This week I’ll be in Milwaukee and Columbus, then flying over to London for the first international stop of the new tour.

I hope to see many of you on the road! Dates and schedule here.

***

Previous Updates in this Series:

Convergence
Skill Transformation
Report from the Road

Today I want to share the most important lesson of The $100 Startup.

The central message of the book is that the skills (and the money) you already have are all you need. You don’t need an MBA. You don’t need to beg the bank for money. You don’t need to write a 60-page business plan that no one will ever read.

To start a business, you just need a product or service, a group of people willing to buy it, and a way to get paid. That’s it! Focus on these three things exclusively.

As quickly as possible, get the first sale. Aim to do this within 30 days of conceiving of your idea. Then, pursue a process of continuous improvement to tweak your way to the bank (more on this later).

There is no consulting school. If you want to help people with a specific problem, go ahead and set up shop. (See the Instant Consultant Plan.)

We become comfortable with change by taking action to change. (See this article and a lesson on bulldozers for more.)

One of my favorite stories from the book comes from Lexington, South Carolina. On my first book tour, 18 months ago, I stopped by the Jamestown Coffee Shop. It was a great place and reminded me a lot of some of my favorite shops in the Pacific Northwest…. which wasn’t surprising once I heard the story. Here’s some background on how Jamestown Coffee came to be:

From his home base in Seattle, James Kirk used to build and manage computer data centers around the country. But in an act of conviction that took less than six months from idea to execution, he packed up a 2006 Mustang and left Seattle for South Carolina, on a mission to start an authentic coffee shop in the land of biscuits and iced tea. Once he made the decision, he says, all other options were closed:

“There was one moment very early on where I realized, this is what I want to do, and this is what I am going to do. And that was that. Decision made. I’ll figure the rest out.”

As we’ll see, James later got serious about making a real plan, but the more important step was the decision to proceed. Ready or not, he was heading for a major change, and it couldn’t come soon enough. A few short months later, Jamestown Coffee opened for business in Lexington, South Carolina. James and his new staff had worked ten-hour days for several weeks to prepare for the opening. But there it was—a ribbon to be cut, the mayor on hand to welcome the business to the community, and a line of customers eager to sample the wares. The day had come at last, and there was no looking back.

Later in the book I discuss more about the coffee shop. Along the way, James made numerous adjustments. He did in fact do a fair amount of planning. But as noted, the most important thing was to go. Decision made.

Let James Kirk’s story serve as a reminder to you. It all begins with an active decision, followed by action. Will you make your own decision to act?

Lastly, a Note on Urgency

I write a lot about legacy projects, and what I believe is a core need to focus on what we’ll make with the our lives. The related theme to this is urgency, the need to seize the day and make our time count for something.

I’m on the road again now, meeting with fun people every night and hearing good stories of change.

It challenges me. I don’t get every talk right, and I’m tweaking as I go. There are a few things I wished I had done differently in setting up the tour.

But I made the decision, and I’m moving forward. Another day, another city. In the down time I work on other projects, always making a little progress at a time and thinking about the next thing. It’s fun, it’s worth it, and what else would I do? That’s right, nothing.

What decision to act can you make right now?

Tell us here.

###

*It’s official: The $100 Startup is an Instant National Bestseller. Thanks for your support!

The Kindle version is now available in the U.S. and Canada, and the UK/Commonwealth version launches on Thursday, May 24.

We kicked things off in New York City with a great crowd.

The next day I rode Amtrak up to Boston for a return visit to the Harvard Coop, where I was 18 months ago for The Art of Non-Conformity tour.

After that, I went down to Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia.

I returned to NYC for the weekend and a shared event at New Work City.

From NYC I went to Chapel Hill, where I met up with my brother for an important bourbon tasting and a fun evening in the Nelson Mandela theater at the University of North Carolina.

