Every year I choose a personal theme, and in December I decided that 2010 would be the year of SCALE and REACH. Thus far, it’s been an accurate prediction—some days it’s all I can do just to try and keep up.

Lately, though, I’ve been thinking more about EMPOWERMENT than anything else. Empowerment, as I think of it, is all about the beautiful principle of transferring knowledge and helping people consider possibilities that previously seemed out of reach.

The best lesson to illustrate empowerment is through a selection from Hafiz, a Sufi poet from the 14th century. Consider:

The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He
Knows.
While the sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners.

Most of spend a lot of time building cages for people. This is accomplished by striving to make people small, so that we small men can feel bigger. Cage-building is protecting yourself and your interests, making yourself look good, and discouraging good ideas because you weren’t the one to come up with them.

Taking the credit for yourself, assigning the blame to others—that kind of thing. Mostly it involves thinking about the kingdom of Me.

Key-dropping, on the other hand, is making other people look good, building them up, expanding the pie. In other words, key-dropping is all about EMPOWERMENT, that beautiful thing of knowledge transfer and possibility.

Think about the times when someone has really helped you think or live differently. It was like they placed a key on the ground in front of you; you picked it up and unlocked a cage. (You had to open the cage yourself, of course, but it was a lot easier with a key.)

As I consider the work I’ve done over the past five years, I see a mixture of cage-building and key-dropping. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Accordingly, I see myself dropping more and more keys. But I can also see that I’ve built some cages. The course of action to change this is simple: build fewer cages; drop more keys.

What does that look like? Something like this:

• Before speaking up at a meeting, before sending an email, before publishing a blog post, whatever — ask the question, “Will this empower?”
• Give away your best work, and think about how you can give away even more of it
• Stop keeping score — or if you must keep score, make sure you’re always giving more than you take
• That thing you know how to do that everyone else marvels at? Show people how it’s really done.

You could probably think of examples that make more sense for your own situation. But whatever you do, don’t be the small man building cages. Be the sage, dropping keys for the prisoners.

What keys do you hold that could set a prisoner free? Why not start dropping those everywhere you go?

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Image: Bfick

Greetings, friends and readers.

After an extended stay at home in Portland, I’m now preparing to head out again. Over the next two weeks I’ll be simultaneously traveling through Asia and working on my most detailed business project of the year.

It’s called Empire Building Kit, and the goal is to help people build a sustainable business in less than one year by doing one thing every day.

Working for Yourself, a lower-priced guide, is all about getting started on the road to entrepreneurship. EBK will be about taking these steps further. The goal is to serve people who already have a small lifestyle business, or are serious about not wasting any time building one.

For now, I’m looking for some help. Specifically, I’m looking to feature a number of interesting lifestyle businesses that meet these criteria:

• Annual net income of between $50,000 – $200,000
• Three or less employees (I especially like businesses of one person, since that’s what I have)
• The business has a significant online component (it can either be completely online, or mostly online with some degree of offline activity)
• It has to be an industry you wouldn’t be ashamed to tell your grandmother about
• Lastly, you must be willing to discuss the finances of the business, as well as the challenges you faced getting things going. (I did this last year with 279 Days to Overnight Success, and I’ll be going into much greater detail with the EBK.)

If you’d like to be considered, please send me a note with a short summary of your business including the web site address. I’ll follow up with everyone who writes in.

Everyone else, stay tuned. I’ll be working on the EBK while hopping around Asia this week and next. I want it to be a gamechanger, a big deal, etc. We still have several weeks (at the very least) until it’s ready, so I’ll tell you more when the time gets closer.

And of course, if it’s not a good fit for you, don’t worry — the majority of my work will always be freely available here on the site and elsewhere.

***

That’s it for the Sunday Store Update. Wednesday afternoon I’ll pack my bags and get ready to head out on the road. Next stop, Papua New Guinea and beyond. Here’s wishing you a great week wherever you are.

