
The Passive Income Book

How to Create Passive Income Streams for the Beginner Entrepreneur

Steve Pavlina

### Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: What Is Passive Income?

Chapter 2: The End Game of Passive Income

Chapter 3: Set Your Passive Income Goal

Chapter 4: Commit to Your Passive Income Goal

Chapter 5: Jobs vs. Passive Income

Chapter 6: You Earn Passive Income by Being More Generous

Chapter 7: Is It Fair to Earn Passive Income?

Chapter 8: Passive Income Systems

Chapter 9: How to Earn Passive Income From Intellectual Property

Chapter 10: Passive Income & Self-Discipline

Chapter 11: Passive Income is Not an Escape

Chapter 12: Are You Still Broadcasting Doubt?

Chapter 13: Passive Value vs Passive Income

Chapter 14: Passive Income From Real Estate

Chapter 15: Virtual Real Estate

Chapter 16: Generating Ideas

Chapter 17: Fame

Chapter 18: Donations

Chapter 19: Why eBooks Are Such a Golden Opportunity

Chapter 20: Wait, What About Investing?

Chapter 21: Dissolving Limiting Beliefs

Chapter 22: How to Earn Passive Income from Live Performance Art

Chapter 23: All Your Excuses Are Belong to Us

Chapter 24: Passive Income Walkthrough

Chapter 25: Marketing From Your Conscience

Chapter 26: How to Make Money From Your Art

Chapter 27: How to Create and Deliver Real Value

Chapter 28: Two Paths for Passive Income Success

Conclusion: Being an Achiever

Bonus Chapter #1

Bonus Chapter #2

Bonus Chapter #3

Bonus Chapter #4

Sneak Peek from _The Priming Effect_

## Introduction

**_Passive income_** is money that comes to you even when you're not actively working, such as royalties, investment income, and revenue from automated business systems.

I started earning passive income in the 1990s by creating, selling, and licensing computer games. Once those deals and systems were established, I continued to earn money from those products year after year.

This approach soon became a habit. Consequently, most of the money I've earned during my lifetime has come from passive or semi-passive income source, not from a salary, wage, or hourly rate.

It took me many years to figure out how to make a living this way, and I went bankrupt along the way, but eventually I learned what I needed to learn. It works, and I definitely appreciate the benefits of it.

The truth is that it's much, much easier to earn passive income today than it was when I first began on this path. There are such ridiculous opportunities out there, especially online, that if you're at least halfway intelligent, you can surely do this. There are ways to earn money online now where you don't even need your own website, nor do you need to have a lot of money to start earning passive income.

Earning passive income is not difficult. The how-to part — the actual doing of it — is fairly straightforward.

The difficult part is wrapping your head around it, unloading a lot of false conditioning, maintaining a constructive mindset, and shedding illogical fears. The challenge here is your own self development... to grow into the man or woman who won't block themselves from doing this.

First I'll share some ideas to help you understand the right mindset for earning passive income. People have a lot of B.S. beliefs in their heads with respect to earning income, and I want to squash some of them (the beliefs, that is, not their heads), so they don't get in our way later. This part may be more emotional than logical, but the truth is that the motivation to earn any kind of income is largely emotional, and we need to address that. There's no logical mandate to earn income; it may feel like it's essential for survival, but our species supposedly managed without money for most of its existence.

Then I'll share a great deal of how-to information. Some of these chapters will be fairly general, so they can be applied to all forms of passive income. But I'll also give you more detailed how-to info for the forms of passive income that I'm most familiar with, which is mostly going to be in the online realm.

I can't teach you real estate or stock investing, nor can I teach you how to create a blog as successful as my blog has been. But I can still teach you how to create your own streams of passive income, first in a general way and then specifically in the methods I've used.

Finally, I'm going to walk you step by step through a process of creating a stream of passive income from scratch. This is where I invite you to follow along and actually do this with me. So I'll actually create a new stream of income for myself, such as creating and launching a new product or service, and I'll write about each step as I go through it in this book. At the same time, I'm going to encourage and support you in creating a new income stream for yourself as well, so if you wish to do something similar, you can essentially mirror my steps and do them as I do them.

I'll do my best to make this part of the process easy for you to follow, so you'll be able to create a stream of income without needing to spend a lot of money, and I'll make it so you don't even need a website either. Obviously my website gives me a major marketing advantage, so I'll share how to do the marketing aspect if you're starting from scratch. I want to make it so that even a high school student working from home in his/her spare time could go through this process with me.

I'm also going to maintain a very moderate pacing here, so you can follow along in real time without needing to work on this full time to keep up.

If you want to read this book just for educational or for entertainment purposes, that's fine. But I'm really not writing this book for the casual dabbler or the wannabe. I'm doing this for those who'd really want to get started on this path now. Consequently, we're going to take it nice and slow and build a solid foundation. I'm not just going to throw a bunch of information at you and hope you make sense of it.

If you simply follow these chapters with me, including getting into the passive income mindset, then this year you're going to create at least one new stream of passive income for yourself. This book will focus on helping you create that specific result. If that's a result you want, then we're on the same page.

I'm undoubtedly going to weave personal growth lessons into this series because passive income ties in with personal growth in such amazing ways, especially with respect to setting and achieving goals, self-discipline, and overcoming limiting beliefs.

Logically this is an achievable goal. It's not like we're trying to figure out how to mine space asteroids. People figured out how to earn passive income thousands of years ago. Surely with all the additional knowledge and resources available to you today, you can do this too.

At this point I don't expect you to commit to anything. I'm simply hoping you'll be curious enough to follow along for the first week or two. Then decide if this is a part of your life you're ready to upgrade.

## Chapter 1

I want to kick off this book by clarifying what I mean by passive income.

I prefer to define passive income fairly broadly as revenue you earn even when you aren't actively working. Another name for passive income is _residual income_.

By contrast _active income_ is money that stops coming to you when you stop working. If you get paid a salary and you quit your job or get laid off, most likely you'll stop getting paid. You may get a severance package to help you transition, but your boss won't keep paying your salary unless you keep showing up for work.

Similarly, if you do contract work for clients who pay you, and if you'll stop getting paid if you stop doing this work, that's also active income. You may have more flexibility with contract work, but you still have to do the work to receive your payments.

With passive income, you would keep getting paid whether or not you do any meaningful work. You may do a lot of work up front to get the ball rolling, but eventually you reach a point where the passive income stream gets activated. At this point you can essentially stop working on this income stream if you so desire, and more money will keep flowing to you through this stream regardless what you do or don't do.

Passive income doesn't mean one-time lump sum payments such as an inheritance or the sale of an asset like your home or some stock you own. Passive income is a source of income with some sense of continuation over time.

Passive income doesn't mean permanent income. Some forms of passive income may last a few years. Other forms may keep going for decades or even for centuries across multiple generations. But all forms of income eventually dry up for one reason or another.

Passive income doesn't mean 100% secure income. As Helen Keller wrote, "Security is mostly a superstition." Some forms of income are more secure than others, but there's always a risk element. For any income source, there's a non-zero probability that something could destroy it. This is one reason it's often wise to create multiple streams of income, so you can reduce the risk that all of them will fail simultaneously.

Passive income doesn't mean perfectly 100% passive with no maintenance required. With any income source, you may need to do a little maintenance to keep it going. Sometimes this is really easy and only involves checking your mail and depositing checks. Sometimes it's even more passive when the money is deposited directly into your bank account every month. But then you may still need to report this income and pay taxes on it.

Passive income is really a spectrum of possibilities. Some income streams are very passive. If you do essentially no maintenance on them for years, the income will keep coming. My book royalties are one example of this. Regardless of what I do or don't do, most likely Hay House will keep selling my book, and people will keep buying it. Even if I shut down my website and go incognito for some reason, my book can keep selling online and in bookstores. All I need to do is deposit the royalty checks. I don't have to process orders, interact with customers, or do any ongoing marketing.

Other income streams are semi-passive. You may need to do some work to maintain them even if you're not working for a salary. For example, if you own a house and rent it out, you may earn passive income as rent payments from your tenants. But you may also need to invest some time, energy, and money to maintain the property, to find new tenants when the place goes vacant, and to handle the mortgage, insurance payments, and property taxes. If your tenants get ornery or become delinquent, you may need to do even more work. You may delegate much of this work to someone else, but then you have a business partner or employee to manage instead.

Passive income doesn't mean it's passive for everyone. There may be other people with regular jobs who do some of the work that enables you to receive passive income. You may also leverage technology to do a lot of work for you. The level of passivity is perspective dependent. One person's passive income is another person's active income.

I also want to distinguish passive income from what I'll call _moocher income_. Moocher income is what people try to earn when they succumb to a get rich quick mindset. This is an undisciplined attitude that seeks to get something for nothing. The idea is to find a way to mooch money from people or the economy without providing any meaningful value. It is possible to generate income this way since markets contain plenty of inefficiencies, but it's not an approach I recommend. I don't personally define passive income to include moocher income, but there is a spectrum here where some forms of passive income deliver more value than others.

In this book I intend to help you create passive income in a way that generates good value for others. This is more sustainable in the long run, and it's better for everyone. Fortunately there are lots of ways to create value.

That said, this isn't a book for the lazy ass delusional types who spend six hours a day playing Angry Farm Ninja Madness. Nor is this book intended for the desperate "I need to make $500 by Friday to pay my rent" nutters. Creating passive income streams is work. You can meditate on abundance, invoke the Law of Attraction, and pray to Hestia all you want, but also expect to do some real work if you're going to make passive income a reality for you. Creating streams of passive income is a very active endeavor. You must do the work first; then you can enjoy the results.

P.S. If you do wish to pray for assistance, don't pray to Hestia unless you want a baby or need to start a fire. Pray to Hades (aka Pluto) since he's the god of wealth.

Just don't tell Hestia!

## Chapter 2

Let's talk about the reality of what it's like to create streams of passive income and how it compares to working at a regular job. What I'll share here may surprise you.

With a typical job, you're more or less directly trading your working hours for dollars. You may receive an hourly wage, a salary, and/or bonuses for the time you put in at work. Your ongoing pay depends on your continued presence at work. If you stop working, your paycheck stops as well.

With passive income you'll often get paid nothing at first. Initially you work to create and/or leverage a system that generates a flow of income long-term. Once your new income stream is launched and the _passive_ phase begins, you may not have to work very much at all beyond that to maintain the stream.

Passive income is one strategy among many for earning money. It doesn't necessarily dictate any particular choice of careers. You can do many different types of work and use passive income strategies to monetize your work.

### Passive vs. Active Income

Suppose you're a writer. One way to earn active income would be to get a job writing for a magazine or newspaper. You could get paid to write articles which your employer publishes and owns. You would receive a wage from your employer for the service you provide. If you stop writing in this scenario, you'll stop getting paid.

Now suppose you offer your writing skills as an independent contractor. You market and sell your services to people and businesses. You do this on a "work for hire" basis, getting paid for each job you complete. This is also active income. If you stop working, your income ceases.

Now suppose you write a book and sign a publishing deal with a book publisher. The publisher gets your book into bookstores and also sells it online. They send you royalty checks twice a year based on sales of the book. You receive a percentage of what they receive for every copy sold. Five years later you're still receiving checks from them. Your royalties are passive income. Even if you stop working after your book is published, you'll continue to receive royalty payments for the book that did get published. You could potentially continue to receive these payments for the rest of your life. Your book may eventually be purchased by people who aren't even born yet.

Notice that in each scenario, your underlying career is essentially the same. You're still the same writer. You're just using different strategies for earning income. You could even apply all three strategies simultaneously, working at a regular job, doing contract work on the side, and also writing a book and getting it published.

At any time you're free to use active income, passive income, or hybrid strategies — or any combo of these you wish. You don't have to quit your active income job to set up streams of passive income. For some people this is easier, however, since a regular job can chew up a lot of time, making it harder to find the time to create passive income.

Sometimes you can even get paid to create your streams of passive income. For instance, our writer may receive an advance for his/her book from the publisher. So not only does this writer earn long-term passive income, but s/he also gets paid to set it up.

### Where Does Passive Income Lead?

I want you to start thinking about how your life would be impacted if you took the time to create some streams of passive income. Suppose you succeed. What then?

What would your life be like if you were receiving an extra $100 per month in passive income? What about an extra $500? $2500? $10K? 50K?

At what point do you shift from _that wouldn't make much difference_ to _that would be nice_? Then when do you think, _That would really take off some pressure_?

What amount nudges you into _I could live off of that amount_? Then when do you think, _Wow... I could really upgrade my lifestyle with that_?

And if you want to think beyond that, where do you start thinking, _Hmmm... I wonder what I'd do if I earned that much without having to do anything? What would I actually do with my time then?_

It may surprise you that one of the reasons people avoid earning passive income is the fear that arises from being confronted with that last question. People often spend so much of their lives distracted by the daily grind of work, bills, and social obligations that they rarely give much thought to the bigger questions. Suppose you actually do succeed here in a big way? Then what?

If your end game looks bleak, empty, and meaningless, that's going to hold you back. You'll sabotage yourself before you get very far.

### Will Passive Income Make You a Bigger Success or a Bigger Failure?

If you didn't have to work and money kept flowing to you month after month, what would you do with your time? Would you play video games all day or do drugs or sit around watching TV and eating?

I actually found it pretty difficult to succeed in creating passive income until I was able to answer these questions seriously. My answer changes from time to time, but the core is that I want to spend my life growing, creating, and sharing. I want to keep adding something of value to the substance of the universe. Whenever I keep doing that, regardless of how much money I'm making, I feel happy and fulfilled.

The irony is that if you answer this question honestly, you'll probably come up with something that you could just as easily do when you're broke, although perhaps not at the same level.

Because of my passive income streams, I can afford to be really lazy if I wanted to. I could sit around doing nothing for weeks on end, and my bills would still be covered. For some people this may sound like paradise, but it presents its own challenges. If you're not careful, you could easily slide into a serious depression in this kind of situation. People receive a lot of fulfillment from work, but if you no longer have to work, will you still be able to motivate yourself to tackle new challenges, or will you do little or nothing because you can?

Many people have created passive income streams that cover all their expenses, and they ended up depressed and listless. Some try to keep the treadmill going by creating even more passive income streams, but their hearts just aren't in it, and they eventually burn out.

### What's Your Motivation?

When I was broke and deep in debt and about to declare bankruptcy, I asked myself what I'd want to do with my life if I knew for certain that I'd _always_ be broke. That was an interesting question because it helped me get past the momentary distractions of money and bills that always seemed to be at the urgent forefront of my reality. I realized that what I really wanted to do with my time was to create and share. I noticed this was something I could always do in some fashion regardless of how much money I had. This shift in mindset allowed me to increase my happiness and fulfillment, not to mention turning around my financial life, in less than a year.

This mindset also helped motivate me to create passive income streams because the more I did that, the more I got material distractions out of the way, and the more time I had for creative projects.

My life flows nicely when I remember to use my time for creative endeavors like writing, speaking, and creating workshops. It doesn't flow so well when I allow myself to feel like I'm swimming in time with nothing meaningful to do.

It may seem premature to think about this now, but I think it's pretty important. If deep down you know that the end game of creating passive income is going to be a bust for you — that you'll just end up living like a big loser day after day — then will you really be motivated to get there? That would probably require a lot of pushing and force to get yourself to take action.

If, on the other hand, you can envision a pleasant and fulfilling end game scenario, I think it will be much easier to create passive income streams in a more peaceful and flowing way. There will still be work to do, but at least you won't be internally fighting yourself along the way.

If anything stops you from earning passive income, what will it be? It's undoubtedly going to be something inside you. The external action steps are certainly doable. You may screw things up in the beginning — I sure did! — but if you persist and learn from your mistakes, it's largely a done deal that you'll succeed. As I mentioned in the beginning of this book, people were earning passive income thousands of years ago. Surely you can learn this as well. So the only thing that's really capable of stopping you here is you.

### Beyond the Hype

I know there's a lot of hype around passive income. Yes, it's cool. Yes, it can relieve a lot of financial pressure. Yes, it can make a big difference in your lifestyle. I must say that a lot of the hype is true. As Earl Nightingale said, "Nothing can take the place of money in the area in which money works."

But suppose you really get there. Suppose you cover all your expenses and then some with passive income. Then what? What will you do with your time? And will you be truly happy doing that, year after year and decade after decade? Or will you feel even more lost than you do now?

Here's what I suggest. Write down a little vision statement for yourself, perhaps a few sentences or a paragraph about how you'd choose to live if all of your expenses were covered by passive income, and you didn't actually have to work to pay the bills.

Then set that statement aside, and look at it tomorrow fresh. Now ask yourself if you'd really be happy in this scenario. If you don't think you'd be very happy there, rewrite your statement. Try to get clear about what your personal end game of passive income looks like. See if you can create a scenario in which you're very happy.

Finally, if you aren't already doing what you wrote in your vision statement now, then why not? Could you still do it in some capacity under your current conditions if you really wanted to?

### Money is Fuel, Not a Cure

You see... if you're holding yourself back now, then why wouldn't you continue to hold yourself back even after you've created your abundant passive income streams? If you allow yourself to use lack of money as an excuse today, you're just going to use a different excuse when you have more financial abundance. Money is no cure for the willingness to succumb to feeble excuses. So if you see this pattern in yourself, then I suggest you start working to overcome it today.

Money is more multiplicative than transformative in its effects. It makes you more of who you already are. So if you're the kind of person who will excuse yourself from a bigger vision today, adding more money to this situation will only make things worse. Many people who have lots of money also have many more obligations to use as excuses. The excuse making doesn't end with more money; it only magnifies.

It may seem like having lots of free time to play is a great thing, but a playboy/playgirl lifestyle probably won't create much fulfillment. More people seem to find fulfillment in meaningful work. Yes, you can still play and travel and all that good stuff. But give some thought to what work you might wish to pursue if you didn't have to work for money at all. This is an important question to answer. Equally important is to ask: _Why aren't you doing this work right now in some fashion?_

I personally feel that the #1 benefit of having my expenses covered by passive income is that I get to keep doing a lot more of the kind of work I enjoy. I also get to work the way I want to work — where I want, when I want, how I want, and with whom I want. But in order to maintain those feelings of fulfillment and meaning in my life, the work must continue. I can't just go into perpetual play mode and check out.

I think you'll find that if you're already living your bigger vision in some capacity, then creating streams of passive income will be a lot easier. These streams will help you expand your vision and overcome distractions.

But if you're currently using feeble excuses like the lack of money, lack of time, or the obligations of your day job to distract you from a bigger vision — even as you somehow still have time for Facebook, texting, email, reading blogs, watching TV, etc. — then I'd bet that you're not going to succeed in creating much passive income; you're the type who will come up with an excuse to quit, and even reading this book is just another distraction for you.

So whatever it is that you think you might start doing once you're already living the dream of total financial abundance, start doing that now in some fashion. Insert it into your life, even if it's just for a couple hours a week to start. If you don't have time for it, quit Facebook, give up TV, and cancel your texting plan.

## Chapter 3

As we transition into the how-to aspect of passive income creation, let's begin by having you set a goal for what you want to accomplish here.

Why are you reading this book? Is it just for entertainment's sake? Do you hope to learn something that you might apply later? Or do you actually want to create at least one new stream of passive income this year?

Let me suggest a simple meta-goal for starters: By the time you're done reading this chapter, set a clear goal for what you want to gain from this book.

Do not turn off your Kindle or move on to something else until you've set a clear and specific passive income goal.

No feeble excuses. No vacillating. No "I think about it later" B.S. And please no lame ass "I want more money" vague answers.

Whatever excuse you come up with as to why you can't set a clear goal right now, we both know it's stupid, so let's not even go there. Not setting a goal is a waste of time.

If your actual desire is to create a new stream of passive income, then let's make sure your goal includes 3 aspects:

  1. how much money you want to earn per month from your next stream of passive income (specific dollar amount)
  2. how long you expect that stream to last (number of years)
  3. your deadline for receiving your first month's income from that stream

This isn't your ultimate goal we're talking about here. It's the goal for your first (or your next, if you've done this before) stream of passive income.

If you have something different in mind that doesn't really fit the parameters above, then by all means set the goal you feel is best for you. At the end of the year, when other people are enjoying their new streams of passive income, you can see how your own goal worked out.

The idea is to set a goal that's _motivating_ but that's also _believable_ for you.

If you're telling yourself that you can't earn any passive income because it's too much for you, then your imagination needs work. You could put $100 in a free savings account and earn a trickle of passive income each year for decades. So don't be lazy here. Don't let yourself off the hook. Set a goal.

Goal setting is a skill that takes practice. If you fumble this initially and set a goal that's too big and unbelievable for you, you won't achieve it. If you set an unrealistic deadline, you'll blow the deadline. How do you know what's realistic? You calibrate with practice, just like you learned to walk and talk. I include a bonus chapter specifically about calibration at the end of this book.

I don't expect your goal to be perfect. That isn't the point. The goal is just the first step to get you moving forward and taking this seriously. And the ultimate goal is to get good at setting and achieving your goals. This means you have to risk making mistakes in the beginning.

As the saying goes, _There never was a winner who wasn't at some point a beginner._ So begin by setting a goal.

### My First Passive Income Streams

Other than earning interest on my savings account, my first real experience with long-term passive income was when I wrote and self-published a computer game for MS-Windows. I think I released it in 1995. It was a simple side-scrolling shoot-em-up game. I did the programming and artwork for it myself (I wasn't much of an artist though), and my girlfriend at the time did the music and helped out with the sound effects.

The game didn't sell particularly well. I put it up on my website, by my website had virtually no traffic. I also uploaded it to a bunch of free download software sites. I had a free demo with a couple of levels, and then people would get more levels if they bought the full version. Initially most of my sales came from people finding the demo on a game download site, and the demo would refer them to my website to buy the game.

I opened a Post Office box and started receiving mail orders for the game. Later I got a merchant account, so I could take credit card orders. Then I started accepting online orders. Eventually I set things up so that orders could be processed and fulfilled automatically.

On average I earned about $75 per month from this game. I didn't do much in terms of marketing, other than posting it on my website and submitting it to those download sites, which was a one-time effort. Once the game started selling, I moved on to other projects.

This was a Windows 3.1 game with a fixed 640×480 resolution. It was strictly 2D, so there were no fancy 3D graphics or anything like that.

A year after I released it, the game was still earning about $75 per month.

Five years after its release, it was still earning about the same.

Ten years after its release, it was still earning about the same.

I varied the price of the game over the years, testing $9.95, $14.95, and $19.95. It earned roughly the same amount of money regardless of the price. I could sell 10 copies for $10 each or 5 copies for $20 each.

The game was initially available on 3.5″ diskettes, then on CD-ROM. More than 90% of the customers bought the instant download version.

I also did some licensing deals for this game with LCR publishers (LCR = low cost retail). These publishers found me as a result of finding my game on some download site. They'd put together collections of cheap games and sell them on CDs for under $10. I didn't earn much money from these deals, but they gave my game wider distribution, and every copy included a link to my website.

Occasionally the game got some special attention, and there was a surge in sales where it might do double sales for a month. So overall it probably earned in the range of $10-15K over its lifetime.

It took me about 6 months to write and release this game. I had a lot to learn, so it was slow going. I got much faster as I learned and practiced. Writing a similar shoot-em-up game in 1998 only took me about 2 weeks, including the design, programming, artwork, and sound effects.

Eventually I released three more games at about the same level of quality. And again, each of these added another $75 month in passive income, so with 4 of these titles, I was up to $300 per month.

Finally I got smart and spent 6 months creating a much better game and put more effort into marketing it. It did $500 in sales its first month and was up to $2K per month a few months later. I kept building it up from there with two expansion packs and a deluxe version that sold for $24.95. The game did very well and dwarfed the results of my previous games. I also did more licensing deals for it, including one that had a minimum guarantee of $5K per month just from that one source.

I developed this hit game with a $0 budget. I did the design and programming, the artist worked for a percentage of royalties, so I created a passive income stream for him.

Then I went on to license and republish games from other developers, which created new passive income streams for them and me. Eventually I built up a suite of about two dozen games, which means two dozen streams of mostly passive income. Some streams were pretty good. Others were just a trickle.

In 2006 I finally took my games off the market when I shut down my games business. By this point I was earning so much more from StevePavlina.com that I didn't want to divide my focus by keeping my games business going. But the passive income stream from these games helped me launch my personal growth business. My games income covered all my expenses while I got my blog up and running.

### Taking the Long View

Is $10K spread out over 10 years a good paycheck for 6 months of work? No, I could easily have earned more money working at a job. I was already earning more than that from contract programming work before I wrote my first independent game.

The point of creating your first passive income stream isn't to achieve that big payout right away. The point is to learn how to create passive income streams, so you can get better at it. Then you can create bigger streams as your skills increase. Don't expect your first effort to be your masterpiece.

Today I can create new streams of passive income with a lot less effort than I had to exert in the 1990s. The reason I can do this is because I put in the time to learn how to do this, and I've continued to refine my skills over time.

Don't worry about how big your streams are in the beginning. If you can create a $50 per month passive income stream this year, I think that's great. And it's so much easier to do this today than it was back in 1995 when I first started, so you have it much easier than I did. Your cell phone is probably 100 times more powerful than the computer I used back then.

You also have me coaching you along the way. I didn't have anyone coaching me at the time. Sometimes the people in my life suggested that I should get a job. They don't say that anymore though. ;)

Do set goals, but be patient with your progress. This is a skill that will benefit you your whole life. Even if you work on this for 10 years, there will still be plenty more to learn.

### My Passive Income Goal

As I mentioned previously, as part of this passive income book, I'll walk you through the process of creating a new stream of passive income. And I'll create a new stream for myself in the process. I haven't decided what that will be yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Coming up with ideas is easy.

But for now, the goal has to come first. Since I want to keep this simple and not overcomplicate things, I'm going to set what is for me a relatively conservative goal:

_I create a new stream of passive income by January 1, 2016, that generates at least $2000 per month on average and endures for a minimum of 10 years._

So this means creating a new stream that earns at least $240,000 over the next decade.

This seems like an achievable goal for me. I've already created multiple streams of this size and larger, so it's not a stretch to believe that I can do it again. In this case the challenge will be to explain all the steps as I go along, which I've never done before. I want to keep this goal fairly basic, so I can focus on the teaching aspect.

Having a clear and specific goal helps me transition to thinking about the how. Now I can start pondering ways to do this.

This also helps me rule out what I can't do to create this income stream. I can't just do more public workshops or paid speaking since that's active income. I want to set something up once and have it generate monthly income for at least a decade.

What happens if I don't make the deadline? Nothing. I'll set a new deadline. The deadline is a focusing mechanism. I could create a new passive income stream within a couple weeks if I want to. And I'll probably create other streams along the way that I don't blog about. But for this stream, I want to take it slow and explain the process in detail, so you can follow along. But I also want to keep moving towards some kind of release. I don't want to get stuck in perpetual idea mode.

### Your Passive Income Goal

The key to goal setting is to get into the habit of _setting and achieving goals_. It's not to set aggressive targets that you never reach. You can always set a bigger goal later once you achieve the original goal.

Sometimes I've set a big goal with a 2-month deadline, and I achieved it during the first week or two. So I celebrated that. Then I set a new goal with a new deadline.

As long as the goal seems motivating to you and it helps you get into action, then I'd say it a good goal for you.

My suggestion would be to set a goal something like this:

_I create a new stream of passive income by January 1, 2016, that generates at least $100 per month on average and endures for a minimum of 5 years._

I think this is a very achievable goal for most people. You don't need your own website to earn this much.

Now some people will blow this goal out of the water; it will be way too easy for them. Other people will find it a serious challenge. Feel free to adjust the goal to something that feels good to you.

If you were to achieve the goal above, you'd put at least $6K in your pocket, but it's not the amount that matters. The real aim is for you to learn how to create a $100 per month stream of passive income. Once you learn how to do that, you can surely do it again. Do it 10 times, and you'll earn $60K passively.

Once you learn how to earn $100 per month in passive income — by actually doing it, not by reading about it — then it's not that difficult to learn to create bigger streams. So instead of creating 10 streams that collectively generate $60K, you might learn how to earn that much with just one or two streams. As you continue to develop your skills in this area, you'll discover how to earn larger sums with fewer streams and less effort. If one stream dies, you'll also know how to replace it with a new one.

I'm pretty comfortable creating streams that earn around $50K per year. When I had third-party ads on my website several years ago, one of those streams was earning more than $100K per year. Once you get the hang of this, I think you'll find it a fun challenge to create new streams of income and to experiment with different approaches.

If you want more long-term financial security, you won't find it in the money or even in the streams of passive income. You'll find it in building your own knowledge and skills. You can take away all my streams of income, my website, my assets, etc, and I'll be able to recreate the same level of financial abundance in a relatively short period of time because I already know how to do it.

This is what I want for you as well. I want you to learn how to do this, so then you'll always have that option available. This know-how will relieve you of much financial pressure. You won't have to scramble to get a job to pay your bills. You can just create more passive income streams if you want more money.

### Do It Now

You are NOT done reading this chapter until you've set your goal and have written it down. If you haven't done this yet, do it right now.

Once you've done that, I encourage you to also post your goal in public — IF you can do this in a place where you feel that people will support and encourage you.

If you expect mostly positive support, then share your goal on your blog, your Facebook page, etc. Add some accountability and commitment like I'm doing. This can help motivate you to succeed, and you'll inspire others to develop this skill too.

If, on the other hand, you anticipate a largely negative response if you share your goal publicly, then you have a different challenge to address. This means your life is filled with too many incompatible people. You have too much social drag. These people are only going to get in your way, so if you don't think you can win them over, then drop them. Block them, unfriend them, etc.

If other people have a problem with your setting a goal in this area, what are they going to be like when you actually succeed? They'll probably get worse, and then you'll have to deal with problems like pettiness, jealousy, sarcasm, neediness, and more. Better to cut them out now and fill your life with positive support. Let them learn from your example... from a distance.

Prepare to succeed. Expect to succeed. Know that once you've set this goal, you're going to achieve it. And if you're going to achieve it, then you need to start shedding from your life whatever would otherwise get in the way of your goal. Whoever can't handle it, drop them. This will create space to invite much better relationships with people who will support you on this path. The dead weight must be shed, so that positive support can come through.

## Chapter 4

Now that you've set a specific passive income goal, it's time to strengthen your connection to this goal.

The idea here is to begin believing in your goal so that it becomes more real and solid, not just some airy fairy fantasy.

### Put Your Goal in Your Face

Try this for starters. Grab a piece of paper, write your goal on the paper in a positive, personal, present tense format, and then post this piece of paper somewhere that you'll see it every day, such as on your living room wall or your bathroom mirror. You can even post it in multiple locations if you like.

Based on my goal from the previous chapter, I came up with the following goal/intention statement:

_I am now successfully creating a new stream of passive income by January 1, 2016, that generates at least $2000 per month on average and endures for a minimum of 10 years, and I'm doing this in a way that delivers strong value for many others around the world._

To make my goal more real and concrete, I copied and pasted the text above into a blank document, increased the font size to fill up the page (46 pt font in this case), and printed it out in landscape view. Then I tacked it up on the cork board in my home office. Now whenever I sit at my desk, I can't help but see this goal since the paper is within my field of view. Even if I don't acknowledge it consciously, my subconscious mind will be exposed to this goal repeatedly. I will keep the paper there (or use some other goal reminder) until this goal is achieved.

Feel free to embellish your goal with language you find attractive. I find it more motivating to set goals that provide value for others, so I added that phrase to the end of my goal.

This step is important because the natural tendency after setting a new goal is to drop the ball very quickly. Many people lose sight of their new goals within a week after setting them. They get sucked into various distractions, and the goal doesn't take root. To prevent your goal from fizzling out, you have to keep giving it some attention, just as you would keep watering a plant.

### Create Consequences for Failure

Another thing you can do to make your goal more solid is to create consequences for dropping the ball. Since I'm writing about this along the way, it will be difficult for me to lose sight of this goal. If I quit or flub this up, there will be some negative consequences. Humiliations galore and that sort of thing.

If there's no negative consequence for quitting, it will be easy for you to quit. That's bad. We want to create more resistance to quitting, so that once you get going, it's hard to turn back.

How you do this is a very personal choice, but if you're not willing to do anything of the sort, then how committed are you really? If you're committed to your goal, then it shouldn't be a big deal to line up some extra sting for failure.

Quite often people will find the avoidance of the negative consequences more motivating that the positive benefits they'll achieve. Instead of winning, some people become more focused when they really want to avoid losing. If the positive motivation for passive income was enough for you, wouldn't you have already achieved your goal by now? You could have done this a year ago, couldn't you?

If you've been interested in this goal for a while but you've been putting it off and you're now telling yourself that you're finally going to do it and that this time things will be different, why should anyone believe you? Do you even believe you? Or are you just trying to act confidently to convince yourself?

If the only consequence of failure is that you continue to experience more of your old reality, that isn't much of a consequence, is it? After all, you're already tolerating that kind of reality right now, so there's no reason to believe you can't keep right on dealing with it for another decade. But if turning back somehow looks nastier than going forward, you'll very likely make some serious progress this time.

One suggestion is to find your biggest doubter and make a bet with him/her that you'll succeed in achieving your goal by the deadline. If they're willing to bet against you, this can engage your competitive spirit and boost your motivation significantly. And if they refuse to bet, it can give more confidence since maybe it means they believe you'll succeed. You can bet money, or you can make the consequences something more creative.

If you're into politics, another idea is to promise to donate money to a candidate or political party that you hate if you don't achieve your goal by the stated deadline.

Your ability to do this is partly a test of how confident you are in achieving your goal. If you struggle to make this sort of commitment, then what does it say about your level of confidence? If you're truly going to achieve your goal, then the negative outcome will not happen.

When you do this, be careful not to create too much of a counter-force to your goal by mistake. You want to engage your competitive spirit if you find that helpful, but you don't want to go so far as to incentivize others to sabotage your success. So if you promise a nice benefit to a bunch of people if you fail, you may motivate people to root for your failure and to withhold help they might otherwise have offered.

### Involve Others

One more way to increase your commitment to your goal is to involve others in its achievement. Instead of engaging your competitive spirit, you can create a spirit of cooperation and teamwork. This is the approach I'm choosing to use for my new passive income goal.

I believe that we can all achieve our goals together and help and support each other along the way, so I wish to create a spirit of cooperation. I wouldn't find it helpful to have people wishing for me to fail. I'd rather see all of us intending each others' success as well as our individual success.

By creating and sharing this book on how to create passive income, I'm engaging other people in the achievement of my goal. A positive side effect is that I'm creating a resource to help others achieve similar goals. People generally appreciate this sort of thing, and I'm already seeing a lot of positive feedback on this book. I do appreciate the encouragement, which is very motivating to me.

If I did this as a private pursuit, I might find it harder to achieve my goal since I'm the only one who'd care about it. But by doing it in a way that invites more social support, it becomes easier. Yes, it's more work to publicly share the steps along the way, but it also turns a solo project into a social one, which makes it more fun to work on. I also have more accountability to keep moving forward week after week.

If you look at my situation and how I've set this up, you'll probably agree that I should have some good motivation to complete and achieve my goal. Time will be the ultimate judge of course, but in the meantime, have you set up your goal with a similar amount of motivation and pressure? If not, this is the time to make those adjustments. If it's too easy for you to drop the ball, you probably will. I've actually won money betting against people when I could see that they weren't putting enough pressure on themselves to succeed.

### Create Positive Stress

We know that too much stress is a bad thing. But we also know that too little stress is bad as well. There's a sweet spot of stress between the extremes where you'll feel motivated to take action. This positive form of stress is called eustress.

How else can you strengthen your commitment to your goal? How can you keep it in front of you? How can you make it more real and solid? How can you add more negative consequences for failure? Whatever ideas you come up with, act on them right away. It's okay to be a bit impulsive here. As you do this more and more, you'll learn what works best for you.

It often takes time for a new goal to sink in, so I encourage you to take this step seriously. This is not a difficult step. Creating and posting my goal reminder in my office only took a few minutes. You can do a lot with a short status update on your favorite social media site, such as by promising a negative consequence if you fail to achieve your goal by your deadline.

Surely you can spare a few minutes to strengthen your commitment.

If you decide to skip this step, my honest expectation is that you will fail to achieve your goal. If you make it easy and safe to fail, you probably will.

At this point you may be wondering when we're going to get to the action steps. Where's the how-to part? Well, we're already into the action steps. This is very much a part of the how-to. We have to set things up so that you're very likely to take action. How are the other steps going to benefit you if you only read them but you don't actually do them? How many times have you read how-to info, said to yourself "I should do that," and then dropped the ball? We need to avoid that kind of outcome.

My intention for this book is not to teach you the steps to generate passive income. That would be a waste of everyone's time, and it's already been done. My intention is that you actually create a new passive income stream for yourself. That's the end result I want you to achieve. I'm writing this for the people who are finally ready to begin receiving some passive income this year. I'm not writing for the ones who are just curious about it. If you're merely curious, that's fine, but please don't get in the way of us doers. ;)

### Are You In or Out?

This is the point where you must now decide: _Am I going to read this book as an active doer or not? Am I going to follow along with action and create a new stream of passive income, or am I going to sit on the sidelines and watch other people do it?_

If you aren't sure, then you're not a doer... at least not yet. Either get sure and commit to this, or this boat will sail without you. You may tell yourself that you can always come back to this book later, but will you? There's some great energy in doing this in real-time with lots of others. That energy won't be around six months from now. So I think it's fair to say that it's now or never.

You may wonder what this commitment will entail. Shouldn't you learn the action steps before you have to commit? Nope. That's not how it's done. You commit first, and then the steps appear. What more do you need? I'm personally coaching you through this whole thing for free. I've already done this multiple times, and countless others have done it as well. It's obviously a possible and achievable pursuit. And if you're really committed, then even if I dropped the ball, you'd just continue on without me and learn what you need to learn elsewhere (just like I did).

Do you really have to commit in the dark? You're not actually committing in the dark though. You're the one who's ultimately going to move this goal forward, not me. You're the light source here. I'm just the helper you've summoned into your reality to help you create this now.

What's the worst that will happen anyway? Even if you commit and fail, you're still going to learn some amazing things along the way. You'll see what you're made of. Worst case you'll suffer some negative consequences like a little embarrassment. Big deal. You'll live.

So are you in, or are you out? If you're not sure that you're in, you can be sure that you're out.

A year from now, what decision will you wish you made today?

## Chapter 5

Many people have the limiting belief that passive income is weird, unusual, complicated, or confusing. As I've mentioned previously, passive income isn't particularly difficult in practice. In many ways, earning a living through streams of passive income is easier than earning a living through a job or as an independent contractor, especially in the long run.

The difficult part has to do with getting comfortable with a passive income mindset.

To tackle this mindset issue, let's turn this around and look at it from the other side.

Suppose you were already very comfortable with passive income, just like I am. Imagine that you had many thousands of dollars coming in every month, more than enough to cover all your expenses. Whether you work or not, fresh income keeps flowing to you month after month and year after year, based on streams you set up years ago.

Imagine that this is your normal everyday reality. You've already been living like this for more than a decade.

Now imagine that a friend with a regular job tries to convince you that what you're doing is weird or unusual and that you should adopt his mindset, give up your passive income lifestyle, and get a regular job instead.

If a job-loving friend did this with me, here's what such a conversation might look like...

**Friend:** You know... you should join the world of real people and get a regular job. This passive income stuff you're doing is just too strange.

**Me:** It seems to work well enough. What's wrong with it?

**Friend:** Well... it's not what most people do. Most people get jobs.

**Me:** How does that work?

**Friend:** Basically you go to work for some other company, usually a corporation. You do the work, and they give you a paycheck.

**Me:** Ok. Is my paycheck somehow based on the value I contribute?

**Friend:** More or less.

**Me:** So will I receive a fair amount relative to my contribution?

**Friend:** Depends on what you mean by fair. Obviously they're not going to pay you 100% of what they think you're contributing. They have to make a profit as well.

**Me:** Well do I get 80% of it or something like that?

**Friend:** Realistically it's probably closer to 30%, but it's not tracked that precisely. They don't really know how much value you're contributing relative to everyone else. On larger teams it's especially difficult to know how much value any individual is contributing. So salaries invariably involve a lot of guesswork.

**Me:** Where does the rest of the value I create go?

**Friend:** It gets distributed in many different ways — as income to investors and stockholders, to company profits, to corporate taxes, to higher pay for officers, to various perks like company picnics, and so on. That's for the higher-ups to decide, so it isn't really up to you.

**Me:** Do I at least get a share of those company profits?

**Friend:** Not usually, although some companies do have a profit sharing plan, but even then they won't share all the profits... usually less than half. Sometimes you'll indirectly get a small cut, like in the form of a bonus.

**Me:** Hmmm... Do I have to work every day?

**Friend:** Usually just weekdays, but it depends on the job. You may also get a few weeks per year for vacation time.

**Me:** Only a few weeks? What if I want to travel for a month or two?

**Friend:** Well, you usually can't. Maybe if you save up vacation time for a few years, then they would let you, but it's not good to be gone so long at a stretch.

**Me:** Why does vacation time need to be saved up? Time passes on its own. If I can afford to go on vacation, why can't I just go?

**Friend:** Because they need you to work.

**Me:** What if I'm burned out and don't feel like working?

**Friend:** There's free coffee.

**Me:** Good coffee or bad coffee?

**Friend:** Depends on the job, but there's always a Starbucks nearby if they only serve Folgers in the office.

**Me:** Can I take my laptop to the Starbucks and work there?

**Friend:** Depends on the job, but usually not.

**Me:** Can I go on more vacations if I work from the road on my laptop now and then?

**Friend:** Not usually.

**Me:** Why not?

**Friend:** Well, they probably wouldn't trust you to work if you're out of the office too much.

**Me:** So they have to watch me work?

**Friend:** Basically yes. But also some jobs are collaborative, so they want everyone together in the same place.

**Me:** I often do work now that's collaborative. We collaborate over the Internet or by phone.

**Friend:** Yup, some jobs are moving in that direction, but most employers still want you to show up each day.

**Me:** Where do I get to work?

**Friend:** That depends heavily on the type of job. For many office jobs, you'll work in a cubicle.

**Me:** What's a cubicle?

**Friend:** It's a subdivision in a larger room, delineated by short fuzzy walls. You should have enough room for a desk and a chair. Typically you'll have 50-80 square feet of space for yourself.

**Me:** So it's like the Shire?

**Friend:** Pretty much, but usually not as green.

**Me:** My home office is about 200 square feet, and it has its own bathroom and shower. But I can work wherever I want, so I'm not confined to that space.

**Friend:** Yeah, you won't get a space that size as a regular employee most likely, unless you work in management or some other high value job that warrants its own office. That isn't what most employees get, but it isn't out of the question. It just depends on the job.

**Me:** Do I get to pick my own job title?

**Friend:** Usually it's assigned, but sometimes you can. It depends on the company.

**Me:** Can I pick _Master_?

**Friend:** Mmmm... probably not.

**Me:** What about the pay?

**Friend:** Well, you'd probably earn a lot less than you do now for doing the same kind of work. Just to give you an idea, the average salary for a blogger is about $17-38K per year (source).

**Me:** Wow... that's a lot less than I earn now passively, even when I'm on vacation. How would I even live on that?

**Friend:** Other people get by on that much. You'd have to cut back quite a bit, especially since you'll need more money for commuting (gas, car maintenance), professional work clothes if required, and various other expenses incurred by employees. But you might get a free company t-shirt and coffee mug and maybe a mouse pad if you're lucky, so it sort of balances out.

**Me:** Ouch. But what if I could somehow earn the same amount I do now, but from a job instead of from passive income?

**Friend:** That would be very unlikely, but if you did manage that, you'd pay a lot more in taxes since this would all be W2 employee income. You can't use your business like you do now to lower your taxes.

**Me:** How much more in taxes are we talking?

**Friend:** The extra taxes you'd pay would be enough to buy a new car every year.

**Me:** That doesn't sound too appealing. Seems like it would be harder to get ahead if so much of each paycheck goes to taxes.

**Friend:** Yes, but the government understands this, so they make it look less painful by hiding a portion of those taxes, so it doesn't seem like your income is being taxed as heavily. You never receive that part of your salary in the first place. Some of your taxes are disguised in the form of taxes paid by your employer, like the employer's contribution to Social Security and Medicare for having you on the payroll. So even though your paycheck stub will report a certain base pay, your actual base pay (from your employer's and the government's perspective) is higher. You can bet that your employer is wanting to recoup those extra taxes from you in extra value you must contribute.

**Me:** I'm aware of this. U.S. tax laws are clearly hardest on regular W2 employees, who pay the highest taxes of anyone relative to their income. So why would people want to have their income allocated as W2?

**Friend:** Most people don't know any better. Besides, they wouldn't know what to do with all that extra money anyway. Lower pay keeps them out of trouble, and it ensures that they keep showing up for work. Gotta keep the economy going.

**Me:** Alright.

**Friend:** There are some job perks too.

**Me:** Like what?

**Friend:** You get health insurance.

**Me:** I have that now, but I hardly ever use it since I prefer to just stay healthy.

**Friend:** Well, you could afford to be less healthy if you had a job, and you wouldn't have to pay for it.

**Me:** Hmmmm...

**Friend:** Free coffee too.

**Me:** You said that already.

**Friend:** Did I mention that you can have as much as you want?

**Me:** Ok. So what kind of work would I do at a regular job?

**Friend:** That depends on the job, but big picture... it's usually something that supports the company's goals.

**Me:** Who sets these goals?

**Friend:** At a well run company, the officers figure them out, with input from board members, key investors, and sometimes from employees too.

**Me:** Where can I see those goals?

**Friend:** Usually you don't get to, but sometimes they'll share snippets in the form of a company mission statement, a list of objectives, or perhaps a memo. But you're not really going to know what the company's true goals are. That's normally shared on a need-to-know basis only, and most employees don't need to know.

**Me:** Ok. So how do I know which goals to work on?

**Friend:** Usually your boss determines that, so you just do whatever your boss tells you.

**Me:** I have to have a boss?

**Friend:** Yup, everyone does. Even the CEO is accountable to the board and the shareholders.

**Me:** Ok, so what if my boss doesn't do a very good job of telling me what to do?

**Friend:** That often happens. You muddle through. Just make sure you look busy when you're being watched, and you should be ok. Personal accountability tends to be pretty low, so as long as you don't stand out as being obviously idle, you're probably safe.

**Me:** What if the boss and I disagree on how to achieve the company's goals?

**Friend:** That's where you start getting into company politics, which can be messy. Some people do what the boss says anyway, even when they know it won't work. Other people try to push back or negotiate. Sometimes that works, but sometimes they get marginalized or even let go if the boss doesn't like it. Usually people compromise somewhere in the middle.

