to a near-death state on a workout he has already mastered.

***

The next day I run to my regular gym and swim laps. Then I do yoga. I’m going all-out, exercising 40 days in a row and choosing active over passive whenever possible.

It’s not so much about getting fit, although that’s certainly a good thing.

It’s also that I am trying to make more conscious choices. Making conscious choices means that I ask myself conscious questions.

Do I really want to eat that cookie? Do I need a second drink? Can I switch the mid-morning coffee to herbal tea?

These choices matter. If I really want the cookie or the extra drink or extra coffee, I’ll have it and won’t feel guilty at all. But if I don’t want it, I won’t do it out of habit.

In just a few weeks, I’ll be back on the road, hitting up almost one city a day. New York, Boston, Washington, Arlington, Chapel Hill, Atlanta, Miami, Houston… and so on.

Until then, every day I come home from exercising and think, what needs to happen today? Which actions will take me closer to achieving my goals?

I have a spreadsheet with 2,800 data points so far—names, addresses, scheduled media, pitches in progress, etc. I do interviews and write posts that will go live next month. It’s fun and intense.

Whether exercising or emailing, I am reminded of Joseph Campbell’s philosophy:

I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about, and that’s what these clues help us to find within ourselves.

Riding my bike over to J.D.’s at 6am, I feel alive even when I’m freezing. Planning a big project, I feel alive. Hearing from friends and readers around the world, I feel alive.

Back at home, I lie on the carpet of my office for 15-minute cat naps. I get up and complete two more tasks and drink more water. I write the answers to another interview. I keep filling up the spreadsheet with more possibilities and confirmations.

Keep your head in the game, I tell myself. The actions you take now will determine the options available to you in the future. Plan, act. Work smart, but also work hard.

***

One of the questions I am asked in an interview is, “Why has your blog been so successful?”

Fair question, but it’s hard to answer it directly. First of all, there are plenty of blogs that are much more successful. Comparison on any level is poisonous. There will always be someone with more. When you focus strictly on more, you instantly set yourself up for failure.

At the same time, not focusing on more doesn’t mean you abandon the whole concepts of goals and success.

I have very real goals for what I hope to achieve with next month’s launch. The stakes are high. I need to deliver for my publishing partners and for everyone who is pitching in to help.

The real reason this project has been successful, such as it is, is that it took two years to figure out what I wanted to say. Most people give up much earlier; I kept going.

Remember: to have more luck, take more chances. To become wiser, take more risks.

I take more chances by getting up before dawn and riding my bike through the empty Portland streets. I take more risks by challenging myself to go further, in exercise, in career, in relationships, in the quality of what I offer to the world.

Flawed as the finished product may be, I will keep taking chances and risks. Wherever you are, I hope you do the same.

###

Thanks for your support of The $100 Startup mega-sale.

Until next Monday, you can order 3 or more copies of the upcoming book and receive bonuses + our undying love and gratitude. Our goal is 10,000 copies sold before launch, and we’re halfway there!

Image: Jesse

Want to become wiser? It’s fairly simple and closely resembles Brian Tracey’s formula for being luckier:

“Luck is quite predictable. To have more luck, take more chances.”

To become wiser, therefore, take more risks and stop letting fear rule your life. Change it up a little.

In honor of last week’s dual birthdays, here are 34 things I wish I knew years ago.

***

Reduce the amount of negative inputs to your life.

When I was first using Twitter, I signed up for a service that sent me notifications whenever people unfollowed me. What a terrible idea! I started worrying about every post. Should I not say something about my actual life? If I post a photo of my cat on top of the refrigerator, is that too off-topic?

Thankfully this concern lasted only two days. I turned off the notifications and life improved.

There is almost always more than one way to accomplish something.

There is a traditional way and usually multiple alternatives. The alternatives aren’t always better—just be aware that they exist. You don’t have to do it the way everyone else does. You don’t have to jump off the bridge.

Some people may be threatened by alternatives, but that’s OK—your life isn’t determined by what other people think.

