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.

###

In JFK I got on the 16-hour Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. It was 3pm in the New York afternoon, and 3am in HKG—exactly halfway around the world.

The Boeing 777 took off, I had lunch, and I took a short nap.

I always set my watch to the destination time when boarding a flight, so it was now sunrise in Hong Kong… with 13 hours to go. What’s next?

I like long flights, but this was pushing it even for me. I had the whole day set out before me, with nowhere to go and nothing much to do except what I made for myself.

I ordered coffee and sparkling water, then set up shop and got to work on a series of tasks. By the time I arrived in Asia, I hoped to:

*Draft a blog post
*Draft a newspaper column
*Revive my desperate-action-needed Inbox from 300 to 75
*Review an upcoming writing project
*Decide on a business strategy for another upcoming project

I got down to work on these tasks and found fulfillment as I go through the list. I also watched half of a movie, which is all I can usually handle, and caught up on an important game of Kingdom Rush on my iPad.

The day in North America faded away as we began our flight across the Pacific, chasing the sun. The day in Asia went by and the sun finally disappeared outside my window.

Did I use this time well? Did I feel alive, and did I do something that mattered?

I remember watching the entire day unfold like this in other parts of the word. I remember the long bus rides through Africa that stretched out over hours that seem endless.

Sure, there are some obvious differences between African buses and Cathay Pacific Business Class. But there is so much similarity too. In either mode of transport, you wait. You keep waiting. And you wait some more.

One time I rode the bus through the night and into the next morning. The day after, the same disorienting feeling: another day passes by outside the window. We change borders and there’s a new stamp in my passport, but the world looks the same.

I feel this way on ferries, on trains, on long drives through the U.S. Always getting closer to something while putting distance behind something else.

But really, what is life but to love and to create? And to keep moving along, always choosing forward motion and never backtracking.

***

I staggered off the plane at 8pm local time. I still had another flight ahead of me, a three-hour hop to Bangkok, but first I sat on the floor of HKG airport and logged on to the world. Greetings, everyone.

My outbound messages lept into space and a flock of new ones swooped in, the yin-yang of email management.

When I walked to the lounge and prepared to board the flight, I was already moving on. Time to think about the next stop, the next project, the next level of the tower.

What are you working on over there?

###

Image: Paul

I’ll share more on the experience next week, but for now, here’s a preview.

Sometimes people ask about my qualifications.

It’s a fair question with a simple answer: I have none.

There’s absolutely no reason I should be doing pretty much anything I’m doing these days.

I was a high school dropout and a juvenile delinquent. I learned to drive by stealing cars, but since I was a slow learner, I kept crashing them into mailboxes. (A long, true story.)

I wasn’t especially dedicated to my first part-time job as a 14-year-old dishwasher. Whenever I received a pot that was especially difficult to clean, I walked outside and threw it in the dumpster. This strategy worked well until the restaurant ran out of pots. The owner and I had a discussion, and it was agreed I should find another means of employment.

I abandoned a series of other part-time jobs by not showing up to work. No notice, no phone call, no request for the check to be sent in the mail.

I did make it to college, where I performed fairly well—once I learned to work the system. My degree was in Sociology, a fun and interesting subject that led to exactly zero job opportunities. By the time I graduated, I didn’t want a job anyway, so I bought and sold coffee instead.

I never learned higher math—not any kind, and not at all. No algebra, geometry, calculus, or anything else you’re told is essential for adulthood. I snuck into grad school without taking the GRE, which is a good thing, because when I took a practice test later, I placed in the 15th percentile for quantitative. (To which I wondered: Wow, who are all the people less than the 15th?)

My first quarter in grad school I had to prove competency in statistics by passing a course. This was a disaster from start to finish. Imagine being thrown into a classroom where every word is foreign to you. Sink or swim, right? There’s actually another strategy: just tread water. My strategy was: show up to every class and never be late. I sat in the front row and asked meaningless questions to demonstrate I was paying attention. (“Could you repeat that last part?” “What would happen if you switched those two numbers around?” “Oh, I see. That’s interesting.”)