**Me:** Are these compromises normally intelligent?

**Friend:** Not usually.

**Me:** If I do a good job of helping the company achieve its goals, do I get extra rewards for that?

**Friend:** Yes, sometimes. You might get a raise, a bonus, or a promotion. Or you might get intangible rewards like praise, appreciation, and recognition. Sometimes, however, you don't get anything more than your base pay.

**Me:** How do promotions work?

**Friend:** You get a new job title and have more responsibility, which usually comes with higher pay. Sometimes it means longer hours too.

**Me:** What if I come up with a really great idea, but it's not part of my assigned duties?

**Friend:** Umm... yeah... don't do that.

**Me:** Why not?

**Friend:** You'll just be a rabble rouser. The other employees won't like it if you try to upstage them, and they'll make your social life at work unpleasant till you back down.

**Me:** So if I try to work harder or smarter and get promoted faster, the other employees may try to hold me back?

**Friend:** Probably. Your boss may not like it very much either.

**Me:** My boss wouldn't like it? Why not? Isn't it part of his job to cultivate good talent?

**Friend:** Perhaps, but he wants to look good too. It's not good for him if one of his underlings is outshining him.

**Me:** That doesn't sound like an environment where I can really do my best work.

**Friend:** Yeah, but it's all good. Fortunately your best isn't required. You just need to get by. It's actually easier this way.

**Me:** But if I know I'm not doing my best, then won't I feel worse about myself? Won't that lower my self-esteem?

**Friend:** Sure, but you get used to it. Everyone adapts.

**Me:** So what is it like to work with a group where no one is doing their best, and everyone thinks less of themselves and their coworkers because of it?

**Friend:** Pretty boring actually. But again, you get used to it. The free coffee helps it go down easier.

**Me:** Ok. So what about the sex?

**Friend:** What are you talking about?

**Me:** Well, if I'm with a female coworker, and we both get horny, then where do we go to take a shag break? Are there special rooms for that?

**Friend:** Oh no no no. That would be very much frowned upon. You could both get fired for that sort of thing.

**Me:** Fired? Why? What if it's just a quickie and we still get all our work done?

**Friend:** Yeah, don't do that. The company could get sued.

**Me:** Sued by whom?

**Friend:** Probably by the woman you had sex with.

**Me:** So if we have consensual sex, she would sue the company? For what?

**Friend:** Sexual harassment I guess. People have won millions of dollars doing that sort of thing.

**Me:** Ok, so I have to settle for blowjobs only then?

**Friend:** Goodness no. That's just as bad.

**Me:** So what do people do if they get horny at work? People still get horny at their jobs, don't they?

**Friend:** Sure... they get horny all the time. But they suppress it and pretend they're not. Then they take care of themselves later, usually with Internet porn.

**Me:** People look at porn at their jobs?

**Friend:** Oh no. That's frowned upon too. People could get fired for that as well.

**Me:** So basically while they're at work, people still get horny, but they pretend to be asexual till they can take care of themselves later... like at home.

**Friend:** Yup, that's pretty much it.

**Me:** Seems easier just to have a quickie, maybe take a short cuddle nap, and then go back to work refreshed and happy.

**Friend:** I'm pretty sure that's illegal in a corporate setting.

**Me:** Ok, but those positive after-sex feelings make collaboration easier. Trying to suppress one's sexual desires every day seems like it would be very distracting.

**Friend:** It is distracting of course, but remember that you aren't expected to be too productive anyway, so it works out okay. And again, the free coffee helps with this as well.

**Me:** Ok, so let me get this straight. You're suggesting that I shut down all my passive income streams, go to work for someone else, get a boss and do what he says even if his decisions are unintelligent, do mediocre work instead of my best, socialize with people who also do mediocre work, work longer hours for less pay, take fewer and shorter vacations and ask permission to take them, pay a great deal more in taxes, and on top of all of that... no sex?

**Friend:** Pretty much, yes. But you're overlooking the security aspect.

**Me:** What's secure about it?

**Friend:** Well, you'll get a steady paycheck.

**Me:** How steady? Does it ever end?

**Friend:** Well sure it can end. You could get fired or laid off.

**Me:** Can I prevent myself from getting fired or laid off?

**Friend:** Not necessarily. It could happen due to circumstances beyond your control. Or you might just make a mistake. Or someone higher up may not like you.

**Me:** So how is that secure?

**Friend:** Well, it's mostly secure.

**Me:** So if I get fired or laid off, how much residual income will I continue to get?

**Friend:** Usually none. You might get a severance package for certain jobs, but that's only short-term for transitioning. For the most part, once your job ends, you stop getting paid.

**Me:** But currently I get paid whether I'm working or not. And I can't be fired or laid off.

**Friend:** Yeah, that's weird.

**Me:** Just feels normal to me.

**Friend:** Well, I know you're kind of set in your ways, but jobs are very popular. They obviously work for lots of people.

**Me:** What about finding a job? Does everyone get one automatically?

**Friend:** Oh no. People have to seek them out and apply for them.

**Me:** How do they find jobs? Do they decide what they like doing and then find a job that lets them do it?

**Friend:** Usually it's not that simple. Most of the time they have to see what's available, and it probably won't match perfectly with what they really like.

**Me:** And once they find a job and select it, then they get hired?

**Friend:** No. Again, it's not that simple. It's a competitive marketplace. They have to apply, but they probably won't be chosen. They may have to apply to many jobs before they're offered one, and it may not be the one they most wanted. Also, millions of people who want jobs can't seem to get hired at all.

**Me:** This sounds very time consuming and stressful. What do they do if they can't find a job?

**Friend:** Well, they have to mooch off someone else to get by... off the government, off a relationship partner, off a friend or family member.

**Me:** And what if they still can't find a job, and no one lets them mooch anymore?

**Friend:** Then they might become homeless.

**Me:** That doesn't sound too secure to me.

**Friend:** Well, most people don't end up there. So it works okay overall. And being homeless isn't as bad as it seems. People cope.

**Me:** Do most people like their jobs?

**Friend:** No, at least 80% don't.

**Me:** So why do they keep going to work?

**Friend:** They need the money. And what choice do they have?

**Me:** They could earn money without a job.

**Friend:** Yeah, maybe... but who does that?

**Me:** I do.

**Friend:** Yeah, but you're weird.

**Me:** I appreciate your sharing all of this, but in a world that considers this job thing normal, I think I'll stick with my current approach, even if you think it's weird. I enjoy the work I do, I get paid well whether I work or not, I can travel whenever I want, I don't have a boss, I can't be fired or laid off, I don't feel I'm overpaying on taxes, I can do my best without feeling pressured to be mediocre, and if I'm working with someone and we get horny, we can shag the dickens out of each other and then go back to work with a smile... and no one gets sued. Best of all, I get to use _Master_ as my official title.

**Friend:** Sure, that all sounds good, but most people can't do it.

**Me:** Why not?

**Friend:** I don't think most people are smart enough.

**Me:** There are lots of not-so-bright people earning passive income. You'd be amazed at how much mental capacity is freed up when you don't have to deal with a boss or company politics... and when you don't hold yourself back doing mediocre work instead of your best... and when you aren't stressed about being potentially fired or laid off or having to be celibate.

**Friend:** True, but those people are weird too.

**Me:** Perhaps.

**Friend:** Also, passive income is way too complicated for most people.

**Me:** If people can handle all the complexities of jobs, I think they'll find it a breeze to earn passive income. There's no job hunting, no resume, no application, no boss, no company politics, no need to save up vacation time, no risk of being fired, no commuting, and lower taxes. Yes, there's a different learning curve in the beginning, but if people can handle working for someone else, I think they can easily handle setting up passive income streams. And once they've done it once or twice, it's pretty straightforward after that.

**Friend:** Well, I'm still skeptical, so I suggest you give this some further thought. Again, jobs are very popular. I think you should give it a try.

**Me:** Do you think I'd like it?

**Friend:** No, but you'll get used to it. Trust me. It will all be fine. Again, it's very popular.

**Me:** Maybe for the free coffee.

## Chapter 6

Now that we've covered setting your passive income goal and a bit about the mindset of passive income — I hope you enjoyed the humor in the last chapter — let's explore the details of how to actually create passive income streams. We'll start out fairly high-level here and then drill down into the specifics in subsequent chapters.

Here are the 3 basic parts of an income generating method:

  1. Value creation
  2. Value delivery
  3. Payment

Notice that these same 3 aspects can be applied to any basic income generation method. When you work at a regular job, for instance, you're probably going to create and deliver something of value to your employer, and then you receive payment for it.

So what's different about passive income? The difference stems mainly from the second aspect: how value is delivered.

When you generate active income such as with a regular job, your value delivery is usually done just _once_. Whatever work output you've created gets handed over to your employer.

The same goes for contract work. You do some work for a client (value creation), hand over that work (value delivery), and get paid.

With a passive income strategy, however, the idea is to deliver this value multiple times. Then you get paid multiple times, once for each delivery.

So the heart of a passive income strategy is found mainly in the approach to delivering value.

### Passive Value Delivery

The words "passive income" suggest that it's the third aspect (payment) that defines the difference between passive and active income, but the main differences are usually found in the value delivery methods.

With an active income method, you hand over your work product once and get paid for it once. With a passive income method, your work product is delivered multiple times, and you get paid multiple times.

The _passive_ element means that this value is being delivered without your direct personal effort. So you're using a method to get your work output into the hands of multiple customers, but you don't have to be the one personally delivering it. For example, when I publish a new Kindle book, it gets delivered to people all over the world automatically, but I don't have to personally send it to everyone. The value delivery is automated by Amazon.

### Why Just One Customer?

Now here's a good question to ask yourself: Why do you only have one customer?

A person with a job is just a business owner who sells to only one customer. If you take a passive income strategy and apply it to just one customer at a time, you have an active income strategy. One boss. One employer. One client at a time.

A person who generates passive income usually prefers to deliver value to multiple customers simultaneously. Another option is to repeatedly deliver value to the same customers over and over, but without having to create that value anew each time. A good example of this would be renting out property that you own. You can generate passive income this way even with a single customer since that customer can keep paying you rent every month.

When people shift from an active income to a passive income mindset, they usually start thinking about how to deliver value to more people. Instead of having just one customer for your work output, why not have 10 customers... or 100... or 1000? Why not have 1,000,000 customers?

How many people are you capable of helping?

### Scaling Up

Note that with an active income strategy, income is a function of value creation. If you only have one employer, one client, or one customer for a particular work product, then in order to increase your income, you have to work harder, or you have to charge more for your creations.

But with a passive income strategy, you have an additional leverage point. You can deliver the same value more than once and get paid for each delivery. As it turns out, this is a powerful leverage point.

When you start thinking about how to scale your work, you'll often find that you could do the same core work but also serve more people than you do now. You'd simply need a different way to deliver your value.

For example, you could write software for one company and get a paycheck from them, but you could also develop and release your own software that lots of people can download and use.

You could work as an attorney and see one client at a time, or you could create and sell books with your best legal advice, thereby helping many more people.

Think about the work you do right now. How could you modify your work so that you can provide your value to many more people?

Chances are that your employer is already taking your active labor and applying a passive income strategy to it. You do the work one time, and they leverage it to generate long-term streams of income. Or you may be working to support the system your company developed to deliver passive income and capital gains to its investors and founders.

Sales are the lifeblood of any business. If you sell to only one customer, that isn't much blood, so you don't have much of a flow going there.

To enter the realm of passive income, start questioning the wisdom of running a business that sells to only one customer. And start thinking about how you could scale up the work you do, so you can deliver the value you're already capable of creating to more than one customer simultaneously.

Generally speaking, the way to create streams of passive income is to deliver your value to multiple customers simultaneously and to get paid multiple times. If you're going to work anyway, then you're already creating value for someone. Why sell to only one customer? Broaden your horizons, and realize that if one employer is willing to pay you for the value you're producing, chances are that someone else would be willing to pay you too — if only you weren't so clingy with your one and only customer.

### Stop Being So Selfish With Your Value

I tend to regard people who use active income strategies as being more selfish and self-centered than those who use passive income strategies. That may sound harsh, but the truth is that active income earners aren't very good at sharing. They share their value with just one customer at a time, which in a world with billions of people is rather limiting, wouldn't you say?

People often refer to this as loyalty, but it's really just limited thinking. Besides, your employer may already be using this limited thinking against you as it generates passive income for others based on your active work output.

Passive income earners are constantly looking for ways to put more value into the hands of more people. They want to be as generous as possible. They love to share. And so society rewards them with streams of passive income, so they get paid even when they aren't working.

Society doesn't care how hard you work. It doesn't care how creative you are. It only cares about the value you're actually getting into people's hands. That's what you get paid for — for value delivery — not for your ideas, or your long work days, or your intrinsic value as a human being.

We'll cover the details of how to do this later in this book. For now, your homework is to start thinking about the value you're already delivering to people, and consider how you could scale it up to deliver this value to multiple people at the same time. It doesn't matter whether you have a job or not. What value do you deliver to your friends and family? Why do people bother spending time with you? What other forms of value could you provide if you made an effort? Hint: you don't actually have to be the one personally delivering this value. You just have to ensure that the delivery occurs.

Begin to step into the mindset of becoming a more generous provider of value to others. This is ultimately what passive income is all about. :)

## Chapter 7

Some people have asked whether it would be sustainable if everyone tried to earn passive income, so let's get that out of the way before we continue with this passive income series.

I think the supposition here is that certain jobs don't adapt well to passive income strategies, and therefore certain work is best suited to active income. Let's suppose that's true for the sake of argument.

Passive and active income strategies compete in the marketplace. People are free to choose either strategy. Most people choose active income. Why? I think the main reason is that they've been socially conditioned to choose this strategy. They probably make this choice without much knowledge of passive income strategies. Schooling, parents, and peers help train most people to chose active income.

Even if a lot more people started earning passive income and fewer people were willing to earn money as active income, I believe the market would adapt without skipping a beat. For critical tasks that could only be performed with ongoing labor, prices would rise, and therefore more people would be willing to perform those tasks.

Presently we have an oversupply of people who are looking for jobs, and we have a shortage of jobs for those people. So is it really wise to keep training more people to look for jobs? No, that would be foolish and will only make the problem worse. It will also cause salaries to drop, lowering people's standard of living.

I think a better solution is to teach passive income strategies and help some of those people make different choices. Passive income is a great choice in this economy since you won't need to find a job. In fact, you can actually help to stimulate more job creation.

Passive income has the effect of creating more jobs as well as supporting existing jobs. Whenever I create new passive income streams, I create income for other businesses. These generate revenue that helps cover the salaries of many employees.

Remember that passive income methods involve delivering value to more people than you probably could with an active income strategy. I see no reason to hold back on providing value. You may be providing different forms of value with a passive income strategy, but it's still a net gain for others if you increase your contribution.

If you license your book to a book publisher and receive passive income in the form of royalties on sales, the publisher may in turn pay people to perform specific jobs to keep their system running, and those employees may receive active income in the form of a salary. Your book deal helps to facilitate this and creates and sustains jobs for others.

Passive and active income strategies are mutually supportive. They are not opposites. I think it's healthy for both to co-exist.

I don't personally want a regular job, but I understand that many people do, sometimes desperately so. I may poke fun at the regular job mindset now and then to get people to think about this more consciously and to consider alternatives, but I respect people's ability to make their own choices.

As for whether it's fair to earn passive income, I'd say it's more than fair. It's downright generous. As I've shared in a previous chapter, passive income tends to be more heavily rewarded (and less taxed) than active income. But passive income strategies can also add a lot of value to the economy, and so it makes sense to reward these strategies more heavily. By helping to create and sustain more jobs for others, you can actually generate significantly more tax revenue than you would if you earned the same amount via active income.

It's not uncommon for active income earners to think of passive income as a greedy strategy. The irony is that it's just as easy to regard active income earners as holding back and making a lesser contribution... contributing to just one employer when they could be serving many more people. The truth is that both strategies seek to contribute, just in different ways.

In the next several chapters, I'll cover some specific passive income strategies. I'll even demonstrate some of these strategies with specific examples from my own business, so you can better understand how they work.

## Chapter 8

To generate passive income, you need a way to maintain your income without having to do so much grunt work to keep it going. If you have to keep working each day to avoid seeing your income drop, then you're earning active income, not passive income. Passive income continues to flow even when you aren't actively working.

Many forms of passive income still require daily or weekly maintenance activities, such as fulfilling orders or handling customer service, but this doesn't mean that you have to perform those maintenance tasks yourself. You may delegate such tasks to other people, to businesses, or to technology. For your income to be passive (meaning that you don't have to do much to maintain your cashflow), you need to remove items from your plate, but those items still need to get done.

A _passive income system_ is a form of delegation. What is being delegated, and to whom? How will the necessary active tasks being handled if you won't be doing them yourself? Your passive income system must provide these answers.

I love delegating to technology because it's fast, efficient, consistent, and inexpensive. Technology also tends to scale well, meaning that you can add more computing resources, which generally requires little more than paying for those resources. This works well for an Internet business.

For example, I'm delegating the distribution of this book to Amazon. When I click the "Publish" button, various hardware and software will make it available in the Kindle store. Without this technology I would have to use some other distribution method. Technology is so ubiquitous these days that it's easy to overlook what it does for us and take it for granted, but it can perform a vital role in any passive income system. Without this technology what would it take to distribute copies of every book I've written to millions of monthly readers around the globe every month? It would be a massive effort if this had to be performed by human hands.

Notice then that when you rely on technology to communicate, you're already taking advantage of passive systems. Your messages pass through equipment that's designed, built, and maintained by others. You may not be paying those people directly, but they're working for you every day. You're already taking advantage of these systems now. So if you currently rely on such systems for your communication needs, then why not leverage them to handle your income as well?

You can also delegate tasks to other people and to businesses to get them off your plate. In a typical affiliate deal, you may delegate the order processing, fulfillment, and customer service to another company. For example, if you use Amazon's KDP program to sell Kindle books, you're effectively delegating a significant portion of the work to Amazon. From your perspective an ebook sale may seem very passive, but that's because Amazon provides the active labor to make your Kindle royalties possible.

### Build or Borrow

To employ your own passive income system, you have several options:

  1. You can design and build your own passive income system from scratch.
  2. You can learn how other people earn passive income and try to copy their approach.
  3. You can use someone else's system as-is (usually by paying for the privilege).
  4. You can do a combination of any of the above.

I've used all of these approaches at different times. I can't offer a general recommendation for one of these above the others though. The most intelligent choice depends on a variety of factors including time constraints, budget constraints, personal strengths, and personal goals.

If you're up for a real challenge, it can be very rewarding to design and implement your own passive income system from scratch. The upside to this approach is that you invented it, so you know its inner workings, and you can customize it all you want. The downside is that this method can take a lot of work, and it may be quite a while before the first income streams start flowing. Innovation is risky. Sometimes the risk pays off. Sometimes it doesn't.

More commonly, people borrow ideas from each other. Why reinvent the wheel? Learn what works for other people, and use similar methods for yourself. There are plenty of books and systems authored by entrepreneurs who are happy to teach you how to do what they did. Some people are willing to share details of their systems for free, while others only share this info for a fee. Even when there is a fee, buying someone else's system can save you a tremendous amount of time and energy.

When I was trying to build some sales for my computer games during the 1990s, I bought a book called _How to Sell Your Software_ by Bob Schenot. Bob shared the details of his system, and I was able to adapt much of his advice to my own business, which saved me a lot of time. That system would seem very dated today (it was largely pre-Internet), but it got me off to a good start in building my own direct sales system.

A seemingly inexpensive approach is to use someone else's system as-is. An example of this is licensing your book to a book publisher or selling your book via Amazon. This may seem like a good deal since you don't have to pay anything up front, but it can be a lot more expensive if you do well because you may have to give away a significant percentage of your sales to the system provider. This approach tends to be the easiest for getting started. System providers in this category may be very good at processing orders and handling customer service, but they usually don't provide much marketing assistance, so it may be hard for you to get noticed with them. That said, they can do an awful lot of work for you, making your income streams very passive.

The good news is that you don't have to understand how to build a passive income system from scratch in order to use one, just as you don't need to know how to build a computer from scratch in order to use it.

My personal favorite is the hybrid approach. I pick up many good ideas from others, but I like to put my own spin on things and keep tweaking my passive income streams as I go. I rarely use other people's systems as-is, often because I find their marketing methods a mismatch for my audience, so at the very least, I still need to tweak the marketing elements even if the underlying product or service is a good fit.

### To Buy or Not to Buy

One question that will surely come up for you is whether or not you should buy into someone else's system, such as by paying for their knowledge or resources.

Generally I do think this is a good idea, especially when you're first starting out, but only if you're cautious about it. You can waste a lot of money buying low quality money-making systems from random Internet marketers. On the other hand, paying for a good system can also deliver tremendous value. You can learn in a short period of time what took someone else years or even decades of painstaking work to piece together.

I used to be a bit over-eager in paying for what seemed like premium knowledge in this area, and I wasted money on what turned out to be fluffy or outdated info. Then I cut back massively and became very stingy, which caused me to miss some easy opportunities. And finally I settled into what I feel is a more practical and realistic attitude. I'm willing to pay for systems know-how if I think I'll be able to apply it effectively and if the info comes from a quality source. For me a quality source is someone who seems to genuinely want to help people understand and apply the methods they teach, rather than just selling low-quality info to make more money. Also, a quality system is one that's already been proven to work under real-world conditions.

Usually when I pay for systems knowledge these days, I'm not looking to implement someone else's system as-is. I'm simply looking for a few fresh ideas I can use to upgrade my existing systems. What are the latest and greatest ideas I might otherwise miss?

I know that when it comes to marketing, the people who sell these systems may try to push my emotional buttons and offer extra incentives to get me to buy. I do my best to ignore those sales tactics and look at the potential value more objectively.

Since I know people are going to ask me this, I'll share a couple of specific recommendations for systems you can use to generate passive income streams online today. If you'd rather not read about these recommendations, feel free to skip to the next section.

### Site Build-It

I've been recommending Site Build-It (SBI) since early 2008, referring thousands of new customers to them. I still wholeheartedly recommend this service today for its outstanding mix of technology, tools, hosting, and education. They sought to be an all-in-one solution that helps people build successful online businesses (not just websites), and they really deliver on that.

SBI continues to update its technology, and they had a major update not long ago, so now it's even more robust and modern than it was when I first began recommending it.

SBI also hosts an active discussion forum where its members share tips and strategies on a daily basis. That alone is a treasure trove of useful information... not to mention an ongoing support resource for SBI members.

SBI charges a very reasonable subscription fee for its service. The annual cost for an SBI site is less than what I pay for a single month of web hosting for StevePavlina.com. SBI sites are certainly capable of generating at least as much passive income as I do, and many SBIers own multiple sites. This is a very cost effective solution if you're interested in generating passive income with a website that you own.

I recommend SBI especially if you have a topic you're very interested in, or you have some knowledge you'd like to share. Instead of constantly sharing ideas on your Facebook page, you could be sharing them on your own website and using that to generate traffic. Then you can monetize that traffic in various ways to generate income.

I recommend SBI because people are making real money with it, they provide a solid all-in-one solution, and it's very inexpensive relative to the value they provide.

For details on SBI, read my original SBI review, or see my latest SBI update.

You may want to follow SBI on Facebook too since they post tips, updates, specials, etc. on their Facebook page.

### Get Rich With eBooks

My book publisher Hay House informed me yesterday that ebook sales are expected to nearly double this year. We're in a unique time where the demand for ebooks is growing so much faster than the supply, partly because tablet computers have been selling like crazy. There's a hungry demand for ebooks that can be read on these devices.

I spent the past week in Canada, and during my flights I did some ebook reading on my iPhone. Despite the small screen, I found it very pleasant to use for reading, and I know I'm not alone. The people in the aisle across from me on one flight were reading ebooks on their iPads. This trend towards ebook mobility is only going to continue.

Last night I was discussing the inevitable contraction of print book publishing with my friend Stewart Emery. Stewart co-authored Success Built to Last, and he's an influential figure in the book publishing industry. A while back he predicted that either Borders or Barnes & Noble would be out of business within two years. Two years later (almost exactly) Borders went bankrupt, and Barnes & Noble was saved by shifting their focus to ebooks with the Nook.

For my own book, I can also see that sales of the Kindle version are exceeding sales of the paperback and hardcover versions combined. I expect this gap to widen even more over the next five years.

This situation creates some unusual opportunities for ebook authors. Eventually the supply will catch up, but for now the demand is increasing at a much faster rate. There are still far more print books than ebooks on the market, but the sales momentum is all on the ebook side. This is creating something of a gold rush for ebook authors.

Vic Johnson noticed this trend, and he jumped on it. To date he's earned more than $7 million from ebooks. He offers a very thorough course on how to do what he does, appropriately named Getting Rich With eBooks.

I've gone through this course myself and learned quite a lot from it. I also spoke to Vic directly. He was broke and selling ebooks became his ticket to wealth, which explains why he's so passionate about them. I recommend checking out Vic's course and his system for creating and selling ebooks. This unusual demand-supply situation won't last forever.

This trend is similar to the advantage I capitalized on when I started my blog in 2004; back then the demand was growing so much faster than the supply, and many people who started blogs around the same time I did saw significant traffic growth as public interest in blogs grew and grew. If you're just starting a blog today, however, you're pretty late to the game since now the field is much more crowded.

The interesting twist here is that Vic doesn't even write most of the content he sells. He's earned quite a lot of money from repackaging public domain works and from using ghostwriters to create content for him. He explains how to do this in his program, including how to identify opportunities for new ebooks you can sell.

Vic's system is a good choice if your writing skills aren't so great or if you have doubts about your ability to create high quality content on your own. If, on the other hand, you love to write like I do, then you can also use Vic's program to help you research, market, and sell your own ebooks effectively. I think it's well worth the money, and Vic sells it with a try-before-you-buy model that makes it easy to get started.

I've already written a book (published by Hay House), so I've been through the whole publishing process and know what it's like. Nevertheless I still picked up some golden nuggets from Vic's program that I wasn't previously aware of. I also got a kick of out his enthusiasm, and I liked his down to earth style.

I think Vic's program will appeal to a lot of people who are following the passive income series since it does not require that you have a website, nor does it require that you create one. Vic teaches you how to earn income using other websites to sell your ebook for you. You can still create a website to help sell your ebook, but that part is optional.

I like that Vic is very generous with his content, so he includes tons of extra bonuses and resources to help you with the practical details. He even tells you which specific service providers he uses and gives you their contact info.

You can learn more about Vic Johnson's _Getting Rich with eBooks_ program by watching this video.

Vic's program and SBI can complement each other quite nicely, so this isn't an either-or situation. You could easily create an SBI site and an ebook on the same topic. Your SBI site can help sell your ebook, and your ebook can help promote your SBI site. I enjoy this type of relationships between my book and my website, for instance — they both help to promote each other.

I used a similar combo strategy when I ran my computer games business. I sold the games through my own website, but I also posted my game demos to hundreds of software and game download sites. The download sites helped drive traffic to my website, where people could buy the full versions of my games. Vic uses a similar strategy, using inexpensive ebooks to drive traffic to his websites. He makes good money from the ebooks, and he also makes money from his websites, which can sell other products and services in addition to ebooks.

### Your Passive Income System Preferences

My goal in this chapter is to get you thinking about what kind of system you'd like to use to generate your own passive income streams. Do you want an income-generating website? Are you leaning towards having a product to sell on other people's websites? Would you like a system that incorporates both? Or do you want to do something wildly different?

Think about your strengths. A good system will allow you to leverage your strengths while delegating the areas where you're weakest. Are you a content machine like me where you need a system to provide an effective publishing platform and a way to monetize your work? Would you feel more comfortable selling someone else's product or service? Does selling turn you off, and would you prefer to delegate the selling aspect as well?

When it comes to passive income systems, the key test is whether your system works in the real world. You can dream up whatever you like, but dreams aren't streams.

A good passive income system generate results. If you've never created your own system from scratch, I recommend borrowing someone else's system if you want to reach your goal quickly. Otherwise if you prefer a bigger challenge and don't mind investing a lot more of your time and energy up front, you're always free to roll your own.

Once you've had the experience of working with someone else's system, you may decide to keep using it, you may experiment with different systems, or you may tackle the challenge of rolling your own system. There's no right or wrong way to do it. But I'd suggest that for your first stream of passive income, it's much easier to simply borrow and apply someone else's system, even if you have to pay for it. A good system looks simple, but that's because it hides so many implementation details. For passive income, this is a good thing. Handling too many details yourself throws you back into the realm of active income.

A good passive income system will normally employ many different income-generating strategies simultaneously, weaving them into a congruent tapestry. This is similar to how a computer integrates many different hardware and software components that function well as a unit.

We can also learn a lot by breaking out and studying the individual components of a passive income system, and that's what I'll be sharing in the chapters ahead. While I still recommend borrowing someone else's system to get started, learning the details of how the different elements work together is still very helpful since you'll probably want to tweak and extend what you learn from others.

### Loving Your System

At this point you don't have to commit to a particular passive income system approach just yet. You'll eventually need to make such a commitment, but for now I want you to familiarize yourself with some options and start giving this some thought.

Poke around SBI's website and get a feel for what they provide. Watch Vic's video, and note that the video is actually part of his system for selling his program.

Which aspects of these systems appeal to you? Do they play to your strengths? Do you expect they'd work if you were to use them? How might you adapt and extend them?

It's important to cultivate a healthy relationship with the passive income system you'll use. If you love your system, you'll use it. If you don't like it so much, you'll procrastinate.

I don't do real estate investing to generate passive income because it would bore me to tears, and I wouldn't feel like I'm contributing much. Some people may be very passionate about real estate investing, but it's a bad fit for my personality and values.

On the other hand, I love publishing Kindle books. I love that when I have an idea, I can get it out of my head and share it with thousands of people that same day. I love that my work is permanently archived and accessible 24/7 to anyone with an Internet connection. I'm not very patient, so when I have an inspired idea, I like to share it immediately. I love the passive income system that supports my writing because it allows me to provide a tremendous amount of value for free without feeling I have to hold back or to charge money for every little thing. I like sharing, and the system I use allows me to do that abundantly.

I don't want you to make the mistake of adopting a passive income system that you merely tolerate. I want you to have a system that you truly appreciate. Offload the work that you don't enjoy, so you can do more of what you love. When you do what you love, you'll contribute more, and that's better for everyone.

## Chapter 9

In the next several chapters of this book, we'll explore a number of strategies for earning passive income. Let's begin with one of my personal favorites...

### Intellectual Property

Intellectual property refers to mental creations that are associated with legally recognized rights, such as material that can be copyrighted, trademarked, or patented. This includes articles, books, music, movies, artwork, photographs, comics, software, logos, and more.

Mere ideas do not generally qualify as intellectual property. It's the expression of the idea that's legally protected. You cannot claim the idea of poetry as your intellectual property, but you can copyright an original poem you've written, which gives you certain exclusive rights to that poem.

Since intellectual property is generally easy and inexpensive to duplicate, especially when it's in digital form, it's a great candidate for creating streams of passive income. You can deliver value to people simply by copying and sharing some data, and this process can be automated or outsourced.

To create a piece of intellectual property may involve a good deal of work, but that work need only be done once. After that, the property can be duplicated and shared with many people. You could potentially still be generating earnings 50 years from now for a piece of intellectual property you create today.

For instance, you can write a book once and then generate income from direct sales of the book or royalties from a book publisher. You can also earn income by selling the associated movie and merchandising rights.

### Self-Publishing

Once you create a piece of intellectual property, one option is to sell it yourself and see if people will buy it from you.

This works well if you have a following or can build one. For people who are just starting out, it's going to take a while to build that following, usually years. If you're patient and persistent, this approach can really pay off though.

I used this approach with my games business. It took time to build a following, but I eventually got there. The only real way to fail is to give up, which is of course what most people do.

One of the leverage points for self-publishing is lead generation. This means finding a way to attract people who might be interested in your product. One way to do this is with advertising, but that can be risky and costly, so I don't recommend it for most people.

My favorite method of lead generation is to give away a lot of quality free content. With my games business, I offered free game demos and submitted them to hundreds of game and software downloads.

Note that putting up free content on a website with no traffic is not lead generation. Nobody will see it. You have to get your free stuff into people's hands, meaning that you have to put it where there's traffic. If you don't have the traffic, then put your free content somewhere other than your own website. The free content can then refer people back to your website, where they can buy something from you directly.

When you generate leads, don't let them fizzle out. Try to collect them. People often need to be exposed to an offer multiple times before they're willing to buy anything, so if someone visits your website but doesn't buy right away, give them other options to stay in your communication loop, such as by subscribing to your blog or newsletter or by following you on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

As you generate leads over time, some of them will subscribe to one of your lists, so you can still communicate with them.

For my newsletter I use the service Aweber. I like this service and find it reliable, and the interface isn't overly complicated. In a typical issue I provide a new article (that doesn't appear on my blog — this is to reward subscribers), and there's usually at least one promotional offer in my newsletter that can help generate income. Worst case I may just include a link soliciting donations.

Some people really push hard on the newsletters, sending them almost daily. I typically send mine about once a month, but I'm not perfectly regular about it. I've sent out 4 issues so far this year. If you wish to subscribe to see what it looks like — or to see what you're missing — you can sign up here. Of course I don't spam people or sell their email addresses, so all you get is the newsletter, and you can easily unsubscribe by clicking a link at the bottom of any issue.

To process sales you may need a merchant account and a shopping cart. It's been years since I shopped for a merchant account, so I don't know what kind of deals are available today. Try Googling "merchant account" to see if you can find a decent recommendation or review site for merchant accounts. You can also process orders via PayPal if you wish; they can handle credit card orders from non-PayPal customers, and their rates are competitive.

For my online shopping cart, I use the service 1ShoppingCart. That's what I use to sell tickets to my workshops. You can also use them for doing newsletters if you wish. 1SC has tons of features, most of which I've never used, but those features can be helpful if you really want to go the direct sales route and optimize the heck out of it. I don't use those advanced features because at present I earn more income from other sources than I do from direct sales.

Self-publishing is a long road. It's definitely not a good choice for ADHD types. This is for the builders who enjoy creating something to endure.

The main advantage to self-publishing is that once you have it figured out, you're pretty much golden. As you learn what works for you and what doesn't, you can line up a string of repeat successes.

### Licensing

Even though we speak of _selling_ intellectual property products like ebooks and videos, what we're really doing is **licensing** them. The information within isn't actually being sold since no transfer of rights occurs. What's being sold is a license to use that information, and often the license is limited to a specific purpose. You might also sell the physical media that stores the information, like a physical book or disc.

Licensing is more obvious with software which often includes a license agreement. You may have to agree to its terms in order to use the software.

In a broader sense, you can license your intellectual property to other entities, who can then exploit it to generate revenue, and depending on how you structure the deal, you can earn a cut of that revenue stream. This is what happens when you sign a publishing deal with a book publisher. They sell the book, and you receive royalties from the sales.

Some companies make millions from licensing their intellectual property for various uses. Look at the thousands of products with Disney characters on them, for instance. Disney earns a bundle in licensing fees for those products. Could you create the next Mickey Mouse?

Here are some more examples of what you can do with intellectual property:

  * Design a t-shirt, and license your design to a t-shirt company in exchange for a small cut of the sales
  * Take some scenic photographs, and license them to a postcard publisher
  * Record some relaxing music, and license it to people who sell meditation audio programs
  * Write a new iPad or iPhone app, and sell it through iTunes
  * Write an ebook, and sell it through Amazon.com
  * Invent a cartoon character, and license it to a toy company to create stuffed animals

My ex-mother-in-law is an artist, and many years ago she licensed the artwork from some of her paintings to a greeting card company. She earned royalties from the sales of those greeting cards.

Don't let the word _licensing_ scare you. Licensing simply means "giving permission." Normally when you license work you created, you and the other party will sign a contract to spell out the terms. You can have a lawyer draft one for you, find boilerplate agreements online, or create your own.

### Licensing Agreements

I paid lawyers to draft my first few licensing agreements, and once I became familiar with the key terms, I could easily write my own agreements, using what the lawyers created as a reference. Depending on the complexity of the agreement, it would cost me anywhere from several hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars to have a lawyer draft it for me. I would only do this if the deal was likely to generate more than enough income to cover the legal fees.

If I have a complicated licensing deal to negotiate, or if there are contract terms I'm not familiar with, then I'll consult with a lawyer to handle the tricky bits. I used a lawyer to help out with my book deal in 2007, which cost me $2000. She helped me negotiate for better terms in some parts of the agreement, which I feel more than made up for the cost of her services.

Legal bills can add up quickly, but for deals where a lot of money is involved, the professional help can be well worth the expense.

Often you don't have to draft a licensing agreement yourself since they other party may provide one. Publishers do this as a matter of course. Then you only have to review it and suggest changes. I've rarely signed a licensing agreement without asking for something to be changed.

If you're broke or want to learn how to draft licensing agreements on your own, a good source for info is Nolo Press. They sell many quality books, software, and do-it-yourself legal kits.

### Re-Licensing

If you create some intellectual property that can be licensed, you can even grant someone else the right to license your creation for you, usually by giving them a share of the revenue streams. For instance, my book Personal Development for Smart People was recently published in Polish. I didn't handle that deal; my publisher Hay House did. I didn't even know about it until I received two copies of the Polish edition in the mail. Hay House isn't publishing the book in Polish though. Hay House relicensed my book to a Polish publisher, which paid Hay House for those rights, and then Hay House and I split that money in accordance with our agreement. I gave Hay House the right to relicense my book to other publishers around the globe.

What do you do if you're a creative type who can create interesting intellectual property, but you aren't any good at selling or licensing it? Team up with someone who can handle the selling and licensing for you.

If I had retained the global licensing rights for my book, I could have done those foreign deals myself and kept all the money. But would I have done that as well as Hay House has been doing? Maybe... maybe not. They have connections and foreign rights managers and knowledge of different markets to put those deals together. That's why my book is in so many different languages now. If I tried to do it myself, I might have gotten some results, but it would have been much more time consuming and expensive to do it on my own, and I'm not giving up so much money to have Hay House handle this anyway.

### Agents

When I ran my computer games business during the 90s, I knew how to create a game, but I didn't know how to get them published. My first method was to go to Comp USA, look at a bunch of game boxes, and get the addresses of as many publishers as I could. Then I snail-mailed a letter of introduction to dozens of them. Maybe 3 or 4 wrote or called back. None of those inquires resulted in deals, however. This was a rather naive shotgun approach but not very well targeted. I even got at least one in-person meeting this way, but it was clear the publisher wasn't a good match for the kinds of games I wanted to write.

Eventually I got introduced to a game agency by some other contact. Game agents act as brokers between game developers and game publishers, helping to create deals. I met with them and liked the idea of working with them. They helped me figure out what kinds of games to develop based on market trends, they set up meetings with publishers and helped me try to secure and negotiate deals. If they could get me a deal, they would get a percentage of whatever revenue I received, so it was no money out of pocket for me.

Usually I met publishers at conferences like E3 or the Game Developers Conference, but sometimes I flew to their offices. My agent set up these meetings. Fortunately E3 was in L.A. where I lived, except for a few stupid years when they moved it to Atlanta, so that was convenient. I remember some sleepless nights preparing last minute demo updates for these conferences.

For me this approach was hit and miss. I landed some deals this way, but they weren't good deals. Some money came in ($120K in advances), but no games ever got published and released. I can't fully blame the agent for this. Suffice it to say there are a some truly bad apples in game publishing. The recent conflict between Activision and the Call of Duty developers reminds me of the kind of crap I had to deal with back then.

### Be Cautious

That said, I later did some nicely lucrative game licensing deals, but I learned to be very selective about which publishers I worked with. When it comes to licensing, it can be more important to avoid bad deals than it is to land good ones. If you're going to get into this form of income generation, it can really pay off, but you may be risking a bloody nose now and then.

My best advice for evaluating a potential licensing partner is to do your homework. Get in touch with people who've worked with that potential partner, and ask if they're willing to share their experiences. Listen to what they say, and take it to heart.

I once did this when a game publisher approached me for a licensing deal. Their website had a list of developers they'd worked with in the past. I emailed all those developers (about 6 of them), and they all wrote back. Without exception what they told me was very specific and very negative. None of those developers had seen a dime in royalties. This publisher was ripping them off, selling their games in other countries and paying them nothing. Needless to say, I never worked with them, and I shared what I learned with other developers I knew to make sure they avoided this trap.

### Dealmaking

Once you get good at licensing, you can generate new revenue streams by acting as a dealmaker. This may seem daunting if you've never done it before, but with practice it can be a lot of fun. You can get paid to act as a matchmaker.

Many years ago I licensed a computer game from a small game developer, including the right to re-license it. I published and sold the game through my own company, but I also turned around and re-licensed it to another publisher. This generated an extra stream of royalties, which I split with the developer as we had previously agreed. Could the developer have done this deal on his own? Maybe... but it would have taken him a lot longer. It was easy for me to close this deal quickly because I already had the connection with the right publisher.

Notice in this case that I didn't create or own the game, and I didn't own the other publisher's business or sales outlets. I just put the deal together, which generated income for the publisher and the developer — and for me as well. So please note that you can create streams of passive income from intellectual property even if you don't own the property or the sales platform. You can get a cut of the action for being the dealmaker, and deservedly so.

For several years I've worked with a guy who helps me find good joint venture deals. He's well connected in the personal development field and seems to spend most of his working time on the phone. He knows people who have great products and services. And he knows people who have sizable audiences like me. He connects one with the other, helps massage the deals into place, and enjoys a share of the revenue created by these deals. These income streams have paid off his mortgage. He didn't receive any special training for this, but through life experience he discovered that he was good at introducing people to each other, and he found a great way to turn that into multiple streams of income. On top of that, he recorded and produced his own music album, and he'll begin selling that soon as well. The deals I've done with him thus far have generated revenue for me well into the six figure range. Note that he gets paid not for the introductions (i.e. not a finder's fee); he gets paid a small percentage of revenue from each deal he helps to close.

If someone brought you an easy-to-close deal that earned you an extra $1000 per month, would you be willing to pay them $100 per month from that revenue stream for doing the legwork?

Some people are so good at dealmaking that they can generate millions in passive income with just a few phone calls. There's real value in connecting two or more people or businesses that can synergize their resources, if only they knew of each others' existence.

### Creativity

Intellectual property is a nice choice for creative people because it's so flexible. You can create a piece of property once and then license/sell it in many different forms.

I also love that you don't need a lot of money to create intellectual property. I wrote my best selling computer game when I was dead broke. Its budget was basically $0. It didn't cost me anything to write my book either. You can create a great deal of content for free.

However, because the barrier to entry is so low, it means that lots of people are going to attempt this. The vast majority won't be any good, but this does create a crowding effect. Even if you're good at what you do, it may take some time to separate yourself from the mosh pit of wannabes, especially in the eyes of people you'd like to work with.

When you create something, try not to wrap your self-esteem around it. In the beginning you're probably going to suck. That's okay. Everyone but Mozart sucks initially. Keep practicing and honing your skills, and you'll get better.

I love doing creative work, so I've created a great deal of intellectual property, including software, several computer games, game characters, books, articles, podcasts, newsletters, logos, speeches, workshops, poetry, signs, music, artwork, and more.

Being creative isn't enough if you want to turn your creations into income streams. Selling, licensing, and dealmaking are important skills as well, and I suggest that you try to respect these roles as much as you respect the content creation side. If you're unwilling to develop those related skill sets, then give some serious thought to partnering up with someone who can perform those roles. If you can convince them of your creative genius, it's a great opportunity for them as well. It certainly worked out well for Steve Jobs acting as dealmaker for Steve Wozniak in the early days of Apple.

## Chapter 10

A big part of self-discipline comes from social pressure. This is how people in the military can become very disciplined, particularly in special forces. They don't want to hold their team back, so they have to do their best. Loyalty to their teammates holds them to a higher standard. Loyalty to their country or to certain principles can also provide a self-discipline boost. They work for a cause greater than themselves. If they lose faith in that cause, their self-discipline suffers.

The same goes for working on team projects in companies. People can become more disciplined if they care about their team and don't want to hold their teammates back. The social pressure encourages them to work harder.

For other people, discipline comes from supporting a family they're loyal to. They don't want to let their family down, so they do what needs to be done. If they feel disconnected from that family, again self-discipline suffers.

Suppose you're doing stock trading for a living, and you find it difficult to stay disciplined. If you're only doing stock trading for yourself and there's no greater cause to it than that — something you believe in that stirs strong emotions in you — then you will surely fail in your efforts to build more self-discipline. That's because there's no greater need for you to be disciplined. Nobody cares whether you make money on your trades or not, and that means that deep down, you aren't going to care enough either.

Money itself is too weak to motivate much discipline. This is one reason so many people are deep in debt. Countries too.

One of my friends recently created his own investment fund to manage, after working on other funds for many years. He has to be very disciplined because he's trading other people's money, including that of friends and family, and he doesn't want to let them down. I encouraged him to make it a socially and environmentally responsible fund, so he can do some good with the money. He loved the idea and decided not to invest in certain types of companies and to focus on companies that are making a positive difference and setting good examples. He found no shortage of quality companies to invest in.

Self-discipline comes from caring. If nobody cares about what you're doing, maybe you don't care either, and maybe it doesn't really need to be done. If you're working only for yourself, you're almost certainly going to struggle with self-discipline. Motivating yourself to take action will be an uphill battle.

Suppose you want to earn more passive income. Why should anyone care? Why should anyone want you to succeed?

If I saw someone tackling this goal with no greater motivation than personal gain, I'd bet against their success. They won't be disciplined enough to see it through to the end. They may be excited in the beginning, but they'll soon get caught up and drop the ball. And in the end, nobody else will care either way.

I love sharing ideas with people. I know that if I can figure something out, I can share it with many others, and it may benefit them as well. So when I work on my own personal growth projects, it's never entirely for personal reasons. Knowing that I can turn my personal goals into useful information for others is a big part of my motivation.

Even during my 20s, my best motivation for creating passive income streams was so that I could do more sharing. I grew frustrated with having to pay so much attention to my finances, which distracted me from working on creative projects. I felt that if I could automate my income streams, then I could put even more energy into creating and sharing, and that would be better for other people too, not just for myself. I figured that if I didn't get this handle, I was going to die with my music still in me, and then I'd never get to share my best creative work with the world.

When I tried to create passive income streams just for myself, I didn't get very far. I always gave up in the end. I made the mistake of trying to create streams where the only exciting part was the money. I even took two courses on real estate investing in my early 20s... and then did nothing with them. I found the work tedious and boring, and money wasn't enough of a motivator to push through.

What stirs you emotionally? How can you wrap that into your project? What will encourage you to put another couple hours into your passive income projects instead of watching TV?