P.S. In local news, thanks so much to everyone from Western Oregon University who welcomed me for their “Focus on Leadership” event yesterday. You guys were great!

###

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As I finished up last year’s Annual Review, it became clear that 2010 was going to be even more of a monster year than 2009. I’ve got a ton of things going on, which is great, but I also need to keep working on my quest to visit every country in the world.

This is my “travel accountability” post – it’s safe to say that if you don’t care about trip planning, you don’t need to read it. Everyone else, read on…

***

Last year I wrote the original Advanced Travel Planning article, where I outlined the next few trips I planned to take. This time I have two major challenges:

1. I need to visit 20 new countries before September (from September-December I’ll be traveling only in the U.S. and Canada for my book tour). This effectively lops off a whole quarter of potential trips.

2. I’ve now visited 122 124 countries, so only 68 remain in my long-term goal – but the closer I get to the end, the harder it gets.

When I first started thinking about the year ahead, including the imperative to get to 20 new countries before September, I said to a few people that 2010 has too few months. I can’t add any months to the year, unfortunately, so I’ll just have to get creative and more strategic about the trips.

While on vacation in December, I set aside an entire day during Christmas week to make as many trip plans as possible. During this day, I planned the following tasks:

• Pick up an additional 250,000 U.S. Air miles through the great 250% promotion from last fall
• Call to reserve an awards ticket to Lithuania (arrival) and Belarus (departure)
• Finish plotting my 2010 Star Alliance Round-the-World ticket and queue it for booking
• Reroute an older OneWorld Round-the-World ticket to reflect a couple of itinerary changes
• Check on any visa concerns or potential problems with my target country list (below)
• Figure out how to get to Korea to resume the current OneWorld ticket
• Figure out how to get to Japan to begin the next Star Alliance ticket

And so on – you get the idea. I spend hours and hours working on tasks like this throughout the year, but I’ve never devoted a whole day to the planning before. It was a good idea.

Target Country List

For the first time, I drew up a list of countries I hoped to visit this year. For no good reason, I’ve been paranoid about doing this before, but being strategic requires a target list defined in advance. Here’s the first two-thirds of the list:

Ukraine
Lithuania
Belarus
Norway
Cyprus
Guatemala
Nicaragua
Vanuatu
Fiji
Samoa
Tonga
Federated States of Micronesia
Marshall Islands
Cameroon
Madagascar
Malawi

(As you can see, not every country is “difficult”—for some reason, I’ve yet to visit Norway, just as I haven’t been to the entire continent/country of Australia—but keep in mind I have to plan for each country in coordination with all the other trips and stopovers.)

A Few Notes on the Next Few Trips

I’ll be in Asia at least twice, but it’s tricky because I’m almost out of “new” Asian countries. With the exceptions of the -stan countries in Central Asia, it’s a short list. I need to visit East Timor and Papua New Guinea, two countries that are logistically challenging, and I also need to get to the Maldives, which is several flight hours away from every country except Sri Lanka.

I went to Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos around this time last year and really enjoyed being back in the region after a long absence. This time, I’ll be in Bangkok for several days in mid-February for meetings and the entertaining “dodge-the-traffic” running game I like to play there.

Central America and Europe

This trip is booked completely on my OneWorld itinerary I purchased last year. I might reroute part of it, but the itinerary is currently set up as follows:

LAX-MIA-MGA-DFW-GUA-DFW-LHR-KBP-BUD-LCA-LHR

Highlights include my final stops in Central America (Guatemala and Nicaragua), and a trip to the divided country of Cyprus where I hope to visit both the Greek side and the Turkish side.

This itinerary then continues on towards Asia, although I’ll be coming home again after that portion and saving the Europe–>Asia portion for later.