The next day I went to Atlanta, where a couple of big surprises were waiting. On the earlier tour, Atlanta was one of my favorite stops. The crowd was extremely enthusiastic and our host, Judi Knight, went above and beyond in putting on a great show.

Among other things, Judi had recruited a brass band (complete with tuba player) to serve as the opening act. After my talk, they resumed playing while I signed books, and finally closed it out with a full-on parade through the signing line. There’s a first time for everything, I said later on Twitter.

Attention LONDON: Friends in the UK and nearby, we’ll be launching the UK/Commonwealth edition of the book next week. I’ll be at Concrete (56 Shoreditch High Street) in central London on Friday, May 25th at 7pm. If you’re in town or able to travel in, I’d love to see you. Sign up here for updates.

I’ll be sharing more about the tour in forthcoming posts. Until then, you can follow along on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or live in person at the next 10 stops.

Book News: So Far, So Good

Right now the book is in the hands of more than 15,000 people who picked it up during the first week. We’re still compiling the news on a few different sales metrics and records, but so far, so good. The book continues to sell well and earn strong reviews, for which I’m glad.

At some point during the week, I heard from an executive at another publishing house. They saw that we were #1 in organic orders from independent bookstores and wanted to know “how we did it.”

I thought this was funny. How did we do it?

Well, it took approximately four years. I’ve been building AONC the whole time, trying my best to work consistently toward a long-term goal. Then I spent three months working almost exclusively on all things $100 Startup.

I did 47 interviews in April, all in preparation for the launch. I wrote a dozen guest posts and op-eds that went out to the world over the past ten days. I announced and planned the world’s first 7-continent book tour.

But ultimately, I know that my own hustling efforts can only take us so far. The REAL success of the book comes from readers and our community.

On book tour I talk about how many of the people in our group regularly inspire me. If you’re out there and you’ve helped get us this far, THANKS SO MUCH!

I’ll be in Houston tonight, Denver tomorrow, and onwards next week. Wherever you are, keep rocking the universe.

###

This week: Chapel Hill, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, and Denver.

Tour dates and cities here.

And have I mentioned… THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I’m extremely grateful.

***

Continuing the theme of lessons learned, today let’s talk about skills.

In short, no matter what you think, you have them. Not only do you have general skills, you have skills that are marketable. You are good at something that can be parlayed into a business model.

The thing is, these skills may be different than you first realize. They may need to be reworked or repositioned somehow. But the central premise is:

If you’re good at one thing, you’re good at something else. Often the “something else” is where you’ll find the business model.

For example…

In London, Kat Alder was a waitress with good communication skills—her customers were always complimenting her and giving her good tips. She was good at providing recommendations and gently upselling them in a way they were happy about. Then someone said, “You know, you’d be really good at P.R.”

Kat was originally from Germany and wasn’t even sure that P.R. stood for Public Relations. After she was let go from another temporary job at the BBC, she thought back on the conversation. She still didn’t know much about the P.R. industry, but she landed her first client within a month and figured it out. Four years later, her firm employs five people and operates in London, Berlin, New York, and China.

If you’re a teacher, you’re also good at crowd control and discipline. You’re good at lesson planning (teachers don’t have much time to prepare) and you’re good at staying on track. You’re probably also good at seeing the long-term, since the best teachers incorporate an arc in their teaching; what you learn now is related to broader principles that you learn over time.

Similarly, if you’re an engineer, you’re a good problem solver. You’re good at analytical thinking and creating solutions. Brandon Pearce built a multiple six-figure business providing a solution to music teachers who were busy teaching and not as good at running their business.

The point is that sometimes you have to look beyond the obvious—but you already have the skills.

I also wrote about this last month in a post that wasn’t sent by email. Here’s how Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, puts it:

I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The “Dilbert” comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That’s how value is created.

***

One more thing: if you aren’t sure what skills you have that could be marketable, focus on the questions people ask you. Everyone’s an expert at something, and you may discover your specific skills by understanding what other people already see in you.