I know full well that most of the people following this passive income series are going to fail. Even among those who seem committed to it, I would bet against most of them. The criteria I would use would be whether or not anyone else is really going to care if this person succeeds. If I can clearly see that the motivation is purely for personal comfort and that no one else will care, then failure is almost a certainty.

If, however, I see this person working on this as a team project with friends or family, committing to creating streams that will do some social good, and having a clear vision of how passive income will expand their ability to contribute, then I'd say the odds are in their favor.

Suppose two people email me asking for help with their passive income projects, and I only have time to help one. The first says he's sick of his job and wants to quit. The second tells me she's in a band, and her band members want to create songs about compassion and oneness; they want to automate their income so that they can focus on making more music and performing it for people. Which one would you go out of your way to support?

I'm able to succeed on this path because I receive a tremendous amount of social support for the work I do. Every year I receive thousands of dollars in donations. People refer new business deals to me. People invite me to speak at their events. Even when I was just starting out in 2004 and 2005, I received many helpful leads from readers and other bloggers. People liked what I was doing and wanted to encourage me and help me. That's how I succeeded on this path. It was absolutely not a solo pursuit. Most of my passive income streams came through other people, and they still do. My book publisher came to me offering a book deal. Sometimes it felt like people were practically throwing money at me. Where was all that support when my motivation was strictly for personal gain? Nonexistent.

People who are struggling financially often have a tendency to resent and demonize wealthy people. I did that too — when I was broke. Then I figured that if I felt that way about wealthy people, why would I ever allow myself to become one? I figured I should maintain a more open posture and withhold judgment until I got to know some of them personally. I did that and was often surprised by how kind, considerate, and generous they were. That helped me shift my mindset, and I realized that wealth gives people the freedom to focus single-mindedly on contribution.

Even when it seems like someone succeeds dishonestly for the sake of personal gain, their real motivation is usually social. For many of society's modern villains, the motivation was to take good care of their families.

You will find it much easier to discipline yourself to take action when you might otherwise have stalled if you have a greater social reason to succeed. And with some decent social pressure, you can't just quit. People won't let you quit. In your moments of weakness, someone else will give you the needed pep talk.

If you try to quit on your passive income project, how many people will try to stop you from quitting? If your honest answer is zero, you'd better fix that ASAP.

If I try to quit writing this passive income book before it's done, how many people will try to persuade me to continue? I'm sure it's a lot. Do you think that plays a role in motivating myself to publicly share some ideas I had... on a Sunday morning... even though I don't have to? Of course it does. If no one else cared, I wouldn't bother doing this.

I would suggest sharing your current passive income goals with your friends and family. Share them on your Facebook page. Discuss with your social circles how to make your goal more socially engaging. Ask people to help you turn it into something they'd genuinely care to support. Listen to their ideas. Don't force a change you don't agree with, but notice which ideas seem to excite you. Then massage your goal into a form that motivates you even more deeply than your previous version.

Only overlook the social component of motivation if you want to guarantee failure.

## Chapter 11

If your motivation for passive income is escape, you'll most likely fail. Passive income is fuel to expand what you're already doing. Trying to add fuel to what you don't want is a recipe for self-sabotage. You will give up before you get very far.

Trying to build passive income streams on top of a lifestyle you dislike is like doing weight training with incorrect form and then trying to add more weight. You're only going to hurt yourself if you proceed. It's not an intelligent approach.

If you don't like your lifestyle, it's important to fix that first. Don't think you can escape it by creating streams of passive income. It won't work.

My advice would be to first transition to active income sources where you can do work you enjoy. Then you can build upon that with passive income to serve even more people and extend the value you're able to provide.

So if you work as a health coach and mostly enjoy that kind of work, you can expand your service with something like an online course or an ebook or a website, which will allow you to passively provide value to people even when you're not available to help them one on one. This in turn will allow you to earn passive income. Passive income is a side effect of providing passive value.

But if you hate your current work and try to escape it with passive income, your work will be a constant albatross around your neck that drags you down. The real problem is your low standards and low self-esteem. Why are you currently willing to do work you dislike in exchange for money? Don't you deserve any better than this? This mindset is a bankrupt one. It means you'll never deliver your best service, and so your income will be depressed as well.

If you try to generate passive income from this place, I can tell you what will happen. Your willingness to do work you don't enjoy in exchange for money will carry over and infect your approach to passive income. Your focus will be on the money. You'll be thinking that if you can earn enough passive income, you can finally quit doing work you don't enjoy. So you'll pick something that you think will make money, and it will also require doing work you don't particularly enjoy — because that's where your mind is. You may try to make a website, even though you don't like making and running websites. Or you may try blogging even though you don't like writing. Or you'll try to write your own ebook even though you don't care to become an author. But your heart won't be in the work, so you'll burn out within a matter of months. You'll quit.

This is nothing but a repeat of the same failed strategy you've used on the active income side, except that with active income you may have a boss, coworkers, and enough bills to ensure that you keep showing up. Passive income is usually much easier to quit.

It's your unwillingness to demand enjoyment and fulfillment from your work that's the real issue you must deal with first. Passive income won't cure your willingness to sacrifice your happiness for pay. If your mindset is infected by the idea of doing work you dislike in exchange for pay, then you are living with incorrect form. If you try to carry this incorrect form over to the passive income side, you will fail. You won't enjoy the work enough or see the point of it. You will quit.

So before you get all gung ho about setting up passive income streams, pause for a moment and check your form first. Are you living with correct form right now? Do you require fulfillment and happiness from your day job? Are you doing your best work? Do you feel motivated to work each day because you get to do what you enjoy?

Sure you may have some tedious tasks now and then, but what's the big picture? Overall, would you say that you like the way you're currently living and wish to expand it further? If so, then you're a good candidate for passive income. If not, then you need to stop and fix your form first.

Again, if you're willing to do work you dislike in exchange for pay, you're going to take that same wonky mindset with you as you pursue passive income. But this mindset isn't effective. It causes you to hold back, wallow in low standards, do work you feel is undignified, and give much less than your best effort. That isn't good enough for effective weight training, and it isn't good enough for generating passive income either... unless you only desire a mere trickle of results.

Fix your form first if it needs fixing. Make happiness a true priority in your life now — before you try to extend it with passive income. Otherwise you will be just as miserable on the passive side as you would on the active side, and who's going to work for something like that? You'll surely sabotage your results before you get very far at all.

Passive income is expansion, not escape. Creating passive income streams will add fuel to your current lifestyle, helping to extend and expand it. If you don't want to extend and expand what you already have, then make those adjustments while you still can. Don't try to build something that would make you feel even worse.

## Chapter 12

As you read through this book, suppose you start seriously thinking about creating your own passive income streams. You talk about some ideas with your friends and family, and you get a negative reaction. Perhaps they suggest that passive income is beyond your reach and that you should just settle for a job like any "normal" person would.

It's possible these people are trying to keep you from having a failure experience, but quite often there's also some fear in the mix. What if you actually succeed? If the people around you don't have strong self-esteem, your potential success can seem threatening to them. They may expect you to fail the first time, but if you stick with it and keep going, it may worry them that the odds of success will begin to shift in your favor.

People will often try to get you to change when they sense doubt in you. When they sense certainty, they usually won't bother. So if you're getting these kinds of reactions, the most common culprit is that you're broadcasting self-doubt so loudly that other people can't help but respond to it.

Being uncertain isn't a problem, but be aware that it opens the door to being influenced. This can expose you to new ideas and suggestions, but it's hard to take action when you're in this phase because others' influences are usually not congruent with your own desires. If you stay in this uncertain phase too long, you may end up more confused and paralyzed.

When you wish to move forward with action, or if you're done spinning your wheels with doubt, then commit yourself to forward action in a particular direction. This will reduce distracting influences. If you wallow in uncertainty and keep seeking others' counsel, you'll never get anything done.

Sometimes you can find certainty through exploration, but most of the time you have to create it by choice. You never know how different decisions will turn out in advance. Just pick something and go forward anyway, like a child deciding which ride to go on first at Disneyland. You don't know if it will be the best choice, but you act like it will be the best anyway.

I often enjoy showing people around the Las Vegas Strip when they come to town. Sometimes I tell them that I'm going to show them the most amazing sight in all of Las Vegas, one they'll never be able to forget. I say this with over-the-top enthusiasm. I take them to the Bellagio Hotel, and as we turn a certain corner, I point it out to them and gasp, "Isn't this the most incredibly thing you've ever seen?" Then I show them a fountain of liquid chocolate. It's a cool thing to see if you've never seen it before, but it doesn't really live up to the hype I projected. Nevertheless, that silly enthusiasm can make the experience more fun for everyone, and it makes the experience more memorable.

You don't have to be so over-the-top in your enthusiasm for what you're doing, but if you're going to move forward in creating passive income, then create the certainty that you're on the right path, especially when you share your thoughts with others. It makes the experience more fun, and it encourages others to play back at you with their own silly enthusiasm instead of trying to get you to change their mind. It also helps to diminish potential fear or jealousy from others.

Whenever I create a new stream of passive income, I never know how it will turn out. Sometimes the results meet my expectations. Sometimes the results are better than I expected. Sometimes the results are dismal. When I'm taking action, I focus on moving forward without worrying so much about the result. I don't allow myself to be riddled with doubt and hesitation along the way since that would only lead to paralysis; it would also invite derailing influences into my life.

When other people are doubtful and hesitant, are you usually able to pick up on that? Can you tell when others are committed and when they're not?

People can sense the same in you, whether you realize it or not.

I've noticed that when I'm unsure about something I'm writing about, it opens the doors to a flood of feedback from people who want to influence me one way or the other. It also invites a lot of criticism. However, when I create more certainty in my writing, I hardly receive any feedback like that. People don't try to influence immovable objects to change.

When I first began writing about polyamory and open relationships a few years ago, I received tons of feedback about it, ranging from deeply critical to hugely supportive. I was still getting comfortable with the idea, so I still had a lot of uncertainty about it, and I'm sure that came through in my writing. It was good to invite this kind of feedback initially since it helped me think carefully about it before proceeding. But when I decided that this was the right path for me, I stopped creating and projecting doubt and uncertainty, and consequently, people stopped trying to influence my choices in this area.

If you feel that other people are trying to get you to change, and if this is becoming annoying, take a conscious look at the doubt you're projecting. People are responding to what you're broadcasting.

Many people have to deal with critical and unsupportive friends and relatives. If that's been a problem for you, then stop giving others the impression that you're uncertain and ready to waffle if they exert enough influence. You'll only bait them into trying to change your mind.

Put your attention on moving forward with action. If that's your focus, then when someone tries to influence you to stop or slow down, they won't get very far. You may choose to respond with something like, "Oh... I'm sorry... did you mistake me for someone who's uncertain about this? Please don't try to slow me down. I'm not interested in debating whether or not this is a good idea; I'm past that phase. I'd prefer to have your support going forward, but if you don't feel you can offer that, I understand. Just do the best you can to accept that this is important to me, even if you don't agree with it yet. If I later change my mind about this, it will be my choice to do so. But for now I'm motivated to move forward on this. Wish me luck!"

If someone tries to come over the top by brushing this off, get up and leave immediately. Don't waste your time arguing. Have enough self-respect to know that this kind of discussion is beneath you. You have every right to make your own choices. Some people can't take a hint, and you have to be assertive with them to make that clear. Sometimes it takes several confrontations before people finally see that continuing to ride you is pointless. This is especially true with relatives. It may take a few blow-offs before they can change the way they relate to you.

There's a flip side to this as well... one that many people overlook. When you project uncertainty about your decisions, you not only invite criticism and derailing influences on one side, but you also repel potentially supportive influences on the other side.

If you act like you're unsure about creating passive income, then potential business partners will avoid you like the plague. Who wants to work with someone who's unsure of themselves? Who wants to risk dealing with the business-virgin?

Yes, you will build confidence through experience. But you can also create confidence by committing yourself. Either you're going to create streams of passive income, or you're not. Which will it be? It's not enough to declare that you're going to do it. If you're going to adopt a passive income lifestyle and not rely on jobs and the government to support you for the rest of your life, then start acting like it too. This includes not getting into arguments with people who either don't understand it or won't be supportive.

I remember what it was like to be just starting out on this path. My friends thought I was a bit of a slacker for not wanting a job. People would send me job applications or tell me of job openings. But when they figured out I was committed — and especially when I started making real money doing this — they all backed off. At the same time, I began attracting dozens of new entrepreneurial friends into my life, people who were much better matches for where I was at the time. With these new friends there were no pointless arguments about whether this independent path was a wise choice; that was just a given, so obvious as to be unworthy of discussion. Instead we focused on sharing ideas and supporting each others' projects.

I really do think that fear and jealousy play a part in other people's reactions. I mentioned open relationships in this chapter because the reactions to exploring open relationships mirror the reactions to earning passive income. Both paths involve breaking ranks with socially conditioned behaviors and embracing greater levels of abundance.

If you're still arguing and debating with people about whether or not the passive income path is a good idea, you haven't tipped yet. Those who get it know that such arguments are beneath them. When you finally see that these derailing influences are popping up in your life as a result of your own doubts and fears, I think it will help you see that in order to succeed — and especially to gain the social support you desire — you must eventually dump this limited thinking and leave it behind.

You may be wondering why I'm spending so much time on the mindset of passive income, trying to help you grasp it from different perspectives with chapter after chapter. That's because the mindset is at least 80% of the value here. Once you really understand the passive income mindset, it's all downhill from there. The action steps are easy to figure out for anyone who's committed. You can learn by trial and error, buy courses and programs and books to help you, or research ideas on the Internet. There's no need to even wait for me to finish the series.

Some people are already building new web businesses as a result of this series, and I suspect they'll be generating income before the series is over. They're taking action because they get it. Further delay is pointless. They can continue to follow this series and use it to supplement what they're learning from direct experience.

If you haven't taken any real action yet to create your first passive income stream, what's your excuse? Remember that "I Don't Know How" Is Not a Valid Excuse. Other excuses for inaction are just as feeble. If you have time to read this, you have time to work on your first stream. Instead of wasting your energy on doubt and hesitation, you can make real progress by diverting that energy into forward action.

## Chapter 13

I wanted to share this photo I took because it depicts a nice example of providing passive value.

Coming up with the idea and adding this wall art required a one-time investment of time and energy. But once it's shared, it can continue to provide value in the form of laughter and amusing conversations for visitors year after year.

Could this be monetized? Indirectly, sure. It could potentially cause more guys to talk about it... or to encourage their friends to use this restroom because of the silly surprise inside. Outside this restroom are several restaurants, and it's just down the hall from a big casino, which offers plenty of opportunities to spend money.

If you're curious to know, this restroom is located inside the Las Vegas Hotel (formerly known as the Las Vegas Hilton), next to their conference center. This would be one of the main restrooms used by convention-goers.

A common mistake people make in trying to creating passive income streams is that they focus on monetizing before they have anything to monetize. This is like fishing in a dry riverbed. It's wasted energy. And people do this ALL THE TIME!

I dare say that most of the passive income failure stories I hear involve people trying to monetize a non-existent value stream. They try to go straight for the money, and their results are predictably weak. They're doing the business equivalent of begging, and so they generally earn no more than beggars do.

You can't produce a stream of passive income until you've have a stream of passive value, just as you can't catch fish until you've found some water where fish are swimming.

Focus on creating the value stream first. Then when you know you have a healthy stream going, you can work on monetizing it.

If you focus on monetization first and foremost, that's equivalent to saying, "Where are all the frakkin fish? Maybe some are hiding behind these cacti... or perhaps under that boulder. There must be some fish around here somewhere. Dammit, I paid good money for this fishing rod. Now, fish, listen up! I hereby command thee... come out from your hiding places, and skewer yourselves upon my hook!"

Stupid as this sounds, this is pretty much what people do when they get all gung ho about passive income with nary a concern for passive value.

Once you've integrated the mindset of creating passive value, and it feels like second nature to you, _then_ you can think about monetizing earlier because you'll know where to look for monetization opportunities. But until that becomes a habit, I encourage you to think deliberately about creating passive value streams first, before you give any thought to monetizing them. Get good at finding water first. Then work on your fishing skills.

My challenge to you now is to do something simple that can provide some passive value for others. Remember that even a photograph can do that. Where can you share this little piece of value such that a year from now, people might still be receiving the value you provided? Don't worry about monetizing it. Just put something out there for free. Make it so.

How do you know if you're really providing value? Feedback. Your attempt is only a guess. Other people are the ultimate judges of whether or not you provided value to them.

When I saw the men's restroom mentioned above, I laughed and smiled. I snapped a photo. I shared it. For me this provided some value. If it does that for a lot of other people too, then whoever created this did a good job of creating a passive value stream.

If you do something that you believe will make people laugh, and no one laughs, then you didn't provide value. You didn't create the stream. That's okay. It happens. In your attempts to provide value, you'll often miss.

There is a skill element to value creation. It takes time to discern what people receive and appreciate as value, and it takes time to adjust your aim. I'm sure I've written many articles that few people cared about. But this helped me get better at understanding what people desire and how that matches up with what I can provide.

The more you condition this habit of looking for ways to create and provide passive value to others, the easier it will be for you to enjoy streams of passive income.

I wonder what the women's restroom looks like...

## Chapter 14

Real estate investing is one of the most common ways that people become wealthy.

You can buy real estate such as houses, apartment buildings, office space, retail space, etc. and rent it out. You can also make money from the appreciation, assuming that real estate prices rise while you own the property.

When renting a property, it's nice if you can create a positive cashflow, meaning that your monthly rents provide enough to cover your mortgages, upkeep, property taxes, and other expenses and still leave you with some profit. Note that as you pay down the mortgages (which is essentially being done by your tenants), you will gradually own more equity in the property. You can then borrow against this equity to fund more investments, or you can sell it and cash out.

Real estate investment has some tax advantages too. One role of government is to help ensure access to housing for its citizens, and so tax laws encourage real estate development and investing.

While real estate investing can be done in ways that require a lot of cash, with some creativity you can do deals that don't require tying up a lot of money — and still generate passive income for yourself. In this capacity you can also act as a real estate dealmaker, putting deals together that other people will execute. For instance, you could assemble a proposal for a new shopping center, help get key tenants interested, and then sell the deal to a real estate developer in exchange for a cut of the revenue. This is way beyond my current expertise, but I've heard of people making good money doing these kinds of deals.

Many businesses and organizations hold a great deal of wealth in the form of real estate. For example, McDonald's not only makes money from selling dead cows; they also own many valuable street corners around the world. The Catholic Church is also a major land owner.

As your investments increase in value and your equity increases, you can borrow against your equity to buy more property, thereby increasing your holdings over time. Of course there's a risk of overextending yourself. Many real estate investors have gone bust when their over-leveraged investments sank in value, and they ended up owing more than their properties were worth while also dealing with tenants who could no longer pay the rent.

I can't share much about real estate investing since I've never been into it. I've read several books on the subject out of curiosity, but providing housing and office/retail space to tenants just doesn't excite me. I think this would be a decent way to generate passive income for someone who is patient, can be disciplined enough to stick to a long-term plan, and who knows a lot about property and is good at assessing what a property is worth.

If this type of investment interests you, please don't let my personal preferences dissuade you from investigating it fully. Libraries have plenty of books on how to invest profitably in real estate, and I'm sure there are plenty of websites and forums where you can find good advice from experienced investors.

Even though it's not my cup of tea, I wanted to mention real estate investing as part of the passive income series since it's a common path that people use to generate passive income and long-term wealth.

## Chapter 15

In addition to earning passive income from physical real estate, you can also generate income from **virtual real estate**.

Virtual real estate is online property, including domain names, websites, and online services. A virtual pub in an online game world is an example of virtual real estate.

If you've ever registered a domain name or created a website, then you've already owned some virtual real estate.

Ownership is somewhat of a gray area, both with physical and virtual real estate. I use the term loosely here. Ownership depends on how much control you have over the property, so we have a spectrum of possibilities. For instance, if you want to discover who really owns your home, stop paying your property taxes for a while and see what happens.

With virtual real estate, ownership can become especially muddled, but for the purposes of our passive income series, what we're really concerned with is how much power you have to monetize your property.

Suppose you have a Facebook page. We could say that Facebook owns it more than you do, and you don't have much control over the layout and functionality. However, you still have some ability to monetize, so you could treat it like your own virtual real estate to some extent. For example, you could recommend a product with your affiliate link, and if any of your friends buys, you earn a little money. Or you could use your Facebook page to drive traffic to your other virtual properties and then monetize that traffic.

### Monetizing Virtual Real Estate

There are many ways to monetize virtual real estate, both actively and passively.

One way to make money with virtual real estate is by investing in domain names. If you can buy a domain name at one price and later sell it for more, you'll profit from the appreciation in value, and appreciation can loosely be considered a form of passive income.

I still own the domain name dexterity.com, which I've had since the mid-90s. Single-word .com domain names can be valuable these days because they're pretty much all taken (unless you invent a new word). So if I wanted to, I might be able to sell that domain for a profit.

You can also buy and sell websites, which is another way to trade in virtual real estate. Buy low, sell high, and you make a profit on the exchange. This isn't necessarily passive income, but it's a way to monetize such properties nevertheless.

Other than the value of the domain name, the value of virtual real estate depends largely on what kind of traffic it gets. More traffic is good. Higher quality traffic (meaning people who are willing to spend money) is also good.

One interesting form of virtual real estate is buying virtual property in a virtual game world. I'm not into that sort of thing, but I've heard of people making some money by buying and selling game world properties such as characters, game buildings, weapons, etc. Often they earn less than minimum wage though.

### Developing Virtual Property

Anyone can buy virtual property since all you have to do is register a domain name, which can be done in minutes. This is a lot simpler than buying physical real estate.

I personally love virtual real estate since it's easy to get started, you don't need to tie up much cash, you don't have to deal with banks and title companies and mountains of fear-based paperwork, it's easy to maintain, and there are so many ways to monetize it with new ways being dreamed up every year.

I started my blog for a total out of pocket cost of $9. My only expense was registering the domain name. I piggybacked the site on a web server I was using for another site, so I didn't have to pay anything extra for web hosting. After that, everything I spent to improve the website, such as software purchases and hosting upgrades, all came out of the site's revenue. Try buying physical real estate with only a $9 investment. You can spend more than that on gasoline just driving around to look at properties.

My favorite way to build traffic to a website is with lots of quality free content. This attracts visitors, links, and search rankings that can help maintain and increase the value of the property over time. When my site had no traffic, I posted this free content off site, so people could actually find it. This external content then helped drive traffic to my own site.

Traffic is key. Once you have traffic, you can monetize it in so many different ways. You can sell advertising, use affiliate programs, do joint-venture deals, solicit donations, sell subscriptions to a membership site, and more. Largely this comes down to testing and experimenting. Every site is unique, so what works for one may not work for another.

### Jumping on Trends

When it comes to building up virtual real estate, many people really don't know what they're doing, just as I wouldn't know what I was doing if I tried to invest in physical real estate. These people do the equivalent of trying to build a shopping mall in the middle of nowhere and then abandoning it half-finished. Then they complain that you can't make money from shopping malls.

Perhaps the biggest problem I've seen is that people try to build virtual real estate by copying what others have already done to death. You don't even want to know how many people have started personal development blogs after seeing mine. That strategy isn't going to work very well these days.

When I first launched this site in 2004, I didn't know of any other personal development bloggers. It was a relatively new idea. There were personal development experts, but they mainly focused on writing books and speaking. Most of their websites were just bare-bones online business cards, no more than 10 pages total. Many of them didn't even know what a blog was. I sensed a big opportunity there, so I jumped on it.

Seeing this opportunity in 2004 was like finding cheap, vacant land right at the edge of a rapidly growing metropolitan area. You know that as the city grows, that land is going to become increasingly valuable, so it's a wise investment.

When I started in 2004, for me and other bloggers like me, it was almost like we could do no wrong. There was far more demand for blogs than bloggers could satisfy. Many other bloggers who started around that time saw their traffic grow like gangbusters. Those golden days are over.

If I was starting out today, I would NOT start a personal development blog. This field is way too crowded in the blogosphere now. It would be a major uphill climb against entrenched competition to stand out, build a following, and get to the top of the search engines. I'm not saying it's impossible to succeed with a new blog now — it can still be done — but it's not nearly as accessible as it once was. There are much easier targets.

If I was starting out today and wanted to work in essentially the same field, I'd go where there's still a lot of empty real estate, and I could get in cheap and build a following. I might get into ebooks since that market is exploding due to all the iPad sales, and it's nowhere near the saturation point yet.

Other good choices would be apps for iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watch. Another option would be to develop apps for Chrome, which recently became the #1 browser. And since the new iPad Pro will be coming out soon, you might develop a new app to take advantage of its huge display as well as some of the new features of iOS 9, which just launched last month. Some of these markets may seem crowded already, but I think we're just getting started.

Back in 2004 I was worried that I might be getting into blogging late because there were already 8 million blogs when I started, although most were akin to personal journals. Now there are probably 400-500 million blogs. I think we'll see the same explosion in ebooks and various app markets over the next few years. You think 1.5 million iPhone & iPad apps is a lot? Wait a few years. This is still early.

As Wayne Gretzky would say, skate where the puck is going, not where it's been. Blogs are yesterday's news. If you haven't already ridden that wave to the top by now, you've missed the boat. Focus on the newer, more recent opportunities that are just emerging but that aren't so saturated with competition yet.

When it comes to online real estate, if you snooze, you lose. When you see an opportunity, act on it.

### Overcoming Excuses

One of the reasons people hesitate to take action is that they drown themselves in excuses. People who succeed could use all the same excuses though. It's not the existence of potential excuses that's the problem. It's the willingness to succumb to them.

As I point out in a bonus chapter at the end of this book, "I don't know how" is perhaps the biggest and lamest excuse of all.

If you don't know how, do it anyway. Once you do it, then you'll know how. Of course you're never going to know how the first time. Nobody does.

People often think they're supposed to succeed with a process like this:

  1. Set a goal.
  2. Figure out how to accomplish it in a step by step manner.
  3. Follow the steps to complete the goal.

When they can't complete step 2, they get stuck and procrastinate. They also whine a lot, which I hate.

A more realistic approach looks something like this:

  1. Set a goal.
  2. Figure out one small action that might move you closer to that goal. Worst case, just guess.
  3. Take that action from step 2.
  4. If you haven't accomplished the goal yet, repeat from step 2.

Last year I didn't know how to create a song. I didn't know what the steps were. I couldn't use the first method. But I was able to complete a song using the second method. I could guess at the first step, which was to run GarageBand on my Mac for the first time. Once the program was running and I looked at the interface, I had some ideas for what the next action step might be, such as "Create New Project." Within that same session, I created my first song. It was awful and only 12 seconds long, but it got me started. And within a week or so, I was able to create something that was about 3 minutes long and at least tolerable.

It's the same thing with building virtual real estate. No one knows how to do it at first, but they do it anyway. You just guess at a step and do it. Then you guess at another step and do it. Keep adapting and acting till you get somewhere interesting.

If you think you need to know all the action steps before you start, you're just being goofy and paranoid. Even if someone else gives you the action steps that worked for them, they probably won't work quite the same for you. The inputs will be different. You can try following a recipe, but it will come out a little differently each time.

Don't psyche yourself out before you begin. With any sort of passive income stream, you'll learn as you go. To a newbie that may seem like a scary thought. But once you get used to it, you'll see that the uncertainty is what makes it fun!

## Chapter 16

As you read through this passive income book, you may start getting ideas for how you can create new streams of passive income. How do you know which ideas are worth pursuing?

### Keep It Simple

It's easy to bite off more than you can chew with your first passive income idea. If you already have a track record of successfully completing large projects, then don't let me stop you. But if you have a tendency to get discouraged and give up too soon, I suggest scaling down your ambitions. Start small by tackling a simple project that you're confident you can actually complete.

It's better to complete a 30-page ebook and sell it for $7 and generate a few sales per month than it is to tackle a 200-page writing project and never get it done. The former provides some genuine value to people; the latter will merely frustrate you.

Treat your early projects as training for your success muscles. The greatest predictor of future success is actually past success, so think about creating some simple successes by taking on modest projects and getting them done and released. Once you've done a few of those, then consider scaling up and tackling bigger projects. Even with seemingly simple projects, you're going to learn a lot. You'll get faster, and then it will be easier to scale up and tackle larger projects.

It's so easy to underestimate how long things will take by overlooking details. With some of my early game projects, I'd estimate that I could crank out a particular arcade-style game in 2-3 weeks, but in reality it would take me 6 months. There are so many hidden steps that are easy to gloss over with an off-the-cuff estimate, such as creating the installation program, creating the music and sound effects, writing the documentation, setting up the online ordering system, etc.

If you've never created a passive income stream before, your first project may involve lots of one-time steps like setting up an online shopping cart. But once you've done that initial setup work, you can create similar streams with greater ease simply by plugging them into the same system.

Try not to get overly excited about making a killing with your first passive income project. Put your attention on learning the ropes and generate a nice little stream. Then you can scale up by creating more streams. If you can generate even $50 a month with your first stream, I'd say you're off to a good start. It's generally harder to go from $0 to $50 a month than it is to go from $50 to $500 per month.

### Inspiration vs. Market Research

There are two main schools of thought on how to pick income-producing creative projects. One is to go with your gut and do whatever inspires you. If you get an idea for a new project, run with it right away. The other idea is to research what people actually want to buy and then create something for that target market. This is the classic "find a need and fill it approach."

I tend to get the best results by combining both approaches. First, I saturate myself in trying to understand what people want. I can do this via online research, surveys, or just talking to people. Over the years I've met hundreds of my blog readers face to face, especially at workshops, so that helps me better understand their needs and what I can provide that will be helpful to them.

If you have your own website or existing audience that you can use for market research, that's a great place to start, but you can just as easily gather information from other websites.

When I was creating computer games, I started out by making simple arcade games because those were relatively easy to design and create. My games didn't sell well though. So I did some market research, looking for where there was strong demand for new games from customers, especially in genres that I was interested in. I spent hours on game download sites (where game developers would post their free demos), observing which categories got the most downloads. I downloaded dozens of demos to get a sense of what else was out there, how popular various games were, and what I might be able to contribute that would be unique enough but also familiar enough to sell well.

That's when I settled on making a cerebral puzzle game. The low end market for puzzle games was very crowded, especially with match-3 types of games, but I could see that the smarter end of the puzzle game market was underserved at the time, yet there was still some decent demand. People were downloading a lot of so-so games in that category. So this research helped me realize that if I made a decent game in that category, it would probably sell well.

I think this type of mental saturation was a good place to begin because it helped me narrow my focus, so generating ideas wasn't an overwhelming task. I could then think about creating something in one of the sub-genres where I perceived good opportunities.

After that I began brainstorming some potential design ideas. I find that taking in a lot of input really helps when it comes to generating ideas. When I do this, I notice gaps in other people's creations that help me see where I could take things in a different direction, thereby contributing something unique.

Once I had an idea that inspired me, it still took a lot of work to implement it. To create that game took about 4 months of solid design effort just to create a 5-page design document. Everything else — programming, artwork, music, sound effects, level design, testing, and release — took another 2 months. In its first month on the market, this new game sold more than my previous 4 games combined, and several months later it was earning 10 times what the other games were earning. That's the power of market research. If you sell something people actually want to buy, you can do a lot better financially.

### How to Do Market Research

I'm not really too particular about how I conduct market research. There are so many variables that you can get bogged down in analysis paralysis if you overdo it. I take a pretty lightweight approach to it.

Mainly I look for two things:

  1. What are people already buying?
  2. Where are there gaps with relatively high demand and low supply that I could potentially serve?

Sometimes it's hard to answer #1 directly because you probably don't have access to other people's sales figures. But you can often use other public data to make some educated guesses. I didn't know other game developers' sales figures, but I could go to download sites and see how many downloads each demo had and how many games there were in each category. I could then calculate average downloads for each game in a a particular category. If I saw that one category had triple the per game downloads of another category, well... it wasn't hard to surmise that one genre might make me triple the sales of another genre.

I could also look up traffic rankings for a developers' website to see how popular it was (such as with Alexa.com). And I knew many developers personally, so I had a general sense of who was making money and who wasn't. All of this information combined to give me a decent idea of where there was good money to be earned and where there wasn't.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, I could see that developers of casual games were typically doing pretty well. Friends were making six figures a year selling card games and puzzle games. Today those markets are even bigger, especially with the expansion of tablet and cell phone games.

It can be a tricky balancing act between making something that inspires you and making something that people want to buy. There's surely some luck and randomness involved too. But I've seen situations where results are 10, 20, or 50 times better when creators finally agree to give customers what they want instead of trying to convince customers to want what's been created.

Do I think you should sacrifice your artistic integrity to satisfy the public? No, I don't think it's necessary to do that. I think most people who feel they must choose one or the other are creating a false dichotomy due to limiting beliefs and blocks to making good money. I didn't feel I had to sacrifice my art to please others. In fact, I felt that paying more attention to what other people wanted made me a better artist. I liked having more customers to appreciate my creations.

If you think you have to choose one or the other, I encourage you to question whether that's really true. Can you take the pulse of what other people want to buy and then focus on pursuing inspired ideas that will land somewhere in the general vicinity? I think that's doable.

Much of the time when artists claim to be undiscovered geniuses and lament that they can't make money doing what they love, I think the likely truth is that their art just isn't very good yet.

I think some of the best art is developed with a strong social component, meaning that there's ongoing feedback between the artist and the patrons.

### Making Reasonable Trade-offs

Another advantage to knowing what people want is that you know when you're going against those desires to some extent, and you can make this choice consciously without any self-delusion.

Based on surveys I had done, I expected that the _Conscious Success Workshop_ would sell a lot better than the _Conscious Relationships Workshop_ earlier this year. And that is of course what happened. CSW got twice as many registrations as CRW.

I could predict in advance that I'd earn more money doing something other than a relationships workshop. I accepted that, and I still felt inspired to do such a workshop, even knowing that the decision would mean earning less money. I felt that a smaller group would be better for this topic since it would be more intimate.

So in this case, the research gave me an idea of what to expect. I could make an informed choice, and there wouldn't be any disappointment with the lower sales.

It's nice to get an idea of what the trade-offs are when you put other concerns ahead of making money. Then you can ask yourself if the freedom to create what you desire is worth the financial impact. There's no right or wrong way to make these decisions. It's a matter of personal preference. You can make different choices over time and see how each type of project plays out.

### Taking Risks

With new and untested ideas, there's always some risk involved, but everyone has a different level of risk tolerance.

If you're less risk tolerant, then I would put more effort into market research, so you do a better job of aiming where the demand is. That way you don't waste your time creating something that no one wants to buy.

If you're more risk tolerant, you can take the chance of doing something new where it's hard to conduct market research. Success is far from guaranteed, but you might just stumble upon some previously unknown demand.

This is a matter of personal choice, and your preferences may change depending on what else is going on in your life. It's like any form of investing. Do you want to play it safe and deal with relatively predictable outcomes, or do you want to take a chance and explore uncharted territory?

Both Site Build-It and the Getting Rich With eBooks program I mentioned earlier explain how to conduct online research using various tools in their specific domains. So SBI provides tools to help you see where there's good potential to create a money-making website, and GRWE helps you research potential topics for ebooks where you can expect good sales.

That said, if you're more of a risk taker, you can bypass these tools and go with whatever inspires you. You might hit upon something new that works, but you could just as easily end up with a total dud. Who would ever want to do that? I sometimes like doing that. It can be exciting to try something new and see what happens, assuming you can handle it if it doesn't work out so well. This is especially doable for small projects where the downside isn't so terrible if it doesn't perform.

Since I have enough streams of passive income to support me, I can afford to take more chances with new income streams. But if I was just starting out, I might be more conservative and make sure I'm tackling projects where I can predict strong demand.

A lot of this research can be done with free tools and public information. For example, you can see how well any book is selling relative to any other book by checking the sales rankings on Amazon.com. For all kinds of products now, you can get a decent idea of how well any particular product is selling just by looking at public data. This is not difficult if you have decent Internet skills.

### Inspiration First

Sometimes I get inspired ideas before I've done any market research. In those cases I can still do some research after the fact to validate or invalidate the idea. Maybe I'm excited about it in the moment, but the question is: Will it sell?

For instance, a few years ago I got the idea to offer personal coaching, but I didn't know exactly what to offer or what to charge for it. It felt like an inspired idea that I should pursue, but I had a lot of uncertainty about it. So I decided to do a test by offering a 1-hour consultation on eBay and inviting people to bid on it.

The auction reached $1000 before eBay pulled the plug and killed it. Apparently eBay doesn't let you offer intangible items for sale. Generally they do a poor job of enforcing this policy since there were plenty of other intangible items listed, but my auction was probably a bit too high profile to duck under their radar.

Fortunately the auction lasted long enough to convince me that there would likely be some decent demand for coaching, so I began offering that service. I don't promote it much because I know it's beyond the price range of most people, but it's there for those who want it.

So this was an example of how the inspiration came first, and then I did a little research and testing to validate it a bit more before committing to it.

As another example of this, I'm in the process of booking a new 3-day workshop in Las Vegas. This one will be unlike anything I've done before. It will have no set topic, no pre-planned content, no pre-arranged exercises, and no written materials or handouts. This will be an experiment in co-creating a transformational experience with the audience. Our challenge will be to go with the flow of inspiration the whole way through — and still to make it an engaging, growth-stimulating experience for those who attend.

So this will be a workshop where we'll have a lot more flexibility. I'll be facilitating it, but I won't wield such tight control over how it turns out as I have at previous workshops. It's going to be a balancing act to keep us in the sweet spot of creating inspired growth experiences without descending into chaos.

At the January CSW workshop, someone asked me to share a goal or project that I felt would challenge me, and I shared the basic idea for this workshop. Then I quickly dismissed it as impractical. _But who'd actually want to go to a workshop like that?_ I said. It seemed like it would be an interesting experience for me as a speaker, but I couldn't imagine too many people wanting to sign up for it, especially since I couldn't realistically tell them what to expect.

But someone replied, "I'd actually go to that." Then someone else said "Yeah, that sounds like fun." A quick survey revealed that about 2/3 of the people in the room were interested in attending such a workshop. I was shocked that so many people resonated with the idea. It always sounded like a crazy idea to me. That got me thinking about it more seriously. _Could I actually do this?_

For additional validation, I talked to some speaker friends about this idea, and a couple of them told me, "Yeah, I did a workshop like that before." I asked them how it went, and each of them said something like, "Best workshop I ever did. People loved it!" They told me that the spontaneity of it made it work very well. They also pointed out that the people who are willing to attend such a workshop are the kinds of people who will ensure its success; it attracts people who can help co-create a cool experience for everyone.

After a few more conversations about the idea, I finally decided to go for it. It's a risk because I really don't know how to sell a workshop with no set topic, where we'll be going with the flow of whatever inspires us in the moment. Part of me still thinks it's a crazy idea, but this is another case where I feel the coolness factor of doing something new outweighs the certainty of having semi-predictable sales. For all I know, the idea might turn out to be a homerun. The only way to know is to try.

This is actually another way to conduct market research. Dive in and test your idea in the real world. Then you'll know. The benefit to this approach is that you might just stumble upon something that works really well. Then you can build around it.

### The Courage Advantage

If you're more courageous than most people, your courage can give you a serious advantage because it cuts down on competition. One reason public speaking pays so well is that so many people are afraid of it, so it's not as competitive as other fields. So if you're willing to go where others are afraid to go, most of your would-be competitors will surrender those markets to you.

Idea selection has a lot to do with risk tolerance. The less risk tolerant you are, the more you'll want to rely on market research and assessing demand to guide your decisions. As your risk tolerance increases, you can afford to take on projects that rely more heavily on going with the flow of inspiration, but even in those cases, you may still choose to validate them with a little market research to give you enough confidence to get moving.

If you're going to go through the trouble of creating something of value to share with people, I think it's reasonable to do at least a modest amount of market research to get a general sense of what you can expect income-wise, even if income generation is just one concern among many.

What if you can't come up with any ideas at all? Try ordering a quad shot latte — that should get a few ideas flowing. ;)

A good article to read to help counter-balance the points in this chapter would be What Are the Odds of Becoming a Black Belt? This will help you avoid some of the pitfalls of market research, such as getting bogged down in thinking about your odds of success instead of actually placing bets on the choicest opportunities. I've included this article as a bonus chapter at the end of this book.

## Chapter 17

Fame is attention. With enough attention you can generate passive income.

### Monetizing Fame

Monetizing fame is actually pretty easy. Consider the Oprah effect. When Oprah recommends a book, it sells like crazy. If she wanted to, she could leverage her fame to promote products, businesses, and more in exchange for a cut of the sales. Lots of companies would be happy to pay her for an endorsement.

The Catholic Church is excellent at leveraging fame to make money. The Church has many supporters who go out of their way to market it. This generates new subscribers who are in turn encouraged to go out and spread the "good news." By taking the form of a non-profit, they also avoid many taxes. L. Ron Hubbard copied their model to create the Church of Scientology, which is also quite wealthy.

Celebrities commonly generate income streams by endorsing products and services. With enough leverage they can be granted a cut of the sales they help generate, stock options, and additional perks. Their endorsement may not involve much direct effort, maybe a photo shoot or some filming, but it can produce significant income if the celebrity's recommendation carries a lot of weight in terms of generating sales.

Many celebrities have millions of Twitter followers, even though they often share mostly personal updates that no one would ever want to read if it came from a non-celeb. With such large audiences, they could recommend all kinds of things that make them money, such as William Shatner did by appearing in Priceline commercials. Movie stars can promote their own movies too, which puts more money in their pockets if they can help sell more movie tickets.

Fame provides many benefits because attention begets more attention. A famous movie star gets more movie offers because the star's fame can drive more people to see the movie. More movies means even more fame and recognition.

You don't have to become a major movie star to enjoy some of the benefits of fame. Even a little fame can help. For instance, due to the popularity of my website, I've been quoted in _The New York Times_. My website has been mentioned in quite a few books as well as on TV. I've never paid for any of this extra publicity. More exposure can generate more web traffic, and that's something I already know how to monetize. I don't have a good way to measure how much this helps income-wise, but I'm sure it has some effect.

You have to be careful when monetizing fame because there's always a chance of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. If you do something stupid that kills your reputation and turns everyone against you, your fame will become infamy. Interestingly, you can still monetize infamy, but you may need to use different strategies. The greater risk to your financials is muddying your reputation and being forgotten.

### Public vs. Private Life

Some famous people are really into brand and reputation management. Quite often their real lives differ significantly from their public personas, but they keep playing up those personas, partly because it makes them money. One of the best examples of this would be pro wrestling, where the public characters can be so bizarre and conflict-driven. Drama sells more tickets.

When I realized that my web traffic was likely to give me a small dose of online celebrity, I made a conscious choice that I didn't want to have to manage two different characters in my psyche. Whether in public or private, I do my best to behave the same way... and not to hide aspects of my personality, regardless of how people may judge me. But many people don't feel good about doing this, so they separate their public and private selves.

Whether you invent a public character to portray or do your best to be your same self in both worlds is a matter of personal preference. However, you can run into problems when you pretend that your public persona is your real private self as well. Many speakers have fallen into this trap.

### How to Become Famous

How do you become famous in the first place? I'd say the #1 rule is to _violate expectations_. Fame is attention, and to get attention you need to stand out. Copying what everyone else does only makes you invisible. To become famous you must do something exceptional, unusual, or extraordinary. Flaunt your uniqueness. Learn what other people did to become famous, and then discard their solutions and do something different. It's okay to model someone's general approach, but don't copy their personal style or technique unless you want to be labeled "So and so, junior."

I gained some degree of fame by publicly sharing so many of my interests on my blog, including my experiments in polyphasic sleep and raw foods, my interest in open relationships and D/s play and threesomes, my explorations of subjective reality, etc. Of course there are many people who share these interests, so I'm not particularly unique in that regard. But not many people were willing to share such details in public, especially people in the personal development field. Writers in this field had a tendency to whitewash their lives and present a sanitized public image. I shared the more experimental side of my life, and when I did so, people would thank me for it. People with similar interests or challenges could relate to what I was going through and learn from my failures and successes. They encouraged me to continue. I also felt good about doing this.

I recognized early on that if I kept up this approach, it would surely turn some people against me, such as people who get upset by articles like 10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion or How to Graduate From Christianity, but on balance I've gained much more traffic and income than I've lost by writing on such topics openly. In some media this would backfire, but with blogging people tend to place more value on honesty and authenticity than on needing the writer to clone their values.

Fame is a mixed bag. While it can open up a lot of doors, it can also do weird things to your social life. If you can feel congruent with this path, it's not that difficult to become famous. The hard part is reaching the point where you can accept and welcome the whole package. Most people could appreciate the benefits of fame but definitely wouldn't want to deal with the drawbacks such as the loss of privacy, endless solicitations, and the public criticism they'd have to deal with, and so they reject the package as a whole; this virtually ensures they won't become famous.

Even the people I know who seem pretty comfortable with fame still generally keep it at arms length as much as possible. For them fame is a byproduct of pursuing other interests, but it's not a particularly worthy end in itself.

## Chapter 18

One of the simplest ways to start earning passive income right away is to request donations. Just invite people to give you money.

### The Kindness of Strangers

In rare situations donations can really take off. Consider the recent case of Karen Klein, the New York bus monitor who was filmed being bullied by students on the bus. A guy named Max Sidorov started a campaign to raise money for her to take a vacation, via the site Indiegogo, with a goal of raising $5000.

As the abuse video went viral, racking up millions of views on YouTube, and news of this campaign spread, donation pledges came pouring in. Last time I checked, Karen's donations were well in excess of $500,000, and there are still 28 days left in the fundraising campaign.

On top of that, someone started an Indiegogo campaign to raise some "love money" for Max as well, perhaps to reward him for coming up with the idea. The initial goal was to raise $2500 for Max, and that campaign is already past $4400.

Before this is over, Karen Klein could very well be a millionaire. And she didn't even ask for this.

Apparently Karen's normal salary as a bus monitor was $15K per year. At the rate her donations are increasing, she's probably earning a year's salary in a few hours now.

### Ask and It Is Given

My results with donations are nowhere near as explosive as Karen's, but I do invite and accept donations as one of many passive income streams. Donations are one of my smallest streams, but they can add up over time, and this stream is very easy to maintain.

I first began testing donations in 2005. I'd been blogging for several months but wasn't really making money at it. I started getting emails from people telling me they wanted to pay me something for all the value they'd received from my free content. One of them asked if he could PayPal me some money. I said sure, and he gave me a donation.

Others encouraged me to make it easier for them to donate, and taking their advice actually saved me time. Otherwise people would have kept asking. So I put up a donations page with a PayPal link. PayPal can automatically generate the HTML code and donation button for you, so this is very easy to do.