Major Trip to Africa

I try to visit Africa at least once a year. Last year I ended up in Namibia and Swaziland, where I also traveled overland in a bush taxi to Mozambique. This time I’ll be entering the continent via Cameroon, heading down to Gabon on an overland journey, then over to Malawi via South African Airways. Since I’ll be based in Johannesburg for at least one layover, I’m also hoping to head to the island of Madagascar on an awards flight.

If I really want to outdo myself (but also make it to another faraway country, thus saving the need to fly back there later), I’ll look at adding on Comoros or Seychelles while I’m in Madagascar. We’ll see.

South Pacific

Aside from Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands, I haven’t spent much time in the South Pacific at all. It’s a big place, and there are eleven countries there. I’m a bit intimidated by the distance between them, but I need to get started on the region.

I made my first major trip last month, to Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji. Alas, at least one (possibly two) additional countries eluded me while I was in Fiji—so I’ll need to go back at some point.

Travel tip: As mentioned at the time of booking, the South Pacific is a great region for awards travel. I booked my trip directly to Auckland (with a free stopover), then to the island nation of Tonga, then over to Samoa and all the way back on a single award. You can also travel on a similar itinerary via North Asia (usually Japan) and get another free stopover that way.

The second Pacific trip will begin in Guam (not a country, but an interesting place nonetheless) and continue to the Federated States of Micronesia, then hopefully on to the Marshall Islands and / or Nauru.

Belarus + Lithuania

As a relatively simple trip, I plan to arrive in Vilnius, Lithuania, get oriented for a few days, and then travel by bus to Minsk, Belarus. The latter country has a reputation for being obstinate, so I’ll probably need to arrange my visa in advance. I used more Star Alliance miles (80,000) with U.S. Airways to book this trip, including a free stopover in Vienna.

While I’m out and about, I’ll need to see about a few overland trips and paid flights to the other countries. I can hop up to Norway from almost any other European country. I might be able to visit Algeria or Morocco while transiting in Paris or Madrid. It’s helpful to plan for side trips and stopovers when visiting other places along the way — this is a key part of my strategy to reduce costs and time away from home.

Domestic Travel

I need to go to NYC to meet with my publisher at some point, to Austin for SXSW in March, and a couple of short trips for speaking gigs — but otherwise I’ll be home in Portland when not elsewhere around the world.

Then in September, the domestic adventure begins… all fifty states, plus two stops in California and Texas, plus Washington, D.C. — followed by 10 additional stops in every Canadian province for a total of 63 reader meetups in 63 cities. This will be a major undertaking involving volunteers at each stop.

(Stay tuned for all the details on the Unconventional Book Tour. I’m actually scared to death about putting this whole thing together, but more on that later.)

***

I know it’s a fairly aggressive itinerary, but it’s a fairly intensive year all around. I’ll be using at least 400,000 Frequent Flyer Miles and spending several thousand dollars in cash for the first few big trips I’ve booked. (Thank God for miles – it would require much more money to do this any other way.)

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the challenge. Let me know if you have any questions about the logistics – I’m happy to help other travelers whenever I can. Here’s to a travel-happy 2010!

Are you going anywhere this year? Feel free to share your planned trips.

###

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Image by Iko

February is Black History Month in the United States, where we recognize the achievements of African Americans and honor our culture of diversity.

A lot of attention during this time is focused on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and rightfully so. Above my desk is one of his most famous quotations:

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is this: what are you doing for others?”

This question troubles me, as it should.

As much as I love MLK, though, I’m also a big fan of another martyr of the Civil Rights Movement: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, or Malcolm X, as he is more commonly known.

I’ve been intrigued by Malcolm since I first began learning about social movements more than 10 years ago. If you’ve never read his autobiography, I highly recommend it. The movie by Spike Lee with Denzel Washington is also good.

The conventional narrative on Malcom X is that he was a bit too hard-core for a while, but then in the end after he went to Mecca and adapted his belief system to be more inclusive, he turned out alright.

The logic breaks down like this:

Militant Leader – Not Okay. Threatening. Unwilling to give deference to generally recognized leaders (President Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., etc.)

