It seems that the vast majority of young entrepreneurs seeking capital for their company are focused on Angel & Venture Capital investors. In short, the focus is on professional investors. There are a great many advantages to accepting capital from professional investors, but there is one major drawback: cost.

Professional Investors:

Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists (usually) bring with them a wealth of experience and expertise in business and management. These groups can provide high-octane guidance to accelerate a company’s growth.

Their expertise, however, comes at a price. A significant portion of the company’s ownership and profits are handed over to professional investors in return for their monetary investment and expertise.

One of the sources of the high-cost is that professional investors are typically middlemen; that is, they invest the money of other individuals and institutions. The implication of this is that the cost of capital is necessarily increased, as there are more hands in the capital “cookie jar.” The fundamentals of how these professional investment firms are compensated require rather high returns from their investments. The high returns are generated by establishment of high hurdle rates, large ownership percentages, and onerous profit splits.

The Alternative:

While, at first blush, they may not seem as easy to access, wealthy private individuals can be a fantastic source of funding. To fully capitalize on the advantages of funding from a private individual, you must cut out any and all middlemen. Go directly to the individual his or herself. This will help establish trust, and remove finders fees paid to third parties.

How to find wealthy individuals:

Use your creativity, but the main method is network, network, network. Get in front of as many people as possible. Go to coffee, lunch, or happy hour with people who are not in your age-group. You never know when or where you’ll find someone that has an extra several hundred thousand dollars sitting around (I’m not joking. Not even a little bit.).

While it’s always good to let someone else do the talking when your goal is to win them over, you should shamelessly discuss your projects with everyone you meet. A great way to get in front of successful business people and entrepreneurs is to ask for their advice. In doing so, show them that you’ve got a great business or idea and you’re looking for investors. If it truly is a good business, chances are they will desire to invest their own money or introduce you to others who may wish to invest and have the means to do so.

The value of a dollar:

As a hard working entrepreneur, you know the value of a dollar. If you’re in the midst of a start-up, you’re probably holding on to every single dollar as tightly as you possibly can. But that is not the case with everyone you meet. Many people have never been introduced to an opportunity such as investing in a small, interesting startup. Furthermore, if they compare the returns that they have been receiving on their stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, the returns that you expect to see in your start up are likely far-and-wide more appealing.

To capitalize on the alternative returns to which the individuals have access, you should provide a return profile that is better – but not too much better – than easily accessible alternatives. For instance, a guaranteed 12% return is extremely attractive to many investors.

Ideal structure:

In many cases, if you don’t wish to give-up too much ownership in the company, a structure that combines debt and equity is ideal. Pay a guaranteed return on the investment (i.e. 12% as discussed above) but have the repayment provisions such that you can either repay at your discretion, or upon the sale of the business. This means you will not need to worry about recapitalizing when you’re up against a balloon repayment at the end of the third year. This provides you, the entrepreneur, the ultimate in flexibility, while still providing the investor with a decent return.

Ownership:

The return alone will be enough to entice many investors. Ownership can be very limited. For instance, provide the investor with only 15% ownership, with a guaranteed return of 12% per annum. Create a series of “default” provisions with the investor that, in the event of the occurence of a default provision, the ownership of the investor will revert to 51%, ensuring that they have control to get the company “out of trouble.”

Ensuring Success:

If your investor, for instance, invests $100,000 with a guaranteed return of 12% per annum, simply set aside $12k in a separate savings account and use that money to pay the return to the investor. This ensures that you will not have a cash crunch and risk a default anytime in the first year.

What Really Matters:

Private individuals have different needs and desires that they seek to fulfill through their investments. You, as an entrepreneur, are looking to fulfill a need for investment capital. Listen to potential investors. Understand what they are looking for in an investment and work with them to create a structure that is the “ideal” investment for your investor. Go into all negotiations with an open mind, and see if you can find middle ground.

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, investors, start-up

Luke Ollett, co-founder of Shiva Media and blogger at Our Thursday

I was fortunate enough to track down Luke Ollett, co-founder of Shiva Media, a mobile application firm which releases upwards of 30,000 apps each month. He is also a blogger at and founder of Our Thursday. He’s a location independent entrepreneur who I met in London, but is now living in Santiago, Chile.