The amount of money I've made from donations has varied over time. At its peak several years ago, I would see $1-2K in donations per month. These days it's around $500-700 per month on average. Although it's not a major income stream, donations still bring in thousands of dollars in income per year.

If you already have a website that provides some decent value for free, I encourage you to at least try putting up a donations link and see what happens. If at least a few people want to pay you back in some small way, why not make it easy for them?

I've received many donations for $100, $200, and even $300+. It's nice to receive this extra financial support, especially when providing so much content for free.

### Effectiveness of Donations

Donations help, but I wouldn't suggest basing your entire income strategy around donations unless you're creating a non-profit enterprise and you have someone in charge of fundraising, or if you have a truly massive audience like Wikipedia. For a normal web business, donations can provide a nice little income stream, but I wouldn't count on them to cover all of your expenses.

On the other hand, if you have the ability to create a major viral campaign around your fundraising efforts like Max Sidorov did for Karen Klein, then a donation-centric strategy may be worth a try.

If you want to start generating some passive income, meet the universe halfway. Ask!

## Chapter 19

Recent data from 1189 publishers shows that ebook sales have overtaken hardcover book sales and will overtake paperback books soon.

In comparing the same sales period for 2011 vs. 2012, hardcover sales increased by 2.7% while ebook sales increased by 28.1%. It's difficult for the supply of quality ebook offerings to keep up with this kind of growth rate, so ebook sellers are likely to see stronger than normal demand for their existing ebooks for quite a while.

Paperback books are still #1 in terms of sales, but this lead isn't expected to last much longer.

One category in particular that's been skyrocketing (both for ebook and hardcover sales) is young adult and children's books. This genre has been seeing triple digit growth rates.

As I mentioned in chapter 8, Passive Income Systems, the data clearly points to some major opportunities for selling ebooks.

What's driving this rapid growth in ebook sales? Tablet computers and ebook reading devices like the iPad and Kindle.

### Tablet Computers Driving eBook Sales

Let's take a quick look at the projections for tablet sales.

Deutsche Bank projects that 97 million tablet computers will ship in 2012, increasing to 124 million in 2013. That would be a 28% increase year over year. This isn't for the same year as the ebook sales, but does this number look familiar?

iPad sales alone are expected to pass 60 million units in 2012, increasing to 74 million in 2014.

Even Microsoft has broken with its previous business model, bypassing its hardware partners to create its own tablet hardware, called Microsoft Surface. The tablet space is clearly heating up with competition. Billions of dollars worth of tablet computers are being sold every month now.

Most of these tablet devices are geared for consuming content rather than for creating content. This is creating a big surge in demand for apps, games, and of course ebooks.

### A Golden Opportunity for eBook Authors

These numbers suggest some major opportunities for ebook authors. It's really not that difficult to create and sell an ebook these days, even if you've never written one before. A good place to start is Vic Johnson's program that teaches you how to create and sell ebooks; his intro video also shares more data about why this is an unusually good time to sell ebooks. Vic even shares contact info for the vendors he uses, so you can get help formatting your ebook, creating a nice cover for it, and so on.

I spoke to Vic again last week, and he noted that it's very doable to create decent passive income streams just by focusing on the three major players (Amazon, Apple/iBooks, and Barnes&Noble/Nook). It's great if you have a website to sell your ebooks too, but these days that isn't necessary. My book Personal Development for Smart People was published by Hay House in 2008, and it has ebook versions for the Kindle, iBooks, etc., but I don't sell any copies directly through my website.

I'm most likely going to create and sell an ebook for the walkthrough I do later in this passive income series. The writing on the wall is too clear to ignore. This is a juicy opportunity that isn't going to last forever. With the rapid growth of ebook and tablet computer sales, this is a great time to get into ebooks. It's possible to see increasing sales for a while just from watching the market expand. This reminds me of the opportunity I saw in 2004 when I started blogging; many bloggers were able to see significant traffic increases from the general expansion of the blogosphere.

I'm planning to stick with nonfiction since that's my strength, but there are some serious opportunities if you think you can crank out a kid's or young adult book. Teens and tweens just can't get enough of those vampire stories. :)

I'm really looking forward to going through this process myself. On the one side, I enjoy teaching people about passive income, and I have about 17 years of experience making money this way, so there's plenty to share. On the other side, I also love trying new things since I get bored easily if I keep doing the same thing over and over. While Vic has created and sold many ebooks very successfully (earning more than $7 million from ebooks), I've barely dabbled in this. It's going to be fun!

As a final piece of advice, try not to get so worked about about whether or not your first income stream is a homerun vs. a flop. Passive income is a skill to develop for the long run. The only way to really know how well a given idea works is to test it. You can do some market research to put the odds in your favor, such as Vic explains how to do in his program, but it also helps if you can go into this with a beginner's mind and stay open to all possible outcomes without succumbing to feelings of neediness and desperation. I found it especially helpful to adopt this attitude when I was just starting out.

## Chapter 20

Another way to earn passive income is through investing. I've already mentioned real estate investing in Chapter 14, but of course you can also generate income from many other types of investments such as owning stock in a company or earning interest with a certificate of deposit.

Investments can pay off with interest, dividends, and capital gains. Depending on the current tax laws and how much you're earning, your investment gains may also be subjected to lower taxes than other forms of income, partly because governments want to encourage more economic growth.

Here are some general assessments to make with regards to different investments:

**Facts** – What are the specific details of the investment? For businesses this is called _fundamental analysis_. Look at the current state of the business, including its physical property, technology, intellectual property, cash, cashflow, debt, and industry conditions. This helps you evaluate the investment relative to other potential investments.

**Performance** – If this is a pre-existing investment, you can look at its past performance. While past performance can't predict the future accurately, it's an indicator of where things are headed. _Technical analysis_ is an approach to investing that looks at past performance metrics to assess the likelihood that an investment will increase in value.

**Risk** – How risky is the investment? Does it seem fairly stable, or has it been experiencing high volatility?

**Return** – What is the expected rate of return? Do you anticipate a reasonable payoff relative to your investment and the perceived risk?

**Control** – How much control do you personally wield over this investment? If you buy common stock in a company, you may be able to exert a small degree of influence as a stockholder. If you sit on the Board of Directors, you can exert more influence. And if you're the CEO, you can exert even more influence. This is a mixed blessing. More control means you have more abilities to steer your investments, but it also means you bear more responsibility if things go south.

**Impact** – Are you investing to make as much money as possible, or are you responsibly contributing through your investments? Where you invest your money, time, and energy will impact how you feel about yourself as well as how you influence the overall economy. Will you invest in weapons, junk food, soda, drugs, oil drilling, cosmetics, banking, entertainment, gambling, pesticides, cigarettes, factory farming, etc? If you put money in an S&P 500 index fund, you're supporting all of these things and more. See for yourself where your money is going.

I tend to put a lot of weight on that last factor when considering investments. For this reason I even regard charitable donations as a form of investment. I may not see a financial return from those outlays, but I can still contribute to the impact.

If you try to invest from a place that doesn't align with your values, you'll probably end up sabotaging yourself. In the past I owned some mutual funds, but I dumped them many years ago. I prefer not to directly support companies like Monsanto, McDonald's, and Philip Morris in pursuing goals that seem so out of alignment with my values.

My favorite places to invest are: (1) in my own personal growth, and (2) in my own business. Investing in personal growth means paying for growth-inducing experiences like books, audio programs, courses, seminars, coaching, training, travel, and more — anything that helps you grow. See The Best Place to Invest Your Money for details. Investing in a business that you own can help make the business more stable, so you can enjoy passive income from it for years or decades to come.

Some people confuse trading with long-term investing. Trading is closer to active income, whereby you buy and sell quickly and repeatedly, making gains on these exchanges. Even if you do well with trading, your income stops when you aren't actively working. Long-term investing is a more passive approach, whereby you do most of your work up front to select good investments, then (hopefully) watch them increase in value with minimal maintenance on your part. If you're checking on a stock price every day, that isn't particularly passive.

While the admonition "it takes money to make money" can apply to investing, there's still plenty of room for people who can skillfully invest other people's money, sharing in the gains. Whether you have money to invest or not, some degree of skill is important, either skill at picking investments or at picking investment advisors. These skills can of course be developed over time, regardless of your starting point.

I can't personally advise you much on becoming a pro investor since it hasn't been a serious interest of mine. I feel it's important to mention it in this book for the sake of thoroughness, but if this is your preferred vehicle, you'll need to seek out other resources for more specific help.

The main contribution I want to make here is to encourage you to think carefully about the long-term impact of your investments on the world as a whole. You'll find it much easier to invest in alignment with your values since you won't be fighting a part of yourself (i.e. less self-sabotage). The good news is that there's still plenty of money to be made from intelligent investments that create positive ripples for others. There's no need to settle for harmful investments that violate your values and leave you feeling conflicted and incongruent.

## Chapter 21

In this chapter, I want to address limiting beliefs, which could seriously hold you back from achieving your goals if we don't take steps to address them.

### Types of Limiting Beliefs

Limiting beliefs come in a variety of forms. Here are some of the most common.

**If-then beliefs**

  * If I try to start a new passive income stream, I'll fail, and that would be bad.
  * If I express interest in someone, I'll get rejected.
  * If I succeed in a big way, my friends won't like me as much.

**Universal Beliefs**

  * People are inherently selfish.
  * Children always misbehave.
  * Money is the root of all evil.

**Personal and Self-Esteem Beliefs**

  * I'm not good enough.
  * I don't matter.
  * I'm not lovable.

### How Limiting Beliefs Show Up

Limiting beliefs are usually subconscious. They operate below the level of awareness most of the time. You'll typically notice them by their side effects first, often when setting ambitious goals and trying to pursue them.

Suppose you want to create your first stream of passive income. If you've been reading this book from the beginning, then you've already set a goal with a specific dollar amount. Maybe you're aiming for $100/month for your first stream.

Now if we look at this from a strictly objective perspective, this is an achievable goal. There's nothing spectacular, miraculous, or magical about it. It's been done many times before, and in certain circles it's a rather mundane and commonplace event. This goal is not a special snowflake.

But how many people who set this goal will actually achieve it? Is there some doubt as to whether you'll be one of those who'll succeed?

Many people are in fact going to succeed. For many of them, however, it won't be a smooth ride. They'll succeed not because their ideas are any better or their passion is any greater than most. They'll succeed because they're willing to change their beliefs and self-image to align with their goals instead of letting their past mental patterns get in the way of their goals.

A significant part of this shift in thinking involves letting go of mental clutter in the form of limiting beliefs. With the passive income series, you may encounter beliefs within yourself such as:

  * It's too hard to earn passive income.
  * I'm supposed to go out and get a real job.
  * I'm not smart enough to make this work.
  * Passive income is too strange for me.
  * I should just do what everyone else does.
  * Having a regular job is safe and secure.

Many people who succeed in creating passive income streams start out with limiting beliefs like these. After all, it's how modern society conditions us to think.

When you start working on a new goal, your limiting beliefs will rarely express themselves openly. Usually they'll show up by influencing your thinking and behaviors in ways that tear you away from your goal, effectively starving it of attention.

For instance, you'll start thinking about passive income ideas, and as soon as you come up with a decent idea, your mind will begin coming up with reasons why it won't work. You'll talk yourself out of it.

Or you'll share your idea with your most pessimistic friend, subconsciously knowing that your friend will try to talk you out of it. You could have shared the idea with your most optimistic friend instead, who may have encouraged you to go for it.

Or you'll begin working on your idea, and suddenly you'll be struck by the irresistible urge to go out and see a movie or buy a new game.

Or you'll allocate a few hours to work on your goal, and somehow those hours will get chewed up by web surfing... or perhaps some unexpected crisis like, "Oh no... we seem to be out of chocolate! Guess I'd better head to the store... This goal stuff will have to wait a bit longer."

You've consciously decided that the goal is important to you, but you can observe the pattern that your mind isn't fully cooperating with you. It keeps nudging you towards distractions when you need to get some real work done.

The culprit in such situations is quite often limiting beliefs.

### Why Do We Have Limiting Beliefs?

Many limiting beliefs are installed in early childhood, and they do serve a purpose of sorts. They act as mental shortcuts to keep us safe. But the downside is that our brains overgeneralize in these cases, installing patterns that overlook subtle nuances. Hence these patterns are often inaccurate. But to manage our survival, they don't need to be perfectly accurate. They just need to be good enough, especially when fast decisions are required.

Partly this is due to how our brains evolved, with our human neocortex wrapped around the much more ancient limbic brain. The limbic brain handles our emotions, behavior, motivation, and long-term memory. The neocortex handles conscious thought, higher reasoning, and language.

These different brain areas evolved to help us survive, but many goals are not necessary for survival. Passive income certainly isn't. Your brain isn't naturally wired by default to help you achieve your passive income goal. But fortunately your brain is very flexible and can learn to cooperate with this goal.

When we tackle certain non-survival goals, we can't simply rely on our default mental programming. That programming is good enough to keep us alive, but more often than not, it doesn't perform very well when it comes to loftier ambitions. So we need to refine this programming in some areas, tweaking it to remove unnecessary limitations. We don't want our brains to trigger a fear response, for instance, when we want to switch careers. We want to be able to make sensible decisions based on our knowledge and skills, not on emotional triggers from childhood.

For instance, can you get up on a stage and do public speaking without suffering undue nervousness? Can you comfortable speak off the cuff in front of a group even if you haven't prepared anything? If you can't do that, it's because your limbic brain is triggering fear and danger signals that are paralyzing you. Physically you could do it since all you need to do is get up and talk. Speaking is just talking. It's really not that complicated.

Similarly, can you go create a new stream of passive income if that's what you want? The action steps are pretty easy. But will your limbic brain, in charge of emotion and motivation, cooperate with your decision? You may often find that it won't. It triggers a phantom threat to your survival and makes you avoid actions that could put you in danger, even if the danger is imaginary. As this bubbles up to your neocortex, you're forced to generate all manner of excuses to explain your inability to take action.

Playing it safe and avoiding areas where predators might be found makes sense. It's okay if we overgeneralize in some survival situations since one mistake there could be fatal, especially during childhood. But lesser risks like embarrassment or a financial setback aren't in the same ballpark as genuine threats, even though they can trigger similar responses in your thoughts and behaviors. You can afford to endure some failure in your work and financial life for the sake of learning and growth; in fact, it's quite beneficial to do so.

Like it or not, you're still a mammal, and so you've inherited some of that mammalian mental baggage. On the bright side, you owe this part a lot of credit for enabling you to exist in the first place. On the other hand, you'll need to compensate for this baggage, assuming you'd like to live a richer life than most other mammals.

### Conscious Thinking vs. Unconscious Beliefs

You have a few basic options for dealing with unconscious limiting beliefs.

Your first option is to ignore them. Let these mental subroutines continue to run as they will. If you do this, you'll most likely live an okay and mostly average life, assuming your limiting beliefs aren't too extreme. You won't get anywhere close to your potential as a conscious human being, but you can still be a proud and worthy mammal. If it's okay to continue your life on pretty much the same terms as you've been living it, then there's no real mandate to deal with your limiting beliefs. They'll exert a lot of control over how your life turns out, but if you don't mind experiencing more of the same, that's your choice to make. This is essentially the same as accepting that your past programming _is_ the real you.

Your second option is to try to overpower your limiting beliefs. You can attempt to use your force of will to resist by pushing yourself to take action again and again. You may put systems in place to force yourself to get moving and keep moving, such as by increasing the negative consequences of quitting. This can be done, but the effects are usually very short-lived, and it can be mentally exhausting to keep it up. This strategy essentially means that one part of your brain is fighting another.

The third option is to dissolve your limiting beliefs. Instead of resisting them, you can release them. By dissolving a limiting belief, you can remove it permanently so that it no longer subconsciously affects your thinking. Essentially this means that you're deleting the old subroutines that got installed in early childhood since as an adult, you no longer need them. In place of the old beliefs, you could try to install new ones, but you could also leave the slate blank and allow your brain's own logical thinking to fill in the gap.

As an adult you no longer need childhood beliefs to keep you safe. You can use your fully developed neocortex to make more intelligent decisions. You can base your decisions on your knowledge, life experience, skills, and outcome predictions. These mental skills were less developed when you were a child, and so you needed your limbic brain to protect you. But in adulthood you can use your life experience and knowledge to determine that lions may still be dangerous while public speaking generally isn't.

It would be terrific if our brains automatically did this garbage collection as we got older. To some extent they do, but it seems to be a very gradual process. We also tend to become less emotional as we age, which can reduce the effects of childhood conditioning. But we can still speed this process along by doing some manual garbage collection to clear out the clutter of limiting beliefs that we no longer need. I really think it's wise to do this, especially during our 20s and 30s, so these beliefs don't restrict the kinds of goals we can set and accomplish in life.

### Dissolving Limiting Beliefs

I could walk you through the steps to dissolve a limiting belief, but Morty Lefkoe has already put that process online, so it's easiest to simply refer you to there since you can test it for free. You'll understand it best if you experience it first-hand, and you gain the side benefit of eliminating one of your own limiting beliefs for good.

If you suspect you have limiting beliefs that are holding you back, especially with respect to our passive income series, Morty's process will help you identify and dissolve them. For each belief, the process takes about 20 minutes, and all you really need to do is watch a video.

Think of how nice it will be to go off on your own travel adventures with all your trip expenses covered by your income streams, so that you continue to earn just as much income while you're away. No need to ask anyone's approval or permission — you can just go. Remember that this isn't some crazy fantasy. If you can dissolve those limiting beliefs that are getting in your way and get into the flow of action, this is all very doable. Just don't tell your boss what you're up to!

## Chapter 22

Recently I attended the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, which is a festival of theatrical shows. This one included 30 venues with rotating shows running 12 hours per day. I managed to see 25 plays in 5 days, including musicals, comedies, murder mysteries, clown shows, acrobatics, performance poetry, and more. I was very impressed with the talent of the various performers, who obviously worked hard to hone their skills.

While watching some of these shows, I pondered the ephemeral nature of each performance. For an hour or two, we enjoy a delightful experience together, and then it ends. While the same play can be performed repeatedly, no two performances are quite the same. Once a show is over, it's gone forever, never to be seen again. This makes live theater a special and unique thing to behold.

### Making Money From Performance Art

Consider how the actors in these plays make money. Suppose a play gets 100 people attending each performance, and suppose the troupe averages about $8 per audience member per performance in take-home pay. That's $800 per performance. With 7 performances per show at a festival, that means a troupe can earn over $5K for a 10-day festival. Some performers also generate income from back of the room sales after their shows with CDs, t-shirts, etc. A very popular show that sells out can take in $20K during a single festival.

For a one-person show, the sole performer gets the full amount, but for larger troupes this may be divided into many slices. Solo shows often sell out if the show is really good, so it's possible to earn over $100K per year by doing theatrical festivals in different cities for a few months each year. I doubt most Fringe performers earn that much, but those who are really dedicated can certainly do so.

Whether there are 10 people or 200 people in the audience, the actors must work just as hard. Their income depends not on the time they invest in each performance but on the number of people who pay to see them. If they can get 10x as many people into the seats, they'll earn 10x as much money for the same amount of stage time.

Many factors can affect the audience size, such as the show's day and time, the venue, the troupe's reputation, the subject matter, the type of show, the show's marketing, critics' reviews, attendee reviews, word of mouth, and sometimes sheer luck.

### Pseudo-Passive Income

While a performer or troupe may earn a healthy hourly rate for the time on stage, of course it's the prep work that makes this possible. Many hours may be invested in creating and fine-tuning a show, but a good show can be performed dozens, if not hundreds, of times — in different cities, to different audiences, and at different times.

This level of thinking puts us somewhere in the gray area between active and passive income. To perform a show the 41st time after it's already been performed the first 40 times takes much less effort than creating the first show from scratch. The income for each incremental performance is high because it leverages creative work that's already finished, but this income stream isn't fully passive because the income stops when the show isn't being actively performed.

If you do work that involves one-time performances, realize that these are the least efficient in terms of your return on investment. Think of how you could repeat these performances multiple times to do a better job of leveraging your up-front creative efforts.

If you spend 20 hours writing and rehearsing a one-hour speech, and you deliver it only once for $2500, you'll have earned $119 per working hour. But if you can deliver that same speech 10 times for the same fee, your hourly rate will increase to $833. In the latter situation, you're still earning income actively, but you're leveraging the power of passive value to earn multiples of what you'd otherwise be paid.

How can you create something once and perform, share, or deliver it multiple times?

### Passive Income From Performance Art

To make your creative work even more passive, put it into a permanent form, such that it can provide value to people even when you aren't working.

For example, record your performance or presentation, and charge for people to access it. Even if you charge much less for a recording than for a live performance, you can offer the recording to many more people. With your live performances, you may reach thousands of people, but if you can record your work, you could potentially reach tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people.

If you create a live show and refine it through your own performances, and you can license your script for other troupes to perform. If you won't be performing your creative work in certain cities or countries, or if you're going to stop performing it in the future, why not allow others to perform your work as they pay you for the privilege? Some troupes are glad to perform others' work; this saves them the trouble of creating an original show from scratch and allows them to offer a show that's already proven to draw audiences. By licensing your work to other performers, new audiences can enjoy your creations that otherwise would have missed out entirely, and you can enjoy extra income without having to perform at all.

One show I saw at the Fringe Festival was called "Almost an Evening." This was a collection of plays written by Ethan Coen (of the Coen brothers, creators of _Fargo_ and _O Brother, Where Art Thou?_ ). These plays were hysterically funny, and the performers did an outstanding job, especially with their rendition of dueling Old Testament and New Testament gods. Since Ethan Coen made his creative work available to this troupe to perform, he enabled hundreds of others to enjoy it in the form of a live performance.

Putting certain creations into digital form can pay off handsomely, but not every creative work lends itself well to digital media. Live theater is a one example. Watching a video of a play simply cannot provide the same you-had-to-be-there moments as you experience when sitting in the audience, especially if you have front row seats or if the show involves audience interaction. In one show with the Pi Clowns, for instance, Rachelle and I were sitting in the front row, and about halfway through the show, I was unexpectedly pulled onto the stage and invited to perform silly feats with another audience member for several minutes. That made the experience very memorable, and it guarantees that each performance will be unique, but of course this doesn't happen while watching videos at home.

If you don't feel you can put your creative work into digital form and maintain the same quality of experience, don't automatically rule out passive income. You can still generate passive income by making your work available for others to perform and charging a license fee, and you can do this more than once if you use a nonexclusive license. Others won't perform your shows, sing your songs, or deliver your presentations the same way you would, but much can be gained by allowing them to put their own spin on your work. They may even improve upon it in ways you didn't expect.

For a quality live experience, it may be true that the audience _has to be there_ , but the creative mind that developed the work may be able to stay home... or perhaps he may choose to go white water rafting in Canada such as I'm doing this week.

## Chapter 23

I have many friends who are broke and other friends who are very wealthy. When people are broke, their favorite excuse is "I don't have enough money." When people are wealthy, their favorite excuse is "I don't have enough time."

Anyone can come up with an excuse to avoid taking action, and their excuses always seem valid.

The difference between those who take action and those who don't isn't a matter of addressing the seemingly valid excuses. People don't normally acquire more money to eliminate the "not enough money" excuse, nor do they create more time to overcome the time excuse.

The way they succeed is by realizing that they're creating and feeding these excuses, and they decide it's time to stop feeding them. They realize that as long as they're willing to feed excuses, there will always be an infinite supply.

It's never a good time. And there's never enough money. And that isn't ever going to change.

And despite how valid these excuses may seem, they can't stop a committed person.

People don't suddenly take action when they cure their apparent money or time obstacles. They get into action when they cure their deluded thinking... when they drop the silly act.

### Take the Stage Anyway

Between the Edmonton and Winnipeg Fringe Festivals that I attended this summer, I saw 57 theatrical plays, which is probably more than I've seen in my whole life previously. I saw dramas, comedies, clown shows, murder mysteries, storytelling, performance poetry, modern dance, adult shows, acrobatics, and more.

Mainly I did this because I like independent theater, and I wanted to have an immersive experience.

In talking to some of the performers afterwards, it was clear that they all had to overcome laziness, timidity, and other blocks to get up and deliver something of value. Instead of feeding their excuses, they fed their creative ideas.

You don't have to eliminate your excuses. You just have to tip the scales enough that they don't create enough friction to stop you. You do this by starving your excuses for attention. Send all the energy to your creative flow.

Everyone has the option of allowing fear and hesitation to stop them. Even some of the best performers still feel some anxiety before they take the stage. Sometimes you can see them sweating during the first minute, notice their hands shaking, or hear their voices cracking.

But they still get up and do it. Why? Because they've tipped the scales.

If you don't take the proverbial stage, you get nothing. No feedback. No income. No growth experience.

### Passive Income Walkthrough

In the next chapter, I'll be kicking off a passive income walkthrough. This is the point where I'm encouraging you to take action along with me. Create something of value and put it out there.

I'm sure you can come up with plenty of valid excuses not to take action. I can easily do the same. But if I came up with an excuse not to finish this book, I'm sure people would call B.S. on that excuse, and they'd give me all sorts of reasons why I should finish it anyway.

So I'm going to do the same with you. Whatever excuses you're about to come up with, I call B.S. on all of them in advance.

Not enough time. Not enough money. No good creative ideas. Not smart enough. No web traffic. Not technically minded. Kids to take care of. Too busy with my job. No energy. Family is against it. Being held captive by the Dread Pirate Roberts. And so on...

Whatever your favorite excuse of the day is, it's still not a reason to stop. Go forward anyway.

You have all the time, money, energy, and support you need.

## Chapter 24

I think we've all waited long enough. Let's begin the walkthrough of creating a new stream of passive income from start to finish.

The process of creating new income streams is different for everyone, so you won't necessarily want to model my approach exactly because your knowledge, skills, and resources may not align with mine. Even so, I'm sure you'll learn something from this walkthrough.

So let's dive right in and get started.

### Pick an Idea

Your first step is to pick an idea. Hopefully this is fairly obvious.

One of the simplest ways is to grab a pen and paper, and brainstorm a list of ideas. Keep writing down ideas until you run out of ideas. Then look over your list, and pick one that seems decent.

If you need help generating ideas, go back and re-read chapter 16, Generating Ideas, for some advice on how to do it.

Many people get caught up trying to pick an idea. If you get stuck here, you can't progress. So whatever you do, don't let yourself get stuck here. Make a decision no matter what.

One of my favorite ways to choose among different options is simply to ask, _Which option is the most me?_ That usually narrows it down quite a bit.

Worst case if you can't decide, flip a coin or roll a die and let chance decide. You're better off getting into action quickly than suffering useless delay and self doubt. You'll progress much faster by getting a few projects under your belt than you will be trying to dream up the perfect idea in advance. Some creative people will advise you to _fail faster_ , which is good advice.

Notice that picking an idea is not the same thing as whining about why you can't pick one.

It's also not the same as saying you don't have any good ideas.

And of course it's not the same as saying "I don't know how" when you think about your favorite idea.

The truth is that good income-generating ideas are a dime a dozen. Coming up with ideas is the easy part. If you've been stuck in the corporate world for too long, then perhaps your creative impulses have been squashed to make you a better slave, so if that's the case, then go ask a nearby child what you can do to make the world better for people, and listen to what s/he has to say.

Now if you're really, truly stuck and can't come up with a decent idea, then I'd be delighted to pick one for you and assign it to you, but you may not like it unless you're Canadian and very submissive. :)

My initial idea was to create some kind of digital product and sell it. That seems simple and straightforward, and it's an approach other people can model if they so desire. I can sell something through my own website, and other people can sell digital products through Amazon, iTunes, and other online stores, depending on the format.

### Refine the Idea

Depending on the nature of your idea, you may have some details to decide next.

For my product idea, I need to determine a topic and a format.

Once again, you can brainstorm possibilities. Then pick something, and keep moving forward.

Don't get caught up in vacillating. Just decide. Your decision won't be perfect, and it doesn't have to be. Just pick an idea that seems pretty good, and run with it. You'll get better at picking ideas once you've completed a few projects and saw how they turned out.

For the format I decided to create an ebook and an audio program, so I'll actually have two different products in different formats, but the underlying content will be the same. I might sell them separately or as a bundle or both, but I can decide that later.

For the topic I settled on Subjective Reality.

Why SR? For starters people have been clamoring for a more in-depth product on that for years. We had the Subjective Reality Workshop in 2011, but not everyone can make it to a 3-day workshop.

I also think this would be a fun and interesting product to create. Based on what I've seen, there isn't a lot of quality material available on SR. Most of it is either very shallow or very woo woo, and it fails to explain why we seem to have the various limitations and constraints that we do.

I doubt that SR is the topic that would make me the most money. It's a niche topic, and many people don't care to learn about it. But for those who do care, they tend to care a lot. So this is the kind of product that should have strong appeal to a certain core audience, and beyond that most people will just think it's weird. For whatever reason, this sort of product really appeals to me. I'd rather make some people really happy than lots of people only moderately happy.

So I'm choosing this topic because I think I'd enjoy it, I think enough people would appreciate it, and it's an area where I feel I can contribute something unique and worthwhile.

SR is also a timeless topic, so this product could easily sell for many years to come.

### Fall in Love With Your Idea

The next step is to fall in love with your idea.

A mistake people often make is that they look to their ideas to give them confidence, as if an idea itself can provide that. In reality almost all ideas are going to feel fuzzy and uncertain at first. It's your job to inject them with confidence.

Your relationship to your idea will largely determine how far you get with it, and this relationship is under your control to a great extent.

Where does your relationship with another person exist? In your mind. Where does your relationship with an idea exist? In your mind.

If you start thinking ill about your relationship partner and succumb to doubt about your future together, what does that do to your relationship? It kills it. On the contrary, if you hold lovey dovey thoughts towards your relationship partner, does that not improve the relationship? Of course.

With an idea it's even easier. Treat your idea as if it's the most amazing thing ever. Respect it. Honor it. Fall head over heels in love with it.

Don't look to your idea to provide you with inspiration and motivation. Don't try to suck your idea dry like you're sucking an orange. You must let the inspiration flow the other way. You must feed and water and nurture your idea, helping to give it form and substance. You're the creative conduit here, not the idea.

If you don't fall in love with it, why would you expect anyone else to? An unloved idea will lead to a crappy result that no one will want.

Have fun with this. Be playful about it.

By way of example, I'm making myself fall in love with my subjective reality product. It's going to be the coolest, deepest, and most mind-blowing product on the topic that anyone has ever seen.

Who cares if that's actually true? It's fun and motivating to inject your idea with positive expectations. Self-doubt is only going to slow things down, so don't even go there.

Once you've selected your idea, the evaluation period is over. Like a newborn child, you've named it and claimed it and taken it home with you. It's too late to decide whether or not it's a good idea. It's yours now, and you'd better learn to love it.

### Devise an Income Stream for Your Idea

Some ideas are easy to adapt to income streams. Others require a bit more finesse.

In the case of an ebook and audio program, my intention is to package these as digitally downloadable products and sell them directly via my website.

Later I may sell them through other sites like Amazon, but for the purposes of this demonstration, I want to keep it simple.

What if you don't have a high-traffic website like I do? Then you're not likely to generate many sales if all you do is post it on your website.

When I released computer games before I had much web traffic, I spent a lot of time marketing them. Basically this involved uploading the free demos to hundreds of download sites, buying some online ads, sending out press releases, and more. For one game I spent about 6 months marketing it after it was released. This made a big difference, increasing the sales by 10 times.

If you've fallen in love with your idea, you'll have a lot of motivation to do this part. But if you don't love it, I'd bet money that you'll drop the ball here.

I see a lot of would-be online entrepreneurs create and release products they clearly don't love. They'll usually spread the word for a few weeks, and then they give up and let the income stream die. People can tell it's a me-too product, so they don't buy. With an unloved product, this is enough discouragement to call it quits. With a product you really love, however, you'll be able to push through and keep putting the word out.

It's not enough to just create a cool product and hope people will buy it. You have to let people know about it. Once you build enough momentum, your sales may become self-sustaining, but don't assume this will happen automatically just because you created something and put it on the Internet.

In my case I own some marketing vehicles that I can use, like my blog and newsletter. Writing about the development of this product along the way can also be seen as a way of marketing it. Many people who are reading this book won't care about an SR product, but some will. So there will probably be some decent interest in the product when it launches.

I'll share more ideas about marketing later in this book. For now, let me just say that you can expect to spend at least as much time marketing your new product or service as you do creating it. If you don't love your creation, that's a headache. If you love it, then getting the word out won't be so bad.

The good news is that you don't need to design your own income-generating process from scratch. I'm certainly not doing that here. You can borrow someone else's fully developed system, such as the ones I shared in Chapter 8.

### Outline the Idea

Your next step is to outline the idea. What do you think you'll include?

For my SR product, I came up with a rough chapter outline:

**Part I – Understanding Subjective Reality**

  1. Introduction
  2. What Is SR?
  3. Lucid Dreaming
  4. SR. vs. OR / Equivalency Principle
  5. Understanding Beliefs / Observing or Causing Reality
  6. Changing Beliefs
  7. Living Subjectively

**Part II – Applying Subjective Reality**

  1. The Law of Attraction
  2. Creating Your Reality
  3. Subjective Reality and Money
  4. Subjective Relationships

**Part III – Integrating Subjective Reality**

  1. Merging Subjectivity and Objectivity
  2. Reality as Story
  3. Final Wisdom / Closing

Now this is only a rough draft, not necessarily the final outline of the completed product, but it gets me started and helps me see what I want to include. For example, I know I'm going to cover the Law of Attraction in this product.

The idea is to create something to help guide you in your development process, but don't let this part bog you down. If you're spending more than an hour on it, I think that's too long. Just aim for something that looks halfway decent. If you can't manage halfway decent, then settle for indecent. You can always change it later.

It's pretty easy to get stuck in this stage, so that's why I like to move through it quickly. If you're building a space rocket or a hospital, then it makes sense to invest in careful planning. But for a flexible digital product, overplanning tends to be a much greater risk. We just need a general idea of the main sections, so we can start filling in the content.

### Create a Simple Completion Plan

Now that we have an idea and a rough outline, how are we going to get this done?

The previous steps in this chapter are pretty straightforward. You can do them in less than an hour. If it takes longer than that, you're probably getting stuck in vacillating. Just make a decision at each step and move on.

Lots of interesting ideas die somewhere between here and full completion. So let's pay some attention to how you're going to complete this and get it done.

For one-person projects like this, it doesn't make sense to get bogged down in overplanning. Some people spend more time planning a project and getting ready to begin, when it would have taken less time to just dive in and do it.

I favor the dive in and do it approach, which has worked beautifully for blogging, but since this is a larger work, I want to make sure I have a process that I trust will converge on a completed product.

Here's my basic action plan to move this project forward to completion:

  1. Each day until the ebook is complete, I'll create a minimum of 5000 words of fresh content, and this will be edited content of publishable quality. This includes weekends.
  2. I'll keep adding 5000 or more words of content to the product until I'm satisfied that the content is complete.
  3. For each section I'll jot down some quick notes for the key points, stories, and examples I intend to include. Then I'll use the built-in Siri on my MacBook Pro to speak the content aloud into a Pages document. If I don't like this process or if the dictation quality isn't good enough, then I'll fall back on just typing the content like I do with blog articles.
  4. After I dictate a section of content, I'll do an editing pass to correct errors, add subsection headers, and improve coherence and flow.
  5. At the end of each day, I'll bring all of the existing content to a publishable level of quality, meaning that it would meet my standards for something I could publish to my blog. This is an important lesson I learned from writing software — always bring the code to a publishable level of quality at the end of each day. Fix mistakes and low quality work as soon as possible since it takes much longer to fix them later.
  6. Once I have the first draft done, I'll give it another editing pass and have a few others check it for typos and mistakes. I may keep doing rounds of this till I'm satisfied we've got the final content good to go.
  7. Once the ebook content is done, I'll have someone who's more aesthetically minded format it to look nice, including creating a cover page.
  8. After the ebook is complete, I'll use it as the script to record the audio program. Since the initial content will have been spoken for dictation, it should make for a natural sounding script for the audio. I may not record it word for word exactly, but the core content will be the same. I think this will yield a more polished audio program than if I try to use the initial, unedited dictation sessions. I'll probably use the same recording equipment I used for podcasting.
  9. I'll have someone help me edit the audio files, add intro music, turn them into MP3s, and help package the results into a completed audio program.
  10. Once these products are complete, I'll create a sales page for them, add them to the online shopping cart, add links through my website, and announce them on my blog and newsletter.

So that's the basic plan.

Now all sorts of things could go wrong with this plan. Maybe maintaining 5K words per day will be too much. Maybe I'll need to take weekends off to regain my sanity. Maybe the Mac dictation won't be good enough, and I'll have to fall back on typing all the content. That's okay. The plan can always be adapted as needed. The point of planning is to envision a path to completion. What I have above looks good enough to me.

I also have some travel coming up, so I'll need to work around that. The first trip is less than 3 weeks away, and I'll be gone for nearly 2 weeks. Then I'll be back for a few days, and I have another short trip after that. It's doubtful I'll want to keep working on this while I'm on the road, so in that case I'll probably put this work on pause and continue where I left off when I return. Travel is a big part of my lifestyle, so I'm fine having this project take a bit longer to work around these trips.

I know that if I hit a certain content quota each day, and if I bring the existing content to publishable quality at the end of each day, I'll eventually have a completed ebook. And using that to record an audio version should be pretty straightforward. So even with some travel breaking things up, this will eventually converge as long as I stick with it.

How long will this product be? I don't know... maybe 60-100K words (6-10 hours of audio), but it could be a lot more. I'll create as much as it takes to do the topic justice and feel satisfied with the end result. The length doesn't really matter since it's going to be digital. I'm not planning to make print books or CDs since physical media is all but obsolete. If some people won't buy it because it's digital only, I'm perfectly okay with that. Most of my website visitors are under age 30, and past surveys showed that most of them prefer digital products anyway. Less than 2% said they wouldn't buy something with no physical media, and dealing with physical media isn't worth it to capture an extra 2%.

Price-wise I'm leaning towards $15 for the ebook, $15 for the audio, and $25 for both together. I think that's very reasonable, especially for a niche product. I'm sure I could sell this for more, but I don't want people who want it to feel that the price is a barrier for them.

My initial intention, which I shared earlier in this series, was to create a new income stream of $2K or more per month that lasts for 10 years minimum. If the average sale is $20, I'd have to sell 100 copies per month, which is just over 3 copies per day. For all the outlets I have available, I think that's an achievable goal.

### What Are Your Passive Income Priorities?

There are lots of ways to set up an income stream, so let me caution you to be careful what you optimize for.

Many people try to maximize income or profits, but this often involves sacrificing other things in exchange for more money, such as your ability to communicate as a real human being. For instance, you may need to be a lot pushier and more aggressive with your selling process if you want to squeeze more money out of people who are on the fence about buying. To me this is a big turnoff.

My motivation is to do something creative that I'll enjoy, to contribute something of value to people's lives, and to share it in such a way that some financial support flows back to me. For me a homerun is what I do on the creative side.

Another important factor for me is to avoid creating headaches for myself. I really don't care about fighting piracy, so if people want to steal a copy without paying for it, that's their choice. I don't think $15 or $25 is too much to ask for a cool and interesting product like this.

During the past 8 years, I've given away a lot of content for free. The payment I ask in return is that I'm allowed to enjoy my life — to be happy and fulfilled in living how I wish to live. I like creating passive income streams because they make it easier to center my life around learning, exploring, connecting, and sharing.

Your priorities may be different than mine, so it makes sense to adapt your passive income stream to suit your own desires. Just don't assume that maximizing income is necessarily the best approach for you. It's not an approach I'd be happy with.

### Your Turn

If you're going to follow along with your own idea, then I encourage you to pick an idea, create a quick outline, and determine how you're going to move it forward to completion. There's no time like the present!

Please don't feel pressured to follow me in real time with the creation of your own income stream. I obviously have some advantages and experience that many others don't. This book will be available indefinitely, so feel free to go through it at whatever pacing works for you.

Incidentally, this summer was my 20-year anniversary of not having a job. That's 20 continuous years of unemployment. Booyah!

## Chapter 25

When you release a new product, plan to spend at least as much time promoting it as you did creating it.

A common mistake people make is that they'll spend 500 hours creating a product and then 20 hours promoting it. Then they wonder why no one is buying. Usually no one is buying because virtually no one knows the product exists.

Another mistake is to keep promoting to the same people over and over, like your social media followers, and little else. Repeated exposure is fine, but branch out too. Find ways to reach people who'd otherwise never know about your product.

Jack Canfield recommends the _Rule of 5_ , which he and Mark Victor Hansen used to promote their first _Chicken Soup for the Soul_ book. They committed to doing 5 promotional actions every day. They called bookstores to ask them to carry the book, they sent out review copies to book reviewers, they requested interviews with radio shows, etc. They did 5 of these simple tasks daily for 18 months until the book became a bestseller.

I did something similar to promote one of my indie computer games in 1999. For six months after the game was released, I uploaded the demo to game download sites, sent out review copies, sent demos to LCR publishers (low cost retail), bought online ads selectively, and wrote articles for game development publications. I also went to conferences to learn simple and free marketing techniques from other independent software developers. Later I hired a woman to handle most of the online marketing for me. She would do several things a week to help promote multiple games that I was selling, and she'd email me reports periodically. I also hired a guy to help send out press releases whenever I released a new game.

Today I approach marketing a bit more indirectly, but I still tend to it because it's a critical part of business. Whenever I write a new blog post, it attracts new people to my website, especially from search engines. By uncopyrighting my articles, I've also encouraged many more people to share and republish them freely. This strategy works for me, but it may not work very well for someone with little or no web traffic.

To overcome the chicken-egg problem of trying to promote a product online when you have little or no traffic, I recommend using something like Jack's Rule of 5 approach. Don't keep hammering your Facebook and Twitter followers and expecting a landslide. Branch out and get the word out in other ways. Plant seeds in other places. Brainstorm some ideas where you could get the word out to more people each day, and start taking those actions repeatedly.

I like planting seeds that have some longevity to them. A timeless article can remain online indefinitely, so it keeps generating referrals year after year, it can still provide value to people decades after I wrote it, and it requires no special maintenance. But if I do a radio interview, it only reaches people one time, and then it's gone (unless it's posted online in some permanent archive after the show). I'd rather plant seeds that will stick around for years rather than one-shot events that are so ephemeral. I favor seeds that aren't so easily uprooted; otherwise it's like starting over from scratch every year.

Eventually you'll learn which avenues are the most effective for you. For my games business, uploading demos to hundreds of download sites probably had the best payoff. Some developers even created software to automate the submission process to all of these sites, which made this task easier. For my current business, blogging has worked very well, partly because I started in 2004. I don't recommend blogging for most people today, however, because it's so saturated. If I were just starting out today, I'd probably focus on video content. The web is becoming increasingly mobile, and video tends to be more mobile-friendly than plain text.

Once you reach a certain threshold, your marketing may take on a life of its own. After that point you may be able to coast on referrals alone and still see interest grow over time. But in the beginning, you'll normally have to take a lot of direct action to kickstart your marketing and to build it up to a decent level.

The commitment needed to successfully market your own product may seem high. It is high. This is why it's important to create a product you love. If you don't feel good about your product, or if you created it just for the money and not because it will provide substantial value to people, you'll probably find it a hellish burden to spend hundreds of hours promoting it. Many people let these products wither and die after they release them. But if you're proud of your creation and you have compelling reasons to share it with the world, you may find it easier to motivate yourself to get the word out.

### Marketing From Your Conscience

Years ago I learned a simple yet powerful marketing secret: You must become so convinced of the benefits of your product or service that you feel you'd be unjustly depriving people by not doing everything in your power to get the word out.

I was infected by this attitude from Jay Abraham. Jay has an absolutely brilliant way of thinking about marketing. For example, if you're an accountant, and you're skilled at saving people money on their taxes, Jay might ask how much you save your average client. Say it's $500 per year. And then Jay would ask how much you charge. Say it's $200. Then Jay might take you through a conversation like this:

> Jay: So it's costing people a net $300 per year not to do business with you.  
>    
>  You: Yes, that's fair to say.  
>    
>  Jay: How long does your typical client stay with you?  
>    
>  You: About three years.  
>    
>  Jay: So that's a total of $900 then. People are effectively being charged $900 not to work with you, $900 they would have otherwise been able to keep.  
>    
>  You: Alright.  
>    
>  Jay: So if you meet someone and don't tell them about your service, you've just cost them $900.  
>    
>  You: Hmmm...  
>    
>  Jay: You have a duty then to share this knowledge; to do otherwise would be irresponsible.  
>    
>  You: That's a strange way to think about it.  
>    
>  Jay: What's strange about it? If you have the ability to save people $900, then you're costing everyone $900 they could have saved whenever you don't tell someone about your service. Don't you have a moral obligation to save people this $900 if you can do it? Wouldn't it be unethical not to do it?  
>    
>  You: How is it unethical?  
>    
>  Jay: You're cheating people out of $900 you could have saved them. All you had to do was speak up - or at least try. What might that $900 mean to certain people? You'd be costing people a great deal of additional enjoyment, education, retirement income, vacations, etc. I consider that kind of negligent behavior unethical. Don't you?  
>    
>  You: I just never thought about it that way before.  
>    
>  Jay: Start thinking about it that way then.

In other words, if the product or service you provide is truly of benefit to others, then marketing becomes a duty. Not spreading the word is irresponsible and unethical.

Of course, the opposite is also true. If you have a product or service with no real benefit, then to actively market it would be irresponsible as well. If deep down you have doubts as to whether what you're providing is of real value, you'll probably sabotage yourself in your marketing efforts. I see this all the time among small business owners -- they often don't believe enough in their products to aggressively market them. So they hold back and fill their days with non-marketing activities instead. Doing too much marketing makes them feel uncomfortable.

I'm not advocating trying to fool yourself into believing in your product/service when you don't. I'm suggesting you consult your conscience to see what you already believe. If you run your own business and don't market it very well (a common situation), is it possible you don't really believe in the benefits you provide? Or if you feel you're ready for a better job but don't go out and apply for one, could it be that you secretly feel the potential employer would be better off hiring someone else?

How well do you market yourself in other areas? Do you hold back from pursuing new friendships or relationships because you don't believe enough in the benefits that others would experience from your companionship? What would happen if you truly believed in the benefits you can provide?

When you find your conscience is holding you back from effective marketing, don't try to squash that inner voice. Listen to it. Hear what it has to say. Are your products just wasting people's time? Are your services pointless? Would an employer be better off hiring someone other than you? Would a friend be better off without you in their life?