Conciliatory Leader – Okay. Socially acceptable. “He’s finally come around,” etc.

If you’ve studied sociology or history, you probably know that this kind of categorization is fairly typical of anyone doing anything militant. The idea is that it’s acceptable to be outspoken in your early days as long as you calm down later in life.

Like other interesting people throughout history, Malcolm was a seriously complex guy. I hesitate to categorize him one way or the other in a short blog post, so watch this video to get a few snippets of the early, militant side:

It was extremely unusual for a black leader to criticize President Kennedy, but here Malcolm calls him a “trickster” and accuses him of helping “everyone except the people who put him in office.”

Here’s another clip, following Kennedy’s assassination and a 90-day period of silence that Malcolm was subjected to –

This one includes one of my favorite statements. When the interviewer asks him if progress is being made, Malcolm says:

I will never say that progress is being made if you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches… there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made, and they haven’t even begun to try to pull the knife out. They won’t even admit the knife is there!

And finally, watch this last one from towards the end of his life, after he had left the Nation of Islam and returned from a trip to Mecca –

In this clip, Malcolm discusses meeting white Muslims for the first time, his split from the Nation of Islam, and the threats on his life. “I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything,” he says at the end.

***

We have a lot to learn from people in history who have fought against the status quo under challenging circumstances. The case of Malcolm X is especially interesting, since at times he dealt with several different battles simultaneously. Even now, his role in the Civil Rights Movement and American history in general lacks consensus.

In the end, Malcolm X was a modern-day Julius Caesar, murdered by the same people who helped him get started as a spokesman. Just imagine: Not only are you fighting for equality and justice, you also have to deal with mainstream black leaders who say they disagree with you… and then you find yourself being accused by the same group you tirelessly supported for years. (Talk about being alone.)

Muhammed Ali, a former friend and apprentice, refused to shake his hand or acknowledge him when they were both in Africa at the same time. (Talk about rejection.)

And when you talk about sacrifice, Malcolm X walked the walk, showing that there was more than one way to fight against injustice. I’m grateful for people like Malcolm who were willing to give so much for equality in my country.

The United States, and probably the whole world, is much better off because of his courage and service. I give respect!

###

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Greetings from home base in the great Portland, Oregon.

Yesterday I ran 10 miles, a fact I was happy about until I went to a dinner party and met an ultrarunner who runs 80 miles a week. She also has two young children and a full-time job.

I felt suitably shamed. Ultrarunners and any other endurance athletes out there, you have my respect… but not my company for training runs.

***

Each month I look back at what’s happened with AONC in the previous month. If you’ve missed some articles, you can catch up here.

Writing

LIFE – I wrote about Clean Water for Ethiopia, What You Don’t Do Doesn’t Matter, Before and After, Being Busy, and Beware of Life.

WORK – I wrote about Art and Plumbing (the Seth Godin interview), Using Email to Build Your Community, and the Launch of the $100 Business forum.

TRAVEL – I wrote about Life in Sudan and Next Stop, South Pacific.

SITE AND STORE UPDATES – I wrote about What I learned from the $100 Business Forum Launch, AONC’s feature in Psychology Today, and The Missing Country & the Auckland Meetup.

(P.S. Thanks to everyone who has been participating in the comments section on the Monday and Thursday articles. You guys are incredibly smart.)

Travel

For the first half of the month, I went to the South Pacific and visited Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji — my first countries in the region aside from New Zealand, which I’ve been to before. On the way back I stopped off in Auckland and met with a number of fun people who read AONC from that part of the world.

You can see photos and videos of my trips here. Drop in to take a look if you’re so inclined, and add me as a contact if you’re into the Flickr thing.

Small Business

January saw the launch of our first business project of the year and first AONC community group ever. The $100 Business Forum aims to help aspiring entrepreneurs evaluate different business ideas and launch projects on a low budget. On launch morning, the 150 available spaces sold out in 90 minutes. A world record! (Or at least, some kind of record.)