A few excerpts:

On jumping into entrepreneurship:

About four years ago, I was in middle of a very good and very cushy job at IBM, where I was a consultant for IBM for about three years. After two years at IBM, I was making loads of money. I was traveling a lot. I had all the toys I wanted. At one point, I was thinking, “I could buy a house right now.” Or at least go severely in debt to have a house, but manage the mortgages. Get a car, find my wife and settle down.

At that point I realized, “Wow, I’m 23 years old and that is the last thing I should be thinking of.” I decided, “Now is the time to really, really fuck up.”

On who he looks to for investments:

The answer is: anybody and everybody. We begin with a sound and a strong business plan ‑ more importantly, sound and strong numbers. If the numbers makes sense, and you can logically start from the beginning to the end and with numbers throughout that process. And then, ultimately, show a table to somebody who has no clue about mobile applications, but now after reading an eight page PowerPoint, they suddenly think, “Wow, this seems like there might be some potential,” we are able to get ourselves at least in front of investors. Whether they’re going to invest, becomes another matter.

And it becomes almost a sales pitch, because there’s a typical sort of investor who, their rule of thumb, “I will never be the first.” And, we found quite a number of people that will never be the first. So I don’t whose starting in…

You run into a good option with family members, because everybody has always got the rich relative overseas or something. Sometimes it’s better to propose to multiple family members, and you can say, “The four of you invest ten grand.” But, through the way our CFO is able to make the numbers look, that, they each have invested maybe more.

So there are ways to make it nicer to investors, and really, ultimately, they’re investing to make their money back. How do you show them that? Simply numbers. Show them what you’ve done in the past. And you show them, “Here’s our forecast, and here’s what we expect you to make in x, y and z time periods.”

On the most important aspect of entrepreneurship:

As an entrepreneur, I cannot stress enough the importance of networking. There’s no reason you should not have your hands in any sort of pot, pan and cup of wine that you can find to try and spread your name, your business, your reputation, your word, because it will pay off dividends in the end.

On getting out of your comfort zone:

And for any entrepreneur, it’s always, “How do I do something novel? How do I put myself out of the box?” And sometimes it’s as easy as just doing what you do with your friends but don’t invite your friends, because you’ve already got the connections with them.

Recommended Books: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Recommended Blogs: TechCrunch & Lifehacker

Want more Luke?

Twitter: twitter.com/l0c0luke
Blog: ourthursday.com
Company: shivamediagroup.com
Radio: roachclipradio.com

Full Interview Audio:

Interview with Ollett of Shiva Media – Lifestyle-Y

Full Interview Transcript (click below):

(...)
Read the rest of Location Independent Pro: Interview with Luke Ollett, Co-Founder of Shiva Media (7,481 words)

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Post tags: 4 hour work week, Adventure, blogging, business, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, goal, interview, location independent, Timothy Ferriss

Michael Lustig, founder of MEGGGA.com, wearing one of his creations.

Michael Lustig, founder of MEGGGA.com and a business partner of mine in ForeclosureJet.com took time out of his busy day to discuss his experiences as a GenY entrepreneur.

Scroll down to get the full audio & transcript. The interview is  a little over 30 minutes long, so here’s a few gems:

On wasting time during start-up:

One of the biggest time sucks my partner and I experienced in launching this website was the “analysis paralysis” of getting everything perfect before we launched. The website took about three or four months to develop and we kept on going back to the design of the site, to the design of the home page, and to the design of the individual product pages and tweaking it. We became so focused on providing the best user experience that it definitely slowed down the progress of our launch and the time-table for our launch because we were just so concerned with having everything look perfect. It eventually just got to the point where it was necessary for us to just move forward and launch the business. All of the underlying processes that control the website, from the content management system to the shopping cart, it all worked. It was really just being comfortable with taking an idea that you want to be perfect and realizing that if you’re looking for perfection, you’re always going to find a flaw. You just have to accept that and put it out there and start growing your business on a tangible level.

On his motivation to be an entrepreneur:

I got into this and the other businesses I’m involved with because I want control over my life. I want to have the flexibility to do the fun activities with my friends and family when I want to do them. Being able to work from home or, just in a general sense, working at any location, that is really the primary motivator, because I can devote my life to my family, my friends, and the things that I really love to do in my free time.

On the importance of blogs:

I’d say the biggest aid that I’ve had from technology, doesn’t come from hardware or software; it comes from blogs. It’s from the blogs of other t-shirt designers that are involved in the industry, that have been around longer than me, those blogs that share that knowledge of their experience have been incredibly helpful to me. Being able to learn from other people’s mistakes and learn how a successful online business owner markets his product, produces his product, that’s something that has been invaluable to me and has saved me a lot of time and I’m sure it saved me a lot of frustration that I would have encountered if I didn’t do my industry research.

