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.

Don’t Let Good Ideas Go To Waste

I like ideas.  But when I don’t keep track of them, they tend to wander off, oftentimes never being heard of again.  I’ve found plenty of ways to do this, including mind-mapping software and good ‘ol spreadsheets.  Getting your ideas down on paper (or digital paper) is the first step to preserving them long enough to be of any use to you.  It lets you work out details in your mind and get an idea of feasibility, effort required, etc.  But this is only the first step.

Make Goals

If you just write your ideas down without ever attaching action to them, they will very likely end up getting lost to time.  I know I have notebooks full of ideas from my lifetime, but how many of them ever saw the light of day?  Not a whole lot.  Setting goals for action is the critical step in getting you idea from the dream-world to the real one.  Create small steps you can take to bring the idea to life, set time lines for doing these steps, and then hold yourself accountable to it!

Tell others

When you have a good feeling about an idea – you’ve set goals for it and the preliminary outlook looks good – tell a trusted friend about it.  Tell a family member.  As it comes closer to fruition, start to tell more people.  Like-minded people will encourage and support you.  They will motivate you and give you a greater feeling of accountability – you will want to deliver on what you’ve told them you will do.  And when you’re putting in regular work on your idea, add to that the amount of people you have told about it, and sooner or later you will reach a ‘tipping point’, to use Gladwell’s phrase, and your idea will have so much momentum that it will start taking you along for the ride.

Disclaimer

Sure, some ideas just don’t work.  You will need to be the judge of when to give up.  Also keep this in mind: the more fantastic the idea, the fewer the people who will support you in it.  That is why I recommend choosing your sounding boards wisely.  But hey, if you happen to have an out-of-this-world idea that you’re absolutely convinced will work, do it!  I try to be supportive of any impassioned, endeavoring soul.   I’d rather not have history find me in the position of, say, Newtonian physicists in the early 1900′s who mocked Einstein’s theories, or religious devotees in the 1600′s decrying Galileo’s sun-centered universe.  Nothing is impossible.