The first group begins meeting tomorrow, and I’m excited to work with them. The second group starts in April and is also sold out.

What’s Coming Next

Travel

This month I’ll return to Asia and the South Pacific for a visit to Papua New Guinea. On the way back home I’ll be in Bangkok for a few working days, and I’m also trying to put together a short side trip to the Maldives.

Small Business

My main entrepreneurial project this month is a restructuring of the business resources I offer to customers on UnconventionalGuides.com. Stay tuned for a new pricing model for the popular Working for Yourself guide, and the development of my first higher-end project, Empire Building Kit.

Articles

Every month I write at least eight free articles for AONC and several other articles for blogs, newspapers, and magazines. I hope you enjoy my writing, and I always welcome your feedback.

Audience Participation

You can participate in the development of AONC in several ways:

Leave a comment at the bottom of any regular article. Feel free to add to the discussion at any time, and include a link back to your own site if you have one. (Note that the link goes in the “web site” field, not the big text box where you write your comment.)

Join my newsletter announcement list or add me to your RSS reader.

Follow my real-time updates on Twitter here. I regularly solicit input on the articles published on the site, as well as send out links to other people’s great content. A “Daily Ass-Kicking” is included at no additional charge. You can also become a fan of AONC on Facebook.

Send other feedback. Use my contact form here to say hi or check in about something.

Tell your friends, or tell the world by submitting my articles to StumbleUpon or other social networking sites.

I appreciate the time you spend here. Don’t forget to change the world the way you think it needs to be changed.

-CG

Catch up on Previous Updates Here:

November-December 2009 (Barcelona)
October 2009 (Portland)
August-September 2009 (Bali)
July 2009 (Kuala Lumpur)
June 2009 (Salt Lake City)
May 2009 (Dominican Republic)
April 2009 (Portland)
March 2009 (Portland)
January-February 2009 (Tokyo)
November-December 2008 (Seattle)
October 2008 (Seattle)
September 2008 (Seattle)
August 2008 (Seattle)
July 2008 (Karachi)
June 2008 (Amsterdam)
May 2008 (Vancouver)
April 2008 (Syria)
March 2008 (Los Angeles)
February 2008 (Seattle)

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Image by Madison76

Last week I mentioned two important facts about water and the world around us.

Fact #1: The problem is serious. While the rest of us look at pictures of the iPad and debate what kind of healthcare reform America should have, one billion people in Africa and Asia don’t have clean water.

Fact #2: Empowering people at the local level is the best way to fix the problem. Addressing the global water crisis is probably the most important thing we can do to help people make their own choices. You can’t “design your ideal lifestyle” when your children keep getting sick from bad water.

This week, let’s add a third observation:

Fact #3: It’s best to tackle the problem one place at a time. The overall water crisis is hard to fix (one billion people!), but when you break it down country by country, region by region, and community by community, it’s not nearly as difficult.

With the third observation in mind, today I’m kicking off a different kind of launch.

What You Need to Know

1. I’ve chosen to work on this project with my friends at Charity: Water, and together we’ve chosen to focus on two communities in rural Ethiopia. 100% of donations – yours and mine – will be applied directly to project expenses.

2. I want to raise a minimum of $500,000 for water wells in Ethiopia over the next 18 months. I’d be happy with more, of course, but it’s good to have a goal.

3. My own commitment towards this goal includes 10% of all revenue (not just profit, but everything that comes in) from UnconventionalGuides.com, 20% of all author royalties from my upcoming print book, and 100% of royalties for every reader I meet on the Unconventional Book Tour this fall. (The more people who come out, the more money we raise — more on that later.)

4. My accountant will provide a letter every year stating that I’ve kept my end of the bargain. I’ll also be discussing the project in every speech I give, and whenever I talk with people about AONC in general… which is pretty much every day.