Reccomended Book: The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

Reccomended Blog: TED.com

Full interview audio:

Interview with Mike Lustig of MEGGGA.com – Lifestyle-Y.com

Full interview transcript (click below):

(...)
Read the rest of Interview with Mike Lustig, founder of MEGGGA.com (3,894 words)

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Post tags: business, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, goal, interview, meggga, productivity, start-up

As I mentioned in my last post, I embarked on the “Geek to Freak” fitness program (in actuality, I’m doing a hybrid of the program to emphasize weight loss). I’ve done well and have lost 10 pounds in the last three weeks. I’ve been consistently eating well and sticking to my exercise and sleep regimen.

Friday night, however, I slipped back into old ways, drinking beer, eating greasy Mexican food, and staying out too late. Yesterday morning I reflected on that decision and thought about what causes some people to lose focus on a goal – even momentarily – and why some people seem to achieve seemingly unrealistic goals time after time.

I’m going to use the example of weight-loss here, but it can be applied to any desired goal:

Pick up any magazine relating to men’s health or bodybuilding and you will find an article or advert displaying radical body transformations. However, when most of us set out to abolish our beer-bellies, we may end up with a flat stomach, but we never end up with a six-pack. You can blame it on whatever you want, but you didn’t achieve your goal.

The same thing happens in business: you start a business, develop a nice $10k per month income stream, but you never turn it into a $100 million company.

What is the difference between the person with the flat stomach and the six pack? Or the $10k income stream versus a $100 million company? It’s likely just 5% difference in effort.

The 5% Difference

The difference between average and remarkable is very small. As small as 5% effort can mean the difference between living comfortably as an entrepreneur and being listed in the Inc. 500.

What is that  5% difference made up of? It’s not just putting in extra hours, it’s working smart, doing research. In most cases, if you spend the time researching upfront, you can save tons of time achieving your goals. Spending two minutes mapping a route before you hop in your car can save you a lot of time and frustration while you’re en route. The same applies to every goal you undertake.

What stops you at 95%?

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was mad at myself and was blaming my self-control and discipline. And that is absolutely the root cause of my choices Friday night – and reason that many people get 95% of the way to their goal, but fall short of 100%.

Achieving a goal implies change and change is stressful, no matter what kind of change it is. You may know that there’s a better way to organize your day, or conduct a weekly staff meeting, but you may never make the necessary changes to increase efficiency because it’s easy to let the things that feel comfortable slide. When you do implement change, it’s very hard to get it to stick.

I came across the following video today in a Lifehacker post:

What is the take away value of this video? You need to be smart about the implementation of change. Don’t purposely stress your willpower – save it up for the important things.

It’s the first 5% that makes the difference.

Put in the effort upfront: do your research & prepare. This will help you immensely. If you’re dieting, don’t just buy healthy food, prepare it and keep it close at hand. If you’re expanding your business, plan your route to expansion and implement changes upfront to reduce temptation of falling back into your old ways: hire a virtual assistant, for example. This allows you to save your willpower and apply it more judiciously throughout the day.

So what should I have done Friday night? I should have eaten before I went out to meet friends. I should have brought a healthy snack and a water bottle to keep me satiated. It was my lack of planning that caused me to fail because, once I was in the situation, it was too late.

Share some advice:

What do you think is the most important thing to plan and prepare when embarking on a new business venture to ensure its success? Post it in the comment section!

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dieting, effort, goal, goals, time management, work

The Four Hour Work Week has been a phenomenon. It is based upon a concept that nearly everyone who reads the book strives to attain, but few, if any, ever do. The goal seems so unrealistic that there is much doubt about the legitimacy of Tim Ferriss’s claims about his own “four hour work week” lifestyle. I’ve even written about my own skeptecism in the past.

As an entrepreneur, I and many of my friends have read the book. We often discuss the topic of the difficulties of achieving the four hour work week goal and the fact that many of us think that Tim Ferriss is a fraud.

I had held that opinion in my mind for quite a while, until the other day.

Because I had committed myself to restart my blog, I spent time reviewing blogs that have large followings to see what they are doing effectively; one of which was Tim’s Blog. While on Tim’s blog, I read the “Geek to Freak” post. I had read the post before and it seemed too good to be true. I conducted some Google searches and found that there are many people who shared my opinion.

