Greetings, friends and readers.

I’m on the road as usual, and today I’m also excited to announce the release of a new manifesto, The Tower.

As with my two earlier works, A Brief Guide to World Domination and 279 Days to Overnight Success, this report is completely free, with nothing for sale and no email opt-in required.

***

You can download your own copy here –>

The Tower — Main Download Link (PDF)

Kindle Version | Version for Printing

Tech Notes: This document is best experienced on an iPad (click the PDF in Safari to open a version in iBooks) or other tablet device.

If viewing on a regular computer, you’ll need the latest free version of Adobe Reader. For Kindle support, see this page.

***

What It’s About and Who It’s For

This report is not about Frequent Flyer Miles or making money as a blogger, as much fun as those things can be. Instead, it’s about URGENCY and LEGACY—topics I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.

What if life were like a video game? How can we incorporate creative work and the desire to build something into our routine? What truly matters?

These are the questions I examine in the manifesto. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be traveling in Africa and then doing my Annual Review. Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’ll take some time to think about the next year and your own legacy project.

As always, thanks for reading.

Action #1: If you find the report interesting and valuable, would you please help in spreading it along?

You can post a link to this page or the whole PDF on your blog, through Facebook, or wherever you connect with interesting people.

Action #2: What does legacy mean to you… and what are you doing about it today?

Feel free to share your response to this question through the comments field.

###

Image: Thomas

I’ve been working on a new, non-profit writing project that I’ll share tomorrow. Here’s a preview of the concept—for more on the project itself, see the note at the end or check back tomorrow.

***

A specter is haunting the internet. Everywhere you go, you hear about how you should slow down. First it was slow food (a good thing). Then there was slow living (not so good) and the rejection of striving and effort (even worse).

The central part of this message is: “There’s plenty of time. Stop hurrying and take it easy. Bake cakes, play in the forest, do what you want.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few months, and tomorrow’s project is an attempt to say something different.

The central part of the alternative message is: “HURRY UP. Life is short, so we should put our limited time to good use.”

Why so intense? Because we only get one chance.

Why the rush? Because we’ve got a lot to do and a short amount of time to do it.

***

A common scenario involves imagining that today was your last day on earth:

What would you do if this was it? You have only one day to live.

It’s a good question to think about, but not sufficient on its own. If today were your last day, you might tell someone you loved them. You might try to make amends with someone you had wronged. You might enjoy the time as much as possible, and you might indeed bake a cake.

All of these things are good, but you can do them anytime. No need to wait for the warning of a last day that you’ll never receive. Most of us don’t get the chance to know when our last day is, and even if we do, we’re not usually in a position to make real changes.

Besides, a single day is short-term by design, and you’ll never create anything with lasting value in the short-term. Sure, you can “live in the present”—but if you want to build something beautiful, you’d better be thinking about the future as well.

Instead of watching life as it passes you by, what if you actively worked on crafting a legacy composed of creative work that helps others?

What if there was a systematic method of “legacy work” that allowed you to build this enduring record step-by-step?

Yes, there might be plenty of time left. But what if there’s not?

There is an urgency to life, whether you want it or not. When you embrace the urgency instead of ignoring it, you can create something that changes the world. Oh, and you can do this in a fun way that makes the best use of your own talent and motivation.

In a world of take-it-easy, who needs a life oriented about effort and achievement?

Well, I certainly do. And perhaps you do too.

***

Tomorrow morning I’ll release a new manifesto, the first in more than two years. It’s all about living with urgency and how you can build something over time. If you find it worthy of attention, I’d be grateful for your help in spreading the word.

###

Image: Rutty

I started AONC in 2008 when I had been to only 65 countries. Thanks to consistent effort, dedicated travel hacking, and significant amounts of coffee, I’ve now been to 173.

In fact, we’re now down to the final twenty countries. Only twenty!

Of course, twenty countries is no small endeavor, especially when there are no more backup plans: I simply have to make it to these particular stops, one way or another. Some of these places aren’t easy, and I could still run into difficulty with an especially obstinate country.

The deadline to visit every country is my 35th birthday, just under a year and a half from now in April 2013. Here’s a rough guide to how I plan to handle the remaining visits.