Make your peace with money.

Money does buy happiness, at least a certain amount of it. But after a while, more money doesn’t buy more happiness. Therefore, figure out what you want to do and let those things determine your budget.

Never ask, “I have x amount of dollars—how should I divvy that up among various expenses and projects?” Always ask, “What level of resources do I need to accomplish all the goals and projects I want to pursue?”

Focus on income more than expenses.

The way out of debt is not usually found through clipping coupons, skipping lattes, or buying discount toilet tissue. It is found through increasing your income. Live frugally and consciously, yes, but if you’re struggling, find ways to make more money instead of ways to cut back even further.

(Related: It’s OK to be poor for a time, but don’t have a poverty mentality.)

Balanced people don’t change the world.

Passionate people who don’t have it all together change the world. If you’re worried about life-work balance, something is probably wrong with your life or your work. Instead of agonizing over balance, get excited and create change.

Deadlines and quotas are your friends.

Set them and live by them, or live by the law of procrastination. Forced deadlines are better than artificial ones, but take whatever you can get.

If you want to publish a blog, do so on a regular schedule—no exceptions. If you’re trying to write, aim to write at least 1,000 words a day. These practices will serve you well.

Get over it.

If you’re like most of us, something bad probably happened to you at some point. It was unfair and cruel. Maybe it was even really bad.

But you have to get over it for reasons that are entirely selfish. Simply put, you can’t let these things define you. It’s about your life, not anyone else’s. At some point, you just have to move on.

Even atheists want something to believe in.

We all want a mission. Eager volunteers will usually work harder than paid employees. Give people something to believe in and they will support your cause. Challenge them to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

In any project, create your own definition of success.

If not, you’ll always be playing someone else’s game. Play your own game. Make the rules and decide how you’ll score the points. Choose to be in charge and then you are in charge–it’s not complicated.

Understand that some positions and organizations exist solely to make your life difficult.

I called them the Department of No in my first book—people who are in charge of saying no. To negate their powers, you can go around these people, ignore them entirely, or get them on your side by making them think you are on their side. (Direct confrontation is often a losing battle—they have been saying no for a long time.)

Helping others makes your own life better.

I call it “selfish generosity.” Freely give, freely receive. The greatest decision Jolie and I made together was choosing to move to Africa and volunteer. We would come back to the U.S. to visit and people would say, “Wow, what you are doing is so great!” And we would say, “Yes, it is… for us.”

“It’s not time to worry yet.”

This quote comes from Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, by way of Jolie. There’s a time to worry, but it often comes much later than we think. If you don’t need to worry… don’t.

Related: don’t borrow trouble.

Tweaks matter.

At a certain point, it’s all about continuous improvement. When you’re near death, running a marathon, or tweaking copy for a sales page, 15% improvement is huge.

One definition of happiness is “Continuously improving your circumstances.” I would add: “and the circumstances of others”—but more on that in a moment.

Avoid getting into a position where you’re unable to walk away.

Never find yourself powerless. Be careful about negotiating from a point of weakness; it’s usually better to improve your odds first. (Tip: if you do find yourself in such a position, sometimes the greatest thing you can do is to walk away anyway.)

Love the process.

It’s all process—in life, in love, in work, in travel. Visiting every country is largely about process, not outcome. I just like doing it! I like the planning, the executing, the challenge, the memories. Sometimes I even like all the stress over visas and complicated routings.

That’s partly why I’m sad that it’s ending next year, but that’s another story.

Be a believer, not a cynic.

Yeah, it’s much easier to tear down than to build. That’s what most people do. “I’d just like to play devil’s advocate…”

But the world has enough cynics, so your challenge is to build.

Loneliness: It’s not all bad.

It’s OK to be alone sometimes. It makes you tougher. It makes you aware of the world. And when the time comes when you’re not lonely, it makes you appreciate it more.

Chances are, you’ll never regret saying “thank you.”

Remember the words of Dalai Lama: Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.

