The birth of mini retirements and the death of Vacations The Financial realities: Abroad is mostly cheaper Take short experimental trip first
take it in steps
Take language classes Credit cards with points Book at least 3 months in advance OR try booking last minute orbitz.com
Cheaper airfares
Use
kayak.com
Fly major carrier into a hub and a local to wherever When more is less: Cutting the clutter T shirts 1 shorts
One week of clothing
Tips
pair of jeans Backup scans of all important documents Small Backpack: KISS > SMALL
Debit cards Credit cards â‚Ź200 of local currency in small bills
Losing sight of dreams and falling into work for work's sake
Small bike lock
Micromanaging and emailing to fill time
Electronic dictionaries
Handling problems your outsourcers or co-workers can handle
One broad strokes travel guide
Helping outsourcers or co-workers with the same problem more than once, or with noncrisis problems
40 liter backpack should be enough!
most will be avoidable the rest will be reversible
Chasing customers when you have sufficent cashflow to finance your non financial pursuits
Use questions from chapter 3 to evaluate your worst case scenario fears and evaluate the real potential consequences
Answering email that will not result in a sale or that can be answered by a FAQ or autoresponder
The top 13 New rich Mistakes
Fear set a one-year mini-retirement in a dream location in Europe
Choose a starting point and then wander until you find your second home.
Embracing the mobile lifestyle
Choose an actual location for your actual mini retirement. Where to start
b
Blowing minutiae and small problems out of proportion as an excuse to work Making non time-sensitive issues urgent in order to justify work Viewing one product, job or project as the end-all and be-all of your existence
Suggestions What is the 20% of my belongings that I use 80% of the time. Which belongings create stress in my life
Not performing a thorough 80/20 analysis every two weeks for your business or personal life. Striving for endless perfection rather than great or simply good enough, whether in your business or personal life.
a
Select a region and then settle in your favourite spot.
Working where you live, sleep or should relax
Ignoring the social rewards of life
ELIMINATE
Three months out Options - the ability to choose - is real power
AUTOMATE
Two months out
Doing intresting things
Living like a millionair Mail forwarded
One month out
Movement
Scan documents
New Rich?
Downgrade cellphone NOT LONG TERM LEASE BEFORE YOU GO Hostels are best for information
Two weeks out
When you do it Where you do it Whom you do it
Retirement is Worst-case-scenario insurance
Store car Disconnect battery
Cellphone
Numer of W's
Get hostel or hotel Thoughts
Decide schedule for routine batched tasks
Bike tour
What you do
Questions and actions
Health insurance
Bus tour
1 week
Prepare for the trip
Liberation
2 days out
OUR GOAL The opposite of happiness is boredom Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness Questions
Day 2 and 3
Arrival
What do I want?
Not
What are my goals?
Boredom is the enemy, not some abstract "failure" Conquering fear = defining fear
Move in day
Uncovering fear disguised as optimism
Don't get souvenirs
Define nightmare
The absolute worst that could happen if you did what you are considering?
one week later
Repair?
The timing is never right
Social interaction in an office needs to be replaced
Postpartum depression
Doubts invade the mind when nothing else fills it Meditation
Most of the time easy!
FEAR!?!
I've got more money and time than I ever dreamed possible....why am I depressed?
Ask for forgiveness, not permission
Costs? financially, emotionally and physically - to postpone action?
Revisit ground Zero: Do Nothing
Everyone goes for safe leaving unreasonable open
Make an anonymous donation to the service organisation of your choice
Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic
What makes you most angry about the state of the world? What are you most afraid of for the next generation, whether you have children or not?
What would excite me?
Ask
Get settled
Eliminate the extra crap you brought won't use often
1 month vacation/training - mini retirements
Relative income is more important than absolute income
First late afternoon or evening
Local health insurance
2 months work
Aim (book)
Interest and energy are cyclical
First morning after checkin
Find and book an apartment for a month
Not just owning..