Your conscience can point you in the direction of greater internal congruence, allowing you to market yourself very naturally and eagerly. Sometimes this involves recognizing the genuine benefit that's already there, such as with the accountant example earlier in this chapter. But other times it requires changing the offering to create a new benefit that really matters to you.

When I started StevePavlina.com, I had to remember this powerful lesson: marketing must align with conscience. I can tell I'm congruent in this area when I'm eager to do marketing work instead of wanting to put it off. If I feel a desire to procrastinate on marketing, I know something is wrong. So I run through one of those imaginary Jay Abraham conversations in my mind to see where I stand. What is the real benefit I'm providing? How can I quantify it? What will I be costing people if I don't market to them? Why do I have an ethical duty to market this information?

Be careful not to confuse this with vanity, which is self-directed. This type of motivation is directed outward. It's not about telling yourself how great you are. It's recognizing what you can do for others that really, truly benefits them. If I think about myself being a great writer or speaker, that isn't going to help my marketing. In fact, it will likely hurt me by injecting too much ego into the message. But if I think about what real benefit I can offer someone, that is very motivating. My understanding of this benefit must be rooted in the facts, not on a fictionalized exaggeration. Recognize and acknowledge the real, down-to-earth benefits and what they can actually do for people. And if the benefits are too weak to give you the feeling that marketing is an ethical duty, then stop your practice of junk marketing, and listen to what your conscience has been trying to tell you all along.

What kind of product or service do you feel you really should be marketing and selling? What skills do you need to develop that would make you an intelligent choice for your preferred employer to hire? What do you need to change in yourself to make it genuinely beneficial for others to befriend you?

By creating and acknowledging the real benefit that you actually believe in, you accomplish two things. First, your feeling of certainty will move you to action. You'll become driven to market yourself, your product, or your service because that's the right thing to do. Secondly, you'll actually be providing something of value that genuinely helps others. And together these two results will create a positive feedback loop where the more aggressively you market and sell, the more people you help, and the more certain you become that you're doing the right thing.

Acknowledge the real benefit you provide. Don't fall into the ego trap by exaggerating your impact, but don't minimize or deny the positive benefits either. Find the truth of the situation. Is your conscience congruently committed to the belief that you're marketing something of real value, or have you been lying to yourself? And if it's the latter, how can you correct it?

When your marketing message is congruent with your conscience, your motivation for promotion won't be restrained by hesitation. When you believe that marketing is simply the right thing to do, you'll do it eagerly, not for your own gratification but because you know you're genuinely helping people.

## Chapter 26

Is it possible to enjoy a financially abundant living as an artist (the word _artist_ being used in the most general sense)? Or is this simply an unrealistic dream?

Of course it's possible. Many people have done it before. But is it realistic for you? Well... that depends. The honest answer is: probably not. What it takes to succeed as an artist isn't such a mystery these days. The real question is whether or not you're willing to do what it takes to get there. If you're like most people, you aren't willing. So if you want to succeed as an artist, you must elevate your standards well beyond the level of those who are willing to give up.

Starving artists may be more common and cliché than financially successful artists, but as you'll discover in this chapter, there are some very good reasons for that. For starters, artistic skill alone isn't enough to guarantee financial success.

There are many challenges on the path to financially sustainable artistic nirvana, and all of them have solutions. Successful artists are willing to apply those solutions; unsuccessful artists typically aren't.

Here are a number of guidelines for transitioning from creating art as a hobby into a financially lucrative profession:

### Get Your Financial Beliefs in Order

Do you harbor any beliefs such as these?

  * Great art and money don't mix.
  * It's noble to be a starving artist.
  * Artists who make tons of money are sell-outs.
  * Money corrupts true creative expression.

If your thoughts have been infected by such limiting beliefs, even a little, consider how this will affect your efforts to earn serious income from your work. These beliefs are financially retarded. With such mental baggage, you'll miss too many opportunities to generate income from your art. In fact, you probably won't even notice them. These beliefs will cause you to behave stupidly.

Consider upgrading your beliefs to something along these lines:

  * Money can help fuel creative expression.
  * Creativity is free; paintbrushes aren't.
  * Great art is financially valuable; surely the artist deserves a fair share.
  * Artists who make lots of money have good business sense.
  * Great art deserves great financial support.
  * Art is a creative endeavor, but it's also a business.
  * Fans are nice, but customers pay the bills.

It's a lot easier to generate income from your art if you hold beliefs that support income generation instead of demonizing it. If you're going to attach some kind of meaning to earning income from your art (an event which is largely meaningless from a cosmic perspective), then at least apply a meaning that will support you on your path instead of creating imaginary roadblocks.

Beliefs are infectious, so choose your friends carefully. If you regularly hang out with people who harbor negative beliefs about combining art and money, they'll just drag you down. It's fine to associate with them now and then, but be very careful about inviting them into your inner circle.

### Seek Out People Who Are Already Succeeding

Art is a social field, and so is business. The business of art — any kind of art — is hugely social. Insiders have it way easier than outsiders, so aim to be an insider. Don't even think about trying to go it alone.

Financially successful artists are generally happy to share their "secrets" of success, including how they make money from their work. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Make every effort to meet such people and hang out with them. Join clubs or trade associations, join forums, attend conferences, and find other ways to socialize with successful artists in your field. It's not that difficult, but it does require that you make an effort. You'll make some networking mistakes along the way, but eventually you'll figure it out. Read through the extensive How to Network With Busy People series to get a better sense of how to do this.

I suggest that you identify a certain income goal — something modest — and target people who are earning close to that. If you're making no money as an artist, it may be hard to relate to the advice of someone who's earning $1M per year. You'll have a better shot of understanding and applying the advice of someone who's earning $30-50K per year. Then when you get to that level, meet with people who are earning $100K per year, and notice what they do differently. And keep stepping up from there.

If you always hang out with artists who are making the same or less money than you, I hope you like eating at Taco Bell.

When you meet successful artists, don't do the fanboy/fangirl thing. It's best not to even utter the word _fan_ because it sounds too much like _stalker_ , and it steers the conversation in the direction of putting the artist on a pedestal, which really isn't going to help you. Aim to be friendly, interested, and respectfully curious, but assume equal standing as human beings. Artists are generally very comfortable discussing their work, so a great opener is to ask a specific question about their work. Feel free to pick their brains, but don't bleed them dry.

Being passive ensures dismal results. Push yourself to go outside and meet people. Take some social risks. If you dork-out now and then, it's not the end of the world. You'll recover.

During my computer games business days, I was having coffee with my lawyer on a patio in Century City (a business district next to Beverly Hills). He suddenly turns and yells to a guy walking down the street, "Bill!" Turns out it was William Shatner, who was working with my lawyer on a book deal. Shatner approached us for a friendly conversation, and being a 20-something Trekkie, I dorked out — not too much but enough to feel self-conscious about it afterwards. I learned to be much less dorky around such people after that.

Successful artists in any field typically know each other. They may not get to spend a lot of time together, but they often meet in person as a consequence of moving in similar circles. If you want to become a successful artist, it's wise to prepare yourself for this. The key is that it must eventually feel normal to you. If it seems like a big deal, you'll push it away.

Networking with other pros in your field is good business. Most of the income I've earned from my creative work (writing, speaking, computer games, etc) has resulted from business deals that came through my network. Other people brought me those opportunities. This isn't unusual. Money flows through people.

As an unknown artist in any field, it's difficult to get much exposure for your work. But if you have many friends who will help get the word out, it's no longer so difficult.

Networking gives you the chicken and the egg at the same time. You can receive income-generating ideas and opportunities as well as exposure, without needing one to get the other.

### Create Art That People Want

Think of your favorite music group. Would you respect them more if they created music you didn't like?

When you spend money on art, is it because the artist was super creative, or is it simply because you like what they created?

Most likely you aren't spending too much money on creative work that you don't like. When you pull out your wallet, it's because you like the work — or at least you expect to like it.

This doesn't mean that the artist created the work for you (or for people like you), but it does mean that if the artist wants to get paid, there needs to be some alignment between their creativity and what people are willing to pay for.

It's absolutely fine to create art that no one else will appreciate. Do that now and then. Just don't expect to pay the bills with such an approach.

If you want to generate income from your art, then pay attention to what people are buying in your field. What's in demand?

You'll likely find that you can just as easily create works that align with trending demand but which still give you plenty of room for self-expression. These constraints are not inherently in conflict. You can choose _and_ instead of _either-or_.

This chapter, for instance, is one that I felt inspired to write, and I'm enjoying the process of creating it, but it isn't merely a gratuitous personal journal entry. It's a chapter that I expect will provide some value to certain people. It's art, but it's also socially purposeful.

Sometimes people will want you to express yourself in ways you aren't willing to deliver. Feel free to say no. Sometimes you'll want to express yourself in ways people don't care about. Feel free to do that. But when you want to generate income from your work, focus on the area of overlap between what people want and how you enjoy expressing your creativity. Then you can enjoy your work and pay your bills too.

If you're going to be stubborn about this, then be prepared to see much less talented artists whizzing past you financially.

You may not control the waves of public desire, but you can still surf them.

### Publish or Perish

Creating art isn't enough. To be a financially successful artist, you must get into the habit of _publishing_ art.

Many amateur artists amass sizable collections of half-finished pieces. The pros often do this too, but the pros get into the habit of finishing and publishing their work.

I know from experience that if I create and leave something in a half finished state, and I go more than a few days without working on it, it's dead. The inspiration is gone. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, it's easier to start and finish a new piece than it is to rez and finish the old one. A half finished piece isn't 50% done; it's more like -50% done. To finish a half-done piece weeks later may take 150% of the effort of creating a new piece from scratch.

If I start writing a blog post, and I get it 60% finished, but I get interrupted and can't get back to it for a week, I'll virtually never finish it up and publish it. I'll just delete it and move on. If it's 90%+ done, or if I just need to give it an editing pass, then I'll likely finish it, but if I can't cross the finish line with ease, it's a dead work that will never see the light of day.

I've learned how important it is to kill my unfinished work and let it be dead. I don't save it or let it linger in my drafts folder. I put it out of its misery and kill it for good. Then when I look at my portfolio of creative work, I see thousands of finished and published creative works: mostly articles and books, but also computer games, speeches, workshops, a blog and a podcast. I don't think of unpublished works as being part of my portfolio. If I didn't complete and publish them shortly after conception, they're dead to me.

This may sound overly harsh, but what's the alternative? Amass an ever-growing collection of partially finished pieces? How do you feel when you think about that monstrous pile of unfinished work? It's draining, distracting, and demotivating, isn't it? It's clutter that weighs on you.

If you're thinking about stuff you need to finish up from the past, then your creativity isn't focused on the present. Creativity is limitless and abundant. There's no need to tie it to past obligations. Thinking that there's value to be extracted from partially finished work is a result of scarcity thinking. If there was major value in finishing those pieces, you'd have finished them long ago.

Chalk up the value of those partially finished pieces to the learning experience you got from them. If you wouldn't get much growth from finishing them, let them die. Focus your attention on the sweet spot of artistry by creating works that provide value to others _and_ provide growth experiences for you. Your creative energies must be focused on the present, which is the only place where you can create. Don't allow your creativity to be drained by past regrets and obligations. The flow is here and now. The wave that passed you by is gone. Don't go swimming after it. Just ride the next wave. And there's always a next wave.

You could say that publishing is an unnatural process. A creative work is never really done — it's abandoned. You can keep polishing and refining a piece indefinitely, but at some point you have to declare it done and move on. If I ever feel that I published an article too soon, I'll give it an extra editing pass after it's posted (that's a nice thing about publishing online). Sometimes I over-polish a piece that probably didn't warrant so much attention. It takes time to calibrate and get a feel for when a piece is ready to publish, and there's no right or wrong solution per se. It's mainly a matter of trial and error and experience.

When I begin a new creative work, it's a race to the finish line to get it published. I need to express the ideas quickly and tune out distractions till the piece is done and released. Friends who've been around me when I'm designing a workshop, for instance, will know how single-minded I can be during such times. Even if I'm ahead of schedule, I can scarcely pay attention to anything but the workshop. My energy is focused on bringing everything to completion. I can pay attention to other things when the workshop is over.

I find it best to work on one major creative piece at a time. I try not to start something new until the previous piece is done. I can make some exceptions like writing a blog post in the midst of a bigger project like designing a workshop, but I want to avoid creating more loose ends. I wouldn't want to design two workshops at the same time, for instance.

### Visibility First, Then Income

If you want to become a successful artist, you'll need to get your art into people's hands (or eyes, ears, etc). If the art is hidden in your closet or buried on your hard drive, don't expect it to generate much income.

I recommend that you focus on visibility first, and don't worry so much about generating income at first. If you aren't very visible, you probably won't be able to earn more than a pittance anyway. But if you can gain visibility and sustain it for the long run, then it's much easier to generate abundant income.

A good strategy for creating visibility is to give your work away for free. Spread it as widely as possible. Encourage people to share it with no restrictions. If you can manage it, favor media that encourages sharing without costing you anything — i.e. anything that can be put into digital form.

Show your work to anyone who might be interested in it. Give your art as much state time as you can. If you aren't willing to do this, don't expect your art leap onto the stage and market itself. Being timid about promoting your work will hurt you financially; don't pretend it won't.

If you give your work away for free or otherwise procure lots of stage time for it, and people don't seem to appreciate it, consider the possibility that your work (1) isn't very good, or (2) isn't what people want. This happens to just about everyone. Everybody falls the first time. Keep refining your creative output until you strike something that people appreciate enough to share.

Once your visibility is high enough, then start charging for your work.

### Commit to Excellence

Mediocre artists are broke artists.

Don't settle for mediocre. Put in the hours and years it takes to become outstanding. If you want to become an overnight success, spend a decade building your skills first.

There's little income to be made from most art forms except for those who commit to excellence. Such fields are simply too crowded and too competitive. The good news, however, is that most people in these fields are just dabblers. They aren't serious about it. Rest assured they'll give up within a year or two and go back to working at Starbucks, only to be replaced by people with even less experience. There's a lot of churn at the bottom.

Consider the field of music, for instance. There are millions of wannabe musicians, but only a small percentage of them are committed to becoming truly outstanding. They'll practice a little here and there, and they might dream of great success, but at the end of the day, they'd rather watch TV than invest an extra hour or two in practice. These people aren't your competition. If you stick with your craft for 3+ years, you'll be well beyond the majority of them, and they'll never match your skill.

Persistence is your friend. With persistence you can easily outlast 99% of the people in your field. The longer you stick with your craft, the more the gains begin to pile up: a growing portfolio, a growing network of peers, and a growing fan base. As these aspects improve over time, it gets harder to fail, and it becomes easier to generate income. You have more work to leverage for income generation. You have a larger network to bring you opportunities. And you have more fans who could become customers.

If, however, you go around switching fields every year or two, you'll have a hard time building a financially sustainable practice. If you're unwilling to commit to long-term mastery, you'll be denied access to its rewards. You can still switch fields if you really want to, but there's a price for doing so.

It may be true that 99% of artists within a particular field aren't making much money. But that's largely because those 99% aren't any good at it. The top 1% get paid because they're the ones who put in those 10,000 hours to become world class.

Are you willing to commit yourself to joining that top 1%? Do you love your art so much that you'll invest 10,000 hours into it? That's about 5 years working full-time. If you aren't willing to make that kind of commitment, well... Starbucks is hiring.

If 99% of artists in your field won't become financially successful, then you'd better commit to bypassing that 99% if you wish to avoid their fate.

I realize this might sound like a very difficult challenge, but the truth is that it's actually easier to make such a commitment in the long run. It only appears more difficult in the beginning. Think of it like this. The time is going to pass anyway. Someday that distant future will become your present reality. Now imagine that your future self is reflecting upon the decisions you made today, decisions that greatly influenced his/her results in life. Is that future you shaking his/her head in disgust or smiling in appreciation?

One reason I kicked off my 30-day trial of learning music is that I've been thinking about where I'd like to be at age 50 (I turned 40 earlier this year). I have the sense that my 50-year old self would really appreciate it he had some serious musical ability to enjoy during his 50s. He's not too particular about which instrument(s), but he'd be disappointed if he had to enter his 50s with no musical skills to speak of. He's glad I developed my writing and speaking skills to such an extent, and he can count on their continued development, but he'd be even happier if he could express himself through music as well.

I'm not at the point where I'm willing to commit a decade to learning music, but a 30-day trial is a good starter commitment. I'm enjoying it so far, and I'll likely commit beyond that point, but for now an exploratory approach is best since I wouldn't even know what kind of long-term commitment to make yet. Even as I conduct this 30-day trial, however, I'm approaching it with the mindset that I might be initiating a new thread of skill building that could last for decades. This long view sharpens my short-term decisions. I'm willing to embrace the awkward phase of being a newbie, since I know it's a stepping stone to building new skills I can enjoy for years to come.

### Get to Know Your Customers, and Serve Them

If you want to be financially successful in any field, not just art, then sales are very important. Without sales, there's no income, and without income, it's hard to sustain yourself as an artist. If you can maintain strong sales, then even if you screw up almost everything else, you're still going to have a sustainable art practice. Strong sales are very forgiving of mistakes. Weak sales aren't.

Fortunately, selling needn't be pushy or manipulative. If you create work that aligns with what people want, then selling is largely a matter of letting people know that you have something that will please them. If, on the other hand, you have to do a lot of convincing to get people to open their wallets, then the problem is likely the art itself.

Earlier this year I went to a local art fair. I walked past a lot of art that didn't resonate with me, but then I stumbled upon an artist from Arizona who had a collection I really liked. I have an affinity for Southwestern art, especially pieces depicting bears and eagles. This artist had some really unique copper pieces, and I bought one of them. It currently hangs above the fireplace in my living room. He did his part to help sell the piece — very softly — but it was mostly a "you had me at hello" situation. The main act of selling he did was to envision, design, and create a piece that someone like me would appreciate.

If you want to create art to sell, it's wise to know why someone would actually buy it. If you haven't a clue or if you assume you'll figure out how to sell it later, best of luck with that.

Selling is often treated as a discipline unto itself, but for a serious artist, selling is an integral part of the creative process. Selling begins with the question, _Who would most appreciate this?_ Ideally this question should be asked before you start a new creative project. Determine who will buy your work and why. Who's the buyer? Does such a person actually exist? How do you know?

If at all possible, meet your customers (or at least your potential customers) face to face. Talking to your customers about what they want is perhaps the best source for your sales education.

At my workshops I like to spend many extra hours talking to attendees outside the workshop itself. On the first day as people are arriving, I greet them with hugs. I stick around during breaks, at lunch, and at the end of each day to talk to people. Partly I do this because I enjoy it — these are interesting people to connect with. But I also do it to better understand them. Who are they? Why did they attend this workshop? What else can I help them with?

It's important for me to create workshops that give me plenty of freedom for creative expression, but it's also important to give people what they desire, especially if I want my workshops to be financially sustainable.

Respect the role of money in your artistic endeavors, but don't put money on a pedestal. Money is lubrication to grease the wheels of your artistic endeavors. You're always free to create art for art's sake, even if it won't pay the bills, but if you want to get paid, then create art to sell.

Canadian actor Michael Ironside said in an interview that he accepts some acting roles for the money ( _Robocop_ being a good example), while other roles he performs for the soul. I make similar choices. Sometimes I write articles that I expect will boost traffic or generate income, while other times I write purely for the sheer enjoyment of being creative. And sometimes I get the best of both worlds. This variety is very nice.

Creating art to sell doesn't equate to selling out. In my opinion the sell-outs are the artists who spend more time complaining than they do creating. If you create art to sell, then you can spend a lot more time creating art for the sheer joy of creating, and once you've built up the sales side of your practice, you may find that there are buyers for anything you create.

### Buy Art

As a corollary to the above, when you see art you like, buy it. Yes, with money.

Get into the habit of financially supporting artists whose work you appreciate. Don't do the piracy thing. Piracy is rooted in scarcity thinking, and it's disrespectful of the artists. The beliefs that justify piracy are at odds with the beliefs that will help you generate sustainable income from your art.

By piracy I'm referring to illegally obtaining something that isn't free. That which is given freely is a different animal.

When I first began developing my own computer games, I was still into pirating games and other software. I realized that if I expected people to buy my software instead of just pirating it, it made sense for me to get my own house in order. So I stopped pirating, and I began purchasing what I wanted. If I wasn't willing to purchase it, and if it wasn't free, I did without.

Making that transition was easier than I thought, and it felt really good. I observed that I appreciated what I purchased more than I did when I pirated it. I also became more selective about what I consumed and less impulsive. My computer was easier to manage. I felt better about myself knowing that I was helping to support other people's creative work. I felt like I was partnering with them in some fashion.

If you want others to financially support you as an artist, take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Are you an avid supporter of other people's creative work? Do you readily purchase art that you appreciate?

Like many people I have a sizable collection of media, especially music. None of it is pirated. When I scroll through my collection, I not only see a lot of art that I enjoy, but I also see a list of artists that I've helped support financially. It's comforting to know that Alan Wilder will never run out of hair gel. :)

I know it's tempting to try to justify piracy. Don't go there. You can claim that everything digital should be free, but such beliefs are at odds with those who choose not to release their work for free. Some people would still appreciate fair payment for their work. If you're going to demonize them for making such choices, realize that you're also necessarily demonizing the part of you that would like to make money from your creative work. That incongruency will surely come back to haunt you; usually it will show up in the form of self-sabotage.

When you support other artists financially, you reinforce the belief that you deserve to be financially supported. That's an important belief to have if you wish to succeed as an artist.

Although it might seem more difficult to pay for work you could easily pirate, in the long run it's easier than the alternative. If you wish others to respect your work and to pay for it, then have the integrity to show this much respect to other artists. Respect their right to ask for payment. If you feel their prices are unreasonable, don't patronize them.

Supporting other people's creative work can also be good motivation to increase your own income. I rather like spending money on books, seminars, music, and other art forms. This tells me that the more money I earn, the more I can support other creative people.

### Learn to Handle Criticism

In any creative field, you'll find plenty of people willing to assume the role of critic, largely because it's easier to criticize art than to create it. Sometimes critics can be helpful by providing specific ideas for improvement, but they rarely bother to do so. More often they approach art with a sense of entitlement combined with undercurrents of bitterness, resentment, and envy.

A good summary of the relationship between artist and critic can be found in Teddy Roosevelt's "Citizenship in a Republic" speech from 1910:

> It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

What really disturbs critics is the knowledge that they don't want to face — that they simply don't matter. The critic is irrelevant and superfluous. History remembers the great artists, but it forgets the critics.

If you try to respect the critic, you'll feed more power to the self-judgmental part of you, the part that says you aren't good enough and can't measure up. To empower your critics is to empower your self-doubt. If you want to be more prolific, then give your full attention to your artistry, and starve the critic of attention. A good way to transition is to laugh at the critical part of you. Poke fun at it. See it as the joke it truly is.

Abandoning self-criticism doesn't mean letting go of reason and becoming blind to areas where you could stand to improve. You can still examine your work with an eye for improvement without getting bogged down by the voices of envy and resentment.

Genuine constructive criticism is what artists bestow upon themselves. Look at what you've created, and pay attention to your reaction. What do you think about it? How do you feel about it? Is this your best work? How could it be improved?

Feedback from others can be helpful, but such feedback rarely comes from would-be critics. Often the best feedback comes from other artists, people who understand what it's like to play in the arena. Even then, you'll still need to take such feedback with a grain of salt. If it makes sense to you, then use it, but don't give it more weight than your own opinion.

Here's some more text from that same Roosevelt speech:

> There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities — all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness.

Offer your art to those who will appreciate it. You can safely ignore the critics, for history will treat them as if they never even existed. Their weakness is unworthy of your respect. Regardless of criticism, artists will continue creating art. The artists will have their cake and eat it too... while the critics scurry for the crumbs.

One of my most criticized pieces is the article 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job (2006). Another one is 10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion (2008). For me these were inspired pieces that I truly enjoyed creating. Criticism of those pieces has drawn even more attention to them, making them some of the most popular works I've ever created — both are in the top 1% in terms of the referrals and traffic they generate. To critique such pieces, the critic is admitting that the work was impactful, so the critic is actually validating and promoting the artistry of those pieces.

In the long run the critics ultimately serve the artist's interests, whether the critics realize it or not. The critic draws more attention to the artist's work, which can still benefit the artist with extra publicity, even if the criticism is largely negative. A professional artist will seldom return the favor by publicizing a particular critic, however. This dynamic reflects the artist's commitment to his/her creative expression as well as the critic's denial of his/her creative abilities. The role of the critic may seem pitiable, but ultimately the critic serves to elevate the artist, which is good for everyone.

### Appreciate Your Customers

While your critics can be safely ignored because they don't provide any value, your customers are actively supporting your work, making it easier for you to keep doing what you love. It makes sense to support your customers in supporting you.

As an artist it's easy to confuse your customers with your fans, but these aren't merely different labels for the same groups. Your fans consist of anyone who appreciates your work. Your customers are the people who are financially supporting your work. These groups will likely overlap, but it isn't unusual for an artist to have many fans who aren't customers.

If you have lots of fans but few customers, you don't have a financially sustainable operation.

It may seem like a wonderful thing to have lots of fans, but fans who aren't customers can potentially hurt you more than help you, unless they're helping to refer more customers to you. Maintaining a large fan base can consume extra time and resources. For example, if you have a website, more fans may mean more web traffic, and more web traffic means higher hosting and maintenance costs as well as more communication.

It's wise to appreciate your fans too, but be careful about encouraging too much fandom at the expense of customers. If you want to be famous, then more fans are great, but if you want a financially sustainable lifestyle as an artist, then put your customers first. If you lose some fans but retain your customers, you can still sustain your practice. But if you lose your customers by focusing too heavily on your non-customer fans, you could see your work becoming very popular while you become very broke. It happens.

Fans may feel that by appreciating your work, they're somehow helping you. They may believe they're on your side. But is that really true? Love and appreciation are nice, but they won't keep the lights turned on.

Imagine that you hosted a dinner at your house. Guests arrive empty-handed, enjoy the food you provide, and graciously thank you for it. Do you perceive that as a form of support? It may be emotionally and socially supportive, but it isn't financially supportive. How long can you sustain this? The more you do it, the more you incur a hit of time and resources. Sure, you may end up with lots of people appreciating your cooking and your generosity, and they may gladly refer others to you, but where will that lead in the long run? By itself this isn't a good way to sustain your artistry.

To have a financially sustainable operation, it's fine to have fans, but you'll also need to see a certain percentage of those fans choosing to become customers.

Some artists take this to the extreme, focusing entirely on customers and ignoring non-customer fans altogether. Others go the opposite route, treating customers and fans as equally valuable. There's no right or wrong way to do this. It's a matter of finding the right equilibrium for you, one that can create long-term sustainability.

I enjoy seeing a healthy ecosystem around my work that consists of many more fans that customers. It gives me a sense of optimism because I only need to see a small percentage of fans become customers to maintain financial sustainability, and I'm happy to see people enjoy my work whether they pay for it or not. My conversion rate from fans to customers is high enough that I can afford to scale up without much risk to sustainability. But I do have to make some sacrifices for this to be viable.

I can afford to hang out with workshop attendees for a few hours after a workshop. I can't afford to give this kind of personal attention to anyone who visits my website, however, despite receiving many requests to that effect. From a financial perspective, I can't justify investing as much time and energy in non-customer fans — I have to put more attention on serving the needs of my customers. To fans who don't wish to become customers, this may sound disappointing, but it should be understandable.

Your non-customer fans may not like the fact that you pay more attention to your customers, and this realization may cause them to feel under-appreciated, but ultimately this is a matter of common sense. If a non-customer fan feels under-appreciated and abandons you as a result, you'll lose the chance to someday convert them to a customer as well as the other customers they may have eventually referred, but that's a gain that may never have been realized anyway. On the other hand, losing an existing customer is a less speculative loss and one that anyone with good business sense would work harder to prevent.

In your relationships with other artists, notice the difference between being a fan and being a patron, and start paying attention to why you make these choices as you do. This will deepen your understanding of how you wish to relate to these groups as an artist. Again, there's no right or wrong way to do it, but you'll find that some ways feel better to you than others.

Socializing with fans and customers can be very enjoyable. It's wonderful to connect with people who have shared interests, and you'll generally find such people to be very friendly. After all, you've already earned their appreciation. But it's crucial to maintain reasonable boundaries and balance these connections within the context of your life as a whole. It's all too easy to overdo it, feel overwhelmed by too many people trying to connect with you at the same time, and actually end up resenting the attention. If left unchecked, you could end up sabotaging the very success you've been seeking.

So appreciate your fans, and appreciate your customers, but safeguard your boundaries. As your work becomes more popular, you'll need to pay more attention to maintaining your sacred creative space. Don't allow your fans, customers, or anyone else to encroach upon that. Your connection to the creator-god within you (however you may define it) must not be derailed. In the long run, your fans and customers will forgive you for not being as available as they might like... as long as you keep creating.

### Learn to Surf

As your artistic practice matures, managing your relationships with fans and customers — along with all the other relationships in your life (family, friends, business partners, etc) — can be one of the trickiest aspects of your practice to get right. You only have so much time and attention to devote to each of these groups, and there are consequences for being too giving as well as for being too stingy. These challenges can be exacerbated as your popularity increases. The shifting populations of fans, customers, and business contacts will keep throwing you out of equilibrium, and solutions that worked for you last year may seem utterly broken this year.

The best advice I can give is to accept that your equilibrium is a moving target. Fortunately you have some say in the matter. If you want to be more social, take action by inviting new connections. If you're feeling socially overwhelmed and need some privacy, feel free to back off.

I've learned that the more often I blog, the more incoming communication I receive. If I have a backlog of communication and need a break, the best thing I can do is to stop blogging so much. When things really get overwhelming, I can disable my contact form or take a break from social media. Then when I'm ready to be more social, I can start blogging more often, and I can more actively invite people to connect.

I have made more screw-ups in this area than I can count, but with each passing year, I develop a better understanding of where my equilibrium is, and I know how important it is to go with the flow. Sometimes the flow takes me in a very social direction. Other times I feel an intense desire to be alone and turn within. The biggest mistakes I've made were the result of failing to honor and accept where the flow was going — i.e. trying to be social when I really wanted to be alone in my creator space, or forcing myself to create when I'd much rather be around people and share love and laughter. As it turned out, the balance I sought was never a static state where I could run essentially the same patterns week after week. Balance looks more like a sine wave, constantly oscillating from one extreme to the other. And to make it even more complicated, there are smaller sub-oscillations that combine with those larger oscillations.

Imagine trying to balance a basketball on your finger. If you try to keep your hand totally rigid, the ball quickly falls. To balance the ball you must be in constant motion, making continuous adjustments based on what the ball is doing. This is how it feels to balance the creative and the social aspects of art. Inspiration never sits still; it is always in motion. Either you're diving more deeply into your private creator space, or you're opening yourself to more social connections. The key, as I've learned, is not to resist these oscillations. Instead, learn to ride them like waves, much like a surfer.

Another metaphor for thinking about balance — perhaps a better one than surfing — is to think of your artistic life as a song. Consider that your life is a combination of rhythm, melody, harmony, etc. A song is always in motion, but it isn't chaotic or random — there's a structure to it. That structure may be complex and difficult to grasp, but it's there nonetheless. Notice where the song of your life wants flow next. Notice when you're trying to force it to go in a direction that doesn't feel right. What might be the next notes in the progression? If you can sense the structure of the song and develop a feel for where it wants to go, you'll find it easier to cultivate a fulfilling life-work balance as an artist.

* * *

The bottom line is that making a sustainable living as an artist is doable. It doesn't require a miracle, nor does it mandate putting money ahead of artistic expression. It does, however, require some intelligent choices and a genuine commitment. For those who are committed to the mastery of their craft for the long haul, ensuring the financial sustainability of one's work is a worthwhile and achievable goal.

Invite the universe to express itself through you, and do your best to get out of its way. It will support you on this path if you're committed; otherwise it will bring you every manner of obstacle to validate your lack of commitment.

The question being put to you now is: Will you do it? Will you step into the arena? Will you know the great enthusiasms and the great devotions? Or will you sit in the stands as a spectator... or a critic?

Is your future self looking back on this day with intense appreciation and gratitude... or with disappointment and regret?

## Chapter 27

A recession is possibly the best time to launch a new business or to expand an existing one. It's also a great time to get ahead in your career. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, so let me 'splain.

First, the media goes nuts during a recession. They turn a little bit of negativity into a mountain of pessimism. This makes a lot of people financially paranoid. People become socially conditioned to expect the worst.

If you buy into this social hysteria, you become a victim too.

But if you tune out such stupidity (not watching TV helps a lot) and maintain a grip on rational thought, you'll see some amazing opportunities popping up everywhere you look.

During such times people get scared and start cutting back on expenses. They cut some of the fluff from their lives. They stop buying so much stuff they don't need.

This causes some businesses to do poorly, especially businesses that don't provide stuff we really need. We can live without new credit cards and gas-guzzling SUVs for a while. Those non-essentials can be put off.

We also become more sensitive to receiving genuine value. When we spend money, we want to make sure we're getting a fair deal.

Consequently, businesses that provide genuine value can actually do better during a recession. More people will flock to those businesses in tough times, while the fluff businesses will become more and more paranoid.

In the USA there are a lot of fluff businesses. Many are based on the moocher mindset, trying to extract money without providing fair value in exchange. A lot of the dead or dying financial companies are like that. The American auto industry has been contracting as well, at least in part because they've been creating inferior products that people don't really need. (Erin and I own a Honda, despite the fact that we could have gotten a significant discount on GM cars because two of my family members used to work for GM. We looked at some GM cars and quickly concluded they sucked. Other family members weren't so lucky.)

A lot of people have been learning that job security doesn't mean much these days. More than 500,000 Americans learned this lesson last month when they lost their "safe and secure" jobs.

### The Stupid Approach to Making Money

Lately I've seen a lot of people, some of them friends, do some really dumb things in an attempt to earn more money. They buy into lame money-making programs, join and promote useless MLM schemes, and fall prey to scammers.

The common pattern is always the same — they're focused on trying to make more money. They make it their top priority. They think about it constantly. But they keep getting sucked into trying to make money without providing any real value, and it's unsustainable.

In the end this sort of thing eventually self-destructs. The only way to succeed with it in the long run is to find lots of suckers and basically rip them off in order to enrich yourself. Most people have a strong enough moral resistance to this sort of thing that they'll sabotage themselves from going too far with it. This isn't a path of long-term abundance. It's a path of scarcity.

As a general rule, the people I know who are most focused on trying to make more money this year are doing worse, not better. In some cases they're doing much worse. A few have lost or are in the process of losing their homes.

The exceptions are those that are able to sufficiently kill their conscience, so they can remove any incongruencies about ripping people off. But again, this is a pretty rare exception. Most people would rather deal with scarcity than knowingly rip people off to get ahead, so they just make the bare minimum to meet their needs and avoid getting ahead.

### The Smart Approach to Making Money

There is a smarter approach, however.

Instead of focusing on trying to make more money, put your time and energy into CREATING and DELIVERING real value. Find a way to give people what they want and/or need.

Take note that the keywords here are CREATE and DELIVER.

_Creating_ value means expressing your unique talents and skills in a way that can potentially benefit others.

_Delivering_ value means ensuring that other people are actually receiving and benefiting from the value you've created.

If you don't do both in some fashion, then it's going to be hard for you to generate sustainable income, especially during a recession. I'll explain why.

If you only create value but don't deliver it, then your value isn't being received by anyone. So how can you receive value (such as money) in return?

I see this problem a lot with creative types such as would-be artists, musicians, and writers. They may spend lots of time honing their craft, but if they don't actually get that value into the hands of sufficient numbers of people, they struggle financially, and this hurts them creatively too. A goodly number of these people are currently seeing their homes in foreclosure now.

The sad thing is that some of these people work very hard. But they spend too much time creating and not nearly enough time delivering. They watch people they consider hacks pull ahead of them. The hacks may not be as good on the creative side, but at least they're getting their value into people's hands, and on some level people are appreciating their work.

I went down that road myself. In the late 90s, I went bankrupt, even though I was working very long hours and creating a lot of potential value in the form of a computer game my company was developing. My problem was that I didn't do a good job of getting that value delivered. I relied on publishers to do that, and for various reasons the game was never released. That resulted in years of wasted effort, aside from the valuable learning experience that is. So I know where this road leads because I traveled it.

On the other hand, if you only deliver value but don't create it, then you're delivering someone else's value. This isn't a terrible approach in the short run, but it's a short-sighted long-term strategy if this is all you do. There's nothing particularly special about delivering other people's value. Anyone can do it. Anyone can sign up for affiliate programs or join an MLM program or become a reseller. If this is your primary means of generating income, your long-term outlook is weak. The better this works for you, the more it will draw competitors into your field. Eventually everyone will be working harder and harder for scraps. This happens all the time. This strategy can be especially weak during a recession, as more people turn to less expensive sources for the same value you deliver, squeezing your profit margins thinner and thinner.

Bloggers fall into this trap when they rehash other people's content and don't really have anything unique or compelling to say. A year later their niche is flooded with competitors doing the same thing. And hardly anyone is earning decent income from it.

The most viable long-term strategy is to create AND deliver value. You can mix and match other strategies with it, but this should be your primary method of income generation. If you get good at creating and delivering value, you can basically write your own ticket and enjoy lots of abundance.

### A Choice of Mindset

I know a lot of people are dealing with financial challenges these days. Las Vegas is basically the foreclosure capital of the USA right now. I know people who've lost their homes. I see "bank owned" signs all over the place.

If you're going through something like this right now, I totally empathize with you.

However, I have to point out that the pattern of what causes this is so clear, it's getting a bit ridiculous to see it play out over and over again.

Generally speaking, people who CREATE and DELIVER value are doing just fine. In fact, I'd say most are doing better, not worse. Many of these people are seeing their incomes go up during this time.

People who don't CREATE and DELIVER value are seeing their finances grow progressively worse. This leads many of them to panic, so they head even further away from creating and delivering value (such as by chasing lame money-making schemes), which only quickens the decline to insolvency.

I know it seems logical that if you're seeing your finances decline, then you should focus single-mindedly on trying to make more money as quickly as possible. People fall into this trap all the time. I used to fall for it too. This is absolutely the wrong strategy though. I know that must sound counter-intuitive.

The correct strategy is that when you see your finances decline and you want to increase your income, then you need to focus on CREATING and DELIVERING more value. If you do that, then you're doing the very thing that will generate a sustainable income increase.

What is money? Money is simply a medium for exchanging value. Money is what you receive in exchange for the value you create and deliver. If you can increase your outflow of value creation and delivery, you can increase your inflow of money received.

If, however, you try to increase the inflow of money without increasing the outflow of value, you're trying to get something for nothing. This approach is untenable and will ultimately collapse. Please don't waste your time on it.

I actually figured this out right around the time I was declaring bankruptcy. I was totally broke, yet I found a way to focus my energy on creating and delivering value instead of on trying to scrape together more money. Within about six months, I was back on my feet financially, and year after year my financial situation just kept getting better. I started on this path about 9 years ago, and I've maintained a nice positive cash flow every year since then.

I know that when you're in a financial crunch situation, six months may seem like a long time. But it doesn't matter if it takes you several months or several years to get in the habit of creating and delivering value. The time is going to pass anyway, and this habit will serve you well for life. Be patient and get started. It doesn't matter what happens to the economy — if you keep creating and delivering value, you'll do just fine.

### A Record Year

Financially, 2008 was the best year ever for Erin and me.

I expect that 2009 will be an even better year for us, regardless of what happens to the economy. How do I know? Because it's another year we can create and deliver value, adding to what we've already created.

Why are we enjoying increases while others are experiencing decline?

First, it helps that we don't have jobs. I haven't been employed by someone in more than 16 years. Many people mistakenly assume that being jobless is the riskier route, but that's nonsense. It's much less risky to control your own means of creating and delivering value than to be a pawn of some larger entity. No matter how bad the economy gets, Erin and I can't get fired or laid off. So our career paths enjoy much more stability.

Secondly, while others are tightening up and cutting costs, Erin and I focus our attention on creating and delivering more value to people. The way we go about this may seem a bit counter-intuitive at first glance.

For example, I wrote a lot about diet and health this year, such as by sharing my experiences with the raw food diet.

That may not appear to be a very sexy topic. Some people find it totally uninteresting and would prefer that I write about other things. My health articles never make it big on social bookmarking sites, so they don't generally yield a major traffic boost either.

However, such articles can provide a lot of value to people who are interested in those topics. Many people have made significant lifestyle changes after reading those articles, improving their health and/or enjoying significant weight loss. For some people the benefits have been amazing.

So even though these articles might not seem too exciting at first glance, they make a difference in people's lives. Obviously they don't affect everyone equally, but that's okay. They certainly do a lot of good. They deliver value.

Many bloggers post content with the intention of getting something, such as links, attention, or sales. I've done some of that too, but I generally avoid creating that style of content. Instead I remind myself to stay focused on creating and delivering value. I know that when I keep my focus on that side, the rest takes care of itself.

This book is a good example. I didn't write this book to get something from you. I don't expect it will become a huge hit. I know that because of the length, many people won't even bother to read it.

But I also know that for many of the people who take the time to read it, this book has the potential to create some subtle yet helpful shifts. It may give someone the extra insight needed to get moving in a new direction. Someone, somewhere will receive positive value from it.

That's all I intend. Just provide some kind of benefit to someone who could use a little encouragement in the right direction. It's not that complicated. This sort of focus inspires me to share what I've learned openly and honestly, even if it runs contrary to the way most people think.

I know this approach sounds overly simplistic, but if you get this — if you really get it — then it's really not that hard to generate plenty of income.

### Turning Value Into Income

So how does one generate income from creating and delivering value? Can't you run into a problem of creating and delivering lots of value and making no money from it?

As it turns out, making money is the easy part. If you can create and deliver value to people, the income opportunities will literally come to you. People will practically line up with ways for you to make money. I'm serious.

Here's how this works.

If you get good at creating value, you can connect with other people who are good at delivering value. They deliver your value, such as by selling it, and they pay you a royalty, commission, or licensing fee.

For example, Hay House offered me a book deal last year, so I wrote a book called Personal Development for Smart People, and it was published in September. I received an advance for the book, and I'll also receive ongoing royalties based on sales. I might even receive royalties from this book for the rest of my life, especially since the content is timeless. Also, writing a book has lead to other opportunities, such as paid speaking engagements. So in this case I created the value (the book), but others deliver it.

Now suppose you get good at delivering value. In this case you can generate income by plugging other people's value into your delivery system. For example, my blog is great at delivering value. It's a very efficient medium for that. But since I give my value away for free, it doesn't generate income directly. However, I can generate plenty of income by promoting other people's products that I like. Then I split the profits from sales with the publisher. I earn six figures a year just from doing that. The product publishers come to me. I get way more offers for this sort of thing than I can handle. It doesn't require a lot of work to do this. Once you have a system for delivering value, you can plug other people's value into it and generate lots of extra income.

If you have the means to create AND deliver strong value, you'll have so many opportunities it will be totally ridiculous. First, you can plug the value you create into other people's delivery systems, so you can earn ongoing royalties and such. This is easy residual income. I'm still getting checks every month for deals I entered years ago.

Secondly, you can plug other people's creative value into your own delivery system. You pay them a royalty on the sales, or they pay you as an affiliate. Once again you generate ongoing residual income. As long as you're selective about the products you promote, doing your best to ensure that they provide strong value, everyone is happy, and everyone wins.

Thirdly, you can plug your value into your own delivery system. Strangely, this is something I haven't done yet with my blog, although I used to do it all the time with my computer games business. This is something I intend to explore in 2009. It simply means that I could create and sell my own products direct. Many other bloggers have already done this with great success, releasing e-books, audio programs, DVDs, etc. They create the value and sell it directly to their visitors.

A big chunk of the income I received in 2008 was from work I did in previous years. I could do no work for all of 2009 and just live off the residual income I know is coming. That's a nice situation to be in. It's no accident though. Years ago I decided that this is how I wanted to set up my financial life, and then I focused on creating and delivering value to make it work. There's no reason you can't use the same strategy. It isn't trademarked. :)

### Avoiding Distraction

Once you develop the habit of creating and delivering value, it's pretty hard to fail. However, it's very easy to get distracted along the way. Distraction is perhaps your biggest obstacle.

You can't get sucked into every money-making scheme that crosses your plate. Getting sucked into a job, where you have to trade hours for dollars, is just as bad. These are dead ends you should avoid by any means.

You have to stay focused on creating and delivering value. Everything that detracts from this focus should be viewed as an expense, obstacle, or just plain evil.

This is so important, but most people just don't get how important it is.

Getting a job is such a bad idea if you want to enjoy long-term financial abundance. The odds of success on that path are so low, it's not even worth considering.

Seriously, you are better off being broke and homeless, so you can focus on creating and delivering value from that place. You're much worse off if you have to waste day after day showing up to work for someone else. That won't move you closer to financial abundance. It will only distract you further.

If I had to choose between being homeless and getting a full-time job, I'd go the homeless route. Having a job would be 10x worse. As a homeless person, I could stay hungry and focused on creating and delivering value. I might not have the means to produce much value at first, but at least I could get out there in front of people and deliver something. It would be a good start on the right path.

A job is just a monstrous distraction. In many ways it's a modernized form of slavery.

Homelessness is a huge upgrade from traditional employment. Have you ever talked to a homeless person? Some of them find the idea of having a job insulting — it represents a loss of freedom. Sure you smell better and can get a nicer place to live, but you lose your humanity in the process. Perhaps such people realize something you don't.

Employment is the ultimate form of destitution.

Fortunately, employment is an easy problem to fix. If you have a job, just stop showing up. The rest will take care of itself. Pretty soon you'll feel some motivation and drive to start creating and delivering value, especially if you happen to like eating.

Genuine opportunities are based on creating and/or delivering value. If you see something that looks like a new opportunity, and it doesn't require you to create value, and it doesn't require you to deliver value, then it isn't an opportunity. It's a total waste of your time.

Is creating and delivering value harder than getting a job? I would say no, not at all. Having a job is a lot harder. With a job you still have to provide some form of value usually, but all the residual benefits you produce turn into residual income for someone else. So you're already doing most of what needs to be done, but you aren't enjoying any of the benefits. In the long run, you'll probably have to work much harder if you have a job, but the bulk of the rewards will go to someone else. On the one hand, that's generous, but on the other hand, it's quite dumb.

I could get a job as a writer and get paid a certain amount for each word I write. But then someone else owns my work, and all the residuals from that work go to them. Alternatively, I could write articles for my own website and retain the freedom to republish them as books someday, use them to generate traffic (and thereby income), license them for various publications, use them to promote my book, etc. The correct strategy is a no-brainer really.

