How to Live and Work from Anywhere
Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.
[UPDATE JUNE 15th 2010: You can now purchase a copy of Minimalist Business over here.]
[UPDATE MAY 11th 2010: The limited release of Minimalist Business is now over. I’ll be relaunching the guide in a month or so, be sure to sign up for free updates via RSS or EMAIL so you don’t miss out!]
Everyone has a moment when they start to believe.
This is the moment when it all starts to make sense, when the pieces click into place, and success becomes inevitable.
My moment came in the summer of 2008. I was working full time as a photo editor at New York Magazine.
This was before the near collapse of the banking system, but there was still very little money going around. Especially in the photo industry –it’s incredibly difficult to get gigs when there are 3 million photographers and most of them sell their stuff for $1 on istockphoto.
I attended a small convention of photographers in downtown Manhattan with my friend Diana Sabreen, who worked for me as a photographer at the time.
Photography conventions are incredibly sad. There are typically thousands of underpaid and dispirited professional photographers attending — they’ve bought all the gear, but they can’t find the work, and the underlying purpose of conventions is simply to give Nikon and Canon a venue to sell photographers more gear that they don’t need.
How I discovered that you can live and work from anywhere.
One speaker stood out to me though, Rob Haggart. He claimed to be a photo editor, but wasn’t working at a magazine anymore. Instead he ran a blog called A Photo Editor.
All of the photographers loved him. It was impossible to talk with him at the convention because their was such a crowd around this guy. I couldn’t figure out why, because he apparently didn’t do anything — he obviously couldn’t employ these people because he didn’t work at a magazine or agency. Why was he so successful?
Later at drinks down on The Bowery in Manhattan I walked up and asked Rob a simple question: “Photo editor to photo editor, what do you actually do?â€
“I sell photo portfolio websites, and spend most of my time hiking and raft around Colorado with my kids.†and then he added quite mysteriously “…It really is possible to live and work from anywhere.†Then he walked away.
I had another gin and tonic and headed home, but his words stayed with me until I quit my job in July of 2009 with a single intention: to move across the country and learn how to live and work from anywhere.
What I found during this experiment was stunning, it really is possible to live and work from anywhere.
You can create a minimalist business in order to live and work from anywhere.
The Internet has broken down all of the barriers in communication, and this in turn has broken down all of the barriers in sales. If there are no costs, you can sell to anyone in the world.
Any one person can contribute value to a tribe of 1000, or 10,000 people who will support them online.
Shortly after I announced earlier this year that my e-book The Art of Being Minimalist was fully supporting my minimalist lifestyle, I started to receive a flood of emails from people asking what I’d done to be able to live and work from anywhere.
These emails haven’t stopped. Everyone wants to know how to create a business that allows them to live and work from anywhere in the world. I’ve done my best to answer every email, but the sheer volume made me realize that I had to record my thoughts in a place where they were more widely available to people who need the knowledge.
I believe this development, how to live and work from anywhere, will be remembered as the single most important change in the history of the modern age.
Slowly, and quite silently, a small legion of extraordinary individuals are learning how to harness the power of the Internet to create location independent micro-businesses which allow them to move when and where they please.
I also believe:
- It’s a lot easier to start a minimalist business than it is to find a fulfilling job with the current state of the economy.
- An MB (minimalist businessman) doesn’t need to work as many hours as a typical wage slave (I currently work only 10 hours a week, but I’m angling for 4.)
- Anyone with enough strength and willpower now has access to the resources that allow them to create a minimalist business.
So why isn’t everyone creating a minimalist already?
Because of fear. The world changes slower we like to think. Many people want guarantees, they want someone to point them in the right direction and physically show them every single step they should take.
Ironically, doing exactly what everyone else isn’t doing is the easiest way to find success.
Most people are trained from kindergarten to sit down, shut up, and do as their told. Doing what you’re told makes it pretty impossible to start a minimalist business, because there’s no one to tell you what to do. You’re the only employee!
There are no 12 simple steps to a minimalist business. There are no magic bullets.
I can’t tell you every single thing you need to do to make a business successful, because every minimalist business relies on the individuality of it’s creator.
The unique qualities that make you different are what you have to harness to create a minimalist business.
Only a few people on the cutting edge of change will gather the strength to make this journey. Eventually, the rest may follow, but for right now this really is frontier territory.
Who shouldn’t buy Minimalist Business:
- People who want all the answers.
- People who are looking for magic bullets.
- People who want an easy life where they don’t have to answer hard questions.
- People who are happy in their day jobs.
- Hotshot internet marketers already making a huge income on the web.
I’ve done my best to lay a framework for how you can create a minimalist business, based on my own observations during the creation of my minimalist business.
Perfect is the enemy of done.
This version isn’t perfect. Seth Godin told us in Linchpin that every project needs a ship date. So I set one, and today I shipped. That being said, if it hasn’t been made apparent already, this is an incredibly ambitious project. I’m sure I’ve left some things out, I’m sure I’ve spelled a few things wrong, I’m sure some people won’t “get itâ€.