Brainstorm
The goals shift from ambiguous wants to defined steps The goals have to be unrealistic to be effective
Like goal setting with key differences
Filling the void: Adding Life after subtracting work
What are you good at?
Underestimate self
Over reaching inspires and adds adrenaline rush
Dreamlining
What makes you happiest in your life? How can you help others have the same?
Overestimate competition
The fishing is best where fewest go
Definition
Take a learning mini-retirement in combination with local volunteering
Do not
activities that will fill the vacuum created when work is removed. Now its your turn to think big
Reset DREAMLINING
What could you be the best at?
6 Months
What makes you happy?
12 Months
Proven sequence for getting started
What excites you?
SUSPEND JUDGEMENT
Revisit and reset dreamlines
What makes you feel accomplished and good about yourself?
cars Having
What are you most proud of having accomplished in your life? Can you repeat this or further develop it?
Correcting course: Get unrealistic
Based on the outcomes of steps 1-4 consider testing new full or part time vocations not work
List up to 5 things
being
fluent Chinese being a great cook Visiting Thailand
Create dream occupation
something to do that is worthwhile
doing
racing ostriches etc
To experience life
Questions and Actions
Learn Skill Learn Language
house
Create 2 timelines
1. What would you do if there was no way you could fail?
clothes
What would you do day to day if you had $100m in the bank
The Point of it all
To learn is to live
Volunteering Ask for someone with excellent English Specify telephone calls required
What would make you most excited to wake up in the morning to another day?
2. For all their bitching about what's holding them back most people don't know what the hell they want
One place to visit One thing to do before you die (a memory of a lifetime)
Accepting the first person the firm provided and making no special requests at the outset
one thing to do daily one thing to do weekly one thing you've always wanted to learn
Giving imprecise directions
Pitfalls
Giving license to waste time Setting the deadline too far away - use Parkinson's law
Keep in mind
Giving too many tasks and not setting an order of importance Never use debit cards for online transactions with VA Create separate login for VA
Convert each being into doing 3. What does being entail doing?
Two rules
Outsourcing Life Effective vs efficient Doing something unimportant well does not make it important
Time management - forget about it
Each delegated task must be both time consuming and well defined
Truisms look at your todo list- what has been sitting on it the longest
Paretos law
What should you delegate?
Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important
Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?
80/20
Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?
Start small and think big
Examine pain points - what causes you the most frustration and boredom
Highlight most exciting or important
Determine three steps for each of the four dreams in just the 6 month timeline and take the first step now
Get an assistant even if you don't need one
Each time you are interrupted or change tasks ask, "Could a VA do this"
Speak Chinese ---> Have a five minute conversation with a Chinese co-worker
Determine the cost of these dreams and calculate your target monthly income for both timelines
Eliminate before delegate
Identify your top 5 time consuming non-work tasks and five personal tasks you could assign for sheer fun
What are the four dreams that would change it all
Great cook ----> make Christmas dinner without help
Don't expect miracles or too little Push outside your comfort zone
The 9-5 illusion and Parkinson's Law
Start small, think BIG
New rules
Social
Limit tasks to shorten work time (80/20)
industry
Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson's)
Professional belong understand
Am I being productive or just active? Am I inventing things to avoid the important?
or
If you had a heart attack and had to work two hours per day what would you do?
Look creativly past present
If you had a second heart attack and you had to work two hours per week what would you do? Groups
groups
Step 1: Pick an affordably reachable niche market
Questions and Actions
books online offline
Compile list
subscriptions
Less is not laziness Which of the groups have their own magazines?
The Low Information Diet
Filling demand is easier than creating it
Full page advertisements less than 5k
Focus on being productive instead of busy
Don't read newspapers or watch the news irrelevant Information is usually
Finding the Muse
Pick two markets you are most familiar with Have their own magazines
What are the top-three-activites that I use to fill time to feel as though I am productive?
Develop the habit of asking yourself, "Will I definitely use this information for something immediate and important?"
"Which magazines, websites, and newsletters do you read on a regular basis?
check for repeat ads
If you had a gun to your head and had to stop doing 4/5 of different time-consuming activities, what would you remove?