What Remains: South Pacific

September’s jaunt through Micronesia, Palau, and Marshall Islands helped me knock off a few islands. I also finally made it to Australia, albeit unexpectedly. Getting shut out of Nauru made things a bit more difficult, since I had planned to visit the four remaining islands in one early 2012 trip. With five islands and limited flight schedules, I may have to break up the trip into two portions.

Solomon Islands. A small but easy country—the main challenge is coordinating it in conjunction with my visits to the more difficult islands: Nauru, Kiribati, and Tuvalu.

Tuvalu. A tiny country served only by Air Fiji. I guess I’ll go… from Fiji. My plan is to do this in January 2012, schedule permitting.

Kiribati. Like Tuvalu, this is one challenging country to get to. I had planned to visit there from Fiji, but it looks like that option is no longer available. Flights from Tarawa, the capital, to Nauru have also been canceled. Hmmmm.

Nauru. A strange country that requires an advance visa from the few people who visit, even though it has no embassies. On the flight I was supposed to be on in September, the airline emailed the four travelers to confirm our flight in one group message—never seen that before. (Yes, I’ll be sure to speak to them about email etiquette after they safely deliver me to the country. Airlines should not use “reply all”!)

Vanuatu. See Solomon Islands: it’s not hard; I just have to plan for limited flight schedules around other destinations that are more difficult. It’s also in progress for January or February 2012.

***

What Remains: Africa

With fifty-two countries, I knew from the beginning of this quest that Africa would be the biggest challenge. Thankfully, I’ve whittled it down to only ten remaining countries. With a couple of exceptions noted below, most of these are relatively easy at this point.

Eritrea. Getting permission to visit Eritrea has turned into the biggest travel challenge of 2011, and an entirely unexpected one. Lufthansa has three flights a week from Frankfurt, and Turkish Airlines also goes in and out on other days. But every attempt I’ve made (at least three so far) has been rebuffed by the embassy in D.C. I would love to visit soon, so I hope they change their minds for my fourth application.

Guinea Bissau. Another tough country. There is no embassy in the U.S., Canada, or even the U.K., and there is also no visa-on-arrival service. By all accounts, the only way to get in is to obtain permission from the embassies in Lisbon (Portugal) or Dakar (Sengal). My tentative plan is to get someone from one of those cities to help from a distance.

São Tomé and Príncipe. The visa looks easy; it’s the flights that are hard. São Tomé is served by weekly flights from Lisbon. There are two carriers, but ironically they offer their flights on the same day (!), meaning that you have to stay for a week. It looks like there are a few other options to fly in or out from Malabo or Douala on the African mainland, so I may try to do an open-jaw, flying one way to or from Europe.

Republic of Congo. There are two Congos, and the smaller one is known as Congo-Brazzaville for its capital city. I visited the larger one, Congo-Kinshasha, a couple months back on a gorilla trek from Rwanda. Thankfully, there are numerous options to fly into Congo-Brazzaville. I’ll mostly go in from Nairobi or Jo’burg.

Chad. I don’t know much about Chad. I know there are Air France flights from Paris, and a closer look shows that there are also some regional options. The visa process doesn’t seem to be super complicated at this point, but as with Eritrea, the proof shall be in the application.

Central African Republic. A three-day visa processing time (this is good) and regular flights from both Addis Ababa and Nairobi means that I shouldn’t have any difficulty hitting up the CAR. I was hoping to go directly there from Congo-Brazzaville, mentioned above, but it seems the weekly flight has been canceled. Therefore, I’ll have to visit each one separately, likely starting with CAR next month.

Somalia. Arguably the most dangerous country in the world, and one of the few places I have deliberately stayed away from. Thankfully, there’s a loophole: SomaliLAND, in the north, is effectively an autonomous (and safe) region. I tried to visit two weeks ago from Dubai, but got shut down thanks to an unhelpful travel agency and an unreliable airline. I won’t use either of them again; my new plan calls for a flight on African Express from Nairobi via Abu Dhabi.