5. Despite going all out, my own contribution will be a small part of the overall fundraising goal. The rest will need to come from friends, readers, and partners who want to be a part of the mission.

***

Over the next few months, I’ll tell you more about why this project is so important, and more about the specific communities in Ethiopia we’ll be partnering with. In late 2011 I’ll also take a small team to visit the communities and document the work that’s been done in cooperation with local leaders.

If this mission resonates with you, I would like you to be part of it with me.

Many of you have your own circle of influence or your own small army. When you speak, they listen to you because they trust you. I recently mentioned my support for Partners in Health in their relief effort for Haiti. Someone wrote in a few days later and said he read the post and felt compelled to give $10,000. WOW. Amazing, yes?

But then—he asked his friends to help out as well, and they raised ANOTHER $10k. I was suitably impressed, both by the donation and by the way his friends agreed to help double the initial amount. These are the kinds of things that happen with a group that is united in purpose to achieve something great.

If you have a blog, a classroom, an audience of some kind, you’re invited to be a partner in this project. You can donate directly, tell your friends, or get creative.

More information here:

http://charitywater.org/aonc

P.S. We’re still working out a few things in terms of how the blogger commitments and partner opportunities will work, but I didn’t want to wait on launching this important project. (Another lesson from Linchpin: artists ship! Artists get things out! I agree.)

I figured some of you may not want to wait either, so that’s why it’s here now.

###

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You can join AONC on Facebook here

And… you can support our Ethiopia Water Project here.

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of author and change agent Seth Godin. I’ve been reading his books since my years in West Africa (2002-2006), and he continues to produce excellent work almost every day on his great blog.

I had the chance to speak to Seth’s “Alternative MBA” group last year, and when the invitation came, I rearranged my schedule and dropped everything to fly to New York. (Never pass up a major opportunity for personal growth.)

Today, Seth’s new book, Linchpin: Are you Indispensible?, launches out into the world. Instead of doing the usual media interviews, Seth decided to promote the book exclusively through the blogosphere. Together with his sidekick Ishita, he recruited a bunch of big-name bloggers – and then me – to publish a group of exclusive interviews today.

You can read the other interviews here, you can buy the book here, and if you’d like to ask Seth a question yourself, you can do so in the comments section of this post.

Let’s get started.

• Linchpin begins with the statement, “This time it’s personal.” This seems to be a departure for you. Among other things, you’re writing about love, binge drinking, urinals, and art. What led to this book?

I’m pretty sure I’m not writing about binge drinking. What I am writing about is the ability of each of us, without authority or permission, to do work that matters, to have an impact and to create a place for ourselves in a society that’s brainwashed us into doing something that’s an easily replaced commodity.

A big part of that is acting like an artist. Being personal, making change, communicating a vision.

I wrote this book for every single person who’s frustrated with the status quo and wants to do more and better work.

• “The system is a mess.” Which system? How does our art change that?

The system of factories churning out stuff we can no longer afford to buy, or to store in our houses overstuffed with junk. The system that turns out college grads who are eager to follow instructions, not blaze a path. The system that depends on spam or churn to grow a product or a brand. And the system that treats employees like disposable cogs in a giant machine.

You know what changes this? Humanity. Connection. Caring. Doing work that’s not easy to replicate. That’s what an artist does.

• According to Linchpin, how do I become an artist? (What if I don’t know what I’m really good at?)

You do art when you make change that matters, and do it via a connection with an individual. A great waitress or conductor or politician can make art. So can David, who cleans the tables at Dean and Deluca. Art isn’t the job, it’s the attitude you bring to the job and work you do when you’re there.

• Are we all really geniuses? If so, what do we do to stop choosing stability over genius?

Well, if a genius is someone who solves a problem in a new and original way, then sure, you’re a genius. And the first step to making that choice is to know it’s available.