However, I found some people who claimed it worked.

I spent time researching the topics of HIT and HIIT, and reading everything I could find regarding the “Colorado Experiment.” I then spoke to one of my friends who said he had just started the geek to freak program. That made up my mind, I was going to do it myself.

Right about the time I made that decision, it occurred to me: It doesn’t matter whether or not Tim Ferriss is telling the truth. His stories inspire people to try to achieve the goals he writes about. Tim Ferriss is an inspiration to a generation of people who don’t want to be part of the status quo. Tim inspired me to quit screwing around and start my own business, he inspired me to start a blog, and he inspired me to try to get back in shape. He’s done the same for countless other people around the world.

How does Tim Ferriss inspire people & get them to believe him?

Tim provides well researched and outlined strategies that people can follow. He provides something that is simple enough that people can adhere to (such as eat the same few meals every day), but he NEVER says that it is easy. It gets 4HWW followers to believe that if you don’t get the results that Tim promised, it’s most likely that you didn’t try hard enough – which is likely to be the truth.

Despite all of the disbelief surrounding Tim Ferriss and the 4HWW, he serves a very important role for Generation Y, and small business entrepreneurs in general: you need to step out of your comfort zone and try your hardest – then you can succeed.

Over the next few months, I will be interviewing people who have read the 4HWW and experienced varying degrees of success in its implementation. All are, have been, or are trying to be entrepreneurs.

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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No, I have not been living under a rock!

I’ve been extremely busy since my last post, seven months ago in December, 2009. To update you on my previous endeavors:

Location Independent Living:

I’ve effectively ended the experiement. I’m living full-time in Denver once again. I plan to travel more in the future, but not right now. Along with this, I have abandoned the Location Independent Talent Exchange.

Shortcut to China:

This endeavour is entirely dead. I will get into this in greater detail in the future, but it failed due to partnership issues.

Business Consulting:

I have developed this extensively (see below).

Current Endeavors

Since returning to Denver, I have focused almost entirely on the development of several businesses. I haven’t been traveling much or, planning travel. My current businesses necessitate that I am in Denver more-or-less full time. Here’s a brief summary of them, I plan to get into more detail in the near future.

SB Smith West:

This is my main company, and the one through which I conduct all business consulting. I focus mainly on commercial real estate consulting, which is what the majority of my experience is in. At this time, I now employ three people in various capacities.

ForeclosureJet:

ForeclosureJet is my brain child. It is a website which reports to subscribers the number of foreclosures reported each day in the Colorado Real Estate market. The system is significantly faster than any of our competitors’ services. We offer a free service to anyone interested.

Wazee Union:

Wazee Union is a unique real estate venture in Denver of which I am the Managing Partner. We’re converting a vacant 20,000 square foot warehouse into artist studios and small office space. Remodeling is about 75% completed and we’re approximately 50% leased. The website should be updated later this week.

Needless to say, I’ve been busy. I’m making a pledge to post at least once every two weeks. I’ll use those posts to give more details on all of my current ventures as well as topics more along the lines of my previous posts.

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Starting your own business is a tough process. One of the toughest aspects of starting a business for many people is actually starting. You know that you want to start your own business, but you haven’t taken any real steps towards getting a business started. Sure, you write down your ideas and discuss them with your friends. You read every book blog you can get your hands on. You’ve got a burning desire down, deep inside your being reminding you that you want to start your own business.

But you haven’t started it.

Still, others of you may have started creating a business, but you haven’t ever opened your doors for business. Some of you may have done this many times over.

The excuses are grand an innumerable:

• “The economy turned and the business wouldn’t work today.”
• “I don’t have enough experience to start a business.”
• “I want to do more research.”
• “Someone else must have the same idea and will do it better.”
• “I’m only 25, who will listen to me?”
• “There’s not enough time in the day.”
• “I’m too busy with my job & hobbies.”

Give me any excuse you want; the excuse matters not. What matters is that you truly want to become an entrepreneur.

What’s Stopping You?

We all procrastinate. We just don’t all realize when or why we do it.

Let’s take a little trip back in time, to when you were in college (maybe you still are). You get assigned a 30-page research project due in two months, at the end of the semester. Immediately, your head is filled with ideas about how you could complete the project. On several occasions, you head to the library, intending to get started on the project. However, you spend the time surfing the internet, reading magazines, and ultimately getting little or no work done on the research project. Then, four days before the project is due, you panic, head to the library, pull two all-nighters, working without interruption, and handing the report in on time.