Seychelles. A small island (technically islands) in the Indian ocean, with regular flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, and probably other destinations. This is one of the few easy countries I have left, so I’ll likely pick it up while visiting more difficult countries in the nearby vicinity.

Sudan. Very tough to get a visa with a U.S. passport. Like Eritrea, I’ve had at least three attempts fail already. I’m currently working on a fourth one that I’ll write about later, hopefully after it’s successful. Fingers crossed.

South Sudan. Let’s give a shoutout to the world’s newest country! Yes indeed, when South Sudan achieved independence in July, probably a hundred people wrote me on the same day to say: “Are you going there?” And indeed, I am. A new embassy has just opened in D.C. promising 7-day visa processing time, and there are regular flights to the capital of Juba from various nearby cities. I’m actually much more excited about going there than to Khartoum in the north, but we won’t tell Khartoum that until I get a visa.

***

What Remains: Central Asia

There are six “stans”—and I’ve already been to Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Not speaking any Russian and hearing a number of stories of difficult experiences, I was initially somewhat intimidated to travel in the region. To my surprise, however, these stops have been a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to the remaining two.

Turkmenistan. I don’t know much about Turkmenistan. I know I can get there via Istanbul and Frankfurt (the classic Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines combo again, like Eritrea), and I know that a visa should be doable. But otherwise, I’m in the dark.

Tajikistan. One of the more difficult countries to get into, requiring an invitation letter facilitated by a local agency before the visa application can be submitted. I’ll begin the process sometime in early 2012, before I go on book tour and I’m not able to hop off to Central Asia on short notice.

***

What Remains: Everything Else

This is it! Just three more countries on the “miscellaneous sovereign nation” list.

Yemen. Like Somalia, Yemen is a rough place these days, and currently on hold due to a small revolution I was supposed to go in early 2011, but my contact gave up on me. Of course, much more important than my trip is the fact that people are being killed in the streets every day. I hope things improve firstly for Yemen’s sake, and then so I can visit in late 2012.

Cuba. The final country in all of the Americas for me, Cuba is a bit of a mystery because of my citizenship and passport. Contrary to popular belief, U.S. citizens are welcome in Cuba and don’t have to deal with any challenging visa applications; it’s the U.S. government that doesn’t want its citizens going. I’ll share more about this whole process when the trip is complete.

Norway. I’m saving the best for last! About a year ago, I realized it would be important to intentionally decide on my final country, instead of letting it come down to chance. Nothing against the Central African Republic or any other great countries on this list, but I wanted to plan on something more stable for the last stop. I’m also thinking about traveling there with a small group, so my only remaining country in Europe was a natural choice.

Everyone in Norway, plan for a big party in Oslo on April 7, 2013. I don’t think I’m in the running for the Peace Prize, but eight hours’ sleep would be welcomed.

***

Coming to the last major portion of my worldwide adventure is like a lot of things: in some ways, it feels like it’s been forever, and in other ways, I feel like it was only yesterday that I was on a train in Eastern Europe, thinking how “maybe” I could visit 100 countries sometime in my life.

As discussed here, I do feel some anxiety about coming to the end of the project in the next year and a half. I’m still sorting through those feelings, but I also have lots of logistics to plan for all of these trips. In addition to next year’s book launch and an upcoming business project, that’s what I’m focused on these days.

###

New to AONC? Here’s the 100th country visit, here’s the 50-countries-left point, and here are the end-of-year recaps from 2010, 2009, and 2008.

Image: CP

At first, you weren’t sure you had it in you. Fear, doubt, naysayers, and what-ifs threatened to hold you back. You left anyway, determined to see it out.

The people around you talked about consequences and the risk of uncertainty. Wouldn’t it be safer not to go? Wouldn’t you be better off homebound, shut off from the world in the comfortable setting you knew so well?

You smiled and went anyway, knowing the real truth: consequences can just as well be positive. Unexpected surprises can be good. But if you don’t go, you’ll never know for sure.

You embraced the logic of the underdog: the last shall be first; the poor shall be rich; blessed are those who live for adventure, for they shall never die with regrets.

These things kept you alive along the way:

The love of good friends.
The belief in yourself.
The conviction that your life should count for something.
The resoluteness of purpose.