• I liked the example of Thomas Hawk putting so much of his work in the Creative Commons. I know that you publish most of your writing for free, too, but what do you do when you run into issues of plagiarism or people otherwise directly stealing from you?

I ask them to stop, or to give readers a link so they can see where it comes from. Of course, if they’re selling it, that’s a different kind of theft, and I ask them them to stop, because then not only am I being ripped off, but so is the buyer.

• “Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another” and “Art is a gift that changes the recipient.” — Would you say that if someone has a talent they keep to themselves, never sharing it with anyone, that they aren’t really making art?

That’s exactly right. According to my definition, doing private stuff doesn’t count… unless, and perhaps, you’re changing yourself.

• Can you tell us more about emotional labor?

Physical labor is digging a ditch. You don’t do it cause it’s fun, you do it because it’s your job. I don’t care if you’re in the mood for it.

Emotional labor is smiling or engaging with someone or bringing insight to your job. Sometimes you do it for fun, but you always do it because it’s your job. I don’t care if you’re in the mood for it.

• “The second person to install a urinal wasn’t an artist, he was a plumber.” Aren’t most of us, in some fashion, plumbers building off each other’s work?

  [A personal example: I read your books while I was in Africa. Now I'm getting ready for my own book launch. Editing the manuscript in December, I could see some artistry and some plumbing, building on the influence of you and other thought leaders. Am I an artist or a plumber?]

I think we surely build on each other. BUT, plumbers don’t really. They don’t strive for a better toilet install, or one that changes the recipient. They strive for a cheap, fast version of the standard and then they move on. Artists take it farther than that, much farther. That’s our assignment.

***

Wrap-Up

I wish Seth well with the launch of Linchpin. It’s a book that deserves wide attention — I received a free review copy, but I also paid full price for an additional copy that’s being sent out from Amazon today.

My work is better because of Seth’s influence and your readership. I’m grateful for both.

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Coming home from a recent trip, I thought about bringing flowers. Wouldn’t that be nice, I thought.

I imagined the flower buying, the flower delivery, the credit in the relationship account produced by my thoughtful action.

When I finally made it off the last flight and the train ride to the transit center, I was tired. I remembered the flowers, but then decided: I’ll do that another time.

Then the other day, I thought about something I had promised to do for someone else a while back. Several times I had thought about doing it; my intentions were good. But yet, nothing happened.

Last night I got the Inbox down to 15. I was too busy to reply to the last 15 people… but it’s the thought that counts, right?

I sent money for Haiti. Later I thought about sending more, but I didn’t do it. I’m sure everyone down there appreciates how much I thought about them while I was eating my pumpkin scone and reading the news at Starbucks.

Every day I think all kinds of nice things about people, and maybe 5% of them make the transition into something I actually do.

Thinking about someone doesn’t help them.

It’s only when our thoughts translate into actions that we reach out of ourselves and impact the life of another.

That’s why action is so important. If you’re not sure whether you should reach out to someone or not, the answer is probably YES. Your action may help them and it may not, but if you don’t reach out, you certainly won’t help.

You have to check in, to fulfill commitments, to do whatever. You have to do.

Not just think. Thinking doesn’t help. What you don’t do doesn’t matter.

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Image by Thomas Hawk

Greetings from World Domination HQ in Portland, Oregon. After visiting the South Pacific recently, I’m happy to be home for several weeks before the next trip.

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This is the Sunday Store Update, where I share a quick update on the business side of AONC. Here’s this week’s important business lesson: never lie to people.

Wow! So profound, I know… but stick with me.

When you produce something that you say is limited, you have to have a good reason for the limit, and you have to follow through with what you say.

If you launch a group where you say you can only take x number of people, for example, that’s what you have to do. In choosing between honesty and pleasing any particular person, you should be honest. It’s better to say no and turn away money than to stretch the truth or find a way to let more people in.

So anyway, last Monday I launched our first community group, and the limited spaces sold out very quickly. How quickly? Try 90 minutes after I opened the registration page! Crazy.