Many people “choose” to work like this. The stress of a deadline, they say, forces them to work and to focus. There are some benefits to deadlines (I wrote about them here), but what do you do when you don’t have a deadline? And when you do have a deadline, wouldn’t you like to work without the stress of working right up to a deadline?

Why We Procrastinate

The reason most of us procrastinate goes back to our childhood. Many of us are taught to “do our best” or even “be the best” at everything we do. Anything short of that is a failure. If you ever brought home a report card with five A’s and one C, only to be punished for the C, you know what I’m talking about. Or maybe you tried very hard but never received A’s and were never rewarded for your work. Regardless, if you were constantly given the feeling that you could have or should have done better, this applies to you.

This idea of “anything less than perfect is a failure” is internalized by many of us, as it is constantly reinforced through parenting and the structure of our schools and businesses. When “perfect” is the only option, failure is almost inevitable. To avoid failure, or at least feeling internally as though we’ve failed, we avoid starting the task in the first place. We fear that the ultimate outcome of the task or activity will be inadequate.

So much of our lives are defined by the work we do in business or school. Consequently, we often begin to consider our work products as an indication of our self-worth. This only serves to amplify our fears of failing because we look at less than perfect performances in school or work as an indication that we, as people, are less valuable than those people who do achieve A’s or make big sales.

Back to the research project. You ultimately decide that the consequences of not doing anything are worse than completing the project quickly and in a mediocre fashion. You may complete the project, and may even get an A, but you’re still hurting yourself.

Cramming for a test, pulling all-nighters to finish a project at the last minute, or winging a presentation all feed our procrastination. These actions are actually a defense mechanism, rather than a victorious completion of a task. When you wait until the last minute to complete the task, you know that you haven’t put out your best effort. Thus, should you receive a less than perfect grade or not make the sale, you can rest comfortably knowing that you could do better, so this failure is not representative of your actual self-worth.

How to Overcome Procrastination & Start a Business

Wannabe entrepreneurs seldom, if ever, have an impending deadline that forces them into entrepreneurship. Thus, they are never forced to put together a business. Instead, they delay the process of starting the business – indefinitely, in some cases.

Why does this happen? When we focus on the outcome of our efforts to build a business, we panic. You might put have a picture of a Ferrari on your desktop because it reminds you of the outcome you want: to make enough money to buy a Ferrari. Or maybe your goal is much simpler: building a business that generates enough money to live comfortably. These goals can actually hurt procrastinators, rather than help them. Procrastinators freeze because they fear that their efforts to create a business will fail in achieving their goals.

By all means, everyone should make goals, but procrastinators should approach achieving them differently. The procrastinator needs to focus on the activity of starting a business, rather than the outcome of their efforts.

4 Steps to Breaking out of Procrastination

1. Break down the process of starting a business into small tasks which can be completed in an hour or less. You can focus on the process of completing the task rather than the fear of failing at your ultimate goal. There’s a ton of tools out there to help you structure larger tasks into small ones. A process which I have tried recently is the Pomodoro Technique.
2. Focus on starting rather than completing. Tell yourself “I’m going to begin the task of choosing a domain name, then I’m going to begin the task of researching web designers, and then I’m going to begin the task of developing a budget.” Phrasing your tasks in this way implies open-ended opportunity, rather than a closed-ended task with an end result. You do this becuse the end result is the element of the task on which you can pass judgement. This approach may even help you enjoy the task, rather than making it feel as though you’re laboring towards a goal.
3. Focus on the activity required to complete the task, rather than the outcome. If you need to write a blog post, focus your mind on the activity of writing. Don’t begin thinking about “what if this post goes viral?” “what if this post sparks tons of comments?” or “what if my readers hate this post?” Simply concentrate on putting words down on paper. A good way to get into this mindset is by visualization. Before starting a task, visualize yourself in the process of working – don’t focus on what it will look like when completed.
4. Keep track of your starts. Every time you are able to begin a new task, write it down. At this time you can mark the previous task completed. Waiting to mark a completion until you start a new task helps your work continue flowing from one task to the next and moving you towards your ultimate goal.

I’ve implemented these strategies to great success in my own life. They will work for anyone, not just entrepreneurs or students. I hope that they help you out.

