http://freefromcorporateamerica.com Jon's Free From Corporate America Radio Show is the podcast companion series to his upcoming book, Free From Corporate America: A Tactical Guide to Success on Your Own Terms. In the podcasts, Jon returns to the most provocative points in the the book and addresses reader reaction to the chapters already posted. The podcasts cover all kinds of topics related to achieving success outside of dependence on "9 to 5 America," including leveraging the Internet for marketing, financial competence, avoiding get rich quick schemes, deconstructing "false assets," and steering clear of "too good to be true" investments. There is also a focus on the art of branding yourself through your career path and developing income-generating assets, including creative projects such as films and books. Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:09:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 en ©Jon Reed 2007-1008 info@freefromcorporateamerica.com (Jon Reed) info@freefromcorporateamerica.com(Jon Reed) 1440 career, success, business, investing, technology, writing, money, finance The complete audiobook recording from Free From Corporate America, read by the author Jon Reed one chapter at a time. Jon\'s Free From Corporate America Radio Show is the podcast companion series to his upcoming book, \"Free From Corporate America: A Tactical Guide to Success on Your Own Terms\". In the podcasts, Jon returns to the most provocative points in the the book and addresses reader reaction to the chapters already posted. The podcasts cover all kinds of topics related to achieving success outside of dependence on \"9 to 5 America,\" including leveraging the Internet for marketing, financial competence, avoiding get rich quick schemes, deconstructing \"false assets,\" and steering clear of \"too good to be true\" investments. There is also a focus on the art of branding yourself through your career path and developing income-generating assets, including creative projects such as films and books. Jon Reed Jon Reed info@freefromcorporateamerica.com No no http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/wp-content/themes/modern/images/podcast-ffca-rss.png http://freefromcorporateamerica.com 144 144 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/80 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/80#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:38:37 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/80 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/80/feed 11:00 As we head toward the end of the year since the book was released, I've decided to commemorate this by releasing an audiobook version of ... As we head toward the end of the year since the book was released, I've decided to commemorate this by releasing an audiobook version of the book in its entirety, read by yours truly. Eventually, I'll make it possible to access all the book chapters within iTunes, but for now, you can listen to them here as they come out. I'm recording these chapters mistakes and all, but the first one came out pretty good, with a decent sound quality, so I hope you enjoy! This one also includes a brief intro by me where I talk about why I'm doing an audiobook version and how I plan to approach it. I think Rachel Meyers did a great job on the foreword; it was fun to try to bring her words to life. Download and subscription options: you can download (and subscribe to) all the chapters in the audio book (free) eithernbsp;in ournbsp;iTunes store nbsp;or with our audio book RSS feed. Audiobook,,FFCA,Podcasts Jon Reed no No http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/75 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/75#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:19:32 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/75 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/75/feed 39:22 In his return to the Free From Corporate America podcast series, Morris Rosenthal of FonerBooks.com talks with Jon Reed about the business of eBooks and ... In his return to the Free From Corporate America podcast series, Morris Rosenthal of FonerBooks.com talks with Jon Reed about the business of eBooks and how self-publishers can add an eBooks revenue stream by selling eBooks from their own marketing platform. Morris, the author of Print on Demand Book Publishing, also has a YouTube video channel for self-publishers that is referenced in this podcast. During this forty minute, unscripted conversation, Jon asks Morris about how he found success with eBook sales, whether eBook sales impacts his traditional book sales, and why he decided to publish eBooks without DRM. Morris also talks about the limitations of trendy digital reading gadgets like Kindle for self-publishers from a revenue standpoint. Other topics covered in this podcast include: - Why Morris embeds live URL links in his eBooks. '- Which eBook topics are "sellable" for self-publishers and which topics (e.g. fiction) should be avoided. - How eBooks extend Morris' books sales internationally. - Different eBook business models, from the unethical to the naive to the most effective. - How much content within the eBook Morris gives away and how to make judgements about "free content for traffic" versus giving your books away. - The distinction between hard-selling tactics and building "virtual trust" with potential readers. ------ Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews. You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. Thenbsp;published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site. ------ FFCA,Podcasts,,Publishing,,Web,Business Jon