A New Horizon

As you may or may not know, my main goal for as long as I can  remember is to gain two things: automated income and freedom of location.  My desire was inflamed considerably after I read Tim Ferriss’ book The Four Hour Workweek.  Unlike other “self help for riches” books, Tim focuses mainly on overall quality of life rather than cold, hard cash.  He repeatedly states that the goal isn’t to become as big or as rich as possible.  The goal is to gain the freedom to live your dreams.  Money means nothing if you can’t use it to achieve your dreams.

After getting out of my culinary school for the Summer, I began to search for a part-time job to make ends meet.  Not finding much success in the first couple of weeks, I started  to look at other options.  I had created an account on Elance a long time before this, but I never got to the point of actually bidding on jobs.  I decided to devote one week exclusively to setting up my profile and bidding on freelance writing work.  I’ve always loved to write, and I had a good amount of experience that I could show to potential clients from my blog and weekly restaurant reviews.  So I decided that this would be my area.   I set up a schedule of four hours a day to devote to this, and to eliminate distractions I would do it from my laptop at the library.

Before bidding on any work, I figured out how much cash I would need to cover monthly expenses.  I decided how many hours per week I wanted to work.  (20).  One division problem later, I found that I needed to earn at least $20 per hour on this schedule to cover the basics.  (Also accounting for the amount I’d need to withhold for taxes at the end of the year).  So I now had my minimum hourly rate, and I started bidding on jobs with this as my guideline.

It’s two weeks later, and I am now working with my second client, who has just extended me to a long-term contract.   I’m also talking with a potential third client about a large project, which combined with my current project would put me right at working four hours a day and earning plenty to cover all the basics.  I made a point of giving my all for my first client, who gave me an excellent review – probably making the second and third clients possible.

Is this my end-all-be-all?  No.  But it accomplishes one key goal: freedom of location.  I will be able to earn my living no matter where I am.  I can do my job from anywhere with an internet connection.  I could be in a Japanese karaoke bar or a French bistro.  And I’m excited about that.

The other big “win” for this is being able to work within my own parameters, on my terms.  I decide when the workday starts and ends.  I decide how much I’ll be paid.  And because of this, I am able to devote the majority of my time and energy towards my next big goal: automated income.

I want to produce a product that I am proud to stand behind and that people will love.  Something that serves a purpose and makes people happy.  I’m narrowing down the possibilities, and when I decide on the final product I’ll put all my effort into developing a following for it.  Using the techniques I’ve learned from 4HWW and my own experiences in internet marketing, I’ll create an SEO-driven site with an auxiliary PPC campaign to drive traffic there.  And the day that I achieve my income goals through that site, that will be the dawn of a new age in my life.

I have felt the thrill of achieving my goals over the past two months, both physically and financially, and I don’t intend to stop now.

What’s in an idea? (or Your Baby Sucks)

OK.  Here’s the deal.  The name’s Dan Purdon, and I’m an idea guy.  I love thinking up new businesses, new experiments, and new ways for the world to work.  It’s my favorite thing to do.  But the thing is, I don’t have the focus or diligence to carry all of these ideas to their fullest potential.  Hell, most of my ideas never see the light of day in any form.  Even the ones that really excite me usually end up on the perpetual “back-burner” in my mind after a couple of weeks, replaced by whatever shiny new one that I’ve thought up.  Is this sounding familiar?

They say that only 10% of all ideas are worth actually doing.  They also say that ideas are a dime a dozen, but the real value is in being able to act on them.  I have come to agree with “them”.

A lot of inventors, entrepreneurs, and idea-people in general think of their ideas as their “babies”.  They are full of confidence that their baby is the best thing since sliced bread.  And of course, they must be protected from the rest of the world, who would just love the chance to sneak in and steal their babies away.

But that’s the thing.  99% of the time, your baby sucks.  No one in the world would even care if you offered it to them on a silver platter.  Yes, I know it’s hard to accept.  But idea-people everywhere must accept it.  Even if you do happen to have one of those lucky one-in-a-hundred ideas, you actually run the risk of suffocating it if you don’t share it.  Because let’s face it, none of us knows everything.  There is always some aspect of an idea that we haven’t considered, some angle we haven’t thought of.  And just the fact that it is your baby clouds your judgment – just like real babies, you will always think yours is cutest, even if it is really the ugliest one on the block.

That is why I have created this blog.  I will take the plunge and list my ideas for the public to see, let my “babies” out into the real world and see which ideas really have legs.  I won’t be afraid of people stealing them.  After all, I’m only one man, and there’s no way I could ever do them all.  And what is an idea, anyway?  In my view, it is something that I want to see enacted in the world.  Why should I care about who’s doing the enacting?  If some soul out there sees eye to eye with me on an idea, and he or she has the knowledge, desire, means, and work ethic to bring it into existence, why shouldn’t I be happy for them?

I envision this blog as a forum for idea-people.  I envision it as a public journal of my own ideas and endeavors, enhanced by the opinions and ideas of others.  I envision it as a place for people to come together and watch the process of of ideas being brought into reality, with all the nuts and bolts that are involved therein.  Through this blog, you can see what makes an idea fly, and what makes it drop to the ground like a sack of dead rabbits.