To be clear, I don’t always follow this guideline—I often fall short. That’s why it’s the model. See “continuous improvement.”

Be careful about advice—both giving and receiving.

Most of the time, you already know what you need to do. And most of the time, the people who ask for your advice don’t really want it. (Hint: they want you to say, “That sounds great!”)

Less stuff, more life experiences.

Invest in experiences more than furniture. It’s not “throwing your money away”—it’s spending it wisely.

Note: this doesn’t mean you won’t buy furniture or you can’t have a home life. It just means you deliberately choose to value experiences. You are willing to save and invest in them, even to the exclusion of things you choose to own.

When getting started, just get started.

“I had a great idea that I never followed through on!”

Guess what: no one cares. Get started and see what happens, or let it go. Find a way to launch your project within 30 days of conceiving it. If that feels uncomfortable, make it 3 days.

If you want to get noticed, do something worth noticing.

The way to attract influential people to your life (if you care about such a thing) is by doing something worth noticing, not by asking people to notice you. Basic… but so often missed.

Also, don’t be a curator, be an instigator.

Comfort zones are comfortable for a reason.

Make small changes, make big changes, but choose to change. Change is the only constant. To get out of a rut, change one thing at a time until you find the answer, or change it all at once and see what happens.

It can’t be worse, right?

Sad but true: sometimes the people close to you won’t understand.

Whether returning from a trip or choosing the path less traveled by, a strange phenomenon tends to occur: those who are closest to you just don’t understand.

Yeah, it’s tough. You may even encounter resistance. This is sad, and sometimes it gets better as people get used to it. Even if not, you’ll usually find other people who do understand. (It’s a funny thing.)

When in doubt about the next step, help someone and make something.

Do these two actions every day, 365 days a year. When you get stuck at any point in any process, come back to the basics: helping and creating.

(These things also help when you’re depressed. For me, drinking coffee and running—not usually at the same time—help too.)

Choose active over passive whenever possible.

When I’m home I exercise almost every day, seven days a week. But it’s not as hardcore as it sounds. Plenty of days, I run out of time or energy and can only manage a brief, 15-20 minute run at the end of the day.

A few years ago I learned that those 15 minute runs have both physical and emotional benefits. Since then, I’ve tried to make active choices: walk whenever possible, ride my bike instead of taking the bus, do one more thing before going to bed. In short, choose forward motion.

Failure is overrated.

People often paint failure as a glorious thing. “Embrace it!” Really? You are a winner. Choose to win.

Sure, you’ll probably fail at some things. Whatever. Who cares? Success is better.

Attack a few big projects at a time with lots of small steps.

It’s the time and money theory: how much time, how much money, how much additional resources will you need? Break it down, step by step. Work on the steps every day and add to them as you go along. It’s simple, powerful, and effective. Anything you want to make, build, do, or accomplish using your own force can be managed this way.

Do your own thing.

Yes, we all know this. It’s better to be the authentic you than an excellent copy of someone else—everyone agrees.

The problem is that imitators can often achieve some degree of success. Then they think, hey, this works! Well, it does work… at a low level. But it’s deceptive. If you really want to step it up, you have to find your own way, however you do it.

Ask a lot of questions.

There’s an old saying that the pope and the peasant combined know more than the pope. In other words, you can learn from anyone. Be curious and ask questions wherever you go. (Also, beware of incurious people—such people think they know a lot, but usually don’t.)

Say yes more often than no.

Yes, you should put limits around yourself and protect your commitments—for the things you don’t want to do. Everything else, fill your life with fun people and projects. Say yes!

Forget about never being afraid, but don’t let your fears make your decisions.

We’re all afraid of something. The trick is to make sure you’re challenging yourself enough, and to decide things independent of your fears. Figure out what you’re really afraid of, then don’t hold back! Also, as mentioned above—say yes.

Complacency will suck the life out of you if you let it.

Always try to better yourself. Don’t stop growing. If you do become complacent somewhere and stop improving, move on to a new challenge as quickly as possible.