On the day of the final exam I looked at the paper and understood virtually none of the questions. I wrote gibberish on the front side and drew an arrow to indicate something on the reverse side. On this side I composed a list of “Top 10 Things I Learned During Statistics Class.” I made sure a few of them actually related to assigned materials, even if I didn’t understand them.

I somehow received a B- and placed a thank-you gift of coffee beans outside the professor’s door. Then I dropped out of the program, but that’s another story.

When I first went to Africa, I was given a job carrying boxes around and managing a warehouse. I was fairly good at the box-carrying part, but then I learned that more skills were required. Dude. The boxes need to be placed on pallets. The pallets need to be shrink-wrapped. Talk about bait and switch!

Someone showed me how to shrink-wrap a pallet, and then someone else showed me again. Then the first guy showed me one more time—“Hey, let me give you some help with that pallet”—but soon they could all tell I was a lost cause. I’d dutifully wrap my pathetic-looking pallets, with way too much shrink-wrap and boxes protruding from all sides, then someone would come along after me and do it right.

I never learned any languages, but one time I got roped into doing French-English translation at a conference. I had very low expectations for my ability to handle this task, and these low expectations remained unmet after the first session. I approached the organizers: “Uh, it’s OK if you want to bring in someone else,” I said. “Oh,” they said, “we already have.”

These stories may sound like they are from long ago, before I found my way in the world. Perhaps. But let the record show I still have virtually no marketable skills of any kind.

Among other deficiencies, I don’t know how to do anything mechanical whatsoever. I used to say I could do nothing more than screw in a light bulb, but then light bulbs started getting complicated. It’s off the list now.

All That to Say

If I suddenly had to get a job for the first time as an adult, I have no idea what I’d do. Yeah, I’d figure something out, but the prospect terrifies me.

When I think about what I’m actually qualified for, it’s a very short list. I’m qualified to stand behind a counter and accept your money, preferably in exact change and closely supervised by someone who carefully counts the cash register after my shift. I’m qualified to be the man at the donut shop who informs you how you can acquire an additional, original glazed merely through the purchase of two others.

At best, I’m qualified to make $11 an hour with no benefits.

When I walk through the First Class security line, I smile at the employee tasked with the job of keeping the peasant travelers out. I’d like to think I smile because it’s good to be nice, but it’s also because I know the secret: I should be that guy. I’m just an imposter.

When I’m asked to speak to companies, I look out at the people in the audience. Sure, some of them are occupied with their iPhones, and if alcohol is involved, some of them are a little tipsy. But given a large enough group, I can look and see that some of them are hanging on every poorly-phrased sentence I produce. They write things in their notebooks that presumably relate to what I am saying, as if they should remember them or follow-up on them later. Why? No clue. But this much I know is true: I’m damned fortunate.

Yes, I should be that guy asking if you’d like to add on an order of fries at the fast-food restaurant, the guy who just kept doing menial work with no purpose because he was never qualified for anything else.

But for some reason, I’m not. For some reason, I escaped the life I deserved and found a life on the other side.

What This Means

All of this means a few things for you and me both.

First, forget about what you’re actually qualified to do. It’s irrelevant and no one cares.

Second, if you never learned higher math either, it’s nothing to worry about. You’ll be fine.

Third, if I can somehow craft a livelihood out of virtually no qualifications or marketable skills, surely you can too.

Fourth, when you do find something that works for you, you should be very grateful, every day.

Because when you’re qualified to do nothing but operate a cash register under close supervision, and the world somehow entrusts you with greater duties, you’d better treat these duties with the diligence they deserve.

I don’t care if you’re a religious person or not, every day you should pause and ask the powers that be “Really? I get to do this? I’m not living on the streets, begging for spare change?”

If that’s the case, and you are in fact doing anything other than handing out donuts, inspecting tickets, or sitting on the sidewalk all afternoon, join the club of the surprised. You’d better say to yourself, as I regularly do: I have no idea how this happened, but damned if I won’t do everything I can to preserve it.

Regardless of your actual qualifications, there’s one thing that no one can give you and no one can take away: the will to keep going. For that task, you are supremely qualified.