And in fact, 40 people signed up in the first eight minutes, including Peter who got up at 4am in New Zealand so he wouldn’t miss it. Peter and the others were obviously standing by their computer, just waiting for the link to appear. The second group sold out too, and other people were still trying to register as I frantically removed the order links from UnconventionalGuides.com.

Why Not More?

So in addition to sending out notes welcoming 300 participants (150 for each group), I spent the next day or two talking to a few people who were upset that the group closed so quickly. Why can’t I join too? they asked.

The short answer is because honesty is the best policy. 150 people responded in less than two hours; I closed down the first group as promised. Then 100 people responded to the second one; I posted the fair warning; 50 other people signed up, and I closed it too — also as promised.

So I’m sorry that a couple of people were upset, but I don’t think it’s fair to make exceptions and expand the group when we already said we wouldn’t. I’m not sure how I’d explain that to everyone who followed the rules: “Oh sorry, guys -– I know I said it would be limited, and I know Peter got up at 4am so he wouldn’t miss it, but I decided to change my mind.”

I don’t think that would go over well, nor should it. Nope.

Anyway, if I thought I could facilitate a class with more than 150 people at a time, I would do so. If I could make a Pam Slim replica and get both Pams to work nights and weekends, I would. But since I can’t, we’ll just have to wait for the next one. This is going to be a revolutionary program, and I’m glad so many people are interested.

My apologies to everyone who missed out, but stay tuned and you may get another chance later in the year. And for everyone else who did sign up, of course, I’m thrilled to have you in the program.

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Good things are on the way this week. You guys rock; thank you for caring.

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Image by Xctmx

While surveying villages outside of the capital Monrovia, we found this site where villagers obtained their drinking water.

As a traveler, I drink the tap water almost everywhere I go — but you can be sure I brought my own $3 bottle of water with me that day. No one builds up an immunity to a water source like that.

The previous year, while working in Sierra Leone, we had taken up a collection for another charity further upcountry in Liberia. After seeing the first water source, we made our way to the second site in a long, bumpy ride in a Land Rover. A crowd gathered to greet us, and this was the image we found at that scene:

At this site we heard a number of interesting things from the villagers, the most interesting of which was that no child had died since the well had been installed. I thought that was a pretty good return-on-investment: pay for a well, work with a local organization to ensure a strong educational campaign accompanies the arrival of the well, and children stop dying.

Stories like these are the best way I know to illustrate two things:

1) The global water crisis is staggering. I won’t bore you with statistics, except to note that almost one billion people in the developing world are more likely to drink from a water source like the first image than the second.

I don’t know about you, but these days I’m more concerned with the quality of my cappuccino than my drinking water. Despite the fact that the world is unfair in many ways, I find it unacceptable that so many people have to worry about where their daily water comes from.

2) Enabling people with the ability to make their own choices is the best form of development. If you can’t make the simple choice to not get sick all the time or keep your children alive, your options are very limited. There isn’t much “lifestyle design” in places like this.

Having been through graduate school in the social sciences, I’m well aware of the moral relativist argument that we should mind our own business and leave these things alone. But fortunately, my two years at the university were preceded by four years in places like Liberia and Sierra Leone. I’ve seen too many water sources like that of the first image, and no one wants their children to die before the age of five due to a completely preventable illness.

Next week, we’ll kick off the new AONC Charity Project. It’s actually not completely new; I’ve been donating a big chunk of revenue towards it for a while, and I’m working with my publisher to integrate the project with the book that comes out this fall.

I haven’t said much about it before and don’t want to make a public issue about my own giving, but I also realize we can do a lot more as a group than any of us could on our own. Therefore, stay tuned for a different kind of launch, which will be accompanied by an ambitious goal (of course).

The thing about before and after — it’s hard to go back to before when you’ve experienced the after. This is true in life, clean drinking water, and transformation of all kinds.

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Photos by Scott