Reed no No http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/74 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/74#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:28:17 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/74 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/74/feed 46:02 In the series reboot of the FFCA Podcast Series, Jon Reed welcomes Morris Rosenthal of FonerBooks.com and the author of Print On Demand Book Publishing ... In the series reboot of the FFCA Podcast Series, Jon Reed welcomes Morris Rosenthal of FonerBooks.com and the author of Print On Demand Book Publishing for a totallynbsp;unscripted conversation on web business and self-publishing.nbsp; Listen in as Jon and Morris debunk popular myths about blog traffic, Google Page Rank, and how to succeed as an Internet-based self-publisher (Morris) rather than an overworked blogging and consulting diva (Jon). After we taped this podcast, both of us felt that we can improve upon this one, so we look forward to your comments. But, there's enough on here worth sharing, including: - Why blog "traffic" is deceptive and why web sites structured like books tend to get much better Google "love." - Morris explains why his blog traffic is significantly lower than his "static" pages, and why "blogging is a curse." - The dangers of publishers skipping the text-based content lessons ofnbsp; "Web 1.0" and heading directly to the sexy social media era of Web 2.0. - The continued victory of content over aesthetics when it comes to web business, especially for content producers. - A juxtaposition of lifestyles between the high traffic self-publisher and the overworked blogger/consultant, as well as unfair dismissalsnbsp;and mockery of nbsp;"cool bloggers." - How Free From Corporate America's concepts on building income-generating assets mix well with Morris' views on lifestyle profitability and the value of having anbsp;income profit margin versus overworking yourself for top line revenue. - Morris's 100,000 plus YouTube visitors and why they have had no positive bottom line impact on his business due to their lack of text-based traffic generation.nbsp; (as well as the inherent difficulties of making multi-media searchable). - The value of "contextual links" and why Morris would much rather have a high quality contextual link from an obscure site in his industry than a non-contextual link from a hot blogger. - The limitations of getting home page links from blogs versus more desirable "deep links" to reference pages on your site from well-regarded sites in your industry. - A brief review of hot social media sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) and an insufficient discussion of their pros and cons (a topic to be returned to in future postings and podcasts) - Victory for Jon's Zoom H-2 Recorder over Morris' weak Walmart recorder that crapped out 10 minutes into the podcast. - Traffic stats are cited, as well as how Morris tracks the traffic of his site compares to others using free tools (Alexa, Google Trends, and Quantcast). FACT CHECK: As stated in the podcast, Morris' web site traffic does currently exceed (or equal, depending on the tool) the traffic on Amazon's Mobi site. SHOUTOUT: To the Enterprise Geeks and Bill Simmons of ESPN for providing further validationnbsp;of thenbsp;longer, unscripted podcast format. ------ Want to buy Free From Corporate America or see reviews of the final published version from readers like yourself? The printed book is now available on Amazon.com with product reviews. You can also get a discounted version of the final book in eBook (PDF) format, or you can pick up a copy on the Kindle. Thenbsp;published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site. ------ FFCA,Podcasts,,Publishing,,Web,Business Jon Reed no No http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/41 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/41#comments Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:30:34 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/41 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/41/feed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/37 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/37#comments Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:12:15 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/37 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/37/feed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/36 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/36#comments Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:54:31 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/36 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/36/feed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/31 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/31#comments Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:40:30 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/31 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/31/feed 16:49 December 16, 2007: check out Jon's podcast update to this chapter, where he explains his approach to finance in the context of "freeing yourself from ... December 16, 2007: check out Jon's podcast update to this chapter, where he explains his approach to finance in the context of "freeing yourself from corporate America." A balance sheet can be a terrible thing to behold. So we save ourselves the trouble by either not creating one or doing it inaccurately. Unfortunately, listing our home as an asset and patting ourselves on the back is not going to get it done. A properly constructed balance sheet tallies up the resources we have