Learn to ask "if this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?
"what groups of people purchase the same?"
get rate cards
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
unimportant unactionable
The not to do list
Brainstorm (Do not invest in) products
No fewer than 15000 readers
Be too hard to approach or too time consuming to not give what I want
Cubicle is your temple
Goal to come up with well formed product ideas and spend nothing
It should take no more than 3-4 weeks to make
Meetings
Product criteria Step 2: Brainstorm products
Time Wasters
It should be explainable in a good online FAQ
Discussions
Ignore without consequence
Phone Calls Emails
Resell intensive Margins are good
Repetitive tasks or requests that need to be completed but often interrupt high level work.
License
Elimination
Types of products
Information products Expertise
Reading and responding to emails Making and returning phone calls
Create your own
Questions Don't ask if they will buy Ask them to buy
PPC
Customer service
Test the offer using short google adwords advertising campaigns. Disable the feature that serves only the best performing ad.
all necessicary repeated actions and tasks lost shipments Where someone needs approval to make something small happen.
Best Empowerment failures
Turn off automatic send/receive
Interruption and the Art of Refusal (SAYING NO)
Turn off visual and audible alerts on email programs Email
Phase 1
Check email twice per day
Create template to auto-respond showing your new rules Move to once per day as soon as possible
Look at merchant account with bank or Paypal
Non-urgent
>10 units per week Add FAQ
Office
Continue to answer common questions
Phone
Get discount on startup costs Find local fulfillment companies
Beg for forgiveness, don't ask for permission
Never check mail first thing in the morning
Pack all orders to determine best/cheapest method
Get three client references
Cell
Urgent
Order of preference
Respond to voicemail via email if possible
>20 Units Shipped per week
Trains people to be concise
Cash flow to make better decisions re setup costs and monthly minimums
Master the art of refusal and avoiding meetings
Contract outsourcing companies that specialise in one function not freelancers
> 400-500 after a while
Ensure all outsources are willing to communicate among themselves to solve problems
Phases
Raise wholesale minimums to 12-100 units and require a tax ID number to qualify resellers who are real businesspeople not time-intensive novices
"Delivered in 30 minutes or less or it's free!"
Phase 3
Do this
Offer lose-win guarantee instead of free trials.
Make your customer base an exclusive club and treat the members well once they've been accepted. Those who complain the most spend the least Don't be the CEO or founder Put multiple e-mail and phone contacts on the website Set up an interactive voice response (IVR) receptionist Do not provide home addresses
How to look Fortune 500 in 45 minutes
Emails should be streamlined to eliminate
Removing Yourself from the Equation: When and How
back and forth if....then
Meetings should only be held to make decisions Not to define the problem max 30 minutes
Puppy dog close
Do not accept payment via Western Union, checks or money orders
Free attracts time-eaters
MBA - Management by Absence
chitchat
If unavoidable: define the end time
The art of undecision: Fewer options = more revenue
Offer low-priced products instead of to capture contact information for follow up sales.
Phone Meeting
Put the fulfillment house email address on the site - or forward one from own domain to it.
give them written permission to make the most inexpensive decisions without consulting you first.
Script mirrors
Time Wasters: Become an Ignoramus
Contract manufacturer - get them to ship direct after this has been worked out
Silent Goes to voicemail
Two numbers
Phase 2
30 day terms
>100 at start
malfunctions cash expenditure
0-50 total units sold
Leverage against advertising for future sales
damaged shipments Customer contact
Test
Do it all yourself Put number on site for general questions and order taking
product assistance
Personal errands
Testing the Muse Simple landingspage
status
Financial or sales reporting
Basic testing
Helpful for FAQ
Time consumers
Microtesting
AIDA Buy button
Not all evils are created equal
Automation
Step 3: Testing the muse
Google Adwords
Out of order
Headphones
Batch tasks together
The main benefit should be encapsulated in one sentence It should cost the customer â‚Ź50-200
Do not disturb