Trying to make money is itself a distraction. When you focus on making money, too many things will catch your eye. You'll run around like a chicken with its head cut off, chasing down all sorts of things that look like opportunities. You'll waste a lot of time and energy if you chase dollars.

Creating and delivering value is simpler. This focus is well-aligned with truth, love, and power.

When you create and deliver value, you can be open and honest about what you're doing. You get to spend most of your time doing stuff you'd naturally enjoy. It's pleasurable to hone a craft you're passionate about, whether it be writing articles, composing music, or planting gardens. It's much harder to do boring, non-creative work day after day. It's also very empowering to share your value with others and to see that you're making a positive difference in people's lives.

Once you make a habit of creating and delivering value as your primary career focus, you won't want to go back.

### There's More to Life Than Money

Of all the things I do as part of my "work," making money plays only a small role. Despite having written some popular articles on the subject, I spend little time thinking about money these days.

I don't even bother to set financial goals anymore. That seems totally pointless to me.

Sometimes months go by, and I don't even know how much money I'm currently making. I just know there's always plenty and that I'm earning more than I'm spending. The gap is wide enough that I don't need to do any special budgeting or fussing with figures.

The reason this works for me is that I focus on creating and delivering value. I know that as long as I keep doing that, I don't have to do anything special to try to make money. New opportunities just keep showing up. It's not that difficult to maintain.

I remember when I was at a conference in 2004 where Dr. Wayne Dyer was speaking. He said that people would come up and say, "You know, Dr. Dyer. Some people say you've made a LOT of money."

Dr. Dyer's response was, "They would be right." :)

He went on to say something along these lines: "It's not my fault! I just keep doing what I'm doing, and there's always plenty of abundance there."

At the time it was hard for me to relate to this mindset. It seems a bit too unrealistic and exceptional. But still... I wondered what it would be like to live at that level, where you could just assume abundance and it would be there for you. No striving or struggling. It took a few years, but I'm finally grasping what that sort of mindset feels like.

I'd say it's not really a complete mindset by itself though. I doubt very much that Dr. Dyer focuses a lot of attention on trying to make money. I think most of his attention is elsewhere, wrapped up in the material he writes about. And that's exactly where it should be.

Having written about two dozen books, it's safe to say that Dr. Dyer has internalized the concept of creating and delivering value. I have it on good authority that his books sell quite well too. (We share the same publisher.)

Incidentally, Erin and I finally had the chance to meet Dr. Dyer in October at the speakers' dinner for the I Can Do It! Conference. We only spoke with him for a few minutes. He was very warm and friendly.

This whole abundance mindset might sound really annoying if you're dealing with financial scarcity right now. I can totally relate. I've been there, and I'm sure I'd have been equally annoyed if someone said this sort of stuff to me back then. I'd have been vehement that making money was NOT easy because I tried very hard to do that and failed big at it. Ironically the real problem was that by focusing on making money, I was making a huge mistake.

The key is where you focus your attention. If you focus your attention on making money, I can virtually guarantee that you'll have a long and difficult road ahead of you, filled with setbacks and disappointments. If money is really what you seek, good luck with that. All you'll do is give more and more of your power away, and you'll end up living a pretty empty and shallow life.

Another corrupt form of thinking is to focus your attention on attracting financial abundance. Law of Attraction promoters often present this as a good idea. I once thought it was a good idea too. Now I realize it's a dead end. It will just run you in circles. The irony is that in order to enjoy real financial abundance, you want to be thinking about money as little as possible.

I know it sounds like focusing on money is the right idea. I assure you that it's a mistake. If you need to take several years to figure that out the hard way like I did, be my guest. But you'll be really pissed that you could have saved yourself all that trouble if you simply let these ideas sink in a bit deeper. I hope that on some level what I'm saying strikes you as common sense. But I know I'll be getting emails five years from now from a few people who went the other route. I hope you aren't one of them.

Try to recognize the truth that focusing on CREATING and DELIVERING value is the smarter, more sane approach to long-term financial abundance. You may start out a bit slow at first, but eventually you'll learn how to get good at both pieces of this puzzle. Once you have both aspects working reasonably well, it's awesome. Just plain wonderful. And it leads to a really fun and exciting life too. Lots of freedom. Lots of joy. Plenty of cash. And yet the cash doesn't even matter.

The nice thing about having plenty of money is that you can largely ignore it. You can focus your attention on doing more important, more interesting, and more enjoyable things. The funny thing is that it's this sort of focus that creates financial abundance in the first place. Then you come full circle and realize that you never needed money at all. You just needed the courage to go after your dreams full steam ahead, even when you were dead broke. You needed to stop hiding behind a lack of money as an excuse not to live your best life.

If I could learn and apply this lesson while going bankrupt and having less than $100 in the bank, surely you can apply it today. I learned that I could create and deliver value even when I had no money and few resources. It wasn't the greatest value in the world mind you, but at least it was something. I focused on creating something people would like and enjoy. Then I got it into their hands and made sure they enjoyed it. Back then it was a simple computer game. Today I do pretty much the same thing with blogging. The content is different, but the overall strategy is the same.

The DELIVERING part needn't be complicated. If you just create something and share it online, other people will spread it around if they like it.

If you've been putting your value out there for months and months, and you haven't been able to generate much interest from others, that should tell you that your mistakes are on the creative side. The feedback is that people don't care for what you're producing. You think you're creating value, but the world is saying, "Not good enough; we don't need or want this." So you need to adapt to that feedback and use it to improve. Let it encourage you to go deeper within yourself, so you can be more genuine and authentic. Become more real and less phony. Keep working at becoming a more expressive creator until people start to take notice. Then you're golden.

### What About the Economy?

Personally I think that economic recessions, including the current one, are a good thing. Recessions help to weed out the crappy companies that aren't creating and delivering value people want. Many of those companies were doing a good job at one time, but they failed to keep pace. As our values change, our companies need to adapt. Companies that can't do that deserve to die off, and the jobs they created should be eliminated. They'll eventually be replaced by new companies that have a better sense of people's current needs and desires. Companies that just don't "get it" will be replaced by companies that do.

Consider the notion of bailing out the failing U.S. auto companies by having the taxpayers fund them. Is this a good idea? It's okay except for one small problem — it's STUPID! It's one of the dumbest things our political reps could possibly do with our tax dollars. An auto company bailout is definitely not in the best interests of our country, nor is it in the best interests of the auto workers themselves. It's totally short-sighted. And FWIW I think the whole financial bailout was just as dumb.

I have family members who used to work for GM for years (not in the automobile division of the company though). If they were still working for GM today, I'd sooner see them lose their jobs and have to find new work elsewhere than encourage them to live under the illusion that their company should continue doing business as usual. As I mentioned previously, Erin and I bought a Japanese car in 2006 even though we could have gotten a great price break on a GM model with the family discount. We just didn't like any GM cars.

During a recession some companies are going to die off. That's a good thing. To artificially prop up the proven market losers is just dumb. Sure, it will have some rippling consequences. But those ripples are necessary. We need that sort of self-correction to prevent bigger problems down the road. We need to send a message that if you fail to create and deliver value people genuinely want, your business will ultimately fail, and no amount of political lobbying will save you. Of course we get the opposite result when too many people think that the point of life is to chase dollars, especially our politicians. Can you blame them though? Have you ever been known to fall into the same trap?

It's better — and much more compassionate — for millions of auto workers to lose their jobs and be re-integrated back into society, where they can start doing socially useful work again instead of wasting their time doing work that simply isn't needed anymore. If it takes years, it takes years. There are other companies that are doing a better job of providing what people want and adapting to the planet's changing transportation needs. Giving more money to the losers is a stupid strategy.

Similarly, if you work for a company that is falling out of sync with creating and delivering value that people want, you should indeed lose your job. It's better to retrain yourself to do more meaningful work elsewhere than to waste your time doing work that isn't needed. Becoming obsolete is a trap that can be avoided. Even if you're an employee, you still need to make sure you're contributing to the creation and delivery of real value. If you fall away from that, it's only a matter of time before you get the axe, so don't be too surprised when it happens.

### A Value-Centered Career

How do you know if you're creating and delivering real value?

Ask yourself these questions: If you stopped doing what you do, who would care? Who would object loudly? Who would revolt?

If you're creating and delivering genuine value, and you suddenly stop, people will notice. People will definitely care. Your contribution will be seriously missed. There will practically be rioting in the streets.

Such people may not even credit the value to you directly, especially if your contribution remains somewhat anonymous, but they'll soon detect that something important is missing from their lives. Even if they don't know your name, the removal of your ongoing value creation and delivery will have a definite effect.

If, however, hardly anyone cares that you stopped, that should tell you something. It means that people just didn't value your creative output... not really. What you were doing was either unnecessary or easily replaced. You weren't yet living as a conscious, self-actualized human being. You held back from shining as brightly as you could have.

You have a choice of whether or not you want this to be your fate. You may have been conditioned from a young age to view your life path in terms of getting a job and making money. Go ahead and live that way for a few years if you think it's intelligent. You'll soon see what a pointless, soulless dead-end it really is.

When you finally begin to hear that subtle inner voice screaming at you, "This is just so wrong," realize that it's still possible to live a life of fun, freedom, and fulfillment — and still make plenty of money and not starve. But in order to get there, you have to focus on doing what really matters. You must clear your head of all that socially conditioned nonsense and stop doing what everyone else is doing.

Start living as a conscious human being, not a mindless minion. Focus on expressing your child-like creativity on a daily basis. Stop thinking so much about making money, and focus on connecting with people and sharing your creations with them instead.

Create and deliver. Create and deliver.

The correct focus for financial abundance is so simple it's ridiculous. You learned it in kindergarten.

You: "Hey, look at this picture I made!" (Value created)

Adult: "Wow. That's awesome! You made my day!" :) (Value received)

My five-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter pretty much have it figured out. If they just keep doing what they naturally like to do, they'll be able to enjoy financial abundance as adults too.

My job as a parent isn't so much to teach them something new in this area — it's to prevent them from being brainwashed into thinking like everyone else.

It took me about 5 hours to write and edit this 6,000-word chapter. I wasn't even planning to write this chapter today. But I got inspired by an idea, so I sat down and wrote the whole thing in a single sitting.

My investment of time and energy on the creative side was fixed. But this chapter, and this entire book, will keep delivering value to people for many years to come. That's a good investment then, isn't it?

It doesn't matter whether or not this particular book generates income for me. I don't think about it like that. I just know that if I keep creating and delivering value, I'll continue to enjoy financial abundance, and I'll feel really good too. Money is basically a non-entity. It doesn't motivate action, nor does it serve as a reward. It's just something that recedes into the background while real life is unfolding.

I'd love for you to be able to enjoy similar benefits if this is something that appeals to you. It all starts with the choice of where you focus your attention. The more you pursue your own creative self-expression, the less you'll have to fuss over money.

The irony is that this is probably what you tell yourself you'll do when you finally have enough money, but that sort of thinking is a trap that will only keep you stuck. The way you would live if/when you're enjoying financial abundance, start living that way now, for that's the very strategy that will produce the abundance you seek. And when you begin to experience financial abundance, you'll realize that you never needed it to begin with. You just needed the courage to start expressing the real you under the conditions you find yourself in this very moment.

## How to Create Real Value

Let's tackle the question of how to discern whether or not you're creating and delivering real value.

The simple answer is that you know you're creating value when you can see **tangible positive changes** in the world as a result of your creative output.

### Weak Value

Suppose I post a new article, and lots of people send me feedback such as, "Great article, Steve. That was awesome! Thanks for posting it."

Does that mean I created real value? Well, maybe I created some. I can see that some people felt good, but is that a tangible positive change? I would say no, not really. The impact will probably be short-lived. I can't say I delivered much real value.

Lots of bloggers write articles that generate this sort of feedback. You might read such articles and think to yourself, "That was a cool article." But a week later you've totally forgotten about it, and nothing in your life has changed. The only value you actually received was perhaps a moment of entertainment or distraction. There isn't much evidence of **tangible positive change**.

So even though this might seem like positive and encouraging feedback, I would interpret it as an indication that I provided weak value. Weak value is better than no value of course, but if this is all I was able to do, I'd probably be struggling financially.

Take note that I receive this type of feedback every day. For any given article and any given reader, there usually isn't a huge amount of value being transferred. And that's okay. Creating impactful articles is very challenging. I don't always know what will deliver strong vs. weak value.

The value received depends on the individual reader and the circumstances of their life too. Some people receive tremendous value upon re-reading an old article that previously didn't mean much to them.

### Strong Value

Now suppose I'm walking around at a conference, and someone recognizes me and says, "Steve, I'm so glad to finally meet you! I have to tell you our story. Earlier this year my brother and I read your article 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job. That article convinced us to quit our jobs as corporate engineers and start our own business this year. Now we design and sell inspirational T-shirts. We're loving it. And our customers are digging the T-shirts too. Thank you so much for the work you do. We're so much happier!"

This is followed by a squishy hug. :)

That new business is something real. This is a **tangible positive change**. That article obviously delivered more than just momentary entertainment value. It had a lasting effect.

This was a true story by the way. I was speaking at a conference in October, and I met Drew and Caroline Yacu at their vendor booth. This brother and sister team started a business CREATING and DELIVERING T-shirts with inspirational messages on them. The twist is that the messages are printed backwards.

This means that whenever you see yourself in a mirror, you'll instantly read the message, so it works as a positive affirmation.

However, when someone else looks at your shirt, all they see is backwards writing.

Drew and Caroline gave me a free T-shirt at the conference to thank me for helping them get started on this path. I was delighted to see how happy they were. The backwards message on my shirt is, "I am a creative genius."

Whenever I wear that shirt and see myself in a mirror, it always makes me smile. Since I can wear the shirt again and again, the value Drew and Caroline CREATED keeps getting DELIVERED. It's not just a one-time thing.

I've also noticed that when I wear this shirt in public, people will stare at my chest trying to read the backwards writing. It invites people to walk up and connect with me. I always get comments about the shirt. So the shirt provides even more value by acting as a social opener.

Drew and Caroline said they quit their jobs in January, so they've been going for quite a while. And they still remembered the article that helped tip them over the edge. That's another factor I've seen repeatedly. When real value gets delivered, it's usually memorable.

Am I claiming credit for launching their business? Certainly not. They did all the work. That business is fueled by their creativity, not mine. My article was just a catalyst, perhaps one of many.

Most of the feedback I get is on the weak value side, but I give the strong value feedback a lot more weight. An article that helps someone launch a new business is a lot more significant to me than an article that generates hundreds of "cool article" emails.

### Aim to Create Strong Value

These days it's pretty easy for me to write something that will generate plenty of positive "cool article" feedback. I can consistently deliver weak value without much effort.

Lots of other bloggers have reached the point where they can consistently deliver weak value as well, and that's where they stagnate. They keep getting "cool article" feedback on every post, but they still aren't getting the results they want. They wonder what's missing since the feedback seems to suggest that they're doing great. The problem is that these bloggers never make the transition from weak value to strong value. They don't raise their standards to the point of creating impact instead of just entertainment.

The Internet is already overloaded with weak value. You could spend the rest of your life soaking up the weak value that's already been posted — reading blog posts, watching videos, etc. It's endless. But ultimately it's nothing but info-crack.

If you pump out more and more weak value, you aren't helping much. Hardly anyone would care if you stopped since they have plenty of other sources to turn to.

If you can figure out how to create strong value though, you differentiate yourself. You're no longer part of the herd pumping out feel-good drivel. Now you're actually doing something real. I hope you grasp this point because it's an important distinction to internalize.

It is very challenging to create and deliver strong value. What can I say or do that could permanently change someone's life for the better? The answer isn't obvious. But you can reach this point by becoming a prolific creator AND by seeking to continually increase the value you're creating. Put a lot out there, and gradually figure out what matters and what doesn't.

### Tangible Positive Changes

Here are some other examples of feedback that represent **tangible positive changes** :

  1. My father lost 70 pounds this year after I forwarded him your book on the raw food diet.
  2. I finally got a girlfriend after reading your book on soulful relationships.
  3. I moved to Las Vegas after reading your article, Living in Las Vegas, and I'm loving it here.
  4. I had my first lucid dream after listening to the podcast on Lucid Dreaming. It was amazing!

These are all examples of real feedback I've received.

The commonality is that we can see some kind of evidence that positive change has occurred. Some sort of shift has happened. Someone having their first lucid dream is a positive change. Someone going from no relationship to having a girlfriend is a positive change. Someone moving to a new city and beginning a new chapter of their life is a positive change. All of this goes beyond the "cool article" type of feedback.

It isn't enough to hope that you're creating tangible positive changes. You need to see evidence that you're having this effect. One of the simplest is that people will tell you how your creative work has affected them. Are you seeing any evidence that your work is producing **tangible positive changes?**

Some changes are small and subtle. Other changes are big and create massive ongoing ripples.

Note that the value you deliver to the world doesn't have to be earth-shatteringly huge. It could be something small and simple. You may do something that only benefits a single person in a small way. That's terrific.

Over time you'll learn to deepen the value you're able to share. A song can have a deeper impact than a few minutes of distraction. A comedian can do more than entertain. A T-shirt can do more than clothe you.

### Get Started

How do you figure out how to provide strong value?

You get started by creating stuff that provides little or no value. Then keep experimenting. Keep trying different things. Look for ways to improve. In this manner you'll progress to weak value and eventually to some strong value.

With practice you will **calibrate**. You'll learn to provide more value. See the bonus chapter on calibration at the end of this book.

I've written more than 800 articles now, and I'm still figuring it out. It's still hit and miss a lot of the time.

But I keep writing. I keep trying new approaches and angles. And every once in a while, I manage to put out something that delivers strong value for a lot of people. I constantly make new distinctions. I deepen my understanding of what works and what doesn't. I learn by doing.

The ability to create strong value is the result of high creative output. The more you create stuff, the faster you'll figure out how to create something good. Every creator has to pump out a lot of crap before getting good.

### Do More Than Nothing

The dumbest approach you can apply is to sit still and create nothing. Stand there and whine, "I don't know what to do!"

That's just lame. I'm sorry for being so blunt, but it is.

If you can't get a clue as to how to get started creating and delivering some value to people, you must be blind.

Go outside for starters. Walk down the street. It shouldn't take but a few minutes to find someone you can help.

If you made an all-out effort, could you make a difference in the life of one person today? Could you create even a little bit of weak value for someone somewhere? Have you ever tried?

If you're really, really clueless, then volunteer. Go help people in need. You'll learn quite quickly that if you have a pulse, you can provide value to people.

If the only benefit you think you can offer is body warmth, then go hold crack babies for a few hours a week. This will help get you out of your head and get into action.

_I don't know what to do_ is simply not a valid excuse. That's just fear and cowardice talking. You know you can do better than that.

Seriously, if the _Three Stooges_ can create value, why not you? Were they geniuses? Perhaps not. But they took a lot of action.

If you really, really don't know what to do though, simply go outside and walk around. Don't go home until you've figured out something you can do to take a stab at creating value.

This isn't rocket science. If it takes you more than an hour to figure out something you can do to create value, you're being way too anal. And the whole time you're creating nothing. You have to figure this out by doing, not by sulking.

If you think you can sit at home and compute the perfect value-creation formula and then begin taking action from that place of perfect insight and understanding, you're delusional. You're suffering from the delay tactic known as _perfectionism_ , a word derived from the Latin _wimpus maximus_.

You'll figure out how to provide strong value when you're in motion. Only the act of creation will enable you to figure out how to create strong value. You'll figure it out as you go along.

Your first guess at how to create value isn't going to be perfect. Please rid yourself of the myth that if you just come up with the right idea, you'll be a high-level value creator from day one. It just doesn't work like that.

Each time you create weak value, it serves as a learning experience. Every time you hear feedback like "cool song" — or worse... maybe cricket sounds — you can learn from it. You can say, "Well... that sucked. I'll have to try something else."

This is how you calibrate.

### Beginners Always Suck

If you want to see a good example of calibration at work, go back and read my very first blog post. It's only three paragraphs long. I'll wait.

That was a true masterpiece, wasn't it? It's obvious from that first post that I would go on to have a massively successful blog, right?

The truth is that I feel like such a chode for having written that. It's three paragraphs of absolute drivel. It doesn't even come close to providing real value. It announces a book that I eventually decided not to write (canceling that book was the right decision though). I didn't even get the basic "cool article" feedback for that one. But hey, it was a start. It set me in motion. I could only get better from there.

My second post was a little better. At least it has some substance to it, although it was weak value at best. It wasn't particularly creative. As mentioned in that post, I was mainly rehashing other people's ideas. It's a big improvement from the first post though.

The first blog post I wrote that provided even a small degree of strong value was probably Dealing With Difficult People. That was my 27th post. And the next one didn't happen until about 2 months later — How to Discover Your Life Purpose In About 20 Minutes.

When I first started blogging, it was a challenge just to create weak value. Creating strong value was quite rare and usually accidental. Over time I gradually improved. Notice that I didn't improve by sitting around thinking about how to write impactful blog posts. I got better by writing lots of crappy posts and figuring out what not to do. And I'm still figuring it out. Give me another four years, and I'll probably be embarrassed by what I've written today.

So here's the rule to follow: Create more than nothing.

That's it really. The only way to totally screw this up is to sit around sulking and feeling powerless. That's the only way to fail. Doing nothing is failure. Creating nothing is failure. Creating something, however crappy it may be, is success.

I know I'm right about this because I have the T-shirt to prove it. :)

## Chapter 28

On my path as an entrepreneur, I realized there were basically two paths that would lead me to some level of business success.

Path #1 was to get really good at **marketing and selling**. If I could become an expert at persuading people to buy, I could earn plenty of income that way. This path would involve things like copywriting, conversion rates, and search engine optimization. I might not create a lot of products, but maybe I'd only need a few, and then I could learn to market and sell the heck out of them. Lots of Internet marketers use this strategy. Sometimes their material is pretty generic, weak, or even inaccurate, but they know how to sell, sell, sell.

Path #2 was to get really good at **creating**. If I could become a prolific creator of value, I could afford to be very generous. I could give away copious amounts of free content and let word of mouth do the rest. This would create an interesting relationship with my audience too. My focus would be more on supporting others rather than selling them. If I excelled at this, I wouldn't need to sell much at all. I could attract a sizeable audience and only need to sell a little here and there. Even a really poor conversion rate could still produce enough income to cover my costs, so I could afford to be very selective and only sell in ways that felt good to me. I wouldn't have to push people to buy.

Of course it's possible to do both simultaneously, and many larger companies do, but I felt I'd be better off if I focused primarily on one side or the other. I think that was a wise decision in retrospect.

### The Creator Path

I chose to focus on path #2 for my blog and my books.

I like this path because it generates a lot of support. I like the relationship it creates with the community around me. I get to treat my readers like real human beings, not as prospects or leads.

Instead of focusing on things like SEO or sales skills, I focused on creating lots of quality content. I worked on getting better at helping people. I listened to people to see where they needed help. I didn't do formal market research. I just applied some curiosity and empathy. I did my best to share my own path of growth and to connect with people. I've really enjoyed this path. I like focusing on the creative and community side of my business much more than the financial side.

Most of the people who follow my website don't pay me a dime — ever — and I'm perfectly okay with that. They still often provide me with other forms of value, such as encouraging feedback, referrals from friends and family, interesting opportunities and invitations, and hugs and smiles in person.

There are many people on path #1 who make a lot more money than I do, with significantly less web traffic. However, they often have a harder time feeling happy and fulfilled on their paths. I think that's because of the relationships they create with the people they serve — path #1 is more competitive while path #2 is more cooperative.

### Money Isn't the Only Form of Wealth

I often find that successful path #1 people don't necessarily enjoy their work that much. I'm not saying they hate it, but they frequently have to discipline themselves a lot to get their work done. Then they use the results of their work — namely money — to try to create more happiness, like enjoying nice vacations and acquiring possessions. If they succeed financially, they can spend money to purchase the experiences they desire. Many of them also find some aspects of earning money to be pretty exciting too.

Money is only one way to hold wealth though. Social goodwill is another.

Often when I travel, it begins with an invitation to speak at someone's event. I usually do that for free. They cover my airfare and give me a place to stay for a while, ranging anywhere from a few days up to a week. At the event I share stories and lessons. I don't sell anything. I focus on connecting with the people there and encouraging them on their journeys. When I'm not on stage, I like to go around talking to people. I ask them about their challenges. I listen. I share lots of hugs. Sometimes we joke around. I reconnect with some people I've met before, perhaps in another city at a different event a few years ago.

After the event I often get some invitations. _Let me show you around the city later. Come speak at this other event a few months from now. I'd love to get to know you better and share some cuddle time with you_. These invites rarely involve financial transactions. Instead they involve positive exchanges of friendship, support, and fun.

Is it so terrible to run a business in such a way that it makes less money but creates much more happiness, fulfillment, and fun?

Because I receive so much value from my work directly, I already have the kind of life that many people think they need money to purchase. Making a huge sum of money doesn't inspire me. I already have my expenses covered, and I already feel fulfilled. Now I'm more interested in how I can go even deeper on the fulfillment side, as opposed to racking up more income.

### What Matters to You?

I've met a lot of people on path #1, and they're often stressed or depressed. I usually don't like the energy in the room when I speak to groups of such people. It's a cold, calculating energy. People's hearts feel mostly closed. I usually speak to them about following the path with a heart in business. To many of them, what I have to share falls on deaf ears. They can't see how it will contribute to their bottom line. But then one or two people will sneak up to me afterwards, checking to make sure no one else is looking, and they'll tell me how much my talk meant to them and how it validated their own feelings. These are the path #2 people stuck in the path #1 world. I know from experience that they'll be so much happier if they shift their priorities.

After a very successful path #1 person gives a speech, they have people rushing to the back of the room, pulling out their wallets to put down hundreds of dollars on the exciting "time limited offer" they just pitched. After I give a talk, people often come up to me and give me very warm hugs. Their wallets stay in their pockets and purses.

I know that some people would rather have the results of path #1. That's fine. If that's what you desire, go for it. You have my full support.

I prefer the hugs. I love to enjoy the abundant warmth of real human connection in my life. It's very empowering and inspiring to me, more than any amount of financial compensation could provide. Having lots of loving support flowing through my life is what makes me want to get out of bed early each day and dive into my work. I love to create and share. I love giving form and expression to ideas. I love to encourage and uplift people, whether they pay me or not. I love that my business can help people who can't afford to buy anything — people that other businesses ignore and disenfranchise. Those same people, however, can still provide a really nice hug, or a fun invitation to connect, or some information that might be helpful to me. Or they can pay it forward and help create more transformation elsewhere in the world, which I also see as a major reward of doing business this way.

### Love as Income

Money is the primary fuel for a path #1 business.

Love is the primary fuel for a path #2 business.

Money is taxed. Love isn't. When I receive a hug, I get to keep 100% of it. I don't have to give some percentage of it away. That would be pretty funny if there was a love tax. Imagine if you received 1000 hugs this year, and you had file a hug return and remit 200 hugs to the IRS. To pay your tax bill, you'd go to their nearest office and hug 200 agents. That wouldn't be such a bad way to pay your taxes, would it? Imagine how fun it would be to work at the IRS if every day, thousands of people showed up for a hugfest!

When you generate a lot of love income, you don't need as much money. By being generous with others, you can attract a lot of generosity in return.

When I was in L.A. last weekend, I hosted a small meet-up at Cafe Gratitude in Venice. We all greeted each other with hugs and shared some lively and playful conversation together. At the end of the meal, as I was pulling out my wallet to pay for my food, one of the attendees stopped me and said, "Steve, let me pay for your meal." He also gave me a nice gift afterwards. Then most of us went for a long walk down the beach together, having some great conversations about our personal growth journeys. This kind of flow happens a lot in my life. Technically, some of the people at the meet-up were customers of my business; they had paid money to attend previous workshops of mine. But to me they're just friends. It would feel weird to label them as clients or customers.

### Business Without Walls

In my experience, path #1 will often do a better job of earning more money. In that world, persuading people to buy does actually work. But I find that path #2 does a better job of creating a flow of positive feelings, support, happiness, and fulfillment. It makes me feel like I'm part of a community that really cares about my success (both personally and professionally) and wants me to succeed. I don't feel like we're on opposite sides of the fence, with one person being inside the company and the other person being the outside customer. My business doesn't have a wall between the inside and the outside. All are welcome to participate with me on this journey, whether they have money to spend or not.

Actually I wouldn't say that's quite accurate. Whereas a path #1 business will repel people who can't buy, a path #2 business, to some degree, may repel people who can't love. For instance, if someone thinks they're entitled to personally interact with me in a harsh or overly critical way, I may avoid dealing with them. So whereas a path #1 business may ignore people with no money to spend, a path #2 business may ignore people with no willingness to share love.

In my business there are no sharp divisions between friends and customers. Those labels don't describe our true relationship. What we really seem to be for each other is fellow explorers on a shared journey of conscious growth. We're all at different stages on our journeys. Some are very far along their paths. Others are just starting out. What we all share is that passion for wanting to improve our lives, to align ourselves with the flow of inspiration, and to encourage the heck out of each other. We want to live lives that are beautiful to us. And we all need to lean on each other for support now and then.

### Breaking the Rules

A path #1 person could easily point out all the things I'm doing wrong in my business, and from a path #1 perspective, I'd have to concede failure in that sense. I'm definitely not earning as much money as I could be. There are many obvious optimizations I've failed to make.

But from a path #2 perspective, my business is an unequivocal success. It inspires and encourages people around the world every hour of every day. It keeps me feeling motivated, happy, and fulfilled. It enables me to enjoy a lifestyle that I love. It creates a flow of connections with truly beautiful people. It has even saved some lives. And it still successfully covers expenses and meets my material needs with grace and ease. It may not meet someone else's definition of success, but it surely satisfies mine.

Of course there are other paths and combinations of paths you could explore as well. I'm simplifying the ideas here to encourage you to consider which type of path inspires you.

Where is your path with a heart in the world of business? Which type of business would you prefer if you were the customer? What sort of abundance would you like to create?

Allow yourself to be a rule-breaker now and then. Don't feel you have to do what everyone else is doing. Roughly 80% of employees don't even like their jobs. Why would you want to join them? Learn to start trusting your intuition, even if you can't logically see how things will work out. Give your own path a chance to prove its merit.

## Conclusion: Being an Achiever

You become an achiever by achieving your goals. If you achieve your goals, you're an achiever. If you don't achieve your goals, you're not an achiever.

This is a simple, binary way to think about achievement. To achieve means to _reach, attain, or accomplis_ h. What you choose to reach, attain, or accomplish is up to you.

The difference between an achiever and a non-achiever is largely a matter of attention. Non-achievers give their goals little attention, if they bother to set goals at all. Achievers give their goals sufficient attention so as to reach, attain, or accomplish those goals.

Non-achievers reach, attain, and accomplish something other than their goals. Quite often they will reach, attain, and accomplish someone else's goals, without consciously making those goals their own.

To be an achiever, you must give your goals sufficient attention to reach, attain, or accomplish them. This means you must withdraw much of your attention from activities that are not directly leading to the accomplishment of your goals.

In a given week, where is your attention going? If you aren't habitually obsessing over your goals, then what are you obsessing over instead?

What do you normally put ahead of your goals?

Do you manage to watch some TV or movies?

Do you keep up with email, social media, and text messages?

Do you attend to the social obligations that your family, friends, and co-workers expect from you?

What exactly are you reaching, attaining, or accomplishing in a typical week? Are you making progress on your goals by giving them many hours of attention, or are you putting your attention elsewhere?

Achievers accept that in order to achieve their goals, they must withdraw attention from non-goal activities. Achievers also accept that these competing interests may resist being put on the back burner. The cable company may try to talk you out of canceling. Starbucks may send you a reminder email if you don't show up for too long. Your mother may nag you about something trivial. Achievers learn to decline these invitations for their attention by default. They keep putting their attention back upon their goals.

You must especially be on guard for new invitations and opportunities that come up while you're working on your goals. These hidden distractions can easily sidetrack you. If an opportunity aligns solidly with your goals, wonderful... take full advantage of it. But if it seems off-course with respect to your current goals, then stick to your path, and say no to the diversion. Generally speaking, it's wise to be less opportunistic, so you can be more of a conscious creator. You'll often make faster progress by creating your own opportunities instead of haphazardly chasing the random opportunities that others bring you.

### The Scarcity of Attention

Attention is a limited resource. The ability to consciously direct your attention with good energy and focus is even scarcer than the time you have available each day.

In any given week, there may be many interests competing for your attention: friends, family, co-workers, random strangers, corporations, organizations, government agencies, media, and more. And these days they have many different ways to reach you.

Internally you have some competition as well: your physiological needs, your emotional needs, your cravings, your habitual behaviors, etc. You need to eat, sleep, eliminate waste, bathe, and so on. These activities require some attention too.

Somewhere among those competing interests is another voice seeking your attention. This is your goal-oriented nature, your greater intelligence, your desire to live a life rich in meaning and purpose. This part of you craves achievement, and it won't be satisfied by anything less. It wants you to set your own goals and to reach, attain, and accomplish them.

How much of your attention are you giving to your achievement-oriented self?

If you starve this part of yourself for attention, it will punish you with low motivation, low self-worth, and a general scarcity of resources. But if you give it the attention it craves, you'll be rewarded with high energy, drive, passion, abundance, and a sense of purpose and contribution.

### Directing Your Attention

Fortunately you have the power to consciously direct your attention. You can let your attention float around aimlessly. You can focus your attention on something other than your goals, such as the goals other people have for you. Or you can focus your attention on your own goals.

To really move your life forward requires a major commitment of attention. If you want to improve your finances, you must put your attention on creating value for people, sharing that value, and intelligently monetizing that value. If you want to positively transform your relationships, then give that part of your life some intense and prolonged attention.

Unfortunately we have the tendency to remove attention from those areas of our lives that aren't doing so well. In the short term, it's wise to shift focus when we feel overwhelmed because temporary diversions can help relieve stress. But for deeper transformation to occur, we need to put lots of attention squarely on those areas that scream for improvement.

Setting goals requires focused attention. Planning out the action steps to achieve our goals requires even more attention. Executing those action steps takes more attention still. Achievers make such activities a priority in their lives. Non-achievers don't.

As you get older, keep raising your standards for what deserves your attention. Keep deleting and declining unnecessary fluff and obligations that might otherwise distract you from your magnificent goals. This will free up more attention to focus on your goals.

Have you noticed that when you put your full attention on a goal and obsess about it, you can really move it forward quickly, and you do eventually achieve it? But when you let your attention become diluted by too many competing interests, then progress on your goal slows to a crawl, and you eventually lose your connection to the goal altogether. Goals require significant and prolonged nurturing until they're achieved; otherwise they die.

### Say No to Almost Everything

_The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything._ – Warren Buffet

What does it mean to say no to almost everything?

For me this means being able to work full-time on my goals, without letting anything get in the way. It means keeping my schedule free of distracting entanglements. It means that even when I work on goals that seem to be put on my plate by someone else, I must either make those goals my own (and say yes to them), or I must reject them and not give them any attention. If I cannot make a goal my own in some way, it doesn't deserve my attention.

Even a goal like doing your taxes, you can make your own. You can commit to keeping your finances up to date and in good order. You can choose to pay the tax contribution for whatever reasons appeal to you. But if you can't make a goal your own, and you try to work on it anyway, then you're fighting yourself, and your progress will be stunted and inconsistent, which is an enormous waste of precious attention.

Don't dwell in the land of half-commitments. Put your full attention on your own goals, including goals you've made your own. If you have a job, then either make the commitment to do your very best at that job, or vacate the position and let someone else do it better.

### Put Your Goals First

Many achievers have jobs. Many achievers have families. Many achievers have competing commitments of various kinds. But achievers don't use their job, kids, and other commitments as excuses for not giving sufficient attention to their goals. For everyone who uses these to excuse their inability to set and achieve goals, there's a real achiever who started from a more challenging position and used those same elements to help motivate them to achieve their goals. Where non-achievers see excuses, achievers find drive.

A good way to put your goals first is to set high-quality, holistic goals to begin with. Don't squander your attention on shallow pursuits like making money for its own sake. Set goals that will help you grow, build your skills, create value for others, and do some good in the world. Ask yourself: _Does the goal seem meaningful and intelligent when you imagine yourself 20 years past its achievement?_

Deliberately put your attention on your goals. When you catch yourself standing in line, dwell upon your goals. Visualize yourself taking the action steps. Make this your default behavior instead of pulling out your phone to attend to something trivial.

Carefully plan out the action steps to achieve your goals. If you received my latest newsletter, you'll find an extensive how-to article about planning the achievement of your goals.

Clear time to work on your goals, and make this time sacred and inviolable. If you can only clear a small slice out of each week to work on your goals, then consider setting a goal to reach the point where you have the freedom to devote as many hours to your goals as your energy allows. What specific goals would you need to set and achieve to make that a reality? Imagine being able to devote most of your time every week to working on your most important goals, without anything getting in the way. Many people live this way, and they love it. Why not you?

### The Goal of Freedom

One of my past goals was to remove financial scarcity as a potential source of distraction, so I could spend most of my time each week working on my goals, whether they were income-generating or not. I want to center my life around personal growth pursuits and share what I learn as a legacy for others. I devoted a significant amount of attention to that goal over a period of years until it was achieved, and after that I could continue to maintain such a lifestyle with relative ease. I know that some people think it's unusual to have the freedom to immerse oneself in setting and achieving goals that may have nothing to do with making money or having a job, like traveling around Europe for a month or going vegan or exploring open relationships, but this kind of freedom is important enough to me that I made achieving this goal my top priority for years, sticking with it until it was achieved. It was challenging but definitely worthwhile.

I know many people who've achieved similar goals. Generally speaking, they tend to be the happiest people I know. Instead of taking orders from someone else as their daily routine, they put their attention on their goals, desires, and interests. They make it a priority to maintain this freedom. They don't use a job, kids, or the lack of money as excuses — just the opposite in fact. From these people I commonly hear stories of setbacks recalled with laughter and good cheer, not with fear or regret... like the time a couple of friends had to sleep in a park because they had no money for a place to stay. What non-achievers fear as roadblocks are merely stepping stones (and entertaining future stories!) for achievers.

If lifestyle freedom is important to you, then make that your primary aim. Put the attainment of this goal first in your life. Working to achieve this goal must become more important to you than keeping up with social media, pleasing your parents, watching your favorite TV shows, and other distractions. If anything else is truly getting in the way, then either drop it from your life, or find a way to turn it into an advantage that increases your drive and motivation.

It's easy for me to tell the difference between people who are committed to achieving lifestyle freedom vs. those who aren't committed. The ones who are committed are obsessed with the goal; they think of little else. I can't get them to shut up about it! They're constantly trying to figure out how to make it a reality. They work hard at it. They stumble and keep right on going. Usually the goal takes longer than they'd like. They often want it to take less than a year. It usually takes 2-5 years to reach the point of financial sustainability. The achievers make it obvious that they'll get there no matter how long it takes. For them the goal is mandatory, not optional.

The non-achievers talk about the goal as a distant fantasy. It's a wish, a dream, a possibility... something that would be nice to have if and when the planets align properly. Their action plan consists mainly of reading books about the Law of Attraction and listening to Abraham-Hicks recordings. They treat the goal as a casual desire but not a serious commitment. They disrespect the tremendous force of will that's required to achieve it. They virtually never get there.

If the goal of lifestyle freedom matters to you, then drop, cut, and burn whatever distracts you from it. Put your attention squarely on that goal, and obsess about it until you achieve it. If you need more time, cancel cable TV, close your social media accounts, and keep your phone powered off during daylight hours. Take breaks as you need them, but keep putting your attention back on this goal. If you do that, it's a safe bet that you'll achieve it.

You'll set yourself on the path to achieving lifestyle freedom when you stop putting other distractions ahead of that commitment.
* * *

## Bonus Chapter #1

People often ask me to help them assess what their odds of success will be in some new endeavor: What are my odds of succeeding as a self-published author? What are my odds of succeeding as a full-time blogger? What are my odds of succeeding as an entrepreneur? What are my odds of succeeding in creating a passive income stream?

On the surface it seems intelligent to assess your risks before embarking on a new venture. Unfortunately the way I've seen most people do this is rather silly.

Often such seekers will look for a certain statistic to help them assess the risk: What percentage of people who attempted a similar venture actually succeeded to the degree I'd like to experience? For example, if you want to earn $5000/month as a blogger, your question would be, "What percentage of bloggers who try to generate full-time income actually earn $5000/month or more?" Suppose it's on the order of 1%. You then interpret your odds of success as the same figure.

What does such a statistic have to do with your personal chance of success? Nothing at all.

To me this is like asking, "What are my odds of success in kung fu?" If you're committed to becoming a black belt in kung fu and are willing to put in the time and training, you'll probably do just fine. But if you've never studied martial arts and are looking for a fast and easy road to success, you'll be sorely disappointed.

In many fields you only see a 1% success ratio because the other 99% are merely taking up space. They're just dabblers, not serious contenders. You'll often see this 1% figure in fields with a low barrier to entry such as blogging, acting, or music. You'll find a small percentage of people who are really committed to mastery, but the rest have virtually no hope of notable success.

Pulling away from the pack in any field is largely a matter of choice. That choice is a commitment to mastery. But very few will make this choice because it requires hard work, resolve, patience, self-discipline, and a long time perspective. A would-be actor who gives up within the first year clearly hasn't made this choice. Nor has a blogger who quits after six months. If you want to succeed in a new field where you lack experience, you should be thinking of at least a 3-5 year commitment. If that scares you away, then save yourself the time you would have spent dabbling, and don't bother.

When you start out in a brand new field with no experience, you're going to suck... most likely really suck. But the worst part is you won't even recognize how truly pathetic you are. There you are, setting off on a new venture, brimming with confidence, and you're completely incompetent and don't even know it.

So what happens? You're going to screw up. If you're lucky your results will just be bad instead of painfully bad. But screwing up is perfectly OK. That's supposed to happen. Screwing up is how you learn. Every mistake helps you make new distinctions and increase your skill.

Consider a martial arts student who spars for the very first time. The student lacks timing, speed, coordination, balance, endurance, and flexibility... not to mention confidence. Sparring involves trying to avoid banging knees with your opponent. But everyone starts out this way. Even the most accomplished black belts began as white belts.

As you build skill, which normally takes years to achieve competency in any worthwhile field, you move out of the 99% and into the 1%. That 99% will continue churning away with high turnover. Dabblers will enter the field, try it for six months, and give up after concluding it's too hard. A challenging field is good though because it means your long-term investment in skill-building will mean something, like a black belt. It wouldn't be much of an accomplishment if it was too easy.

Imagine starting as a white belt in kung fu with no previous martial arts experience. You go to your instructor and say, "I want to compete in sparring tournaments at the black belt level." Your instructor will probably laugh at you. If you were to spar a halfway decent black belt, you'd take a beating every single time. If you spar 100 matches, you'll lose 100 matches. This is where the dabblers conclude that it's impossible for them to succeed in kung fu. Those who are committed, however, know that they have a long road of skill-building ahead of them. Becoming a black belt is a choice, albeit certainly not an easy one.

What's unfair about easy-entry fields like blogging, acting, or music is that white belts and black belts are thrown into the same pool. White belts are forced to compete against black belts who've been honing their skills for years. It's totally unfair. But that unfairness is what provides the challenge and makes it fun.

When you start out as a white belt in an unfair playing field, you get creamed. The black belts beat you again and again. No matter what you do, nothing seems to work. But when you're committed, you know that early success isn't to be expected. This is the training phase. Your goal is to survive and to learn, not to win. That's where you have the advantage because as a white belt, you can develop your skills much faster than a black belt.

So you train. And train. And train. And if you stick with it long enough, eventually you'll find yourself a black belt in your field. At that level everything becomes easier because your skills have risen to the challenge. Consequently, you're able to achieve and maintain positive results that are virtually impossible for those who are just now entering the field. Then you'll have to figure out what to say when people begin asking you, "What are the odds of becoming a black belt?"

Your odds of success in your field of choice won't be found in any statistics. Success is a choice, not a coin flip. You succeed by deciding what you want, knowing why you want it, and committing to it.

## Bonus Chapter #2

When you say something like this:

_I wish I could write better, but my writing skills aren't very good._

... many intelligent, self-directed people are actually hearing this:

_I wish I could write better, but I'm too lazy and undisciplined to do anything about it. I also have low self-esteem, which prevents me from believing I can correct this deficiency. You should probably avoid me and spend your time with someone more worthy._

As an adult you're responsible for your own education. If you find it deficient in some area, educate yourself into proficiency.

Many people find their early education lacking when they reach adulthood. No one really knows what knowledge and skills will be important to you later in life. So they guess and they often guess wrong.

My early education was amazing in core subjects like English, math, science, and U.S. and European history. It also did a good job of teaching service to others, self-discipline, and character building. I'm lucky to have attended 12 years of private school, where the standards and quality of instruction were significantly higher than what my public school counterparts experienced. I don't feel so lucky about all the religious nonsense that was drummed into me, but the secular subjects were taught in top-notch fashion.

As good as it was, my formal education was seriously lacking in other areas like computer programming, psychology, interpersonal communication, public speaking, how to set and achieve goals, how to build courage, and how to build and run a successful business.

Much of the technology I use today didn't exist when I was in school. The first time I used the Internet was when I started college, and that was in the pre-Web days. I certainly didn't learn how to make a website or build an Internet business while I was in school.

In order to achieve my goals in life, I had to fill in many gaps in my formal education. This required a disciplined approach to self education. To this day I maintain this same discipline. I regularly identify gaps in my knowledge and skills that could hold me back from achieving my goals. Then I set educational goals to fill in those gaps, and I work step by step to achieve those goals. Usually this involves a combination of reading, connecting with experts and learning from them, and my own experimentation.

Never whine about your lack of skills or your weak education. Never use a lack of know-how as an excuse for not being able to achieve a goal. That's low class behavior, and it surely won't help. It's also a great way to repel successful people from your life. One of my friends refers to such irresponsible loser types as _plankton_. That's not a particularly compassionate label, but nor is "I don't know how" a particularly good reason for failure.

You may feel deficient in some areas. That's normal. If you feel your schooling didn't do a very good job, that's a shame, but it is what it is.

If you don't know how, learn how. Use that fancy brain that learned how to walk, talk, and read. It's still capable of further learning, is it not? Of course it is!

If you're going to get anywhere in life, you must assume 100% responsibility for your ongoing education. Maybe your parents and the school system got you off to a good start. Maybe they didn't. Whatever happened in that regard, the past is the past. You must now look to the future. Whatever you didn't learn back then, you can start learning today. A few years from now, you can have the equivalent of a Ph.D in a subject you never studied before. You can master a new language. You can become an expert on a subject in which you're merely a novice today.