###

Update: The “Working from the Road” class mentioned on Friday is now sold out—thanks for your interest.

Image: OW

For the past three years, I’ve written at least 300,000 words for publication.

It’s not that difficult, and you can do it too—it mostly requires an ability to focus. If you don’t have this ability at first, fear not: it’s a learned process.

Why Write?

Someone once said, “I hate writing, but I love having written.” I tend to think you have to love at least some of the writing part too, but I get the idea. In my case, I write because it makes me feel good, and because I feel like it’s what I’m supposed to do.

If you want to write consistently and thoroughly, you must learn to make writing your job, regardless of whether it has anything to do with your income. It must be what you think of at different times throughout the day, even when you’re doing other things.

You may have heard the advice about carrying a notebook everywhere and writing things down as you think of them. This advice falls into the category of “extremely helpful tips that almost no one follows.” Trust me, it helps: I have my notebook when I ride my bike, when I go to a restaurant, and with me on the seat of two-hundred airplanes a year. Never keep anything in your head—keep it in the notebook instead.

Once you start recording information, you’ll likely find that ideas are not the problem. For most writers (or anyone doing most kinds of creative work), execution is the problem. Therefore, the framework I write from can be summarized in this quote from Jim Rohn:

“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment.”

In choosing to write, you must choose the pain of discipline. Good news: it’s not that painful, once you get used to it. You just have to make it more important than other things you could spend time on.

Make your art your obsession. Fall in love with it. Experience withdrawal symptoms when you don’t give it your attention.

Say no to other things so you can make art. Learn to view sacrifice as an investment. Writing is a joyful experience that will bring you comfort and satisfaction, but you must put the hours in.

Think about what you know how to do, and write down all the steps that someone else should take to do the same thing. Spend your vacation outlining the novel you’ve always wanted to write. Start a blog, even if you abandon it later.

Do not worry about quality, especially when you’re getting started. Quality will improve as you put in the hours. (For evidence of this fact, read the first year’s archives of almost any blog, including this one.)

Worry instead about getting your words in. Wake up early, stay up late, use that notebook you are carrying, appropriate those ten and fifteen-minute breaks in the day with nothing scheduled.

When you finish at night (or whenever you pause for a while), try to end in a place where you know what you need to do when you return to it later.

Why 300,000 Words?

In my case, I want to write 1,000 words a day, six days a week. I often write more, but rarely less. The 1,000 words a day is my own metric—yours may vary, but it’s a good one to steal. In the end I’m not necessarily concerned with exact figures; it’s just that having a number helps me to keep working.

Also, 300,000 words ensures I can write a book every year, 100+ blog posts for AONC, 50 or so guest posts elsewhere, at least 2-3 business projects that require a lot of writing, and a few long-form essays or magazine pieces. I don’t count emails (200 a day) or short entries for social media sites.

***

I wrote most of this post when I was stuck in the Nairobi airport last month. Kenya Airways is actually a decent airline—on an hour-long flight to Rwanda, I was served a full vegetarian meal in Economy Class. In the U.S. I am upgraded to First Class 80% of the time, but I can’t even request a vegetarian meal in advance.

But I digress—the point is, while the national airline is nice, Nairobi Airport sucks. Sitting around for four hours, I knew I had two options:

a) keep whining to myself about it

b) use the time well

I knew I’d feel better if I used the time well, so I sat down and wrote. I made myself do it, camping out in a sea of people. There were no outlets, so I worked fast to conserve battery power.

I wrote 1,200 words, and then I wrote another 500 words for something else, and then another 500 words for this post. Four hours went by and I boarded my flight to Jo’burg feeling great. I was behind on my emails as usual, but ahead on my art. I drank bad red wine (shoutout to Kenya Airways again) and didn’t feel guilty about taking a short nap on the way down to South Africa.

I hope some of you write 300,000 words over the next year—then you can write the post about how 300,000 words was easy.

Most important: Love your art and it will love you back.

###

Image: Brandice

Three months ago, we brought together 500 people from a dozen countries for our inaugural World Domination Summit. You can see what it looked like in this brand-new video recap:

(You can also see thousands of photos from the weekend over here. A few of them are below, in case you missed the earlier recaps.)