Others debated whether the journey or the destination was more important; you split the difference by choosing to enjoy them both. It’s good to arrive, but it’s good to enjoy the ride.

At the end, you rest for a while. And then you’re ready to do it again.

###

The AONC book is available on Amazon for just $10.17 this week. If you’ve read and enjoyed it, would you do me a quick favor and write a customer review? The link is on the bottom-right side of the page (choose “Create your own review.”)

Image: Moose

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

*World Domination, July 2012 Edition*

As mentioned on Monday, today’s the day—early this morning, we opened up #WDS2012 registration for 400 people. All tickets were taken in the first 13 minutes. Some of the transactions went into pending mode and it took a bit longer for the dust to settle, but we were completely sold out within the hour.

Because there are no more tickets available, I won’t send this update out by email. If you’d like to keep an eye on the registration page for later, here it is:

#WDS2012 Registration

***

Here are a few answers to questions I’ve received:

Can you stream the event online for those who can’t come? No, sorry. I love the internet, but #WDS is all about being together in one place.

Do you have any scholarships? No, sorry. WDS costs less than almost any other weekend event, and we don’t make any money from it. In fact, last year I lost more than $25,000 on it—this isn’t about us making a profit, and it costs a lot to put everything together.

Can I be a speaker? Our main-stage speaking roles are nearly finalized—not all are announced yet, but they’re all selected. All registered attendees are welcome to submit proposals for workshops and breakout sessions, which will be expanded this year. We’ll have a process for this much later on, likely in early 2012.

Can I be a volunteer? We will indeed have a crew of “Ambassadors” to work during the weekend. These volunteers must be Portland-based, and we’ll have an application process in early 2012. (FYI, everyone on the action team that produces WDS is a volunteer too—no one is paid, including me.)

I can’t commit now… can I register later? See below.

Those who registered today, along with our pre-registrants from Year 1, will receive first priority of workshop and breakout selections. We’ll then have another (one more only) registration cycle in January. I’m doing it this way so we don’t completely sell out ten months in advance.

The Wave II cycle will allow for approximately 300-400 tickets. We have a total capacity of 924 attendees, but 60% of Year 1 attendees pre-registered to return—so now that today’s wave of 400 is gone, we’ll take the final group early next year.

I’m sure they’re go quickly as well, and we don’t anyone to miss out unnecessarily… please only register if you’re extremely excited and definitely plan to come.

Happy Thursday to all,

###

Image: xx

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?

###

A lot of people mentioned that they liked the “hell yeah” test for making decisions mentioned here and condensed as follows:

We all have to make decisions about opportunities. When you think about any opportunity, if it’s not a “hell yeah,” don’t do it.

I’ve modified this a bit in my own life to be: if it’s a “hell yeah,” why not do it?

I thought I’d ask… what have you said “hell yeah” to? But first, here are a few stories from our community…

The 10 Mile Prison Swim — Last weekend, Sarah Peck and her friend Kim swam 10 miles from Prison to Prison (P2P) as the first two women to cross the San Francisco Bay from San Quentin state prison to Alcatraz. The distance is six times longer than the Escape from Alcatraz swim, which I always thought of as hardcore until I heard what Sarah and Kim did. Hell yeah!

The Plummet at the Summit — Earlier this year, Joel had an idea to go skydiving while visiting Portland in June. But then he decided to ask if anyone else wanted to come… and 40 people signed up! At the time, Joel didn’t even know if he could actually take that many people with him, how they would all arrange transport, and so on. But as things usually do, it all turned into an excellent adventure. Hell yeah!

The Impromptu Irish Adventure — While in Galway, Ireland, Jeff decided to join a friend on a spur-of-the-moment ancestry hunt. What happened next involved hitchhiking, actual hiking… and a “mission accomplished” hell yeah at the end of the day. Read more at the link.

Oh, and here’s Amber’s flow-chart for making decisions. Hell yeah!

***

By the way, the “hell yeah” test originally comes from Derek Sivers. I met Derek on a recent stopover in Singapore, where he kindly made green tea for me at his house before heading off to a gig. You can check out his brand-new book from the Domino Project here.