I don’t intend this to be a lesson on parenting and I’m not giving anyone reason to blame their parents. What I am pointing out is that to be successful adults, we must understand & alter the way that we operate.

(Image by gadl)

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, goal, Pomodoro Technique, Procrastination, start-up

Bear Grylls is truly location independent - Kinda makes all of your planning seem pretty dumb, huh?

(Note: I am not referring to any one blog or blogger anywhere in this post. This refers to an entire community of bloggers – location independent just happens to be the most commonly used term.)

This is a long post – but a very important one. Take the time necessary to read it!

In the last four months, I have established my “location independence.” Like many of you reading this, I learned of location independence, modern nomading, or whatever you’d like to call it (I’ll call it location independence in this post, but I am referring to ALL terms for it), via blogs. It sounded like an amazing way to live and I started pursuing this lifestyle.

Many have emailed me over the last couple of months asking questions about how to achieve location independence. Every single person was using bloggers’ experiences to model their ideal lifestyle. There’s a major problem with this, and at the risk of being excommunicated from the online community of location independents, I’m going to tell you about it.

Let me preempt the rest of my statements with this: I have not met most of the bloggers to whom I am referring, but I have read their writings – which is really all that matters, because that is the level of access most people have to these bloggers. I’ve also had somewhat extensive online interactions with others.

Many of the bloggers you read are literally the antithesis of location independence.

Many bloggers are simply transferring their “home” to a new location, not creating a lifestyle that is independent from a “home” location (yes, I am guilty of this – but I don’t scream about location independence from the rooftops either). Doesn’t it sound pretty ludicrous to be “location independent” but need to plan a relocation months in advance? If you are truly location independent, wouldn’t you be able to pick up everything and go to a new location today?

Relocations are simply a cop-out. Planning out a relocation to an exotic destination is not exhibiting location independence – it is exhibiting EXTREME LOCATION DEPENDENCE!!! These people are so attached to and dependent upon their home location that they cannot commit to moving to a new location. Rather than move, they do a temporary relocation.

I really don’t give a crap about these bloggers. But there are some great people out there (some of whom are close friends) who are trying to become location independent and are being lead down the wrong path by these bloggers.

Here’s a great example of how crazy this sounds: My girlfriend works for a large company that required her to relocate from Denver to Tucson with two weeks notice. In that amount of time, she completely moved her life to Tucson. On the other hand, there’s bloggers who are writing about their plans to become “location independent” for months. They are carefully planning everything, ensuring that they can replicate every aspect of “home” that they depend upon – while not actually letting go of their home, via renting it out or making arrangements to ensure that they can retain ownership when they leave.

Who is more location independent??? My girlfriend is. She was able to transport her life to a new location in a matter of two weeks, not leaving apartments, homes, or storage units full of crap behind.

Maybe she should start a blog.

But these bloggers give me good advice!?!

Do they really? The majority of people I have spoken with who follow these bloggers are actually hurting their chances at location independence. Most of theses bloggers are giving you advice in order to get you to read their blog, buy their products, and click on their ads (you may notice that at this time, there’s no ads or items for sale on this blog). These bloggers are teaching readers to reinforce their location dependence by overloading you with information, leading you to over plan, and replicate their location dependence in the name of location independence.

Is reading another blog post going to improve your chances of becoming location independent? No – you’re going to spend valuable time reading someone else’s experience rather than creating your own.

Is buying another ebook going to give you the tools you need to become location independent? Absolutely not! You’re spending money on someone else’s opinions. Use that money to start up a new business or add it to your savings.

Recognize the bloggers for who they are

There’s a lot of travel junkies out there blogging under the guise of location independence. Many of these people have constructed their hobbies or, in some cases, their livelihoods from planning and blogging about their trips and relocations. If you plan on making trips & relocations a part of your lifestyle – and not your life – these people are likely leading you down the wrong path. You may wish to relocate to Melbourne, but maintain your training for triathlons, or keep knitting, or writing your novel.

Some people consider relocating or planning a trip stressful – others consider it a hobby. Which category do you fall into? Do the bloggers you read fall into the same category?

What location independent (and similar labels) are good for

Location independent labels become rallying cries. They allow people to form a community or tribe around an idea. This serves as a great way to create charity an camaraderie amongst people who identify with the idea (LIP Talent Exchange is a great example of this, as are certain free forums). However, people who wish to join this community can (and are) often become distracted by the leadership of community leaders (bloggers) and focus their efforts on activities that do not lead to achieving their dreams. Instead, they become lost in the community and the achievements of other community members. Remember that everything you read on the blogs is packaged to sell a product and to get you to keep visiting the blog – the story may not have happened exactly how they’re retelling it!