Opening party at the Portland Art Museum

Pam Slim’s Keynote Address

Chillaxin’ in the Hammock Lounge

Attendee art from Mark Silver’s session

Travel hackers meet on the lawn

Jonathan Fields unveils his greatest work ever

***

Today I’m proud to announce that #WDS2012 will be held in Portland from July 6-8.

This time, world domination can no longer be contained to a single art museum. Instead, we’re moving to the famed Newmark Theatre for our main stage events, and a number of additional venues for (expanded) workshops, breakout sessions, and meetups.

We have bands coming in from faraway lands. Our Bollywood DJ will return for an encore performance. The world’s finest hammocks will be hung throughout the lobbies. We’ll have yoga in the park, a 200-person photo walk through the Pearl District, a mass book signing with 20 authors, and an attempt to set some sort of Guinness world record.

It will be big… but not TOO big. A mobile site will allow attendees to connect with each other based on shared interests and location, ensuring that plenty of small-group gatherings can take place. A “highly-sensitive person” lounge will welcome the introverts among us.

Perhaps most importantly, the event will remain non-commercial and non-profit. I don’t think sponsors are evil, but I don’t want them for WDS.

But wait, I’m getting ahead of things…

The Registration Process

We’ll have plenty of interest, and I know tickets will go quickly. Last year we sold out five months in advance, even without a real plan. (Thanks to those who trusted us to come through.)

By the time the actual weekend rolled around, tickets were being scalped on eBay for a $300 markup. An unknown number of people without tickets came to Portland just to hang out. More than 60% of first-year attendees pre-registered to return next year.

In an attempt to keep things less manic, we’ll do registration in two phases this time: Wave I starts this Thursday, and Wave II will be in January 2012. (We’ll give first choice of workshop registration to Wave I and first-year pre-registered attendees.)

I’m thrilled to produce this weekend adventure, and look forward to welcoming many friends to our fair city again next year. Our newly-expanded action team is already meeting monthly at World Domination HQ to ensure we rock this out.

If you’d like to be part of an epic adventure and you want to meet like-minded people while learning in a fun environment, you should come to WDS. (And if it isn’t for you, no problem.)

Those who are interested can visit WorldDominationSummit.com this Thursday, September 8th… and don’t be late. We’ll release tickets first to year-one attendees and the waiting list, and if any are left over for Wave 1, they’ll go out to the public around 11am PST.

In short, all that’s missing is you. Will you save the date?

###

As expected, I received a flood of responses to Monday’s question on paying the bills. In addition to hundreds of site comments (I posted at least half that came through, but it’s tough to keep up from the road), we also had hundreds of additional suggestions come in through Facebook and Google+.

You guys are so productive! And so smart, too.

Naturally, I outsourced the sorting of responses to my furry assistant Libby, now working back at home while I’m on location in Asia. (Anecdotal reports indicate that when her assistance is virtual, she slacks off even more. I’ll get back to impose discipline as soon as I can.)

Suggestions ranged broadly, and included everything from selling various bodily fluids to begging on street corners. Others suggested prayer or “manifesting” the money. Personally I am more of a “take action” kind of guy, but it’s all good. If manifesting money from the sky has a proven success rate for you, let it rain.

Here are a few interesting comments from our group:

Andrea said:

I’m a former math teacher. With a bit of hustle I can make $300 – $500 tutoring in a month. Particularly since it’s currently August and the next round of SATs are coming up.

Austin Bishop said:

Troll the “gigs” section on Craigslist to match someone’s need with your skills. Especially if you have creative talents (e.g. graphic design, photography, copywriting) it’s easy to make quick money doing something you enjoy. The beauty of this is that some of these gigs will lead to more consistent jobs with that customer, generate referrals, and build your portfolio. I’ve done this with photography–it’s a terrific way to make some supplemental income.

A.J. Parker said:

Focus groups! (seriously) have made as much as $400 a pop just for my humble opinion on stuff. Research and Development departments in companies pay well for your thoughts and ideas.