I asked Derek for a recent “hell yeah” story, and here’s what he told me:

Three years ago, I dreamed of going to TED. I applied, was rejected the first time, applied again a year later, and got in. Hell yeah!

After attending two TEDs, I dreamed of speaking at one. I applied, and was accepted for a smaller one (in India), but I spoke at TED! Hell yeah!

Then I dreamed of speaking at the big one. I applied and got got accepted, then did a talk that got a standing ovation, got 1000 tweets, and a lot of great reputation. Hell yeah!

But hmmm…. what next? I got invited to speak at at TED in Taipei Taiwan. Could be interesting…. But how to make it a “Hell yeah!” kind of thing? Hmmm….

Then I got an idea. That TED is almost a year away. What if I were to do the talk in Chinese?

I don’t know Chinese, but I really want to learn. I’ve been studying casually…. maybe I could ramp it up with this as a huge goal. An 18-minute TED talk in Chinese by next year? Now that’s a “HELL YEAH!” Just thinking about it makes my heart race in fear.

Congratulations to Sarah, Joel, and Jeff on their big adventures. Thanks to Amber for the fun flow chart, and good luck to Derek with learning Chinese.

So how about you… what can you say “hell yeah” to?

###

Image: Funk

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).

***

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?

###

Image: Tammy!

I talked with my seatmate Rachel on the flight to Singapore. She was 6G, I was 6H—Cathay Pacific Business Class.

I was sitting up front thanks to my Platinum status and a big stash of Frequent Flyer Miles. Rachel was up front thanks to the global bank she worked for, which after a brief display of frugality was now back to flying even its junior employees in Business.

Rachel was the same age as me. She had traveled to much of the world, but hadn’t really seen anything. It was always running back and forth, flying to meetings, going to business dinners, arriving late at night back in the big Asian city where she was based before getting up early for more meetings.

It was obvious that Rachel was discontented, wanted something different, and had no shortage of intelligence and drive. Yet she was the first to admit that major change was unlikely. She had a good job. Her employer flew her Business Class and paid for her taxi from the airport so she wouldn’t have to take the bus. She had spent years applying herself to earn two finance degrees, and besides, what would her family think if she turned her back on a successful career?

The Camel in the Eye of the Needle

Why is it so hard to break free of a life that’s good enough to pursue the life we truly long for? We like to think these things are complicated, but the root cause is pretty simple: change is hard, so we tend to put it off until it becomes urgent. When the time comes to change, it becomes an overpowering presence; something that must be resolved one way or another. Maya Angelou put it this way:

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

In the AONC book I told the story of Sean Ogle, who left his job as a financial analyst with no real backup plan in place. The most interesting part of his story (I think) was when he met with his employer to propose a remote working agreement. Sean thought it was a win-win—he could see the world while still earning a regular paycheck and benefits, and his employer wouldn’t have to replace the position. Unfortunately, the employer thought otherwise. Not only did they turn down the proposal, they also presented a counter-proposal: You’re fired. They gave him two weeks to wrap things up, and he was so shocked that he didn’t know how to respond at first.

Thinking about it later that day, Sean was bothered by how the exchange had played out. He typed up some notes with his side of the story and sent them in a memo to the boss and H.R. rep. The response was quick: Forget the two weeks—you can leave right now.

Eighteen months later, Sean has turned out to do quite well for himself. Nice work, man! But from the outside, people tend to focus on the end result rather than the process, which is always filled with uncertainty. When Sean said farewell to his first real job after college, he honestly wasn’t sure what would happen next—he just knew that something had to change.

***

When the time comes where you’re willing to make a big break, you may find yourself facing down fear and trying to see through to the other side. Just remember: once you start going down the road of change, you don’t always know where you’re going to end up. This very reason is why many people remain stuck in discontent but unable to find their way out.

Will it be easy? Probably not, at least not if it’s worth doing. Will everything be OK? Maybe, maybe not. That’s why it’s scary.

Many people, like Rachel, will not be able to leave behind what is comfortable in pursuit of what is compelling. Others, like Sean, will find a way “come hell or high water” to follow the path of no return.

Is there a bulldozer on your horizon?

###

Image: Travis