Using "I don't know how" as an excuse is truly pathetic today. In the information age where you can begin searching for such answers in seconds, this tired excuse only makes you look foolish, lazy, and unworthy of success. Even young children wouldn't be stopped by such a phony obstacle.

The next time you feel inclined to say "I don't know how," say instead, "I'm learning how." At least have the sense to Google "how to ___." The information you need to get started is already at your fingertips.

Think about an educational deficiency you'd like to correct, and set a new educational goal right now. What exactly do you wish to learn, and how soon? Then plan out some of the steps you'll need to take. Identify books to read, courses to take, and experts to talk to. Now get to work and start learning. Start by picking one book, buying it, and reading the first chapter. No more feeble excuses!

## Bonus Chapter #3

In personal development terms, **calibration** is the process of progressively refining your thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors until you shift your equilibrium to the point where you can consistently achieve the results you desire. Just as you might calibrate a scientific instrument to provide consistently accurate measurements, you can calibrate your skills to generate consistently good results.

This is a majorly long bonus chapter. At about 8,600 words, I'm pretty sure this is the longest bonus chapter I've ever written. The length is because my goal is to share one of the most comprehensive chapters ever written on this topic. If you actually read the whole thing, you should gain many helpful insights from it. There are many subtle ideas here. If you don't have time to read it now, feel free to save it for later. It goes good with peppermint tea. :)

### Calibration for Long-term Success

When you begin any new activity or endeavor, initially you won't be calibrated for success, so you'll experience mostly failure. However, if you keep moving forward with a clear goal in mind, and if you progressively adjust your thinking and actions along the way, you'll eventually calibrate yourself to get the results you want. This calibration only occurs from directly applying a skill under real-world conditions, not by reading about it.

When you're in the pre-calibration period, achieving even a small degree of success in a new field requires a massive, all-out effort. Post-calibration, success is practically on auto-pilot; you can consistently achieve the results you want with minimal effort.

### Calibration Examples

It's easiest to understand calibration by way of example, so here are some detailed examples to consider:

**Social Dynamics, Making Friends, and Dating**

In the field of social dynamics, calibration is the process of learning how to meet new people, initiate conversations, keep conversations going, make new friends, get dates (second meetings), and basically achieve positive social interactions.

How you calibrate your social skills will depend on your personal goals for this area. A salesperson may focus on learning how to build rapport, generate interest, close sales, and construct a database of quality contacts. A professional speaker may learn how to get attention, arouse emotion, generate laughter, and inspire people to action. A pick-up artist may study how to initiate conversations, demonstrate value, build attraction, and achieve successful closes (a close could be getting a phone number, a date, or a sexual encounter).

In high school I was comfortable within certain social circles, but I was still more introverted than I wanted to be. So when I started at college, I decided to remake myself into a more extroverted person. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I just dove in and attempted to be as social as possible. I accepted any and all opportunities for social interaction. If anyone invited me to go out, I always said yes. I made a huge commitment to elevate this part of my life, and I stuck with it for my entire freshman year.

This strategy actually worked. I hadn't read any books on social skills at the time, but I quickly calibrated my social skills via trial and error.

Within a few weeks, I'd made dozens of new friends, and I was going to parties every week. If I ever wanted to hang out and do something fun, I could always find someone willing. Not including sleep time, I'm sure I spent more time in other people's dorm rooms than my own. I was always going out — for parties, poker games, volleyball, ping pong, or just for pizza. I created an absolutely amazing social life and packed more fun into each month than I used to enjoy in a year. I practically became like a different person.

What I found interesting was that in the beginning, it seemed like I was always the one to initiate new connections, but once I felt comfortable doing that, additional connections began flowing into my life almost effortlessly. During my first week at college, I noticed a party across the hall and asked if I could join in the fun (and got a quick yes). After that I was always getting invitations to parties and virtually never had to ask. During the first few months, I initiated a lot of social experiences (Wanna join me for dinner at the dining commons? Wanna grab a slice? Wanna get a poker game together?). But eventually I had so many invites coming to me passively that I didn't have to initiate as much.

Looking back, I probably went way overboard. The good news was that I really took control of this area of my life. By throwing myself into it with a passion, I quickly became comfortable meeting new people, and I learned to make friends easily. The bad news was that I totally blew off my studies and was flunking out of school. In retrospect it wasn't such a bad trade off though. I got expelled after my third semester, but the social calibration I gained during that time has served me well ever since. I went to a different school later and still earned my college degrees, but I think the social calibration has proven more valuable in the long run. I don't feel intimidated in new social situations, and it's normally easy for me to make new friends and connect with people.

When Erin and I moved to Las Vegas in 2004, we didn't know anyone in the city. We went from having a lot of friends in L.A. to having zero local friends in Vegas. It was just the two of us and our kids in a big city of strangers. But part of the reason I was happy to move to a new city was that I knew I could make new friends easily. Sure enough, it wasn't long before I had plenty of great local friends. The bigger challenge for me has been feeling over-socialized at times. There have been some weeks where I'd have preferred more alone time.

This social calibration has benefited me tremendously in business. I can go to a mixer or conference where I don't know anyone, and I have an easy time making new friends and contacts. I remember when I first started attending the Game Developer's Conference many years ago, most of the attendees seemed shy and socially awkward. They'd mostly keep to themselves or cling to their co-workers, especially at meal times. Meanwhile, I was going around making new friends, which just felt natural to me. Some of those chance encounters led to new opportunities and deals that helped grow my business. It was also nice to have more friends with similar interests.

One year at that conference, I hung out so late that the shuttles had stopped running. It was pouring rain outside, but a new friend offered me a ride back to my hotel. In fact, something similar happened at a different conference this year. It's nice to know that my social calibration can keep me out of the rain when necessary. :)

To some people this may not sound like a big deal. Many people develop such skills in high school or younger. But for a shy kid like me who went to an all boys Catholic high school, it was indeed a big deal.

Although I use my social skills mainly to make friends and business contacts, you can use a similar process to develop dating and relationship skills. For example, if you want to go on more dates, you can calibrate your skills to get good at opening conversations with strangers, develop fun and interesting conversations, build attraction, and at least close with a phone number. There are lots of people teaching this stuff online now, with varying degrees of credibility (and sanity), but the most important thing is to just dive in and start experimenting. You'll experience some rejection at first, but if you just keep learning and adapting, your skills will calibrate to the point where you're able to get consistently good results.

If you happen to be suffering from loneliness, most likely it's because you never took the time to adequately calibrate your social skills. Consequently, you may avoid making new friends because you don't understand the social nuances of how to do it. You probably feel socially awkward and suffer from an amplified fear of rejection. The solution is to focus on a different goal first. You need to calibrate your social skills before you can apply them. Go out and socialize for the sake of learning how to socialize. Don't worry about whether or not you make any new friends. Once your social skills are calibrated, which may take a few months, then you can focus on building the kinds of friendships you desire, and it will be much easier for you. Aim to get good first. Then aim to get results.

**Martial Arts**

If you study martial arts and begin learning to spar, you're going to be pretty bad at it initially. You'll have no sense of timing, and you won't grasp the rhythm of a sparring match. You'll probably bang knees with your opponent a lot. All the newbies do that.

For the most part, you can expect to look and feel like a total dork. The first time I sparred, which was more than 10 years ago, I was laughing during the match, mostly at how awkward I felt. I'm sure I looked like a total dork.

This is to be expected. You can try to play it cool, but the truth is that the first few times you attempt any new sport, you're virtually guaranteed to look and feel like a dork. This is because your mind and body aren't calibrated to that sport.

Within a few months of regular training, your sparring should be fairly well-calibrated for an intermediate level of skill. At the very least, you won't embarrass yourself. You'll have sparred many different opponents, and you'll have a good sense of what to expect. You'll be able to use different moves successfully, land punches and kicks, and pull off the occasional surprise. I remember how cool it was when I stripped an opponent's helmet off with an axe kick during a sparring match. :)

While sparring at the beginner level feels awkward and intimidating, once you gain a little competence, it becomes a fun challenge. At this point the subtleties of the skill begin to reveal themselves. Once your basic sparring moves and tactics are calibrated, you can begin to calibrate your strategic decisions, and this is where the richness of sparring really opens up. The game becomes less physical and more mental. Some would even say it becomes spiritual at a certain point.

Calibrating to a particular sport is a lot like learning to ride a bicycle. Even if you don't train for a while, the mental calibration remains, and you can easily pick it up again later.

I trained for about three years in Tae Kwon Do in the late 90s with a mix of group classes and private lessons. Over time I got pretty good at sparring and really enjoyed it. I moved away from the studio and stopped training, but several years later, I started training in a different martial art, Kempo, starting as a white belt. Kempo is geared toward self-defense, while TKD is more sporty. Fortunately, all the moves that are legal in TKD are also legal in Kempo, and Kempo allows you to do some things that aren't legal in TKD, such as punching to the face. (Protective gear is worn during sparring, but there's still some risk. I suffered a bruised rib and a split lip on different occasions.)

Even though I'd lost most of my flexibility, the first time I sparred in Kempo, I did amazingly well, certainly far beyond the white belt level. From my first Kempo sparring class, I was able to hold my own against one of the black belts in the studio. I was sparring TKD-style, not Kempo-style, but that actually gave me an advantage because the other students weren't calibrated to that style. TKD is mostly kicking, but Kempo uses more hand techniques. My preference for kicks surprised the other students because they would hover just outside of punching range, but they were still within my TKD-calibrated kicking range, so I hammered them with kicking combos until they figured out they needed to back up. This threw them off mentally, and it took months for many of them to adapt to my style. Of course, it also took me a while to get used to having punches thrown at my head. :)

After a year of training in Kempo, I was fairly well-calibrated to that style, but I had to unlearn some of my TKD habits that were ineffective in Kempo. I had to work on my speed, defensive maneuvers, and incorporating punches, strikes, and backfists into my sparring.

The point is that once you gain calibration at a particular skill set, you may very well lock in that skill for life. I feel as if basic competence in sparring is so ingrained in me that even if I didn't spar again for 20 years, I'd be able to quickly pick it up again. I can actually feel that calibration in my body.

**Blogging**

Since blogging is still a fairly new medium, it usually takes new bloggers a while to properly calibrate. The failure rate is pretty high for newbies because most of them give up before they calibrate for success. I'd say you need to write at least 200-300 posts before you get a decent calibration going, and that assumes you're making a solid _commitment_ to getting better. For some people it will require more than 500 posts to achieve reasonable calibration, especially if they aren't very good writers. There's just a lot to learn.

In particular, there's a huge gap between writing posts that people read and forget vs. writing posts that people will remember well enough that they're still referring their friends, family members, and co-workers to read a year later. One of the key calibrations for long-term blogging success is to learn how to write the latter type of post; that's how you get your archives working for you, and your traffic can still grow even when you aren't posting anything.

For example, of the top 10 articles on my website that generate the most referrals, only one was written this year. Articles I wrote years ago continue to attract new readers today. However, it took me a long time to learn to write the kinds of articles that would produce such results. I've publicly shared how I do this, and that's been helpful for some people, but it still takes time for new bloggers to "get it" to the point where they can apply it.

Not long ago I was at a party, chatting with a woman who got started blogging after attending a blogging workshop I did a couple years ago. She was telling me some of the mistakes she made with her blog during that time, all of which were mistakes I explicitly said to avoid during the workshop. For example, she wrote lots of timely content instead of timeless content, so she felt like she was on an endless treadmill, and her archives were largely worthless. She remembered that I said to avoid those mistakes too, but that wasn't enough to stop her from making them. Despite having the opportunity to learn from my experience and avoid the pitfalls I described, she still had to go out and make those mistakes in order to refine her own calibration. I've seen countless bloggers make the same mistakes. They seek my advice, I tell them what to do and what not to do and why, and they do exactly what I tell them not to do and then wonder why it isn't working. Oy vey! This is okay though, as long as they keep plugging ahead and learn from those mistakes. We human beings aren't known to be the best listeners in the galaxy. We learn much better by doing something than by reading about it.

Different bloggers will naturally calibrate themselves toward different goals. For example, I wanted to calibrate my blogging skills to the goal of having a deep, long-term impact on my readers. I want to change people's lives for the better. This is partly why I do things differently than most bloggers. I blow off many practices that other pro bloggers defend as sacred. My articles tend to be very long and detailed. I typically avoid posting shallow short info-crack pieces. I post less frequently, sometimes going a week or more with no fresh content. I largely ignore current events. I don't often link to other blogs. This is all because I'm calibrating my skills toward a certain type of result. Those popular strategies just aren't very helpful at achieving the results I desire, so I don't use them. If you want this to become yet another info-crack blog, get used to disappointment. I want to change your life, not provide you with a five-minute distraction.

So be careful when taking advice from others. If you're calibrating toward a different goal than they are, their advice may hurt you more than help you. It's best to learn from people who've already achieved a similar calibration to what you want to achieve. For example, if you just want to make as much money as possible and don't care how you get it, then you probably wouldn't want to model my blogging methods because I've calibrated myself toward a different goal. But you might want to follow those bloggers who proudly proclaim they're in it for the money — there are plenty to select from. On the other hand, if you believe you're here for a reason and that blogging could potentially become a sustainable expression of your life purpose, then you'd probably benefit greatly by studying my style, since I've been getting positive results in this area for years. The point is that if you decide to model someone, be sure you're modeling someone with compatible goals (and thus a compatible calibration).

One thing I've learned from 4+ years of blogging is that it really isn't that hard in principle to become a successful blogger; however, it's very hard in practice. Newbies' minds are typically filled with many false notions. In some ways they need to unload more useless ideas than they need to absorb useful ideas. I've raped quite a few pro blogging sacred cows, yet my blog is still going strong.

There are a lot of blogging success factors that are somewhat counter-intuitive. You won't realize this if you just read sites about blogging because they'll rarely write about these factors. For the most part, it's not that anyone is intentionally withholding information. The ideas are simply too subtle for most bloggers to be consciously aware of them. Many calibration issues are like this — they're just too subtle to appear on any "top 10" or "how to" lists. Sometimes people who succeed can't document all the specific reasons they've succeeded. They can't consciously unearth every detail of their unconscious calibration. There are some things I do as a successful blogger that I've never seen anyone write or speak about publicly, myself included. Some of the concepts are so subtle or intricate that even if I explained them in detail, nobody but other successful pro bloggers would even understand what I'm talking about, and some people would accuse me of lying.

Yesterday another blogger emailed me a link to a post he wrote, explaining why he personally dislikes my writing style. This is a blogger who says he gets significantly less traffic than I do. His main criticism is that I state my opinions too directly, as if they're facts. This is a perfectly valid criticism of course; I confess to doing this liberally. The attitude of that blogger was that this is a personal defect I should correct. However, what he probably doesn't realize is that this is a trait I developed over time as part of my calibration process for blogging success. I'm sure his advice is well-meaning, but I know that if I take his advice, my results will actually decline. I can say he's wrong and that I'm right because I've learned which approach works best for me via trial and error. As a generalization, I know that making strong statements works better than making weak statements.

This is one of many subtle calibration refinements I learned from years of blogging. I discovered that prefacing every opinion with phrases like "I think..." or "I feel..." or "In my opinion..." leads to the creation of wimpy content. So this was actually a personal defect I learned to correct, and I intentionally make strong statements. My readers aren't stupid. They know that since this is my website, such statements represent my thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. When I offer up my thoughts directly, as opposed to watering them down with qualifiers, people are challenged to agree or disagree with me. This helps people question their beliefs, strengthening some while weakening others. This is what I like to see.

Another benefit to making strong statements is that other bloggers, including the one critical of my posting style, will take the time to write posts just to disagree with me, thereby sending traffic to my website and actively helping me achieve my goals. Yet because their content is usually wimpier, they don't benefit equally from this same mechanism. There are a lot of subtle interactions going on here, and I'm only offering a cursory overview here, but the net effect is that by posting strong statements, I enjoy more blogging success, but I also attract more criticism. However, the criticism actually benefits me. This is pretty counterintuitive, isn't it?

Part of the reason I've been so successful as a blogger is that people remember what I've written, especially if they disagree with it. If you look at the comments written about my work throughout the blogosphere, you'll find that most people have very polarized opinions about my work. Some people love my work. Some absolutely despise it. Very few are neutral. However, love it or hate it, these same people keep discussing my work, constantly spreading the word to those who don't know about me. Such controversy makes people curious and brings new readers to my website every day. Isn't this just insidious? The more people dislike me, the more they actively go out and market my work to others, and the more they help me achieve my goal of helping people grow. This is so effective that I can even tell such people how they're helping me, and they'll keep right on doing it.

I could certainly write more agreeable posts that few people would find objectionable. I could apologize for every opinion of mine that isn't mainstream. But that's totally the wrong calibration for my goals, not to mention for my personality. It's way too cowardly. I don't want to calibrate as a wimpy blogger that nobody can find fault with. It's more effective to calibrate as a blogger who challenges people and makes a difference, even if it sends some people running the other way (to go out and promote my work instead of reading it themselves).

Uncalibrated newbie bloggers often blog scared. They try to please everyone and avoid taking risks. Consequently, they write posts that are easily forgotten and which will generate few referrals. Then some new upstart blogger comes along with a better calibration, breaks all the newbie rules, and surges ahead in traffic. And the other newbies think it's luck. It's not luck though. A good example is the blog Stuff White People Like. I first happened upon it shortly after it launched, and I knew it would become successful. I could see it had a great calibration for building traffic quickly — it was only a matter of time before it took off. The posts were politically incorrect to the max, but they were witty and memorable. Sure enough, that blog became a hit and even led to a book deal. If this sort of success surprises you as a blogger, it means your calibration is off. If your calibration is solid, you should be able to browse through the early posts on that blog and NOT be surprised by its success. Overall, if you're often surprised by the success of others in your field, it means your calibration isn't very good yet. As your own calibration matures, you'll get better at being able to predict successes.

One of the keys to success in any field, especially blogging, is to accept that there are good reasons the successful people are succeeding, and it has nothing to do with luck. If you see someone who's getting better results than you, even if it's someone with less experience who started after you, chances are they have a more accurate calibration than you. You can rail against that, feel jealous, and call them names, but it's better to take a step back, eat your humble pie, and learn from such people if you can. I've learned some pretty cool things from bloggers who started long after I did. Although my current calibration is obviously working, I know I can always improve, and I never want to think of myself as such as expert that I can't keep learning and growing.

One of the worst things you can do in blogging is to write in such a manner that will offend no one. If you don't offend or challenge anyone, you're probably writing content that isn't very memorable or meaningful. If you write what people expect, their minds won't store it. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any highly successful bloggers that don't have multiple negative rants written about them somewhere. All of them piss people off. Most of them aren't intentionally trying to upset people. It's just that upsetting people seems to be a natural consequence of the calibration required for blogging success.

This isn't unique to blogging either. Think of any successful media personality, and I'm sure you can find some rants about them with a quick online search. In fact, the biggest stars will have tons of rants. Consider Tom Cruise for instance.

Some people might assume this sort of controversy is a side-effect of success, like perhaps that celebrity got a big head after enjoying some success (causing people to turn against him/her), or maybe the rants appeared as a side effect of the celebrity's popularity (like it's just a numbers game). I'd say that's the wrong way to look at this. It's more likely that generating controversy was part of the celebrity's early calibration process. If anything, the ability to handle controversy probably helped them become a celebrity in the first place.

Some of the first articles I ever wrote, even before I launched StevePavlina.com, generated controversy that helped turn them into fast hits. An example was the article Do It Now, which I wrote in 2000. Lots of people love that article, but some people find it disturbing and feel compelled to rant about it (even eight years after it was first posted online), perhaps because it makes them realize just how unproductive they are compared to what they could be achieving if they really made an all-out effort. I've included the article in the next bonus chapter of this book, in case you're curious to read it.

Unfortunately, it took me years to figure out why that article became a hit and to learn how to reproduce the kind of impact it had. It also took me a long time to realize that the negative backlash generated by that article was actually helping me grow my readership... and that I should accept and embrace such critical feedback rather than worry about it. What I initially interpreted as negative feedback (i.e. I did something wrong) was actually positive feedback (I did something right). Interpreting emails from people saying "you are wrong" as evidence that you did something right is again pretty counterintuitive, isn't it?

This is a key point of calibration. When you're building a new skill, you have to look at the big picture in terms of the results you're getting. You might do something that seems to generate immediate negative feedback from people, but when you step back and look at the big picture, you may see that the overall feedback is overwhelmingly positive. This happens a lot in blogging, where a reader may chew you out for something you wrote, and then six months later, they're singing your praises for helping them achieve a breakthrough they never thought possible. And even if they aren't singing your praises, they're out there telling people why they hate you, thereby making people curious and sending you more traffic.

A similar effect also happens in social dynamics, where the "bad guys" can actually attract more success because they have so many detractors unwittingly doing their marketing for them.

### Newbie Fear

Perhaps the toughest part of calibration is dealing with newbie fear. This is the fear of failure or rejection we experience when learning a new skill. Initially we suck, we know full well that we suck, and we really don't want to deal with the embarrassment and humiliation of other people witnessing just how badly we suck. This is most distressing with skills that must be calibrated in public, such as dating skills and public speaking.

There are some ways to mitigate newbie fear. One of the best ways is to connect with other newbies and go through the initial training together. When you look up to experts who are already well-calibrated, it's easy to become intimidated and psyche yourself out. You'll tend to hold yourself to an unreasonable standard of performance. But if you befriend and hang out with other newbies, the learning process can be a lot more fun. It's comforting to have buddies that suck just as badly as you do. You can blow off steam together, share your latest insights, and poke fun at each other as you learn. "Misery loves company" isn't such a bad idea in this case.

The key is to associate with newbies who are _committed_ to learning and growing. If you hang out with flakes, it probably won't help you much. Try to identify other newbies that you predict are likely to stick with it and succeed, and hang out with them if you can. This will help increase your commitment without making you feel too intimidated.

When I first started learning about blogging, I enjoyed connecting with other newbie bloggers. In the old days (old as in four years ago), we swapped links with each other, shared advice, and found ways to help each other gain traffic. Many of those people gave up and quit of course, but a few are doing very well today. It's cool to watch your newbie friends improve their calibration right along with you, even though everyone improves at different rates.

Ultimately, you'll only get so much mileage out of trying to reduce newbie fear. The fastest way to overcome it is to simply charge straight at it. Just accept that you'll suck, that some embarrassment will happen, and that the only way out is through. This is especially important for building good social skills.

You'll only get so far by sitting at home reading, listening to audio programs, and watching videos. Such educational aids can help, but they can never substitute for real-world experience. Use them as supplemental materials to refine your in-field experimentation. If you want to become a successful blogger, start blogging immediately. If you want to build an online business, get some kind of website online right away. If you want to improve your social skills, go outside and meet people tonight. Yes, you're going to suck at first. But if you push through the newbie fear and do it anyway, the fear will subside, and you'll begin to calibrate your skills very quickly.

Even if you read all the books in your field, you will still suck on your first in-field experience. You won't even be able to apply what's in those books. So get out in the field and start calibrating.

Get that first crappy "Hello, World" blog post under your belt. Let out that inane "Hey, baby. What's your sign?" pick-up line. Bang shins with your sparring partner as you scream, "Ouch!"

### Newbie Pride

If you're a newbie at something, and you're feeling hesitant to go after some live in-field experience, realize that this is very normal. Many newbies resist being newbies, but this resistance only makes them more nervous. So realize that a big part of the problem is your own resistance to being a newbie. You'll get into the field sooner if you can accept this phase of your learning curve.

My advice for turning this around is to fully embrace your newbieness. Don the badge of Newbie Pride. Instead of fearing that you'll look like a total dork, take this the other way. Embrace and even exaggerate your dorkiness. Don't try to resist it. Blow it up even larger.

In martial arts classes, there's no hiding your newbie status. You wear a white belt, so everyone knows you're a beginner. This actually makes it easier because you know people don't expect much of you. The lower belts may be nervous about sparring, but since they know that nobody expects much of them, most are able to get out on the mat and spar without undue hesitation.

However, in other fields, people don't wear white belts. This has positive and negative side-effects.

In online business, for example, many newbies try to hide their newbieness. I made this mistake when I started my first business. I pretended to be an experienced business person when I just started. I talked about my staff even when I was the only person in the business. That was totally unnecessary, not to mention really dumb. When I started blogging, however, I didn't try to hide my newbieness. I embraced that dorky beginner phase and had fun with it. And because of that, more experienced bloggers reached out to help me. Back then, "more experienced" meant they started blogging a month before I did. :)

I still maintain this attitude today. If I'm new at something, I'll openly share my newbie dorkiness and hesitation. It doesn't embarrass me to share my weaknesses. On the contrary, it actually invites a lot of help and advice from non-newbies who want to help me calibrate.

### The Master Newbie Pick-up Artist

Suppose you're a guy who wants to learn how to pick up women at night clubs, but you're terrified of going out, and you can't imagine walking up to a woman and delivering an opener. Realize that so much of your resistance is because you're trying to appear cooler and more experienced than you really are. Do you realize this is totally unnecessary? It's better to embrace your newbieness and use it to your advantage.

If I were trying to develop this particular skill, here's what I'd do. I'd go up to women and tell them the plain and simple truth. I've never actually done this, so take my advice with a grain of salt because this isn't a calibration I've bothered to develop, but I'll bet you it would work well at initiating fun conversations.

I'd walk up to a group of women with a big smile on my face. I'd get their attention and say to them, "Hey guys, I'm currently learning how to meet women at night clubs, but I'm a total newbie at this. Would you mind if I practice on you just for fun for a couple minutes? And would you give me some honest feedback afterwards?"

I suspect you'll probably get a laugh if you do this, and if you don't, then the women aren't likely worth talking to anyway, so you can quickly disqualify them as boring or humorless. You've taken the pressure off by initiating a "practice session," so it doesn't even matter what you say next. Your next line could even be, "Okay what do you think of this? [Switch to deep voice] Hey, baby. What's your sign?" That would probably get another laugh, but even a groan isn't bad. You can keep saying other funny lines. You could also kick off a meta conversation about meeting women at night clubs, such as by asking a question like, "Okay, after I do the opener, what should I talk about next? Would this be a good time to tell you a quick story to demonstrate that I'm a cool guy? Should I tell you about the time I...?" The context is that you're just practicing, but in truth you've already opened the group.

This is an untested suggestion of course, so you'll have to try it yourself to see if it works for you. The general idea is not to hide your newbieness. It's perfectly okay to be a newbie and even to admit it to people. When you're a newbie, your initial goal is to calibrate your skills, not to achieve a particular result. So take the pressure off as to whether or not you succeed or fail. You can go for results after you've calibrated your skills.

If you pretend to be an expert when you're not, you'll just stress yourself out. Wear the badge of Newbie Pride.

Incidentally, if you actually try this, please let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear how people react to it. I think this could work for men and women alike.

In fact, if a woman came up and used this opener on me, I'd probably laugh and say, "Sure, let's practice." I'd be pretty impressed by a woman who used such a line because it demonstrates a high level of awareness with a certain playfulness. I'd probably fall in love on the spot. :)

Great... now I've gotten myself all riled up to the point where I totally want to go to a night club and try this for real just to see what happens. :)

### The Skill of Calibration

Being able to calibrate yourself to a new skill set is a skill in itself. The more skills you learn, the faster you'll be able to achieve competence in each new skill you attempt.

One thing that happens as you calibrate to many different skills is that you become more comfortable being a newbie in general. Once you've gone through the newbie phase enough times, it ceases to bother you so much. You can start from rock bottom in a new field and be mostly okay with how badly you suck. You get used to it, and you know you'll eventually get better. This makes it easier to put in the time as a newbie, so you can quickly progress to intermediate. For me the newbie phase is often the most fun and exciting because I learn the fastest during this time.

Another benefit of having lots of calibration experience is that you'll be less intimidated by the experts. You'll accept that they fine-tuned their calibration over many years. This will help you develop the patience necessary to keep hacking away in order to build long-term competence.

When I became a raw foodist earlier this year, I spent a lot of time communicating with successful long-term raw foodists. Initially, the information I gained was just overwhelming. I was offered thousands of pages of text to read (books, e-books, articles), plus audio, video, and live lectures to attend. There were some weeks where learning this skill practically became my full-time job. I had to unlearn many bad habits that were holding me back, not to mention breaking a lifelong addiction to cooked food. This was a total lifestyle overhaul, not just a minor diet change.

After months of study and practice, I eventually calibrated myself to being a successful raw foodist, well enough that I felt I could maintain it on autopilot. I'd probably label myself an advanced intermediate at this point. I have a solid grasp of the fundamentals, cooked foods are no longer appealing to me, I feel fantastic, and I love the foods I eat. As part of this re-calibration to raw foods, my taste buds have shifted a lot. I actually crave fresh greens now. I feel mildly deprived if I don't eat at least a pound of greens each day. Now that I've achieved a decent calibration, maintaining this lifestyle is pretty much a no-brainer for me. But during the first few months, I had to invest a lot of thought and effort into it.

### Immersion and Experimentation

When learning new skills, my preference is to get through the newbie phase as quickly as possible, so I can start enjoying some good results. In order to accomplish this, I'll often put other areas of my life on hold, so I can devote the bulk of my time to building competence in the new skill. I don't always do this, but if the skill is important to me, I prefer the strategy of total immersion instead of working on it a little bit each week.

The danger of being stuck in beginner mode for too long is that your early motivation may fade, and more self-discipline will be required to keep going. Many new bloggers give up within the first few months, well before they're getting any results. It takes them too long to calibrate their skills to what is required for success in blogging, so they never make it past the beginner phase. After a few months, they still haven't calibrated, so they continue to make the sorts of mistakes that a well-calibrated blogger could spot within seconds. For example, they write boring posts that nobody cares to read, or they write time-bound posts that will be worthless a year later. It takes too much discipline for them to keep going with no results to show for it, so they give up. Then they repeat the same process again in a different field. Hopefully by now you can clearly see that this is a loser strategy.

On the other hand, I've seen bloggers who've built a lot of traffic very quickly, earning $1000+ per month within a few months after they started. They threw themselves wholeheartedly into learning everything they could about blogging, and they were willing to be open-minded and flexible. They learned what worked for them and did more of it. They learned what didn't work and stopped doing it. They understood that if they wrote a blog post, and it generated no increase in traffic whatsoever, then perhaps they should write something totally different instead of sticking with more of the same.

Proper calibration requires a lot of experimentation. If you don't get a good result, you can interpret that as a negative result, and change something — change anything. But don't keep doing what didn't work, expecting that it's just a matter of time before things pick up. It's not really a matter of time. It's a matter of skill.

When you immerse yourself in learning a new skill, don't focus on trying to get results with the skill — at least not right away. Instead, focus on getting good at the skill.

For example, if you're learning to blog, focus on writing posts in a variety of styles. You want to calibrate yourself to get good at writing blog posts that generate referrals. Don't worry about trying to make money with your blog. Don't even worry about trying to build a certain level of traffic. You can focus on those goals later. But initially, aim to figure out how to semi-consistently write awesome posts that generate referrals. If you can't figure out how to do that, your blog will surely fail. But if you can calibrate yourself to this skill, then you can shift from building your skill to applying your skill. That's where you can start really building your traffic and generating income from your work.

### A New Equilibrium – Post-Calibration

The funny thing about calibration is that once you reach a certain point, you'll tend to let go of all the tricks, tactics, and techniques you learned along the way. Now you're able to maintain a certain level of success just by being yourself.

This happens because the skills you learned have been internalized. You no longer have to think about the details because your subconscious mind takes care of them for you. Applying your skill becomes much easier when you reach this point.

Blogging is largely effortless for me these days. I can crank out a detailed new article with fairly little effort. I got the idea for this particular article while I was at the gym this morning. I outlined it in my head while I took a shower. Later I sat down to write, and the words just flowed. It took me a while to write an article of this length of course, but the process was easy and effortless. The reason it was easy is that I've already calibrated myself to the skill of writing articles. There are lots of details that go into writing an article of this length, but I don't have to consciously think about the process of how to write. It's all internalized. I can just sit down at my desk, the ideas start flowing, and my fingers automatically start typing. I can chunk the task of writing an article as a single to-do item, even an article of this length, and it isn't a big deal to me.

When I write a new blog post, I don't consciously think about all the details that other pro bloggers would tell you are important. I just blog. It feels like a very simple thing to do, not nearly as complicated as it might seem. However, the reason I can keep it simple and still do well in this field is because I went through that complicated newbie phase years ago. I internalized the techniques that proved effective for me, so today I don't even think about them anymore.

Putting a skill on automatic pilot is the long-term benefit of good calibration. Once you gain this calibration, you can't really lose it. You may need to re-calibrate your skills from time to time to adapt to changing conditions, but that usually isn't as hard as acquiring the initial calibration.

If you took away my blog and all my articles, and I had to start over from scratch as an anonymous blogger today, do you think I could repeat my success? I'm sure I could do so very quickly because I've already calibrated my blogging skills. I typically experience quick success when I can rely on a previous calibration, such as learning to spar in a new martial art or building a social network of friends in a new city. One of the reasons I achieved quick success as a blogger was that I benefited from my previous calibration of running a profitable online business for years, so I was able to adapt much of that skill to the medium of blogging. I was also able to adapt my blogging calibration to writing a book.

When you calibrate, you lock in a new skill. Then you can use that skill to generate consistently good results. This is a wonderful place to be. Post-calibration, you'll typically feel very confident within the realm of that skill. You have every reason to feel confident because you're genuinely competent. I'd feel comfortable starting a new online business. I'd feel comfortable moving to a new city where I didn't know anyone. I'd feel confident studying a new style of martial arts. I'd feel confident giving a new speech. However, the first time I did these things, I hadn't yet calibrated myself for success. The only kind of confidence I was able to muster back then was the "fake it till you make it kind," which is more false bravado than genuine confidence.

### Calibrate Is a Verb

Don't let the newbie phase get you down. Everyone has to go through it. Get a newbie training partner if you must, but turn toward that newbie fear, and run straight at it. The fear will soon go away. It's not a big deal to fail or to get rejected. That's part of being a newbie. Accept it. You will get better.

In order to calibrate your skills, you have to take action. You can't just sit at home reading or studying training materials. You must go into the field and do field work under real-world conditions.

As Mike Tyson said, "Everybody's got plans... until they get hit."

I know so many people who've spent months reading about and talking about starting an online business. They still don't have an online business. But they just keep talking about it and planning it, as if that's some form of phantom progress. Their calibration is still at zero. They think they're getting closer to their goal. From my perspective, they haven't even started yet. They're just procrastinating.

Such people would do much better if they stopped reading and planning and started doing. Nobody earned a black belt from reading about martial arts.

Which approach do you think will generate the best results? Reading about a diet for 30 days? Or doing a 30-day trial of that diet?

Which will improve your social skills the most? Watching social skills videos for 30 days? Or going out every night for 30 days and starting up conversations with strangers?

Which will generate the best blogging results? Reading blogs on blogging for 30 days? Or starting your own blog and posting your own blog entries for 30 days?

Which will generate the best physical results? Read about weight training for 30 days? Or hit the gym and do 30 days of weight training?

Reading and studying will give you knowledge and information that sits in your mind. That seems like a good thing, but you'll still have zero results to show for your efforts. You're actually no closer to your goals. You're still at the starting line. But if you go out and do the best you can to apply what you know right now, even if your understanding is full of holes, you'll quickly learn what works under real-world conditions, and you'll adapt. You'll make a huge leap forward in your calibration. You'll also generate some real-world results that may benefit you.

Get your nose out of the books and onto the field. Take your licks as they come, and learn from them. Build your skills under real-world conditions, so you can actually apply them to get results. Don't just read about life. Live it.

Reading and learning are awesome, but make sure you're using these as supplements for in-field experience, not substitutes. If you're reading about any skill you want to develop, but you aren't regularly performing in the field yet, you're just procrastinating. Deep down you already knew that, didn't you? I'm here to remind you of this, so you can hate me for it and help spread the word about how awful I am. ;)

## Bonus Chapter #4

When going to college many years ago, I decided to challenge myself by setting a goal to see if I could graduate in only three semesters, taking the same classes that people would normally take over a four-year period. This chapter explains in detail all the time management techniques I used to successfully pull this off.

In order to accomplish this goal, I determined I'd have to take 30-40 units per semester, when the average student took 12-15 units. It became immediately obvious that I'd have to manage my time extremely well if I wanted to pull this off. I began reading everything I could find on time management and putting what I learned into practice. I accomplished my goal by graduating with two Bachelor of Science degrees (computer science and mathematics) in just three semesters without attending summer school. I slept seven to eight hours a night, took care of my routine chores (shopping, cooking, etc), had a social life, and exercised for 30 minutes every morning. In my final semester, I even held a full time job (40 hours a week) as a game programmer and served as the Vice Chair of the local Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter while taking 37 units of mostly senior-level computer science and math courses. My classmates would add up all the hours they expected each task to take and concluded that my weeks must have consisted of about 250 hours. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and also received a special award given to the top computer science student each year. One of my professors later told me that they had an easy time selecting the award recipient once it became clear to them what I was doing.

I wasn't considered a gifted child, and this was the first time I had ever done anything like this. I didn't have any personal mentors helping me, I didn't know of anyone who'd done anything like this before, and I can't recall a single person encouraging me to do it. In fact, most people were highly discouraging of the idea when I told them about it. This was simply something I decided to do for myself. If you want a better understanding of where I was at this time in my life and why I decided to attempt such a crazy thing, you might enjoy reading The Meaning of Life: Intro on my blog, which includes the full background story and more details about my motivation for doing this.

It took a lot of convincing to get the computer science department chair to approve my extra units every semester, and my classmates often assumed I was either cheating or that I had a twin or that I was just mentally unstable (I get accused of that last one pretty much every week, so maybe there's some truth to it). Most of the time I kept quiet about what I was doing, but if someone asked me how many units I was taking, I didn't deny it. I was perhaps the only student at the university with a two-page class schedule, so it was easy to prove I was telling the truth if anyone pressed me, but rarely did I ever do so.

I didn't tell you this story to impress you but rather to make you curious as to how I did it. I pulled this off by applying time management concepts that most people simply didn't know but that were readily available in books and audio programs at the time (1992-93). The time management habits I learned in college have served me very well in building my business, so I want to share them with you in the hopes that you'll find them equally valuable. They allowed me to shave years off my schooling while also giving me about $30,000 to start my business (all earned in my final semester as a game programmer, mostly from royalties). Without further ado, here's the best of what I've learned about mastering time management:

### Clarity is key.

The first step is to know exactly what you want. In a Tae Kwon Do studio where I used to train, there's a huge sign on the wall that says, "Your goal is to become a black belt." This helps remind each student why s/he is going through such difficult training. When you work for yourself, it's easy to spend a whole day at your desk and accomplish nothing of value. This almost always happens when you aren't really clear about what it is you're trying to do. In the moments when you regain your awareness, ask yourself, "What exactly is it that I'm trying to accomplish here?" You must know your destination with as much clarity as possible. Make your goals specific, and put them in writing. Your goals must be so clear that it would be possible for a stranger to look at your situation objectively and give you an absolute "yes" or "no" response as to whether you've accomplished each goal or not. If you cannot define your destination precisely, how will you know when you've arrived?

The key period I've found useful for defining and working on specific goals is ninety days, or the length of one season. In that period of time, you can make dramatic and measurable changes if you set crystal clear goals. Take a moment to stop and write down a snapshot description of how you want your life to be ninety days from now. What will your monthly income be? How much will you weigh? Who will your friends be? Where will you be in your career? What will your relationship be like? What will your web site look like? Be specific. Absolute clarity will give you the edge that will keep you on course.

Just as an airplane on autopilot must make constant corrections to stay on course, you must periodically retarget your goals. Reconnect with your clear, written goals by re-reading them every morning. Post them on your walls, especially your financial goals. Years ago (during the mid-90s), I went around my apartment putting up signs in every room that said "$5,000 / month." That was my monthly business income goal at the time. Because I knew exactly what I wanted, I achieved that goal within a few weeks. I continued setting specific income goals, even amidst occasional setbacks, and I found this process very effective. It wasn't just that it helped me focus on what I wanted -- perhaps even more important is that it made it easy for me to disregard those things that weren't on the path to my goal. For example, if you set a goal to earn $10,000/month, this can help you stop doing those things that will only earn you $5000/month.

If you aren't yet at the point of clarity, then make that your first goal. It's a big waste of time to go through life being unclear about what you want. Most people wallow way too long in the state of "I don't know what to do." They wait for some external force to provide them with clarity, never realizing that clarity is self-created. The universe is waiting on you, not the other way around, and it's going to keep waiting until you finally make up your mind. Waiting for clarity is like being a sculptor staring at a piece of marble, waiting for the statue within to cast off the unneeded pieces. Do not wait for clarity to spontaneously materialize -- grab a chisel and get busy!

### Be flexible.

There's a key difference between knowing your destination and knowing the path you will take to get there. A typical commercial airplane is off course 90% of the time, yet it almost always arrives at its destination because it knows exactly where it's going and makes constant corrections along the way. You cannot know the exact path to your goal in advance. I believe that the real purpose of planning is simply so that you remain convinced that a possible path exists. We've all heard the statistic that 80% of new businesses fail in their first five years, but a far more interesting statistic is that nearly all of the businesses that succeeded did not do so in the original way they had intended. If you look at successful businesses that started with business plans, you will commonly find that their original plans failed miserably and that they only succeeded by trying something else. It is said that no business plan survives contact with the marketplace. I like to generalize this to say that no plan survives contact with the real world.

Renowned author and business consultant Stephen Covey often uses the expression, "integrity in the moment of choice." What that means is that you should not follow your plans blindly without conscious awareness of your goals. For instance, let's say you're following your plans nicely -- so far so good -- and then an unforeseen opportunity arises. Do you stick to your original plan, thereby missing the opportunity, or do you stop and go after the opportunity, thereby throwing yourself off schedule? This is where you have to stop and reconnect with your goals to decide which is the better course. No plan should be followed blindly. As soon as you gain new knowledge that could invalidate the plan, you must exercise integrity in the moment of choice. Sometimes you can reach your goals faster by taking advantage of shortcuts that arise unexpectedly. Other times you should stick to your original plans and avoid minor distractions that would take you further from your goals. Be tight on your goals but flexible on your plans.

I believe that having a clear goal is far more important than having a clear plan. In school I was very clear about my end goal -- graduate college in only three semesters -- but my plans were in a constant state of flux. Every day I would be informed of new assignments, projects, or tests, and I had to adapt to this ever-changing sea of activity. If I tried to make a long-term plan for each semester, it would have been rendered useless within 24 hours.

### Use single handling.

Instead of using some elaborate organizing system, I stuck with a very basic pen and paper to-do list. My only organizing tool was a notepad where I wrote down all my assignments and their deadlines. I didn't worry about doing any advance scheduling or prioritizing. I would simply scan the list to select the most pressing item which fit the time I had available. Then I'd complete it, and cross it off the list.

If I had a 10-hour term paper to write, I would do the whole thing at once instead of breaking it into smaller tasks. I'd usually do large projects on weekends. I'd go to the library in the morning, do the necessary research, and then go back to my dorm room and continue working until the final text was rolling off my printer. If I needed to take a break, I would take a break. It didn't matter how big the project was supposed to be or how many weeks the professor allowed for it. Once I began an assignment, I would stay with it until it was 100% complete and ready to be turned in.

This simple practice saved me a significant amount of time. First, it allowed me to concentrate deeply on each assignment and to work very efficiently while I worked. A lot of time is lost in task switching because you have to re-load the context for each new task. Single handling minimizes time lost in task switching. In fact, when possible I would batch up my assignments within a certain subject area and then do them all at once before switching subjects. So I'd do all my math homework in a row until it was all done. Then I'd do all my programming assignments. Then I'd do my general education homework. In this manner I would put my brain into math-mode, programming-mode, writing-mode, or art-mode and remain in that single mode for as long as possible. Secondly, I believe this habit helped me remain relaxed and unstressed because my mind wasn't cluttered with so many to-do items. It was always just one thing at a time. I could forget about anything that was outside the current context.

### Failure is your friend.

Most people seem to have an innate fear of failure, but failure is really your best friend. People who succeed also fail a great deal because they make a lot of attempts. The great baseball player Babe Ruth held the homerun record and the strikeout record at the same time. Those who have the most successes also have the most failures. There is nothing wrong or shameful in failing. The only regret lies in never making the attempt. So don't be afraid to experiment in your attempts to increase productivity. Sometimes the quickest way to find out if something will work is to jump right in and do it. You can always make adjustments along the way. It's the ready-fire-aim approach, and surprisingly, it works a lot better than the more common ready-aim-fire approach. The reason is that after you've "fired" once, you have some actual data with which to adjust your aim. Too many people get bogged down in planning and thinking and never get to the point of action. How many potentially great ideas have you passed up because you got stuck in the state of analysis paralysis (i.e. ready-aim-aim-aim-aim-aim...)?

During college I tried a lot of crazy ideas that I thought might save me time. I continued reading time management material and applying what I learned, but I also devised some original ideas. Most of my own ideas were flops, but some of them worked. I was willing to fail again and again for the off chance I might stumble upon something that gave me an extra boost.

Understand that failure is not the opposite of success. Failure is an essential part of success. Once you succeed, no one will remember your failures anyway. Microsoft wasn't Bill Gates' and Paul Allen's first business venture. Who remembers that their original Traf-o-Data business was a flop? The actor Jim Carey was booed off many a stage while a young comedian. We have electric light bulbs because Thomas Edison refused to give up even after 10,000 failed experiments. If the word "failure" is anathema to you, then reframe it: You either succeed, or you have a learning experience.

Letting go of the fear of failure will serve you well. If you're excited about achieving a particular goal, but you're afraid you might not be able to pull it off, jump on it and do it anyway. Even if you fail in your attempt, you'll learn something valuable and can make a better attempt next time. If you look at people who are successful in business today, you will commonly see that many of them had a string of dismal failures before finally hitting on something that worked, myself included. And I think most of these people will agree that those early failure experiences were an essential contributing factor in their future successes. My advice to anyone starting a new business is to begin pumping out products or devising services and don't worry much about whether they'll be hits. They probably won't be. But you'll learn a lot more by doing than you ever will by thinking.

### Do it now!

W. Clement Stone, who built an insurance empire worth hundreds of millions dollars, would make all his employees recite the phrase, "Do it now!" again and again at the start of each workday. Whenever you feel the tendency towards laziness taking over and you remember something you should be doing, stop and say out loud, "Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!" I often set this text as my screen saver. There is a tremendous cost in putting things off because you will mentally revisit them again and again, which can add up to an enormous amount of wasted time. Thinking and planning are important, but action is far more important. You don't get paid for your thoughts and plans -- you only get paid for your results. When in doubt, act boldly, as if it were impossible to fail. In essence, it is.