Tracy said:

I would take my camera to the park and offer to take portraits of people’s kids. I’d give them my card, which shows the url of my photography blog. At $15.00 per digital image, I could easily email them a proof online and send them a PayPal money request that afternoon.

Sarah Russell said:

I’d head over to the Problogger Job Board and respond to a few of the postings there. I’ve been doing that for the past few months, and it’s put *much* more than $300-500 in my pocket lately.

Karen said:

I’d go straight to my travel journals (I have several years’ worth) and write a few travel articles. Before I get told that there are no travel markets that pay up front and have a quick turnaround, I’ll share a few faves I’ve sold articles to that fit the bill: Transitions Abroad, BootsnAll and the Matador Network.

Kate Courageous said:

I’m a runner, so I’d contact locally owned athletic stores and ask them to sponsor me, with my promises that I’d run through downtown San Francisco, during morning rush hour when everyone’s getting coffee, wearing their brand. I’d have to commit to a certain number of miles per week to get decent sponsorship, so there would also be the win-win of keeping me really in shape.

Steven Petersen said:

Try Gigwalk. They pay $4-7 for you to walk around your neighborhood and verify business information and take panoramic photos of the business locations. If I were to do this in my neighborhood I’d earn $500 in roughly two days.

Felix said:

Here is something I actually did during my student years. I walked into the city park and picked up tree seeds. I went to a supermarket and bought exotic fruits and got the seeds out and dry them.

I packaged them in small portions about 10 – 25 seeds per pack and sold them on ebay for $1.50 to $3.50 and mega-packs for $9.99. Customers usually bought for $6 on average to save on shipping. This turned out to make me between $400 to $600 per month.

Eric Walton said:

I purchase used vintage mechanical watches, restore them and sell them on Craiglist. You can easily make $100+ with each transaction doing this if you know the value of what you’re buying (many don’t know the value of what they’re selling).

With the economy as it is people are rediscovering the value of quality craftsmanship right now and appreciate these older wristwatches. These can be maintained for a lifetime of use vs. throwing a cheaper watch away and buying a replacement.

Jodi said:

I’d offer high tech support to low tech people!

1. Go around to local boutiques in town and offer to set up their Facebook business page. Offer extra small fee for taking digital photo of business or their product.

2. Offer to take flattering profile pictures of friends and local business owners with my iphone, upload to their Facebook page and/or LinkedIn page.

3. Create a HOW TO USE YOUR IPHONE class, $15 for 15 minutes. Set up private lessons at the local coffeeshop.

Sarah in Prague said:

Offer some small group tours of Prague’s literary pubs and cafes. I had a column in the English language newspaper here for several years in the early ’90′s and wrote the first English language pub guide to Prague in ’91, so I can legitimately claim some expertise. Advertise on various tourist and expat oriented sites and in English-language newspapers.

Leah said:

My husband and I had this situation when we first bought our house and I was 6 months pregnant with our son. He had just lost his job, but happened to have a box truck, so we printed up a few cards which he handed out to all the local furniture stores, antique dealers, etc. offering his services delivering furniture. It worked so well he had to get a business license, insurance, etc and it is now his full time job.

If you are willing to do work (labor especially) that other people don’t have time for or don’t want to do, you can make a few hundred the first week easily.

Nathan said:

When I really need cash and I’ve already squeezed my monthly bills, I do this: first I post on Facebook to tell everyone I know that I am available for odd jobs (fixing computers, babysitting, help with yard work, etc) and wait for responses. If you have a network of 100+ Facebook friends you will definitely get some bites. After that, I go on eBay and sell off items I am no longer using.

Finally, Sandy R had a good idea:

Bookmark this comment thread and come back here and select the best fit suggestion for my current circumstances.

“It’s So Easy…”

A number of people said that making extra money is easy. I have mixed feelings about this sentiment. In some ways, I agree. Whenever I need money for something, I find a way to go out and make it.

However, I also think we sometimes skip steps in explaining what’s involved in a project, and therefore cause people to feel bad about their own financial difficulties for no good reason.