That’s it for today… I’m now back on the road to Chapel Hill and beyond.

Wherever you are, have a great week!

###

The $100 Startup is just $14 at Amazon.com. You can also pick up or request the book at your favorite local bookstore.

Lots of people are asking about the Kindle version. It’s been experiencing a glitch that causes it to disappear from the listing, but should be back soon.

Image: James

The book is out, and I’m on the road!

The launch party in New York was extremely fun. Last night I was in Boston at the Harvard Coop, and tonight I’m heading down to Washington, DC.

We’re hitting a new city almost every day for the next four weeks. Tour dates here.

And by the way… THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! It’s going very well so far, and we hope to keep it going for a long time.

Order Here on Amazon
Order Here on BN.com
Order from Your Local Bookstore

***

Over the next month, I’ll be sharing some of the lessons I learned in spending time with all the “unexpected entrepreneurs” profiled in the book. These won’t be promotional posts; I’ll be sharing real lessons and helpful information you can use in your own pursuit of freedom.

One of the first things I looked at was the question of the follow-your-passion model.

Many people talked about building a business based on a hobby or passion. However, others cautioned that “follow your passion” is more complicated than it first appears.

The key is that you can’t be passionate about just anything; instead you need to be passionate about something that other people are willing to spend money on. Here’s how I described it in the book:

As we’ll examine it, convergence represents the intersection between something you especially like to do or are good at doing (preferably both), and what other people are also interested in. The easiest way to understand convergence is: the overlapping space between what you care about and what other people are willing to spend money on.

Not everything that you are passionate about or skilled in is interesting to the rest of the world—and not everything is marketable. I can be very passionate about eating pizza, but no one is going to pay me to do it. Likewise, any particular person won’t be able to provide a solution to every problem or be interesting to everyone. But in the overlap between the two circles, where passion or skill meets usefulness, a microbusiness built on freedom and value can thrive.

***

The lesson of convergence can be seen in almost every case study in the book, and indeed, in almost every successful business. In Reno, Nevada, Mignon Fogarty created the QD Network, best known for her signature show Grammar Girl. The show was a huge hit almost from the beginning, spawning a line of books, related programs, and non-stop media attention.

But before she was Grammar Girl, Mignon pursued a similar idea in an unsuccessful attempt to build popularity through podcasting. Here’s how she tells the story:

“Before I launched the successful Grammar Girl podcast, I was the host of a science podcast called Absolute Science. I loved doing that show and I was passionate about it. I actually put more effort into promoting that show than I did for the Grammar Girl podcast, and although Absolute Science was well-received, after doing it for nearly a year it was clear that the show was never going to make enough money to make it worth the time required to produce it.”

Mignon changed course, trading science for grammar. The answer wasn’t to abandon her passion altogether, but rather to make sure she connected the right passion with the right audience.

“Absolute Science”: Passion… but not enough audience

“Grammar Girl”: Passion… and a substantial audience

In India, Purna Duggirala found a way to create spreadsheet tools (It’s now a six-figure business).

In Kansas City, Marianne Cascone co-founded Bon Bon Cupcakes, a children’s clothing firm.

In the U.K., Jonathan Pincas founded the Tapas Lunch Company, based on importing food from his partner’s native Spain. They later relocated to Spain and run the business back and forth between the two countries. A love for Spanish food and culture combined with a desire from the marketplace in Britain to get more authentic goods.

The examples go on and on, and the key point is: find convergence! This is the first and most important predictor of success in any business or freedom plan.

The link between passion and value is how you’ll change the world.

Question: Have you found convergence? How are you looking for it?

Tell us here.

###

Image: Tera!

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

Today is the day.

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

The $100 Startup is going out to the world!

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

The central message of the book is:

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

You can pick up the book from any major bookseller:

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

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

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

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

The Tour Begins Tonight!

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

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

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

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

Onwards and upwards!