Also, remember something when considering new challenges: If the outcome is certain, it’s not really a challenge. (Hat tip: Jonathan.)

Pursue a life focused on creative work.

What if, every day, we focused our lives on making something and putting it out in the world—and what if we adopted this as our primary way of viewing the world? What if this was our core focus, our motivation, and our practice?

(Note: This perspective is not incompatible with religion, philosophy, or other worldviews. It’s a way to live. I wrote about this subject more in The Tower.)

Life is short. Live with urgency!

This isn’t a new lesson; I’ve been aware of it for a long time. But it’s how I try to live every day—with the constant awareness that each moment is finite and non-renewable. We don’t get it back.

There are models that focus more on letting go and taking it easy. If that works for you, great. But if you find it unsettling that each day is slipping away, the alternative is to live with urgency. Come to the end feeling worn out.

***

Those are my 34 things, in no particular order except the last. Thankfully I was only turning 34 and not 75… that would have required a lot more thinking.

Whatever age you are, what have you learned? Tell us something here.

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*Want to use this post as a model for your own blog? Feel free to share your own 34 things and include a link back here. We’ll share a sample of reader posts in an upcoming follow-up.

*In case you missed last Thursday’s post, I’m giving up my birthday for Charity:Water. You can do the same with your own next birthday.

Image: Jodi

Four years ago I started the AONC site, and my biggest fear was that I’d get bored with it.

I was worried because that’s what I had done any number of times before. I’d build a business to a certain level, then I’d feel myself moving away from it.

The work I did in West Africa was the same—I loved it and gave it all I had for a while, but then drifted toward something else. Graduate school, for all I make light of it, was fun and interesting for a time. But after a few quarters where I applied myself, I shifted into focusing merely on completing the degree requirements as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, four years into this project and I feel more motivated than ever. Lesson: Craft your project around what you are excited by, but keep it flexible.

I’m pretty sure I’ll always want to write. I’m also fairly certain I’ll want to travel, and I like building things. When I finish one project, I start another. So perhaps in my old age, I’ve found something that works for the long term. Here’s to the next four years. Fortunately I’m not campaigning against anyone, and there’s no mid-term election.

It’s My Birthday (but don’t send anything)

AONC’s four-year birthday coincides with my own. This weekend, I’ll turn thirty-four. Yikes! Only one year to go on the quest to visit every country in the world. So far, so good, but the clock is ticking.

My friends at Charity: Water are launching a new campaign to encourage people to give up their next birthday. They started this a few years ago with the September campaign, where people born in September would ask their friends to donate toward bringing clean water to those in need in lieu of gifts for themselves.

That was great… if you were born in September. For the rest of us, they recently figured out that they could increase participation by opening up the rest of the year. Genius! My elementary school math skills deduce that this is an increase of approximately 11x more birthdays.

Here’s the thing about birthdays—I don’t really love them. Especially when I was a kid, I didn’t have the best experience with them. Then for the next couple of decades, I pretty much ignored my birthday whenever possible, hiding out and waiting for the next day without fanfare.

I’m still not much for birthday fanfare. But two years ago I decided to get over my hangups, so I traveled across the country by train with J.D. Roth to launch the Empire Building Kit. It was a great trip, and I resolved to do my best to think differently about birthdays in general. This time, there’s no train ride, but I’m participating in the Charity: Water project.

Birthday or not, I own everything I need, so I don’t want anything material mailed or emailed to me—I’m just grateful that so many people read and care about AONC. But if you’d like to do something for whatever reason, or you’re looking for a great charity to support, feel free to pitch in for our Ethiopia project, which has raised more than $150,000 since starting up in 2010.

You can support the project here, or

You can give up your own next birthday here

I probably won’t raise as much money as Justin Bieber, but I do what I can to pitch in for a good cause. Of course, 100% of AONC donations go toward a water project in Ethiopia that has been making a real difference in the communities it serves. And if you give up your own birthday, you can raise funds directly and encourage others to do the same.