I’m not sure that most people could easily earn $300-500 in a short period of time from busking, for example. Some can, certainly, but it’s not widely replicable. That’s why I prefer suggestions that don’t rely on special skills or access to existing contacts.

(Like manifesting money, if you can busk your way to the bank, don’t stop on my account.)

The $100 Bounty

I promised a $100 bounty to one smart commentor. Naturally, there could have been many winners. You all win! But the cat and biased judges could only choose one person. Following much angst, a split decision was awarded to DARLENE.

After first posting an idea on Monday about renting out a spare room to a student and taking public transportation for a few weeks, here’s what she had to say on Wednesday:

So here’s an update — I posted an ad for our room for rent and just rented it for two months and $1200!!! I actually DID it. And it didn’t take 30 days, it only took two.

I know that not everyone has a room they can rent, but I liked the spirit of her suggestion-followed-by-immediate-action. As promised, I just sent Darlene her $100 winning bounty by PayPal.

My congratulations (and my hundred bucks) go to Darlene on her big payday. And for those who said the question was highly relevant to them, well, now you have some ideas.

***

As you might expect, I have a business project behind all this brainstorming. However, I’m not nearly as strategic as I sometimes get credit for—the business project is indeed in development, but with no target launch date. Sorry. In the meantime, you all have 300+ recommendations on what you can do if you find yourself in need of extra cash to pay the bills.

I’m in Singapore this weekend and heading on to East Africa shortly. I hope you have a wonderful week, wherever you are.

###

Image: NTR

I recently posed an open question to a few social networks and received hundreds of interesting responses.

I’ll republish the best of them for everyone to see at some point, but first I thought I’d ask YOU.

***

***

Ready? Here’s the question.

Let’s say you were short on cash and had to make an extra $300-500 in the next 30 days. You can’t rob a bank (or do anything else illegal), and you have no access to an existing email list or website. What do you do?

Now it’s your turn, and you can answer in the site comments below. I’d love to hear how you’d solve this problem.

Oh, and to make it fun: I’ll pay a $100 bounty on Thursday afternoon to the person who posts the best idea as chosen by our small crew of biased judges. There are no set criteria as long as you answer the question in some fashion—it’s totally up to you.

So… how do you earn the extra money?

***

Travel Note: I’ve just arrived in Asia after a 16-hour flight, so I’ll be sleeping while many of you are commenting. It will take a while to post all of the comments, but check back in a bit if yours doesn’t go up right away.

###

Image: LON Studios

When I heard the news that the rapture would take place two Saturdays ago, my first thought was… wait… how is that possible, since World Domination still has two weeks to go?

We need more time before the planet implodes!

***

Yesterday and today, the first attendees have been arriving in town for the inaugural World Domination Summit. Tomorrow we’ll be joined by 500 people from a dozen countries, meeting at the Portland Art Museum and various other locations around town.

When I announced the summit nine months ago, I really had no idea how to produce such an event. I approached it the same way I did publishing: ask a lot of questions, watch what others did, and announce the plan before I knew how it would unfold.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate to work with a great, all-volunteer team here in Portland, who has been coordinating hundreds of details—gift bags, breakout sessions, speakers, door prizes, negotiating with catering racketeers, hammocks, afterparty, transportation, and so on. (This is a very abbreviated list.)

It’s the first time for all of us to do such a thing. We’re nervous but excited, and it all begins tomorrow night.

Attendees! Here’s what you need to know

Like any AONC event, the best thing about WDS is all of the people who attend. As the host, I want to put on a good show and welcome people to our city, but I also know that most people enjoy the “unofficial” aspects of meetups at least as much as the official ones. Don’t be afraid to meet someone this weekend; they’re all fun people doing interesting things.

We have volunteers to greet you at the airport welcome center starting tomorrow morning at 10am, but if you miss them, no problem—just take the MAX train ($2.35) to your hotel or hostel downtown. Registration begins at 6:30pm tomorrow night, followed by an informal gathering. The main event begins at 9am Saturday morning, with doors opening at 8:30am.

(Everyone attending WDS should know this information already, but I’m posting it here just in case.)