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

###

Greetings from East 42nd Street in New York City.

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

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

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

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

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

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

See you tomorrow?

###

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

Image: See-ming Lee

If you’re trying to figure out what you’re good at, or trying to start a business for the first time, there’s a simple strategy that will help.

Start by listening.

Pay attention to what people ask you about. Chances are, there’s something you’re good at that other people want to learn.

Gary Leff, profiled in my upcoming book, never knew that people would pay money for him to manage their Frequent Flyer accounts… but at least once a day, he books an award for someone and earns a $250 fee.

Brett Kelly, also in the book, wasn’t sure that people would pay to learn how to use a software program that was free… but as he listened, he kept hearing the same questions over and over. He put together a comprehensive solution that contained all the answers, and now earns more than $150,000 a year from this “side project.”

There are business models and opportunities all around you.

Pay attention!

###

*Don’t be a stranger: Join the AONC community of 30,000 fans on Facebook, or circle me up on Google+.

*Next week we’ll launch The $100 Startup and I’ll be on the road to 20+ cities. I hope to see you somewhere! Until then, check out the official video trailer.

Image: Highersights

It took a ton of work, but we have now pared down a few highlights from the interview into a two-minute trailer that you can see below or directly on YouTube.

In this video…

Emily Cavalier left a six-figure job in New York to run Mouth of the Border and Midnight Brunch.

Michael Hanna was unemployed and started an unconventional mattress store that offers delivery by bicycle.

Sarah Young founded a yarn shop at the height of the recession. She now employs seven people. In the video she talks about calling her dad after having her first $1,000 day. Last month, she had her first $10,000 day.

James Kirk packed up everything he owned and drove from Seattle to South Carolina to start a coffee bar in the land of biscuits and sweet tea.

Note: the book is fully international, with case studies from all over the world—but despite repeated requests from Wes, I did not fly him to the beaches of Croatia and Tahiti to film people there. You’ll have to get the book to read those stories.

My favorite part of the whole project, from writing the book to reviewing this footage, was hearing the stories of people who have created freedom for themselves by making something valuable for the world. Most of them aren’t professional bloggers. None of them went to business school. They are ordinary people from all walks of life who now work full-time doing something they enjoy.

A Note on Killing the Dream

I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts lately that serve as reality checks on the concept of “quit your job and do what you love.” I always have mixed feelings about these things. Yes, it’s true that self-employment requires a lot of work and isn’t always what employed people perceive it to be.

In fact, in the book itself I tried to be fairly specific about the “follow-your-passion to the bank” thing. (More on this later. The short version is: sometimes you can do that and other times you can’t.)

But I also think it’s pretty important to be clear that working for yourself is awesome. In researching and writing The $100 Startup, I heard from hundreds of people who are all living the dream. Therefore, my message is “Don’t kill the dream! Don’t reality-check your life.”

As I said about failure recently, who says you’re going to fail? Success is better, and there’s no reason you won’t succeed.

Thanks again to Wes for his great work! We’ll be sharing more of these stories over the next few months.

###

*Our friends at Only72.com are kicking off another epic sale today… and this one benefits the book! Check it out starting at 12pm EST today and lasting until… 72 hours later.

One week from tomorrow, it all begins! I’ll be visiting 22 cities to meet readers on The $100 Startup tour! Everything is frantic over here, but I’m also super excited about kicking things off.

We all know there is a problem in focusing entirely on the end result.

When you reach the end, what comes next? What if the end wasn’t what you really wanted?

That’s why you have to love the milestones along the way, reminders that you appreciate what you’re doing and that it’s all for a good cause.

But there’s also a problem in focusing entirely on process. Working strictly on process takes you away from the big picture can lead you astray. Besides, it’s OK to have goals, right?

The third way is to love the act of creation itself.

When you love the act of making things, of bringing something to life, you’ll find that it loves you back.