Whenever your birthday is, I hope it’s a great one. See you next week!

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*Thanks for all the enthusiasm about the $100 Startup tour! We’ll select book winners and finalize venues soon.

Image: Kim

“The reward for conformity,” Rita Mae Brown said, “is that everyone likes you but yourself.”

Thankfully, it’s not always quite that bad.

Things are super busy here at World Domination HQ. I’m getting ready to roll out a book tour schedule, a book trailer, a giveaway for 100 free books, and several other fun things.

For now, here are a few reminders of what non-conformity is all about.

***

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people who are no smarter than you.” -Steve Jobs

Wondering what you should do with your life? Start here.

1. Ask why. Why do you do the things you do? What are your motivations? Not enough people are asking these questions. Join us. More here.

2. Live a big life! Pursue big dreams! Be your own superhero and do something suitably audacious. Not only is it OK, it’s probably also beneficial to other people who will be inspired by your courage. More here.

3. It’s not all about you. Most people in the world are not fortunate to live such unconventional lives, so we have to find a way to serve others with the overwhelming privilege we’ve been given. More here.

4. Efficiency is overrated; adventure is better. Run toward things that you’re excited about without worrying about how much time they take up or how difficult they are. More here.

5. Attempt to build a legacy every day. Drop keys instead of building cages. Choose hope, choose abundance, choose adventure. Live life out loud. More here.

***

Also, have a great weekend and we’ll return in stride on Monday.

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Image: Bithead

Happy with your life? Everything’s perfect? That’s great. This post is not for you.

Everyone else, keep reading.

There are two popular theories of change-making:

#1. Make small and incremental (but regular) changes. Mix it up.

#2. Do it all at once. Quit smoking immediately. Take cold showers. Enter boot camp for the soul—whatever you need to do, don’t wait.

Either of these options can work, but note that there is no third theory of waiting for change to knock on your door and announce its arrival. You must do something. The sooner, the better.

Change your routine. Take a different commute to work or school, drop in at the museum, learn a new skill, go somewhere new for lunch.

Talk to a stranger. Do something you are afraid of.

Have you always wanted to write? Start writing. Here’s how you write a book in 60 days. Get your free blog over here.

If you want to see the world, do not obsess over where to go. Do all the research you want, but don’t let research stand in the way of action (remember: $2/day to go anywhere). Set a deadline and determine to yourself that you’ll be at the airport by your deadline, no matter what happens. Yes, people do really buy tickets at the airport on the day of departure.

Decide that you are going to get serious about learning something. Educate yourself using all means available to you. Learn from those who have gone before. (People who write well about the subject of change include: Susannah, Julien, Danielle, J.D., and Trent.)

Decide in advance to be grateful when you encounter difficult people. Don’t give in to them, but be respectful. (Secret: your motivations don’t have to be pure. You can walk away saying whatever you want to yourself—but keep your game face on.)

***

Stop giving your authority over to other people. Resist the urge to succumb. Choose to rise or fall on your own. No one else is responsible!

Be willing to apologize, and be willing to stand up for yourself. Knowing when to choose which one makes all the difference.

Be willing to fail, but recover from failure as quickly as possible. Keep pushing ahead. Complacency can hit at any time. Resist! Refuse to settle.

Is there someone in your life who shouldn’t be there? Let them go.

Do you love someone? Make sure to tell them.

Above all, spend your time doing something that matters to you. Write down a list of those things. If you’re reading this in the morning, good—you have plenty of time to get to work.

If not, be prepared to lose sleep. Some things are worth fighting for. Don’t put this off.

What would you add to the list? Tell us here.

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Image: Heather

The Olympics are in London this year, but in the U.S. we’re gearing up for our own non-stop spectator sport. It’s a lot like a reality show, complete with advertising and corporate sponsorship. Many candidates enter, but only one remains when it’s over.