Non-Attendees! Sorry you aren’t here, but we’ll think of you

I know that a number of people are coming to Portland for the weekend despite not having tickets to WDS. I’m sorry that it sold out so quickly (more than five months in advance), and I’m sorry to miss you if it didn’t work out. There are no last-minute tickets and we can’t accommodate anyone else at the summit itself, but you’re welcome to join many of our group on an “UnTour” (i.e., a general meetup) on Saturday night down by the waterfront. Many attendees are also arranging independent activities and gatherings around the weekend as well, and I hope you have a good visit to our fair city.

Numerous people have asked about live streaming the event, but we won’t be doing that this time. The main benefit of the weekend is having everyone all together in one place, and we couldn’t do a good job thinking about both the local audience and the faraway audience.

We will, however, be posting real-time images (hundreds of them) to my Flickr stream starting Friday night and continuing through the weekend. You can also keep up with the group through the Twitter hashtag #WDS. Our media team will be documenting the event for an upcoming compilation, and a few independent media outlets are also on site and will be doing… something (I really don’t know what).

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If you don’t care about the World Domination Summit, here’s the takeaway: I was worried about inviting 500 people to come to town, but I’m glad I did it. If you wait until you feel confident about a big venture (or adventure), you may never do it. By some miracle, this is actually coming together, and I’m glad we decided to go for it nine months ago.

Whatever your own venture / adventure is, don’t hold back! Don’t wait. It usually works out in the end.

Question: whether coming to Portland or not, what are your plans for the weekend?

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Image: Tammy!

You thought you had plenty of time, but something went wrong.

Having spent too much time thinking about what to pack, you spent even more time reevaluating at the last minute. You overslept, or you forgot about the time zone change. The bus came late, or the traffic jammed up.

Whatever it was, as you head out the door, you run up against an uncomfortable fact—you’re late. Not fashionably late, not pressed for time, just… LATE. Thus begins the sense of apprehension. “Will I make it? What will happen if I don’t?”

You know if you miss the flight, it will trigger a whole series of undesirable consequences. This flight is connected to another, and to another. Hotel reservations and commitments will fall into disarray. As you think through backup plans and alternative scenarios, you realize the obvious: I really need to make this flight.

As you approach the terminal, you have a series of goals in mind: first, get the boarding pass. Second, find the best way through security. Third, haul your ass to the gate. But you know that the first goal, “get the boarding pass,” is the most important. If you can successfully check in and get the magic paper from the agent or the machine, you’ve won half the battle.

But as you succeed in the first goal and review the magic paper, you encounter a universal law of traveling: whenever you’re late to the airport, the gate for your flight will be the furthest away from your starting point. In fact, the gate will most likely be in a different direction and departing from another concourse. If gates are numbered 1-79, you know you’ll be hoofing it down to the late seventies.

The race continues! No time for rest, traveler. You take the airport train, tapping your feet and biting your fingernails, checking the time every 20 seconds.

By now you may have realized that some race-to-the-airport activities, like getting to the terminal, often take longer than you think—which is why you’re late and stressed. But other activities, like check-in and security, usually take less time than you think. You head through security, keeping your head low (“nothing to see here”) and your arsenal of electronic gear in hand, hoping to avoid random checks and extended interrogations about whether your iPad is a computer or not.

As you clear security and speed through the airport itself, remember: WALK, don’t run. Running through the airport is unsexy and should be reserved for extreme situations, since most of the time it won’t make or break the odds of reaching the gate in time. In fact, you can also take comfort in another universal rule of travel: most of the time, everything will be alright.

On this trip there is no time for the lounge visit or the Starbucks run. It’s been a stressful morning, and you resolve to do it differently next time. But guess what! Travel karma is on your side yet again. You arrive at the gate breathless, the last passenger to board, with the gate agent tapping her feet and checking the time every 20 seconds.

No matter; here you are. You board the plane with a fist-pump and find your seat, ignoring the look from the passenger who was expecting to fly next to an empty seat.

The purser closes the door behind you and the captain makes an announcement. “Well, folks, we’re now ready to get on our way.” Relax, rockstar traveler—you made it.

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Image: A30