Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 63

The Light Outside My Window on the Morning After Launch

This morning I woke up at 7:20am, and it felt so late. There was a touch of light outside—what was that? Oh right, sunrise.

For the past few mornings I’ve been getting up at the entirely unreasonable hour of 5:30am or sometimes even earlier. My breakfast place opens at 6am and I’ve been at the front of the line shortly thereafter. The sun rose two hours after I’d been awake.

Two nights earlier, I went to bed with my laptop on the nightstand.

Yep—it was another product launch week.

As I made ano...

Why “Make Something You Love” Still Matters

Link: New Video with New Stories about Freedom and Value

New video alert! My friend Marie is preparing to relaunch her mega-popular B-School course. As part of the process, she’s releasing three free videos that aren’t just teasers—they all include more than 25 minutes each of non-salesy, helpful tips on running an online business.

I mentioned the first and second ones last week. The third one is now out, and you can watch all of them by joining the pre-list at the link.

In the latest video, y...

The Wall Street Banker Who Became a Monk: Rasanath Dasa’s Quest

This is a quest case study. ( Read others or nominate yourself . )

Sometimes when we get what we want, we realizewe were wrong about our own ambitions. Rasanath Dasa spent his entire young adult life getting a great job in finance only to realize that a frenetic, money-driven lifestyle wasn’t for him. Here’s what he did to change it.

Tell us about yourself.

I had wanted to work on Wall Street since ninth grade. Living in Mumbai, I saw Wall Street on TV, and immediately dreamed of owning a yellow con...

6 Discoveries from Near and Far: Volume XXXII

I. Around the World

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

Vietnam: A Road Story — A fun look at trains, rain, and a few of the millions of motorbikes that are used as primary transport in Vietnam
Today is Not Tomorrow — A grandmother’s lesson from a weekend phone call
Stop Telling Women to Smile — An interactive documentary on street harassment in Mexico City
What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living — “People say we’r...

What Do People Say At the End of Their Lives?

If given the chance, what do people choose for their last reflections and comments? A veteran hospice chaplain gives an unflinching answer:

“They talk about the love they felt, and the love they gave. Often they talk about love they did not receive, or the love they did not know how to offer, the love they withheld, or maybe never felt for the ones they should have loved unconditionally.

They talk about how they learned what love is, and what it is not.

This is how we talk about the meaning of...

Living With Gratitude in a Modern Age

Jonathan Fields is one of the most generous people I know. He is always helping me and many others. I try to help him in return but the ratio is at least 4:1 in his favor.

In this post he explains something he’s done for a while:

While I do have a standard sig-file that gets added to my emails automatically, I type the words “With gratitude” by hand. Slowly, with intention, owning a sense of genuine gratitude as I type.

In doing so, it becomes a mini-meditation. A momentary honoring. An opportu...

Live and Work from Anywhere: You’ve Heard the Story, Now It’s Your Turn

Greetings, friends and readers.

The Unconventional Guides team and I are excited to introduce our newest guide!

– Working on the Road: The Unconventional Guide to Full-Time Freedom

I get a lot of questions from people about how they can make money WHILE traveling. To help provide answers, we teamed up with Nora Dunn (a friend and successful long-term digital nomad) to craft this in-depth, comprehensive resource.

By picking up this guide, you’ll get access to:

Job reviews and interviews with profe...

A Million-Dollar Secret and 13 Keys to Success (Yep, really.)

Link: Brand-New Video about Love and Marketing (don’t worry, it’s good)

Greetings, friends and readers!

As mentioned last week, my friend Marie Forleo is preparing to relaunch her mega-popular B-School course. As part of the process, she’s releasing three free videos that aren’t just teasers—they all include more than 25 minutes each of non-salesy, helpful tips on running an online business.

The second one is now out, and you can watch both of them by joining the pre-list at the link.

In this v...

Mission Accomplished! The Full Report from the 2015 Dining Dash

We did it! As mentioned, last week my travel hacking colleagues and I took on a mini-quest of going to 12 specific restaurants in Portland in a single day, all in pursuit of miles and points.

On Friday morning, we set out at the crack of dawn 8:30am with an ambitious goal: To visit 12 restaurants throughout the city. We wanted to achieve all 12 of our qualifying “dines” (any purchase at the participating restaurants, no minimum) to earn VIP status with Rewards Network in a single day.

My frien...

How to Earn Money While Traveling: Fact and Fiction

Want to make money while on the road? It’s definitely possible, and more and more people are doing it all the time—but you may need to change your thinking to make it happen.

Our first Unconventional Guide of 2015 launches this Tuesday morning. It’s all about what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to heading out into the world as a long-term (or at least frequent) traveler.

The premise might surprise you: On its own, traveling has little to do with earning money. You earn money by making o...