At the end, one competitor will win by a slim margin. The next four years will be spent fighting about what happened, all the while building up to the next installment in 2016.

The competitors belong to different clubs with marginally different beliefs, but they all share the same commitment to “restoring the American dream.”

Notably, they all talk about “creating jobs for the American people,” which is a strange promise to make. They will “fight for jobs and stand up to China,” refusing to back down until the land of liberty returns to a place and time that never actually existed.

It’s all very surreal. Regardless of their politics, how does any government leader go about creating jobs? Spoiler: aside from directly paying people to work, there isn’t much they can do.

In some ways the candidates make these promises because they are expected to. They have to show strength and confidence. If the electorate is concerned with unemployment, a candidate for higher office has to sound like he has a plan.

But I also think that many of us are attracted to any kind of rhetoric that promises a solution. (Never mind how illogical or impossible the solution may be.)

When something goes wrong, we just want someone, anyone, to fix it for us.

In the U.S. and elsewhere, real unemployment remains high. Many people are only marginally employed, working part-time or far away from the field for which they trained. How do we get out of this mess? Well, we probably won’t get out of anything. But you can get out of it yourself, and you can do so by creating your own career independence.

It’s a two-step plan:

Step 1. Stop waiting for someone else to solve the problem.

Step 2. Take responsibility and do something entirely different.

Where I live in Oregon, hundreds of people routinely apply for entry-level jobs that pay less than $15 an hour with no benefits. Many of them have college degrees. It’s not unusual to meet a barista or bus driver with a master’s degree.

I don’t think the answer for these people is just try harder. I don’t believe that polishing their resumes and sending out more applications will help them, at least not most of them.

I also don’t think it’s their fault, at least not collectively, and the solution can’t just be to “make more jobs,” even if someone could do such a thing by issuing an edict.

If you really want to make a job, your best bet is to make your own. My upcoming book, The $100 Startup, tells the story of how people from many different backgrounds forged their own career. Everyone in the book found a way to earn at least $50,000 a year (many earned much more) by using the skills they already had in a creative way.

The goal of the book is help people create their own freedom and independence by following the lessons of the case studies. I’ll be sharing more about it as we get closer to the launch on May 8th, but for now, think about this question of security. Here are a few definitions of the word:

1. Freedom from risk or danger; safety.
2. Freedom from doubt, anxiety, or fear; confidence.
3. Something that gives or assures safety.

When it comes to career independence, you can find security in any number of ways. You could, for example, become so indispensable that your employer agrees to adjust your job to suit your preferences. Or you could work in a field that is actually useful and in demand, such as medicine.

Or you can find a way to create a job that doesn’t currently exist, focusing on what you already know how to do that will also be valued by other people. That’s mostly what we focus on over at World Domination HQ.

But no matter how you get it done, no one else will do it for you.

How about you—where do you find your security?

Feel free to share your belief or experience in the comments.

I’m traveling in the Sudan this week, and will post up as many responses as I can.

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*My friends at Charity: Water are beginning a new campaign today. If you’re wondering how to make a real difference with a global problem, join me in giving up your next birthday.

Image: POD

Greetings Friends, Readers, and Awesome People of AONC,

Today I’m excited to announce the upcoming launch of my new book, THE $100 STARTUP. This has been a labor of love for a long time, and I’m looking forward to having it out in the world starting May 8, 2012.

What It’s All About

The goal of the book is to provide a blueprint for your own escape plan. What if today was your final day of working for someone other than yourself? What if all of your time was spent on things that mattered to you? What if you prepared for this lifestyle not in some distant future but RIGHT NOW?

That’s what THE $100 STARTUP is all about. It’s a comprehensive plan for freedom.

THE $100 STARTUP is the final report of a multi-year study that began with the Empire Building Kit and continued through hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of data. Yes, I finally put my questionable college education to good use in designing a study and interviewing unexpected entrepreneurs of all kinds.

Early Pre-Order Bonus

We’re putting together a big campaign for rollout as we get closer to May, but for now, here’s a quick and easy pre-order bonus.

