Today you have a choice. You can do things like everybody else, or you can do things your own way. And the beautiful thing about it is, you don’t need anyone’s permission.
Thanks to Jonathan Fields for showing this video to me.
Over the months that I have been writing this blog, I have made it clear that there are really only three things that I want to do with my life. Those three things are write, race, and accomplish the goals on my Goddard list. I’ve written fairly extensively on the first two items, but have been rather vague about the third. That ends today.
First, I suppose I should explain what a Goddard List is. It is the same thing that others refer to as a “Life List” or a “Bucket List.” In simple terms, it’s a list of items I want to accomplish before I die. But why do I call it a “Goddard List” you might ask. That’s a fair question. Let me explain.
The first time I came across the idea of keeping a list of things I want to accomplish in life was while reading an article in Outside magazine about John Goddard. The article introduced Goddard to me and explained how as a 15-year old boy, Goddard made a list of 127 things that he wanted to accomplish in his life. I was impressed with Goddard’s mindset (not to mention his list) and the way he made his life all about accomplishing his goals. Until then, I thought I was goal oriented, but I was nowhere near as goal oriented as Goddard. I set out to change that by creating my own Goddard List. (more…)
Do you know who Sam Carpenter is? If not, you should. Especially if you are practicing the art of lifestyle design.
Sam Carpenter is the author of the book Work the System. To me, the very popular book The E-Myth (and E-Myth Revisted) by Michael Gerber was the tip of the iceberg. Work the System is the rest of the iceberg.
I read The E-Myth when I was first starting out in business for myself. I thought it was tremendous. It spoke to my beliefs in the way that a small business should be run.
In case you haven’t read it, The E-Myth encourages systemitizing procedures in a small business. It advocates running a business through systems rather than people. People are still required to run the systems, but the business isn’t at the mercy of a specific person. Instead, the business is run by systems and the people can be plugged in and out as needed.
One of the panels I attended last weekend at the Killer Nashville writers conference was on writing and marketing short stories. The panel was moderated by Claire Applewhite. Claire is a writer from St. Louis whose work includes two mystery novels, The Wrong Side of Memphis and Crazy for You.
The short story panel was interesting to me because I really enjoy writing short stories and because I wanted to see if anything would be said that would help me sell my book of short stories, Lake of the Falls. The answer to the second point was “no,” I didn’t learn anything that would help me with Lake of the Falls. However, I did get some good information on writing short stories.
One thing I learned right off the bat is that the short story market is a tough market. There are a lot of short story writers and the outlets for short stories are shrinking. Several printed magazines have gone out of business, replaced by online ezines. Unfortunately, many of the ezines have also gone out of business.
Author Jeffrey Deaver was the keynote speaker at last weekend’s Killer Nashville writing conference. Deaver writes the Lincoln Rhymes thriller series (The Burning Wire, The Broken Window, The Cold Moon), the Kathryn Dance thriller novels (Roadside Crosses, The Sleeping Doll), as well as other stand alone thrillers.
In his presentation, Deaver made it clear that these nine steps are the way he writes novels. He does not suggest that these steps will work for everyone. Nevertheless, I found his insights very helpful.
Deaver started his presentation by setting the scene. As a successful novelist, he often spends time on the beach in Bali while beautiful women in string bikinis feed him grapes (he’s obviously being sarcastic). As he’s relaxing, his alarm goes off and he knows he has one year to complete a novel for his publisher. These are the nine steps he follows over the next 12 months to make sure his novel is ready by the deadline: (more…)
I attended my first writers conference this past weekend. Killer Nashville is a writers conference geared primarily to writers of mysteries and suspense/thrillers. There was a big mix of writers that write in genres that touch mystery, but might not be considered strictly mystery.
Honestly, talking about genre with a writer can sometimes be as confusing as figuring out if a musician fits into country, rock, folk, Americana, etc. There are some obvious examples of each, but there are also plenty of examples that defy easy classification.
It’s hard for me to adequately judge Killer Nashville because I don’t have anything to judge it against. However, I do know that it was well worth the $150 cost of admission I paid.
As I detailed in an earlier post, I have been floundering around for several years chasing money. I’ve run a successful business that I really don’t like, and I’ve started another business that has the potential to be very profitable, but which I have no passion for. Rather than continuing to chase the money, I’ve decided to do something I’ve wanted to do my whole life. I’ve decided to write.
As with most things in my life, I am not content to simply dip my toe in the water. When I decided that I was going to make writing a priority in my life, I wasn’t content to take things slowly. Instead, I am jumping in with both feet.
My first order of business is to actually write. It seems pretty basic, but it’s something that a lot of wannabe writers miss. If you want to be a writer, you have to write. So that’s what I’m doing.
Most people would like to be wealthy, right? I mean, some people are not willing to do the work necessary to get wealthy. Others do not value money enough to change their lives to get it. But I think even those folks would agree that if you just handed them the money they would need to be wealthy, they would take it. Most people would rather be wealthy than not wealthy.
In a recent newsletter, Michael Masterson talked about three ways you can get rich. Masterson is a multimillionaire (which he is only too happy to tell anyone who will listen) and is the head of Early to Rise (ETR), a publishing company that specializes in publications on wealth creation, investment, business building and health. ETR is part of the very successful Agora Publishing family of companies.
In the interest of full disclosure, let me say up front that I don’t care much for Masterson or ETR. Part of it has to do with Masterson’s tone and the overall vibe I get from the company. They seem less than 100% honest and Masterson himself often seems aloof, uncaring, and even condescending to me. Also, I had a personal experience with ETR that soured me on the whole company.
A few weeks ago my buddies (more people I have never met in person) Dan and Ian were talking about getting rid of their alarm clock. In case you don’t know, Dan and Ian are the hosts of the Lifestyle Business Podcast. They own a product design business together, but Ian lives in San Diego and Dan lives in the Phillipines (when he is not gallavanting around elsewhere).
During this particular podcast, Ian brought up the fact that he has not had an alarm clock in his room for two years. He said that he gets the amount of slep he needs each night, and then gets out of bed when he is done sleeping (Brilliant!). Dan agreed with Ian and said that he (Dan) needed an alarm clock one night so he was sure to get up in time for a meeting. He went out and bought an alarm clock, used it that night, and then threw it away. He doesn’t want an alarm clock either.
As seemingly unimportant as this topic sounds, it resonated with me. What really resonated with me was when Ian said that he hates to be anywhere at a certain time and hates have to go places he doesn’t want to be. Really? Man, I thought that was just me and figured it was because I was 1) lazy, and/or 2) self-centered. But according to Ian, (I’m paraphrasing), this is common among entrepreneurs.
This post is a little off topic for this blog, but I still think it is important for anyone with a business or who is practicing lifestyle design. The topic? Why I hate credit cards.
A few years ago I came to the conclusion that credit cards and credit card companies are pure evil. Their entire existence is dependent on people who cannot afford the things they are buying. I think we can all agree that it is best not to buy something you don’t have the money for. A couple of exceptions to this rule would be buying a home or a car. But in general, it is a bad financial practice to purchase things you don’t have the money for.
Think about this: If everyone was responsible with their credit cards and paid them off every month, credit cards companies would go out of business. Sure, they earn a transaction fee from the merchant when someone uses a credit card, but the fees they earn are woefully inadequate to keep the credit card compaines in business. They depend on the exorbitant interest rates they charge to keep them solvent.