These labels have created a marketplace (much like supposed “minimalism” has) – but it’s mostly an artificial market. I have yet to read an ebook from a blogger in this space that teaches me how to travel and run my business, not to mention it seems every ebook repeats the same, useless information. Remember that these labels are created in order to sell you something.

Be honest with yourself – even if bloggers aren’t

Spend some time and think about this: the location independent person can go anywhere in the world and find a way to procure food, shelter, and clothing. The location dependent person needs to plan out where to store their crap, how to rent their home, find a location that has internet access, find accommodations in the new location that provide the comforts of home that they are used to, plan out cell phones, contingency plans, etc.

If you are taking your business with you, chances are you aren’t going to be location independent: you’ve got to replicate too much of your current location to make it work. If you’re willing to wash dishes in exchange for a humble meal & scrub floors and toilets in exchange for a roof over your head, you’re going to have a good shot of being location independent.

Remember that simply relocating isn’t location independence. If you need to keep your current home to be happy with temporarily moving somewhere else or travelling, recognize that as location dependence rather than deny it.

Get in the correct mindset

If you need to replicate your home, or even keep the one you have while you travel, don’t kid yourself and try to achieve location independence. You’re going to end up pursuing “location independent” activities that are expensive and unneccessary. Relocating to Buenos Aires for six months is a drastically different concept than becoming location independent and travelling the globe for six months. Know what you are comfortable with and focus on that outcome – you don’t need to be location independent to relocate.

Be your own leader

Lifestyle design isn’t something that someone else can do for you. Your lifestyle is based upon your personal needs, desires, and values (with the greatest emphasis on values). Figure out what it is that you want to achieve and focus on that goal. Everyone leads a different life and different values when planning their life. This is why bloggers choose generic terms like “location independence” rather than “relocating to Buenos Aires for 6 and 1/2 months with my girlfriend while keeping my home in Des Moines.”

If you’re plan is to relocate to Buenos Aires, focus on that plan and don’t get side tracked with location independence. Create your own path – following some bloggers’ lead is going to end up in your own failure.

Who should you listen to?

For the most part, avoid “lifestyle design” bloggers who are hocking their own brand of location independence or other highly specific lifestyle brand. If you want to be able to relocate or even become location independent, chances are that you haven’t achieved this goal because you don’t have the money to do so. What’s the solution to this? Making more money! There are some fantastic resources out there for starting a business, automating a business, or expanding your existing business’s web presence. These resources do this without tempting you with delusions of location independence or traveling around the world.

Focus on specialists. There are travel blogs that can provide great travel information, as well as business blogs & ebooks that provide a wealth of information about how to get a business running. Put the two together in a way that works for your ideal lifestyle – rather than using a predefined formula from someone else.

I will be providing a list of fantastic business blogs and ebooks in an upcoming post. If there’s any that you think I’ve got to include, please mention them in the comments below.

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2009. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: goal, lifestyle design, LIP, location independent

View from my hotel room in Waikiki on the island of O'ahu

I’ve had very little time to update the blog lately. Over the last month I’ve been in London, Budapest, back to London, Denver, Tucson, LA, and now in Hawai’i. I’m sitting at the top floor of the Hilton Hawaiian Village with an amazing view of the beach and Diamond Head. I’m working on some very cool projects and Shortcut to China is coming along nicely – we’re starting up a new marketing campaign today.

So, I apologize for my absence, but I trust that you understand that I’ve been incredibly busy working on my businesses and traveling. There’s some very good stuff to come on this site very soon. I promise! In the meantime, be sure to share www.shortcuttochina.com with anyone you know who may want an internship in Beijing or Shanghai.

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: update, vacation

This has long been my favorite quote ever. It’s simple and poignant. I’ve carried a copy of Tao #33 in my notebook for years.

Tao # 33

He who knows men is clever;
He who knows himself has insight.
He who conquers men has force;
He who conquers himself is truly strong.

He who knows when he has got enough is rich,
And he who adheres assiduously to the path of Tao is a man of steady purpose
He who stays where he has found his true home endures long,
And he who dies but perishes not enjoys real longevity.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu

© Brian for Lifestyle-Y, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lao tsu, quotes, Tao, tao #33, tao te ching