The book is now available at Amazon.com and your favorite local bookstore. If you pre-order two copies (one for yourself and one for a friend) on or before Tuesday, March 13th, we’ll give you a $25 gift certificate for anything in the Unconventional Guides store. The book is already being discounted heavily, so with the free bonus you may pay almost nothing for it.

Update: this bonus is now over. Next month we’ll have at least two other promotions to support all bookstores, including independents. Yes, there will be Kindle and iBooks versions available too.

And hey – I’m Going On Tour!

When the first book came out, I announced that I was going to visit every state in the U.S. and province in Canada. The tour was an incredible experience. I’m a natural introvert, but I loved meeting readers all over North America, many of whom traveled long distances themselves to come to events.

Naturally, we’re doing it again… but this time, it’s going global on the world’s first 7-continent book tour. Two weeks after the book goes out in North America, it will launch in the U.K. and most commonwealth countries (Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, etc.). Deals are already in progress for foreign versions in Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, and China, with many more to come.

I’ll be planning the overseas stops shortly, but first we’re doing 25 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Here is the tentative schedule for Week 1 –>

May 8: New York City
May 9: Philadelphia
May 10: Boston
May 11: Arlington
May 12: Washington, D.C.
May 14: Raleigh/Durham
May 15: Atlanta

Note: We’re still working on various details, and these dates may change. A tour site where you can sign up for your preferred city will be available soon.

But that’s not all!

I won’t be going to all 50 states this time (apologies to West Virginia), but I definitely plan to make more stops than just the initial cities listed above. It’s a 7-continent book tour, and yes, we WILL be going to Antarctica at some point.

My question to you—I’m arranging some of the initial events with my publishers, but I also hope to visit other cities where a significant number of awesome people are interested in hosting a group meetup.

If you’d like to help arrange a $100 Startup tour stop (it will be fun and interactive, not a boring “book reading”), let me know by posting a comment. Why should we come to your city? Will you help to make it happen?

Over at World Domination HQ, the cat and our biased judges will do what we can to pick as many additional cities as possible and get this party started.

Where should we go on The $100 Startup road show? Let us know here!

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Illustrator: Mike Rohde

People will take over your life if you let them. How do they do it?

Step 1: They begin by taking over your time.

“This will only take a minute…”

“Can we have a quick call to discuss…”

“We’d like to get your input on…”

When they send a message in one place to say they’ve left a message for you in another place, you know you’re really in trouble. Watch out!

Step 2: They continue by asserting their priorities over yours.

“We need this done right away.”

“This is really urgent.”

One hour after asking for something: “Have you had a chance to look at that yet?”

(Note: Do not mistake urgent for important. Also refer to: Your lack of planning is not my emergency.)

Step 3: They assume they know better than you do.

“Let me give you some free advice.”

“I know just what you should do.”

“This will be a win-win for both of us.”

(Note: Most of the time when someone says something will help you, what they mean is “This will help me, but let’s pretend it helps you too.”)

Step 4: When you decline to give in to the demands, they’ll attempt to make you feel bad.

“I’m not sure why you’d say no to this great opportunity.”

“I really need your help to ensure this project succeeds.”

“Can we talk about why you don’t feel this is a good fit?”

***

Sometimes, we let people take over our lives by entrusting judgment to them. We assume that other people know better than we do. We assume that other people’s priorities are more important than ours.

The answer is to stop believing these things and to start building a tower.

You begin by deciding for yourself what success looks like. Set your own rules. Be clear on what you want and how you’re going to get it.

You continue by defining the terms of engagement. If 9 out of 10 voicemails are a waste of time, why bother listening at all? If you know the meeting will be unproductive, why attend? If you don’t want to be distracted by social media, don’t log in.

Here are five powerful words you can use to regain control: “Sorry, I’m not available right now.”

Has this happened to you? Tell us here.

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Also see: Things They Have No Right To Tell You
Also see: Who You Are and What They Say