This is why I’m only releasing Minimalist Business for today 24 hours to the readers of Far Beyond The Stars. You guys are awesome, and first and foremost I want to help you with the information that’s contained in Minimalist Business.
This version is offered at a significant discount from what the price will be when I release the guide in a month to affiliates and a larger audience.
I want to hear from you.
Contact me with any questions you have about the guide. Let me know what you think is missing. Let me know what you need to know to be successful. I’ll do my best to answer, if I know the answer.
While I might not have all of the answers. I have successfully created a minimalist business, so hopefully I’ll be able to help you.
This version isn’t perfect, but everyone who purchases now will receive free updates for an entire year. With your input, we’ll make it perfect as time goes along.
The effectiveness guarantee.
Minimalist Business won’t be right for everyone. I understand this. There’s also an incredible number of skeezy Internet marketers selling “secret guides to making money online†that over-hype their value and under-deliver on quality. If you’re a long-time reader, you will know that I am not one of these people.
This is why I’m offering a full refund to anyone who isn’t happy:
- If Minimalist Business doesn’t help you.
- If Minimalist Business isn’t what you thought it was.
- If Minimalist Business doesn’t enable you to create at least $250 of income on the side (that’s $3000 a year!) by the end of six months (high performers will of course do must better than this.)
Then I’ll refund you the entire purchase price of Minimalist Business. No questions asked.
I don’t want anyone to feel like they made a bad decision.
Paypal only allows me to offer refunds for 60-days. However, I’ll do everything in my power to offer a refund at any time in the future. As long as I’m still breathing, you can get your money back on this product if at any moment you feel like it isn’t living up to your expectations.
How to purchase Minimalist Business
As I said above, I’m only selling Minimalist Business at these reduced prices for 24 hours. You have from May 10th at 10am EST until May 11th at 10am EST to purchase Minimalist Business at the reduced prices below.
$50 $37 – The Basic “Getting Down to Minimalist Business†Version
Features: 112-page Minimalist Business e-book on creating your own minimalist business in order to live and work from anywhere + free updates for a year.
Minimalist Business features:
- Strategies for minimalist business success
- Time management techniques I’ve developed to focus on the important
- How to work towards making your entire living while working a less than 10 hours a week
- How being minimalist makes minimalist business success so much easier
- The tools you need to start a zero-overhead business over the Internet
- How to separate your income from location so you can live anywhere
- A guest article by Leo Babauta on his secret to creating a successful business
- and much more…
You can preview the first 35 pages of the e-book here.
$60 $47 – The Upgraded “Minimalist Plan†Version
Features: 112-page Minimalist Business e-book + The 30-Day Quick Start Guide to a Minimalist Business + free updates for a year.
This additional quick start guide features a tip-a-day that will help you build your minimalist business. Is it a sure-fire path to success? No. Do you have to do it over 30 days? certainly not.
Take your time, apply the action steps when you need them.
Readers have asked for me to break down the book into simple action steps that can be taken in order to build a minimalist business, so I created this quick start guide to try and address the actions you need to take to build a minimalist business. It isn’t a silver bullet, but if you’re the kind of person who likes day-by-day instructions, this can help.
$750 $257 – The Complete “Destined for Minimalist Success†Version (Limited Quantities)
Features: 112-page Minimalist Business e-book + The 30-Day Quick Start Guide to a Minimalist Business + 30 Days of Email Coaching with me, Everett Bogue + free updates for a year.
The email coaching starts at a time of your choosing. Purchase it now, read the book at your leisure, and contact me when you’re ready to get started with coaching.
I’ve been asked by a number of readers to offer Minimalist Business coaching. I’ve received incredible value from 1 on 1 sessions with teachers in my life, so I want to have the opportunity to give back to people who need the 1 on 1 attention.
I may take this down if there is overwhelming demand. I can only take on so many coaching clients, and I don’t want to take on so much that I can’t offer incredible value to the people who take me up on this offer.
To be honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever offer coaching as feature again. I certainly don’t need the money to support my minimalist lifestyle, and it takes a lot of time to coach people to business success. If I do offer coaching again, it will be much more expensive than the current price.
Basically: this is probably the last time you’ll be able to purchase 1 on 1 coaching with me for this low price.
The effectiveness guarantee (see above if you missed it) is available for all purchase options — even the coaching! If you aren’t satisfied, drop me an email and I’ll issue a full refund.
To sum it all up.
Yes, you can live and work from anywhere. Yes, you can achieve minimalist business success.
The reduced price “perfect is the enemy of done†versions will only be available until May 11th 2010 at 10am EST.
If you’d rather wait for the final version (which you’ll receive if you purchase now via free updates for a year.) you can sign up for free updates from Far Beyond The Stars via EMAIL or RSS to be notified of the final version’s release.
Thank you for your time, your support, and for being awesome.
Everett Bogue
P.S.: I’ll be online all day to help with any questions you may have. Feel free to drop me an email or visit me on Twitter if you have any questions!