Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 15

How to be Everything: A guide for those who (still) don’t know what they want to be when they grow up

In a popular TEDx talk, “Why some of us don’t have one true calling”, Emilie Wapnick flips the script on conventional career advice.

Instead of suggesting that you specialize, choose a niche, or accumulate 10,000 hours of practice in a single area, she provides a practical framework for building a sustainable life around ALL of your passions.

Check out , “Why some of us don’t have one true calling,” below:

The talk turned into a new book, How To Be Everything.

“What do you want to be when...

The Key to Productivity Isn’t More Rest, It’s Intentionality

Link: “Darwin Was a Slacker”

For some of us, the notion that working only part-time on a legacy project is the best approach is tempting. Is it possible to do such a thing? Sure, of course. Free time and the ability to choose how you spend your time in the first place is a privilege.

But is it ideal to follow that approach? I don’t think so.

I stumbled upon this article and simultaneously liked and disliked it. Read the whole thing—you might relate to it more than me.

“Figures as diffe...

Final Round of WDS 2017 Tickets Goes on Sale Today

Link: Final Round of WDS 2017 Tickets

For seven years now, our volunteer team has produced a global adventure that takes place every year in Portland. This year will be our best year ever—you should be there!

Here’s what you need to know: Our FINAL ROUND of main-stage ticket sales for WDS 2017 begins TODAY, Wednesday, April 26th, starting at 9am PST. All tickets are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, with none being held back for sale at the event itself, so get yours while you c...

101 Stories of People with Day Jobs Creating Side Hustles

Listen to Side Hustle School:

–in iTunes or Stitcher
–on the website
—somewhere else (it should be available almost anywhere you listen to podcasts…)

On January 1, I began a new project: to publish a story every day of someone who starts an income-generating project (a “side hustle”) without quitting their day job.

The project failed and I decided to give up. Just kidding! We are relentlessly moving along, publishing story after story—and it’s getting better and better!

I recently complet...

Can You Master “People Skills” By Reading a Book?

Get this Captivating Book from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | iBooks

Have you ever wished that you could decode people? Do you want to know exactly what to say to your boss, your date or your networking partner? Well, then you need to know how people work.

As a human behavior investigator, Vanessa Van Edwards believes that people skills should never be considered “optional.” Over the past decade, she’s studied the hidden forces that drive our behavior patterns in her lab, The Scie...

“We Run Away from Desperation:” Thoughts on Pursuing a Creative Idea

I recently recorded a Side Hustle School episode about Michelle D’Avella, a designer who spent several years building a blog before turning it into a full-time income. The episode comes out next week, and ever since I made the recording I’ve been thinking about something she said.

The first year she started her blog, she made $0. Last year, after experimenting with a series of virtual workshops and mentoring sessions, she made $50,000. The success isn’t just about making money, it’s also (...

How Do You Know If Your Idea Is Worth Pursuing?

Creative people usually have no shortage of ideas of things they’d like to do. The greater challenge is: how do you know which ideas are worth pursuing, and which should be abandoned or just put on hold for now?

Here’s one way: consider the amount of time you spend thinking about the idea, even as you go on to other things.

I don’t just mean when you have an idea and you think about it a lot the same day. I mean when you have an idea, and you think about it for a while before putting it a...

Tired of Negativity? Try a Newspaper Full of Good News

Link: A Newspaper Full of Good News

What should we do about the world falling apart? You know—the rise in hate crime, marked partisanship, loss of democracy, weakened institutions, and so on?

Yeah. It’s tough. Let me know when you figure it out.

In the meantime, I’ve been following a crowdfunding campaign for a product I really like. Check out the video to see what it’s all about:

 

Introducing the Goodnewspaper: a printed newspaper that celebrates the people, ideas and movements that are...

It’s Not My Birthday

Despite what Google or Wikipedia tells you, today (April 4th) is not my birthday. Last year on this day I got a flurry of messages from people all wishing me a joyous celebration.

“Thanks,” I’d reply, “but it’s not my birthday.”

I finally developed a working theory of what happened. I’m not positive it’s true, but it’s something that feels comforting, so I’m going with it.

My theory is about my brother Ken, who is no longer with us. As I’ve explained before for those who are interested, K...

Limited Time: Earn Up to 180,000 Hilton Points with Special Offers

Link: Get 100,000 Hilton Points (with $75 annual fee)
Link: Get 80,000 Hilton Points (with no annual fee)

There’s big news in the travel hacking world this week: a limited-time offer to earn a lot of hotel points has arrived. To be precise, there are actually two offers, one for an increased signup bonus amount (from 40,000 points to 75,000, which is great), and an even better one that gets you a whopping 100,000 Hilton points.

Oh, and when you get the Surpass card (the one with 100,000 po...