No matter what, you’ll encounter setbacks and experience disappointments. But when you encounter them, your response is to keep creating. Use the setbacks for greater good.

Write your 1,000 words, paint your painting, build your business, lead your team—whatever you do. Focus on the act of making things.

The act of creation is where joy and effort intersect.

See you all next week for the debut of The $100 Startup book trailer, the road to NYC, and more.

###

Image: Amie

“I haven’t been everywhere yet, but it’s on my list.” -Susan Sontag

Over the past seven years, I’ve been traveling to everywhere: all 193 countries, and plenty of other places along the way.

The journey has been even more amazing than I expected. Over the next couple of months I’ll be on book tour in the U.S. and Canada, and I’m actually glad to be taking a break from seeing the world… because I’m not ready for it to end.

After trips earlier this year to Sudan, Turkmenistan, and the South Pacific, there are now only 8 countries left! Here’s the list:

Guinea Bissau
Sao Tome
Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)
Seychelles
Yemen
Tuvalu
Kiribati
Norway

The book tour will keep me on familiar ground for a while, but at the end of July I’ll be heading back out to visit these final countries. Next April we’ll be in Norway for the big finale—if you’d like to come along, put your name on this list. (Note: at this point we have no idea what’s happening or how we’ll manage it, but there WILL be a big party.)

***

I was going to write a long post explaining how to visit anywhere in the world. For example, here’s how you fly to such-and-such a place. Here’s how you get a visa. Don’t get the visa? Whatever. The worst thing that can happen is you get thrown in jail and never get out. (But this is unlikely.)

Maybe I’ll still do that, but for now, I think a few things are more important. At the top of the list is mentality, and the simple decision to take action. Here’s a common theme from would-be travelers that regularly arrives in my Inbox with many variations:

“Where should I start?”

And here’s a good answer for almost all the variations:

“Does it matter?”

You can continue this theme for related questions.

“What should I pack?”

Well, there are plenty of lists out there, but you could also say:

“Who cares? The less, the better.”

It even works well for troubleshooting:

“What if something goes wrong?”

It will probably be fine, but even if it isn’t:

“You’ll figure it out.”

***

We often feel paralyzed by choice and make no choice. But the thing is, no choice is a choice. If you’re not doing something about it, you’re doing something about it.

So if you too want to travel and you’re trying to make a choice, just choose. If you want to go somewhere, what’s stopping you? That’s right, nothing.

Everywhere you look, people are breaking down barriers. Married couples, people from different ethnic backgrounds, solo female travelers, seniors, and anyone you can think of—even people like you.

Stephanie Dodaro is walking 800 miles through California right now. The Vogel family cycled from Alaska to Argentina.

Steve Kamb recently exercised all over the world, using Frequent Flyer miles to travel for almost free. Stephanie Zito has been to more than 100 countries, many of them on her own.

So it seems it is possible, at least for most of us who are able to read this. Here are a few options.

Want to Serve?

Great. Start by reading up on ReliefWeb. Consider a trip with Habitat or a similar organization.

For a more in-depth commitment, apply to teach English for a year (host organizations will often cover your costs and pay a small stipend). Apply for the Peace Corps or similar opportunity in your own country.

Want to Learn?

Join the Semester at Sea. Study abroad. Apply for a Fulbright (U.S. citizens use them to study abroad, non-U.S. citizens use them to study or teach in the U.S.).

Of course, you can also learn on your own. Take a pilgrimage, a sabbatical, an escape-my-life, whatever you need to do.

Just Want to Travel?

That’s fine too. So hit the road! It’s not that complicated. Throw a dart at the map if you must.

You really can go everywhere—or at least, you can go anywhere.

How about you—where are you going next? Feel free to tell us here.

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Today is the final day of The $100 Startup mega-sale. Pre-order 3 or more books and receive… everything. Next week, our friends at Only72.com will be having a different sale that also benefits the upcoming book launch.

Image: Joe