It is absolutely imperative that you develop the habit of making decisions as soon as possible. I use a 60-second rule for almost every decision I have to make, no matter how big or important. Once I have all the data to make a decision, I start a timer and give myself only 60 seconds to make a firm decision. I'll even flip a coin if I have to. When I was in college, I couldn't afford to waste time thinking about assignments or worrying about when to do them. I simply picked one and went to work on it. And today when I need to decide which article to write next, I just pick a topic and begin writing. I believe this is why I never experience writer's block. Writer's block means you're stuck in the state of thinking about what to write instead of actually writing. I don't waste time thinking about writing because I'm too busy writing. This is probably why I've been able to write hundreds of original articles very easily. Every article I write spawns ideas for at least two more, so my ideas list only increases over time. I cannot imagine ever running out of original content.

Too often people delay making decisions when there is no advantage to be found in that delay. Usually delaying a decision will only have negative consequences, so even if you're faced with ambiguity, just bite the bullet and make a decision. If it turns out to be the wrong one, you'll know it soon enough. Many people probably spend more than 60 seconds just deciding what they'll eat for dinner. If I can't decide what to eat, I just grab an apple or a couple bananas and start eating, and sometimes I'm full of fruit before I figure out what I really would like to eat. So my brain knows that if it wants something other than fruit, it had better decide quickly. If you can speed up the pace of making decisions, you can spend the rest of your time on action.

One study showed that the best managers in the world tend to have an extremely high tolerance for ambiguity. In other words, they are able to act boldly on partial and/or conflicting data. Many industries today have accelerated to such a rapid pace that by the time you have perfect data with which to make any decision, the opportunity is probably long gone. Where you have no data to fall back on, rely on your own personal experience and intuition. If a decision can be made right away, make the decision as soon as it comes up. If you can't make a decision right away, set aside a time where you will consider the options and make the decision. Pour the bulk of your time into action, not deciding. The state of indecision is a major time waster. Don't spend more than 60 seconds in that state if you can avoid it. Make a firm, immediate decision, and move from uncertainty to certainty to action. Let the world tell you when you're wrong, and you'll soon build enough experience to make accurate, intelligent decisions.

### Triage ruthlessly.

Get rid of everything that wastes your time. Use the trash can liberally. Apply the rule, "When in doubt, throw it out." Cancel useless magazine subscriptions. If you have a magazine that is more than two months old and you still haven't read it, throw it away; it's probably not worth reading. Realize that nothing is free if it costs you time. Before you sign up for any new free service or subscription, ask how much it will cost you in terms of time. Every activity has an opportunity cost. Ask, "Is this activity worth what I am sacrificing for it?"

In college I was downright brutal when it came to triage. I once told a professor that I decided not to do one of his assigned computer science projects because I felt it wasn't a good use of my time. The project required about 10-20 hours of tedious gruntwork that wasn't going to teach me anything I didn't already know. Also, this project was only worth 10% of my grade in that class, and since I was previously acing the class anyway, the only real negative consequence would be that I'd end up with an A- in the course instead of an A. I told the professor I felt that was a fair trade-off and that I would accept the A-. I didn't try to negotiate with him for special treatment. So my official grade in the class was an A-, but I personally gave myself an A+ for putting those 10-20 hours to much better use.

Ask yourself this question: "Would I have ever gotten started with this project, relationship, career, etc. if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I now know?" If your answer is no, then get out as soon as possible. This is called zero-based thinking. I know a lot of people that have a limiting belief that says, "Always finish what you start." They spend years climbing ladders only to realize when they reach the top that the ladder was leaning against the wrong building. Remember that failure is your friend. So if a certain decision you've made in the past is no longer producing results that serve you, then be ruthless and dump it, so you can move onto something better. There is no honor in dedicating your life to the pursuit of a goal which no longer inspires you. This is another situation where you must practice integrity in the moment of choice. You must constantly re-assess your present situation to accurately decide what to do next. Whatever you've decided in the past is largely irrelevant if you would not renew that decision today.

### Identify and recover wasted time.

Instead of watching a one-hour TV show, tape it and watch it in 45 minutes by fast-forwarding through the commercials. Don't spend a half hour typing a lengthy email when you could accomplish the same thing with a 10-minute phone call. Batch your errands together and do them all at once.

During the summer between my second and third semesters, I found an apartment across the street from campus that was slightly closer to the engineering building than my on-campus dorm room. So I moved out of the dorms and into that apartment, which saved me some walking/biking time every day. I was also moving from a two-bedroom dorm which I shared with two roommates into a smaller single-person studio apartment. This new apartment was much more efficient. For example, I could work on programming assignments while cooking dinner because my desk was only a few steps from the stove.

Trying to cut out time-wasting habits is a common starting point for people who desire to become more efficient, but I think this is a mistake. Optimizing your personal habits should only come later. Clarity of purpose must come first. If you don't have clarity, then your attempts to install more efficient habits and to break inefficient habits will only fizzle. You won't have a strong enough reason to put your time to good use, so it will be easy to quit when things get tough. You need a big, attractive goal to stay motivated. The reason to shave 15 minutes off a task is that you're overflowing with motivation to put that 15 minutes to better use.

For example, you might have a career you sort of like, but most likely it's not so compelling that you'll care enough about saving an extra 15 minutes here and there, even if your total savings might amount to a few hours each day. But if you've taken the time to develop a sense of purpose that reaches deep into your soul, you'll be automatically motivated to put your time to better use. If you get the highest level of your life in order (purpose, meaning, spiritual beliefs), the lower levels will tend to self-optimize (habits, practices, actions).

### Apply the 80-20 rule.

Also known as the Pareto Principle, the 80-20 rule states that 20% of a task's effort accounts for 80% of the value of that task. This also means that 80% of a task only yields 20% of the value of that task. In college I was ruthless in my application of this principle. Some weeks I ditched as many as 40% of my classes because sitting through a lecture was often not the most effective way for me to learn. And I already noted that I would simply refuse to do an assignment if I determined it was not worth my time. There was one math class that I only showed up to twice because I could learn from the text book much more quickly than from the lectures. I only showed up for the midterm and final. I would pop my head in at the beginning of each class to drop off my homework and then again at the end of each class to write down the next assignment. I actually got the highest grade in that class, but the teacher probably had no idea who I was. The other students were playing by the rules, not realizing they were free to make their own rules. Find out what parts of your life belong in the crucial 20%, and focus your efforts there. Be absolutely ruthless in refusing to spend time where it simply cannot give you optimal results. Invest your time where it has the potential to pay off big.

### Guard thy time.

To work effectively you need uninterrupted blocks of time in which you can complete meaningful work. When you know for certain that you won't be interrupted, your productivity is much, much higher. When you sit down to work on a particularly intense task, dedicate blocks of time to the task during which you will not do anything else. I've found that a minimum of 90 minutes is ideal for a single block.

You may need to negotiate with the other people in your life to create these uninterrupted blocks of time. If necessary, warn others in advance not to interrupt you for a certain period of time. Threaten them with acts of violence if you must. In school I would lock my bedroom door when I needed to work, so my roommates would know not to disturb me. While each individual bedroom in the two-bedroom dorm suites was designed for two people (four people per suite), I paid a bit extra to have a bedroom all to myself. This way I always had my own private room to work. When I had time to be social, I'd leave the door open, sometimes playing computer games with one of my roommates. If you happen to work in a high interruption environment that's negatively affecting your productivity, change that environment at all costs. Some people have told me that giving their boss a copy of this book's chapter helped convince him/her to take steps to reduce unnecessary interruptions.

While for some people it's helpful to block off a specific period of time for a task, I find that I work best with long, open-ended stretches of uninterrupted time. I'll often allocate a starting time for a task but usually not a specific finishing time. Whenever possible I just allow myself to stick with a task as long as I can, until I eventually succumb to hunger or other bodily needs. I will frequently work 6+ hours straight on a project without taking a break. While frequent breaks are often recommended to increase productivity, I feel that suggestion may be an artifact of industrial age research on poorly motivated workers and not as applicable to high-motivation, purpose-driven creative work. I find it's best for me to maintain momentum until I can barely continue instead of chopping a task into smaller chunks where there's a risk of succumbing to distractions along the way.

The state of flow, where you are totally absorbed in a task and lose all sense of time, takes about 15 minutes to enter. Every time you get interrupted, it can take you another 15 minutes to get back to that state. Once you enter the state of flow, guard it with your life. That is the state in which you will go through enormous amounts of work and experience total connection with the task. When I'm in this state, I have no sense of past or future. I simply feel like I'm one with my work.

While sometimes I suffer from the problem of the task expanding to fill the allotted time (aka Parkinson's Law), I often find that it's worth the risk. For example, when I do optimization work on my web site, I'll frequently think of new optimization ideas while I work, and I'll usually go ahead and implement those new ideas immediately. I find it more efficient to act on those ideas at the moment of conception instead of scheduling them to be done at a later time.

### Work all the time you work.

During one of these sacred time blocks, do nothing but the activity that's right in front of you. Don't check email or online forums or do web surfing. If you have this temptation, then unplug your Internet connection while you work. Turn off your phone, or simply refuse to answer it. Go to the bathroom before you start, and make sure you won't get hungry for a while. Don't get out of your chair at all. Don't talk to anyone during this time.

Decide what it is you should be doing, and then do nothing but that. If you happen to manage others, periodically ask them what their #1 task is, and make sure they're doing nothing but that. If you see someone answering email, then it should be the most important thing for that person to be doing at that particular time. If not, then relatively speaking, that person is just wasting time.

If you need a break, then take a real break and do nothing else. Don't semi-work during a break if you feel you need rest and restoration. Checking email or web surfing is not a break. When you take a break, close your eyes and do some deep breathing, listen to relaxing music and zone out for a while, take a 20-minute nap, or eat some fresh fruit. Rest until you feel capable of doing productive work again. When you need rest, rest. When you should be working, work. Work with either 100% concentration, or don't work at all. It's perfectly fine to take as much down time as you want. Just don't allow your down time to creep into your work time.

### Multitask.

The amount of new knowledge in certain fields is increasing so rapidly that everything you know about your line of work is probably becoming obsolete. The only solution is to keep absorbing new knowledge as rapidly as possible. Many of the skills I use in my business today didn't even exist five years ago. The best way I know to keep up is to multitask whenever possible by reading and listening to audio programs.

When watching TV, read a computer magazine during commercials. If you're a male, read while shaving. I use an electric shaver and read during the 2-3 minutes it takes me to shave each day. This allows me to get through about two extra articles a week -- that's 100 extra articles a year. This habit is really easy to start. Just grab a couple magazines, or print out some articles you wouldn't otherwise have time to read, and put them in your bathroom. Whenever you go out, carry at least one folded up article with you. If you ever have to wait in line, such as at the post office or the grocery store, pull out the article and read it. You will be amazed at how much extra knowledge you can absorb just by reading during other non-mental activities.

Listen to educational audio programs whenever you can. When you drive your car, always be listening to an audio program. One of the best ways to save time is to learn directly from people who already have the skills you want to master. Audio programs often contain more practical material than what you would learn by taking classes at a university. Whereas people with degrees in marketing or business have been taught by college professors, you can learn about these subjects from millionaires and billionaires who've learned what works in the real world.

Multitasking was perhaps the most important low-level skill that allowed me to go through college in three semesters. My average weekday involved about seven or eight hours of classes. But on Tuesdays during my final semester, I had classes back to back from 9am until 10pm. Because I was taking about a dozen classes each semester, I would have several tests and projects due just about every week. I had no time to study outside of class because most of that time was used for my job. So I simply had to learn everything the first time it came up. If a teacher wrote out something on the board, I would memorize it then and there; I couldn't afford to learn things later and risk falling behind. During my slower classes, I would do homework, work out algorithms for my programming job, or refine my schedule. You can probably find numerous opportunities for multitasking. Whenever you do something physical, such as driving, cooking, shopping, or walking, keep your mind going by listening to audio tapes or reading.

The idea of multitasking may seem to contradict the previous piece of advice to work all the time you work. But whereas the previous tip refers to high intensity work where you must concentrate all your mental resources in order to do the best job you can, this tip addresses low intensity work where you have plenty of capacity to do other things at the same time, like standing in line, cooking dinner, flying on a plane, or walking from point A to point B. Multitasking shouldn't be used where it will significantly degrade your performance on a crucial task, but it should be intelligently used to take advantage of excess capacity. Take real breaks when you need them, but don't waste time in a state of partial effort. It's more efficient to cycle between working flat out and then resting completely.

Multitasking allows you to take your productivity to a new level. You might think it would be draining, but many people find it has the opposite effect. For me it was tremendously energizing to be getting so much done. The harder you work, the greater your capacity for work, and the more restorative your rest will be.

### Experiment.

Everyone is different, so what works for you may well be different than what works for everyone else. You may work best in the morning or late at night. Take advantage of your own strengths, and find ways to compensate for your weaknesses. Experiment with listening to music while you work. I use the free WinAMP player, which can stream commercial-free radio directly to my computer all day long with a variety of channels to choose from. I find that classical and new age music, especially Mozart, is terrific for web development work. But for most routine tasks, listening to fast-paced techno/trance music helps me work a lot faster. I don't exactly know why, but I'm twice as productive when listening to really fast music as compared to listening to no music. On the other hand, music with vocals is detrimental to my productivity because it's too distracting. And when I really need to focus deeply, I'll listen to no music at all. Try a simple experiment for yourself, and see if certain forms of music can increase your productivity. For me the difference was dramatic.

Whenever you come up with a wacky new idea for increasing your productivity, test it and see what effect it has. Don't dismiss any idea unless you've actually tried it. Partial successes are more common than complete failures, so each new experiment will help you refine your time management practices. Even the ongoing practice of conducting experiments will help condition you to be more productive.

### Cultivate your enthusiasm.

The word "enthusiasm" comes from the Greek _entheos_ , which means literally, "the god within." I really like that definition. I doubt it's possible to master the art of time management if you aren't gushingly enthusiastic about what you're going to do with your time. Go after what really inspires you. Don't chase money. Chase your passion. If you aren't enthusiastic about your work, then you're wasting your life. Switch to something else. Consider a new career altogether. Don't beat yourself up if your current career has become stale. Remember that failure is your friend. Listen to that god within you, and switch to something that excites you once again. The worst waste of time is doing something that doesn't make you happy. Your work should serve your life, not the other way around.

If you're like most people, you can get yourself motivated every once in a while, but then you get caught up and sink back down to a lower level of productivity, and you find it hard to continue with a project. How easy is it to start a new project when your motivation level is high? And how difficult is it to continue once your enthusiasm fades? Since most people are negative to one degree or another, you'll naturally lose your positive charge over time unless you actively cultivate your enthusiasm as a resource. I don't believe in pushing myself to do something I really don't want to do. If I'm not motivated, then getting myself to sit down and work productively is nearly impossible, and the work is almost painful. When you're highly motivated though, work feels like play.

While in college I could not afford to let my enthusiasm fade, or I'd be dead. I quickly learned that I needed to make a conscious effort to reinforce my enthusiasm on a daily basis. I always had my Walkman cassette player with me (there were no portable MP3 players back then), and while walking from one class to the next, I would listen to time management and motivational tapes. I also listened to them while jogging every morning. I kept my motivation level high by reinforcing my enthusiasm almost hourly. Even though I was being told by others that I would surely fail, these tapes were the stronger influence because I never went more than a few hours without plugging back in.

If your enthusiasm level is high, you can work so much more productively and even enjoy the normally tedious parts of your work. I've always found that whenever I want to take my business to a new level, I must take my thoughts to a new level first. When your thinking changes, then your actions will change, and your results will follow. Unless you're a naturally hyper person, your enthusiasm is going to need daily reinforcement. I recommend either listening to motivational tapes or reading inspiring books or articles for at least fifteen minutes every day. Whenever I've stopped doing this, I've found that self-doubt always returns, and my productivity drops off. It's truly amazing how constantly feeding your mind with positive material can maintain your enthusiasm indefinitely. And if you multitask, you can get this benefit without investing any extra time into it.

### Eat and exercise for optimal energy.

During the summer before my last semester in college (1993), I became a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and I noticed a decent boost in my energy and especially in my ability to concentrate. Four years later (1997) I became a complete vegan (no animal products at all), and this yielded an even bigger boost. For details on why I made this change, see the article Why Vegan?

What you eat can have a profound effect on your productivity. Animal products take significantly more time and energy to digest than plant foods, and when your body must divert extra energy to digestion, it means you have less energy available for productive mental work. Effectively your work will seem harder while you're digesting meals containing animal products, and you'll be more inclined to succumb to distractions. So if you find yourself having a hard time focusing on mentally intense work after lunch, your diet may very well be the culprit. Even Benjamin Franklin credited eating lightly at lunch time as being a significant factor in his productivity. While his colleagues were sluggish and sleepy in the afternoon, he could continue to work productively the rest of the day.

Regular exercise is also necessary to maintain high energy and mental clarity. In college I would go running for 30 minutes first thing every morning before breakfast. And of course I'd be listening to motivational and educational tapes at the same time. This daily renewal kept me in good physical condition and helped me maintain my ideal weight. Furthermore, my class schedule kept me zigzagging around campus each day to attend all my classes, and I'd usually have to carry a 20-30 pound backpack full of textbooks with me. So even though I spent most of my weekdays sitting in classrooms, I still got plenty of daily exercise.

If you want to master time management, it makes sense to hone your best time management tool of all -- your physical body. Through diet and exercise you can build your capacity for sustained concentrated effort, so even the most difficult work will seem easier.

If you currently find yourself overweight, take a trip to a local gym or a sporting goods store, and find a dumbbell (or two) that weighs as much as the excess fat you're carrying around. Pick it up and walk around with it for a while. Become aware that this is what you're carrying around with you every day. Imagine how much lighter and easier everything would be if you could permanently put that weight down. Carrying some extra weight for training purposes is one thing, but if that weight is in the form of body fat, then you're never able to put it down and enjoy the benefits of that training. Make a committed decision to shed those extra pounds, and enjoy the lifelong benefits of living in a more efficient physical vehicle.

### Maintain balance.

I don't think it's easy to sustain long-term productivity, health, and happiness if your life is totally unbalanced. To excel in one area, you can't let other areas lag behind and pull you down. While in college I made an effort to take off a full day each week to have a personal life. I exercised, went to parties, attended club meetings, played computer games and pool, and even had time to vacation in Las Vegas during my final semester. The high turnover rates at the end of "death march" projects are caused by a lack of balance. To focus exclusively on your primary work at the expense of every other area of your life will only hurt you in the long run. Maintain balance by paying attention to every area of your life. As you grow in your career, be sure that your personal life grows as well.

Probably my biggest regret about going through college in three semesters is that I never had a girlfriend during this time. While I had plenty of good friends (both male and female), got involved in clubs, and enjoyed fun social activities every week, I didn't have enough time to pursue an intimate relationship on top of everything else. I remember one instance where a girl I knew was clearly interested in pursuing a relationship with me, and she started machinating to spend more time alone with me, but I couldn't take the bait because I just didn't have time for dating. I wouldn't have made a very good boyfriend at the time.

If I had to do it all over again, I think my college experience would have been even better if I'd stretched it to four or five semesters and allowed myself time for a girlfriend. It would have been great to have someone else to share my life with, not to mention all the other benefits of intimacy. At least I had plenty of time for dating after graduating. Within a few months I had a steady girlfriend, and four years later we were married. She and I actually went to the same college at the same time, but we never happened to meet while we were there, although it turned out we had a few mutual acquaintances.

I believe the main goal of time management is to give you the power to make your life as juicy as you want it to be. By getting clear about what you want and then developing a collection of habits that allow you to efficiently achieve your goals, you'll enjoy a much richer, more fulfilling life than you would otherwise. When I look back on my college days from more than a decade in the future, I feel a sense of gratitude for the whole experience. I set an enormous stretch goal and grew tremendously as a person in the pursuit of that goal. It was one of the best times of my life.

If you wish to become more productive, then do so with the intention of improving the totality of your life from top to bottom. The reason to master time management is to take your good life and transform it into an exceptional one. Time management is not about self-sacrifice, self-denial, and doing more of what you dislike. It's about embracing more of what you already love.
* * *

Before you go, I'd like to share with you another bonus chapter. This one's different. It's a sneak peek of my latest book, _The Priming Effect_.

* * *

## Sneak Peek from _The Priming Effect_

Inside your skull is a massive supercomputer. You own it free and clear. With its 100 billion neurons, and with a typical neuron linking to 1000 to 10,000 other neurons, your highly networked brain is incredibly powerful and capable.

Pick up a simple object nearby like a pen or a spoon, and look at it. Turn it upside down. Spin it around. Notice that your brain is able to recognize the object no matter how you position it. You can change the lighting by putting the object in shadow. You can obscure part of it from view. You can bend or break it. And your brain still recognizes that object simply and easily. Even a child can do this.

But what's happening under the hood? Your visual cortex, consisting of about 538 million neurons, is doing an enormous amount of parallel processing on the signals it's receiving from your eyes. Your visual cortex detects edges, evaluates color, tracks motion, interprets reflection, and more — all in real time.

Your brain even does some extra processing to compensate for the blind spot on the back of your retina. Your eyes don't actually "see" any data for that blind spot because there are no rods or cones there — it's the place where your optic nerve connects to the back of your eyeball — but your visual cortex uses the surrounding information to intelligently predict what should be in that blind spot, and it fills in the missing data with its best guess. If a line crosses through your blind spot, you'll still perceive it as a continuous line, even though the initial data coming from your retina has that line broken into two pieces.

All of this processing happens subconsciously. You don't feel it happening, and you aren't consciously aware of all this computational effort. Yet that part of your brain is very active, lit up with chemical and electrical activity, consuming oxygen and sugar and other internal resources to perform such complex computations at such high speed.

Even when you focus your attention upon it, you can't consciously access what your visual cortex is doing. These computations are way too fast and way too complex for your conscious mind to keep up.

Your visual cortex is only about 1/200th of your brain. Your auditory cortex is about 1/1000th. If you can't even consciously fathom what these relatively small brain regions are doing computationally, what hope do you have of maintaining awareness of what the rest of your brain is doing on an ongoing basis?

The truth is that this is a hopeless challenge. Your conscious mind doesn't have anywhere close to the capacity that would be required to intelligently monitor and maintain all the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are constantly firing inside of you. Most of the time you're not even aware of what's happening inside your mind.

You may perceive the experience of thinking as a fairly linear process. Your conscious mind seems to flow through basically one thought at a time, just as you may read one word at a time. But that isn't what's actually happening behind the scenes.

The reality is that different patches of neurons are processing different thoughts in parallel at all times. Your thinking is never linear and straightforward. Even when you read words in a linear order, your brain is actually perceiving and processing all of the words within your field of view at all times.

When you listen to human speech, your brain is automatically predicting which words are likely to be heard next. It's actually pre-loading multiple patterns simultaneously. Then when the next word is verified, your brain fires off different neuron patches to suppress the incorrect predictions and to validate the correct branch. Your brain doesn't actually wait for words to be spoken. It processes syntax and meaning well ahead of what it's hearing. And since it can't predict every word with perfect accuracy, it predicts along multiple branches at the same time.

Even if I leave a few words out of this ____, your ___ can still read the sentence just fine. It picks up the meaning. If I said this sentence aloud and paused briefly at the blanks, you may have even experienced the phantom audio effect of hearing the words that weren't actually spoken.

What were the fill in the blank words? Were they _sentence_ and _brain_? _Statement_ and _mind_? _Line_ and _eyes_. It doesn't matter. Your brain simultaneously explored multiple possibilities and filled in the expected meaning.

### The Priming Effect

Soon we'll get into the practical application aspects, but first let's do a simple exercise. Let me share a few random words with you that seemingly have nothing to do with this article:

  * car
  * gasoline
  * petroleum
  * mileage
  * distance
  * efficiency

Now let me ask you to fill in the blank letters to complete the following word:

F _ _ L

Chances are good that your brain picked a word related to the list above, even though there are many possible solutions.

Now stretch your mind by going through the alphabet, and consider other choices you could have selected. There are lots of possibilities, but the priming effect likely got your brain fixated on one that matched the previous words.

Now get this: The priming effect even works when you aren't consciously aware of the words or ideas you're being primed with. For instance, if I'd hidden those words elsewhere on this page where your eyes would have seen them, but you wouldn't have consciously noticed them, the effect would be essentially the same. Or in a video presentation, if those words were flashed on the screen too quickly for your conscious mind to notice, but slow enough for your visual cortex to perceive and process, that would have also primed your choice in the wordplay test.

This priming effect works on a much grander scale than word games, and its influence is usually subtle and unconscious. I guarantee that it's operating in your life right now.

Suppose you read the daily news from a typical news source (i.e. overwhelmingly pessimistic). So your mind gets primed with words like these (which were taken from actual Yahoo News' headlines):

  * denounce
  * fight
  * die
  * soak
  * death
  * somber
  * slain
  * fears
  * concerns
  * dismissed
  * defiant
  * avoids
  * risk
  * pandemic
  * handouts

So you read the news in the morning and prime your brain with words like the above. What's the priming effect? What other thoughts, feelings, or ideas are being pre-loaded because they're related to the above? _Danger. I'm scared. I need to play it safe and protect what I have. I can't afford to take risks. Stress response._

Then you check social media, and your friends are sharing the usual trivialities. Priming effect: _Not important. Wasting time. Boring. Pointless. Petty drama. Feeling inadequate. Jealousy._

You check email next. It's mostly spam. Your inbox is filled with old junk you haven't processed. Priming effect: _Disorganized. Feeling behind. Clutter. Stress. Overwhelm. Need to clean this up. Distraction._

You make some coffee. It's the cheap stuff, and you drink it from a cruddy old ceramic mug that's chipped. Priming effect: _Can't have what I want. Broken. Low quality. Ugly. Cheap._

You start using your computer. It's an older model, sluggish and also a bit ugly. Priming effect: _Settling for less. Frustration. Wishing for better and not getting it. Slowness. Amateur. Unappreciated._

You use pirated software on your computer. Priming effect: _Criminal. Wrong. Cheap. Dishonest. Dishonorable. Hiding. Sneaky._

And now you go to work trying to improve your life. Is that going to work out well? Probably not.

Your brain is always bouncing around between linked associations. It does this in parallel, subconsciously, all the time. There are countless new neuroscience books sharing more and more details about how the brain does this. The simple truth is that the vast majority of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors occur without your conscious awareness or conscious involvement.

The lesson here is that seemingly subtle influences matter. If your senses perceive it, your brain is processing it. And this processing is seldom isolated. One little change in input can create significant ripples throughout your neural net. And this in turn can have a significant influence on the results you get to experience.

### Conscious Priming

Now for the exciting part: The priming effect presents us with some enormous opportunities for personal growth. By exerting some control over our priming influences — which may involve just a few small changes that can be made within a minute or two — we can create a permanent and lasting improvement in different facets of our lives.

By giving your brain slightly different input on a subconscious level, you can enjoy some truly significant benefits on the results side. This is easy. It works. And there are many ways you can apply this for free.

Here's how I deliberately prime myself each day.

I wake up and cuddle a bit before getting up. Priming effect: _Affection. I am loved. Happy. Feeling lucky._

If I make some oatmeal, I use the best oats I've found (Bob's Red Mill organic oats), mixed with fresh blueberries or organic raisins. Priming effect: _Having the best. Better than average._

If I make some coffee, I use the best quality, such as 100% Kona coffee from Hawaii. It costs twice as much as the gourmet stuff, but nothing else compares. Priming effect: _Quality. I deserve the best. Reward._

I enter my home office. It's neat and tidy. My desk is a GeekDesk, which I really like. My computer is the best MacBook Pro available (with every possible upgrade: max processor speed, max ram, max storage). My cell phone is the best model of the newest iPhone. The newest iPad Air is there too. Everything has a Retina display. Priming effect: _Quality. Best. Success. Feeling supported. Loving technology. Professional. Abundance. Speed. Efficiency. Gracefulness. Delight. Cool._

All the software on my computer is bought and paid for. Almost everything is the latest version (always the latest for frequently used software).Priming effect: _Current. Up to date. Honest. Deserving. Supported. Honorable. Abundant. Efficient._

On the marker board on my office wall, I have some words written in one of the corners. I pay little attention to those words during the day, but I know that just having them within my field of view while I work will have a priming effect on my brain throughout the day. For the past several weeks, I had the word _Flow_ written there. My workflow has been stunningly good during that time. Today I have the following words in the top right corner of my marker board:

  * Flow
  * Focus
  * Success
  * Complete

Writing a new blog post is one of eight tasks on today's agenda. If you're reading this article, that task was obviously completed.

Throughout the day as I work on my computer, my visual cortex will always be processing those words. I won't be aware of that processing most of the time, but such words can help to govern which other related patches of neurons my brain fires throughout the day. I want it to keep activating thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are associated with those primed words. This will happen automatically and takes no extra effort on my part. But if it helps my productivity just a little, why not do it?

This approach has worked well for me, so I encourage you to give it a try. If you don't have a marker board, just grab some paper or a sticky note. Jot down a few words — pictures work too — and inject them into your visual environment.

And in case it isn't abundantly obvious, be sure to remove any negative priming from your field of view. If there are words or pictures that depict violence, failure, scarcity, or anything you don't want to prime your brain with every day, get those items out of your field of view. Make sure your visual cortex is processing predominantly positive signals. What if you're not sure? If you're not sure, replace it. Put something there that you feel sure about — in a good way — instead.

If you don't have a workspace where you can control enough of the priming effect, then have your boss read this article, and invite him/her to help you improve the working conditions for better productivity. No intelligent leader will want to prime their employees with destructive or unproductive thoughts. If you're working for someone that unintelligent, go work someplace else. If you feel trapped, then put the word "quit" on a sticky note in your field of view, and see how long you can resist leaving.

### Think Improvement, Not Perfection.

You can of course go overboard fussing over priming by nitpicking every detail of your environment. My suggestion is to pace yourself. Tackle the most frequent, ever-present influences first.

Where do you spend most of your time? Make that environment a bastion of positive priming. Put up words and pictures that prime your mind with the associations you desire. Clear out any clutter from your field of view. If you can't clean up the clutter right away, then be sure to put it behind you and out of sight as much as possible, so your visual cortex isn't processing and reprocessing it as input all day long.

When I'm at my desk, I like to be primed with thoughts associated with motivation, productivity, focus, stimulation, creativity, flow, service, value, etc. So I cultivate an environment that feels aligned with such thoughts. Consequently, I find it very easy to feel motivated and to get into a good workflow when I'm at my desk. I can float through a 12+ hour workday with ease and delight. Working in my home office is relaxing and pleasurable.

When I'm at home but not working, I'd rather prime myself with different thoughts: coziness, luxury, wealth, abundance, happiness, enjoyment, satisfaction, growth, friendship, cuddling, beauty, relationships, etc. Some rooms of my home do a good job of priming in that direction, especially the cozy spot on the couch by the fireplace or the spacious kitchen with granite counters. I'm also pondering ways to improve other parts of the house to improve the priming effect. Even small tweaks can help. For instance, I recently bought some artistic letters from Cost Plus that spell out the word TRAVEL, so whenever I walk through a certain room, my brain picks up the priming effect, which encourages me to travel more. It's possible this subtly influenced me to take some spontaneous trips recently.

Don't worry about perfection. Just keep leaning into the direction of improvement. Make some small adjustments today. Grab a sticky note, write a word like "focus" or "motivated" on it, and put it on the wall in the corner of your field of view. Then go about your day as usual.

I don't stick anything on my computer monitor since I feel that would prime thoughts associated with clutter, but writing something on my marker board doesn't trigger any potential downside that I can discern. Your associations to sticky notes may be different though. Feel free to experiment.

Don't waste the value of priming on neutral items when you can substitute something with a more positive association. Don't buy a random piece of art that's meaningless to you. Prime yourself with pieces that you believe will trigger positive associations. You don't need a lot of quantity.

I like to keep my workspace field of view fairly simple. If there isn't much of significance in front of me other than a fairly spartan workspace, I expect this may enhance the priming effect of what is actually there. It also focuses the effect since the few objects help to align in a fairly consistent direction ( _professional, organized, neat, relaxed_ ), as opposed to a viewport that's overwhelming with a hodgepodge of items that may trigger mixed associations.

### Priming for Quality on a Budget

Here are some more suggestions for priming your mind for quality, abundance, and success if your budget is currently pretty tight:

**Get some quality pens** – I'm not into expensive pens because to me an overly expensive pen would prime thoughts like gullibility and stupidity, but I like pens that write well and feel like quality tools. My current favorite is the Uni-Ball Vision Elite. I buy them in a 12-pack. Make sure your pens and other basic tools consist of items you truly like. Throw away any pens in your workspace that you don't love, and replace them. It's better to have just 2-3 awesome pens in your pen container that you like using, as opposed to 20-some that include all sorts of free but crappy ones you picked up randomly and that don't even write well. I actually pre-pack good pens in my travel bag, so I never have to settle for using low-quality hotel or conference center pens. Grabbing a pen is a common and frequent activity for many people, and it's easy and inexpensive to ensure that whenever you do this, you're automatically priming your brain to activate thoughts like _pro, quality, success_ , etc. If you want to prime different thoughts when you grab a pen, such as creativity, then get yourself some pens that align nicely with your priming interests.

**Get a quality timer** – If you like to work in timed spurts, a quality timer can prime thoughts like _efficiency,_ _speed_ , and _professionalism_. I recently replaced my old timer with a CDN TM30. I like that it has numbered buttons, so I can just punch in the time if I'm using the countdown feature. With my old timer, I had to set the countdown incrementally by holding down a button until the display showed the desired time, which was inefficient. My old timer could only handle 99 minutes, while the new one can time for 10 hours (up or down). Since I use this device a lot, spending a little extra to get a more functional and nicer looking one is worthwhile, not just for the usage benefits but also for the priming effects.

**Try scented candles** – I often burn scented candles while I work. My favorites are sandalwood and vanilla. I enjoy working by candlelight, which gives my home office a relaxed and mellow vibe, and the scent also primes me with thoughts of relaxation and luxury. It's hard to feel too stressed while smelling vanilla all day. Even when the scent is faint, I know that my subconscious mind is still picking up on it. Just be careful which scents you use, or you might end up craving cookies or ice cream. For more simple office improvements, see 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace.

**Buy a good watch** – One of my friends tried to get me to invest in a $5000 Omega watch. He has one and seems to like it. To him it's a symbol of luxury and success. To me, quite honestly, a watch like that is a symbol of stupidity, inefficiency, and low IQ. Ask someone with an analog watch what time it is, and notice how slow and imprecise their answer is; sometimes they even read it incorrectly. It's faster to tell the time with a digital watch, and you can't beat the accuracy. My current watch is the Casio MTG900DA. I've had this one for years, so I'm sure there are newer models available, but I don't feel it's worth upgrading yet. After going through other watches that would break easily, I got this one for $99, and it's nearly indestructible (priming: _durability, stability, strength_ ). It's atomic, so it's always accurate to the second (priming: _accuracy, timeliness, punctuality_ ). It's solar powered (priming: _efficiency_ ). And it has other nice features you'd expect from a digital watch, like being able to change time zones easily when I travel (priming: _intelligence, adaptability_ ). While I can't bring myself to feel a modicum of respect for the $5000+ _analog_ watches (my brain automatically downgrades someone's IQ when I see them wearing one), I do like a quality watch — but it has to satisfy my definition of quality. I may switch to an iWatch when those become available if I like what Apple has developed and if I expect the priming effect will be an improvement over what I'm currently wearing.

**Invest in a quality mug** – If you like to sip coffee or tea or other beverages while you work, get yourself a quality mug (or two or three). No scratches. No chips. Something that primes you with desirable thoughts. On my last trip to Sedona, I bought a couple of handmade mugs. At $25 each, they were the priciest mugs I've ever owned, but I was happy to spend extra on them. They're strong, beautiful, hand-crafted, and signed by the artist (priming: _beauty, strength, durability, artistry, craftsmanship, creativity, luxury_ ).

**Buy a quality toothbrush** – If you brush your teeth every night, invest in a quality toothbrush. I buy a big pack of them from Costco, so I always have plenty (for myself and for guests), and the quality is very good. What's the priming effect of an old, shabby toothbrush that you use every day? It could be priming thoughts like _worn out, dilapidated, old_ , etc. Wouldn't it be better to prime thoughts like _clean_ and _new_?

**Buy the best food** – If you can't afford to buy the best quality food across the board, pick one item (or class of items) where you'll always buy the best there is. Maybe you always buy organic apples. Or always get the highest quality tea. Start sending your brain the message that you deserve and receive the best. I also like the priming effect of eating only vegan foods... and especially the removal of the priming effect of seeing other species' dead flesh on a daily basis. I'd rather not prime myself with daily associations to _factory farming, cruelty, torture, cages, corpses, disease, death, violence_ , etc., especially in my own home. Better to prime thoughts like _clean, organic, compassion, health, peace, sustainability_ , etc. Your associations may be different than mine. Use foods to prime yourself in whichever ways you consider most intelligent and sensible. If eating a food often triggers negative associations, I recommend dropping that food from your diet.

**Stock up** – Don't just buy the minimum quantity of items you know you're going to use anyway, such as toothpaste or deodorant. Buy several of them at a time. Then when you see your supplies, you'll be priming thoughts like _abundance, prepared, well-supplied, supported_ , etc. At many stores, like Whole Foods, you can also get a case discount for buying off-the-shelf items in bulk. I like opening my bathroom cabinet and seeing several extra tubes of toothpaste that I don't even need yet. Whatever else may be going on in my life at the time, I know I've got the toothpaste thing handled. :)

I'm sure you can come up with many more simple changes you could make to your environment, regardless of your budget.

I know that many of these changes may seem trivial. Are they actually worth doing? Modern neuroscience has a clear answer for that. The answer is yes. If you want to read a dozen books or conduct your own brain research on this subject to validate that, be my guest. Or you can take a few minutes to try some of these ideas, and see what happens. These are such simple and easy changes to make that testing them is very low risk. I think you'll be pleased — even surprised — with the results.

If you'd like to upgrade something bigger but can't afford to tackle everything, I suggest putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. So if you can't afford to upgrade all of your tech, then just upgrade one piece of it, but upgrade to the absolutely best model for you. For instance, get the best phone for you, but keep using your old computer.

In my experience it works better to have one small item shining as a symbol of the priming you desire against a backdrop of junk vs. the effect of having an entire field of slightly upgraded mediocrity to prime you. Even if all you do is buy some nicer pens and leave everything else the same, that alone can get things flowing in a more abundant direction.

### Dressing for Success

Some people also recommend wearing really nice clothes to prime thoughts like _success_ , _wealth_ , and _professionalism_. I'll share some thoughts on this based on my experience.

I notice a difference in the priming effect of what I'm wearing when I'm interacting with others, such as when I'm giving a presentation or chatting with friends or just running errands. I think my clothes are actually priming them to respond to me in a certain way, and that in turn can influence my own thinking. Generally speaking, the nicer I dress, the better the results.

However, I haven't noticed much difference in the priming effect of my clothing when I'm working alone. I suspect it's because most of the time I'm working solo, I can't really see my clothes. My visual cortex isn't processing much input there, except when I look down or see myself in a mirror.

When working alone I actually want to prime myself with comfort more than with looking sharp. I like to feel relaxed and comfortable in my body, so I prime for that, even if it's more kinesthetic than visual.

I'm writing this article while wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and Vans sneakers. Could you tell? Does that make my writing any less professional? I doubt it. In fact, I suspect that wearing a suit might prime me to feel more formal, less authentic, and stiffer, which could be detrimental to my communication style. I'd rather prime for a casual, relaxed, and friendly style of writing.

Again, I recommend experimenting. Try different styles of dress to see what works for you. I'm able to be very productive while dressing incredibly casually. Overdressing at home would likely prime me with thoughts like feeling _inefficient_ and a bit _ridiculous_ , even though I might enjoy dressing up for other occasions. Your results may be different. Only way to know for sure is to test.

### What About Daily Affirmations?

Daily affirmations are another way to use priming, but I find them largely ineffective. They can help a little, and I know that some people swear by them, but the main problem is that their influence is very temporary. Affirmations also tend to be very slow to work. You may have to do them for several weeks or even months before you notice much difference.

Other forms of priming work much faster, often with significant results on the same day you begin to apply them. Daily affirmations also lose their influence as soon as you stop doing them, whereas other priming methods can be more permanent and passive.

So I don't recommend doing daily affirmations because there are stronger and more effective ways to influence yourself, especially given what modern neuroscience is telling us about how the brain works.

Realize that everything that comes through your senses is an affirmation. Your brain is processing input all day long, and that other input is no less important than your own self-talk. If you do verbal affirmations for several minutes in the morning, that's a drop in the bucket compared to all the other influences hitting you throughout the day. It's like an ant trying to move a tractor. Yes, that ant still exerts a measurable force on the tractor, but the tractor remains unimpressed and unmoved by the ant's best efforts.

Telling yourself "I am attracting financial abundance" is of limited utility if, as soon as you're done with your affirmations, you then go on to re-prime your brain with thoughts of scarcity, lack, and laziness by using your disgusting toothbrush that should have been replaced months ago, checking a cluttered email inbox on a frustratingly slow computer running pirated software, and drinking cheap coffee from an ugly hand-me-down mug your parents gave you.

So instead of time-bound affirmations, I recommend that you make more permanent, persistent, and passive changes. Instead of reading your affirmations aloud each day, post some keywords or pictures within your visual field where you'll see them frequently, ideally someplace where your visual cortex will be processing them continuously for many hours each day. Just be careful not to create too much visual clutter in such a way that could prime you for thoughts like _clutter_ and _confusion_.

I think the best affirmations are passive and automatic. Instead of installing the daily habit of reciting verbal affirmations, take a minute or two to install a passive, automatic, and continuous affirmation. I think you may find as I do that simply having a word like "flow" or "motivated" in your field of view all day while you work has a much greater effect than reading dozens of affirmations for 30 days in a row. Try it for yourself.

### Using the Best Tools

Your brain is incredibly powerful — and highly programmable. Your brain is constantly being programmed by your environment. You may not be able to overpower your brain by conscious effort in this moment, but you can change its ongoing influences, starting today. Start feeding your mind new input that aligns with your desires. Trigger it to keep activating the associations you desire to activate most frequently. And remove those influences that you no longer wish to activate. If this means that you have to kick an overly negative person out of your life because they're frequently priming you for negative thinking, then do that.

Don't fret about what you can't do yet. Think improvement, not perfection. You can always do something. So do that one thing now. Then make another improvement. And another. And all the while, you'll be benefitting from the stacking improvements you've made previously. This will build momentum in a very positive direction.

I've noticed that the more I've invested in these conscious priming efforts, the more it has created a steamroller effect in the direction of my desires. When you reach the point that your own priming efforts become a habit unto themselves, it gets so much easier to stay aligned with what you want.

I'm getting used to the habit of using the best tools that money can buy, and I'm really noticing a difference in my work ethic. But I can't account for this improvement with the change in the quality of the tools alone. Honestly, those tools are just a little better than what I was previously using. The difference in productivity seems to be largely coming from the ripple effect that stems from knowing that I'm using the best quality tools available. Whenever I use these tools, I'm priming my brain with other associations that cause me to feel more motivated, to take more action, to work with better focus, and therefore to enjoy more results. I'm also no longer regularly priming the associations that were linked with the old tools, like feeling outdated, behind the times, less professional, a bit envious, etc.

For most of last year, I was using a 4-year old computer, thinking it was still plenty good and that I didn't really need a new one. Now I use a top-of-the-line model, and the feeling I have while using it is very different. Sure it's faster, lighter, and has a nicer screen. But the experience of using it goes beyond that. In the back of my mind, I know that I'm using the best there is. I feel current and caught up. I feel more on top of my game. I feel more motivated to work. I enjoy working more. After making these upgrades, I did more than enough extra work to earn back the purchases many times over. Now I'm wondering how much further I can push this mindset. What else can I change to improve this priming effect even more?

How do you feel about using the best tools available? Do you give yourself that experience? Or do you deny yourself that experience? What associations do your choices trigger when you use your tools? Do you love them? Do you feel lucky to wield them? Or do you associate your tools with thoughts like frustration, envy, unworthiness, or unfairness?

Which tools do you expect would prime you with the most positive associations when you use them? What if you don't think you can afford them? Is there a way you could still use them? Note that you don't have to buy them. You could rent or borrow them if you wanted. Maybe even apply the timeshare concept to some of your tools, sharing the cost with other people who could also use them. That may not work so well for a phone, but it could work for a tablet if you don't use it that often. Especially if you've never done it before, give yourself the opportunity to experience at least some small slice of time using the very best tools in your field. See how that feels to you. Don't be too surprised if you have the thought, "Nice! I could really get used to this!"

After all, the best tools are only a matter of money. They're out there in the world, available right now, probably in mass quantities. If you have the money, they're just a few mouse clicks away. And money itself is something you can earn with your creativity. So if you think that the best tools are a distant fantasy for you, perhaps it's wise to prime your brain with associations to _abundance, creativity, hard work, enjoyment of your work, worthiness, professionalism_ , and especially _flow_.

Professionals have the privilege of using the best tools. Are you a pro? The title is arbitrary. Anyone can claim it, no special degree required. Being a pro is merely an attitude. If you want that title, and whatever associated benefits you think are attached to it, then claim it. Put the word "Pro" somewhere in your work environment.

### Prime Your Day

Finally, let me close this article by deliberately priming you with some positive thoughts for your day:

  * happy
  * positive
  * productive
  * motivated
  * intelligent
  * creative
  * loved
  * relaxed
  * success
  * accomplishment
  * completion
  * stimulation
  * abundance
  * automatic
  * flow

Feel free to add to this list, or create your own, as a way of priming yourself for a day that aligns with your desires.

Your brain is a brilliant supercomputer. Your sensory input is the programming. Your conscious mind is the programmer. You can't control everything in your life (or inside your brain), but you can definitely change some of the dominant sensory input that ripples through your subconscious every day.

You can have what you desire. Take advantage of the priming effect to get your neurons activating the patterns and associations that align with your desires. Make one of the changes recommended above right now, such as writing the word "flow" or "motivated" (or both) somewhere you'll see it every day within your field of view. You'll be glad you did! :)
* * *

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of _The Priming Effect_. In the subsequent chapters, I explain in-depth all the techniques and methods I'm currently using to prime my brain with success.

Although the idea of priming your neurons with words may seem novel, it's been known by psychologists for more than a hundred years. It's why Coca-Cola, arguably the most recognizable brand in the world, continues to advertise its product on billboards. Merely having your eyes see that logo every day has a profound effect.

You can purchase _The Priming Effect_ on Amazon.

As always: thank you for reading :)

Steve