to throw at our problems. This could be the difference between leaving a crummy job tomorrow versus having to dig in with a long term exit plan. You can't walk away if you don't know what you're working with. The easiest way to generate a balance sheet is through an accounting program, but that won't get you the kind of balance sheet we're after. The best way to make ours is with a spreadsheet like Excel. It doesn't take much know-how to put together a simple two-column spreadsheet with liabilities on one side and assets on the other. A piece of paper might serve you better than fancy software. A full-featured accounting program is going to classify some things as assets that are not. And it won't take into account other personal goods that are in fact assets. Financial advisors promise that your home and retirement account are assets. In this book, they may not be. When you do your "Free from Corporate America" balance sheet, you only list assets that can be converted into cash in a short-term timeframe (three to six months max). Retirement accounts can only be included if you are willing to liquidate them. Most people are not, and for good reason (If you are thinking of using your retirement account to launch a business, always look into borrowing against it first). For our balance sheet, you can only include your retirement account if you really are willing to liquidate it. Of course, you must subtract the penalties and early withdrawal fees and list only the remainder of your IRA as an asset. When it comes to getting out of corporate America, cash is our key asset. The extra cash can be applied in several ways: we could step back from our "careers" and pursue a more promising field; we could launch a new side venture, or we could shift to part-time work and pursue our own projects aggressively. You can't make those choices without an accurate balance sheet. We approach the balance sheet differently because of our premise that 9-to-5 living is not going to get us there. The new plan is to stop putting all our cash into inaccessible IRAs and instead to use it to fund the creation of our own income-generating assets. These assets will give us a "home run potential" we didn't have before, and they will ultimately increase our job satisfaction as we get closer to working on our own terms. With that in mind, what do you do with your home? If you own your home, you may have been advised to list the entire worth of the home as an asset on your balance sheet and then list what you haven't paid as a liability. Since we are only interested in cash we can put to work in the short-term, we don't do that. On this balance sheet, there are two ways you can account for the value of your home: if you have enough equity that you could refinance your primary mortgage and take money out, then list the amount of money you could pull out as an asset. (strictly speaking, refinance money is a loan, not an asset, but since it's protected by the underlying value of the house, we are bending the rules). Alternately, if you could sell your home and make a profit, and *if* you have no problem selling your home and cashing out, then you can list your home as an asset. If you go this route, you need to determine the price of the new home you would buy when you sold your old one, and then determine the cost of the down payment on the new home. Take the profit you would make from the sale of your old home, deduct the cost of the new down payment, and FFCA,Podcasts,,The,Book Jon Reed no No http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/28 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/28#comments Mon, 26 Jun 2006 22:28:32 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/28 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/28/feed 13:08 February 4, 2008:nbsp; Returning to the FFCA podcast show after some travels, Jon added this podcast update to one of his favorite chapters, in which ... February 4, 2008:nbsp; Returning to the FFCA podcast show after some travels, Jon added this podcast update to one of his favorite chapters, in which he talks about how you can dramatically change your career path by focusing on skills and less on your total salary. Drawing on his own experiences after graduating, Jon explains how he used this tactic to get out of the service industry for good. He also hits on the more controversial part of this chapter, "management is for suckers." It's hard to master life without mastering business, and it's hard to master business when you're slogging it out in the service industry. People have a nasty habit of taking dead-end jobs because "the money is too good to pass up." Later, they hit a bitter ceiling. I didn't know diddly-squat after I graduated from college. Of all the ill-advised decisions I made, I did have one redeeming impulse: I craved new skills, and I was willing to suffer financially to get them. At one point, I took a "job" for forty dollars a week editing a new publication. That's one way to break into a new field. When you're willing to work for pennies, doors open. Friends waiting tables were banking more than I was. But I had this fanciful notion that my real compensation was the business education I was receiving. It might have been the only thing from that entire era I was right about. Often times, jobs that have the most cash incentives - bartending, waiting tables, and entry-level sales positions - don't have a skills upside. (Though true sales jobs, where you prospect and close leads, are *vastly superior* to retail "sales" environments where you learn how to scan batteries instead of closing deals). "Management" positions can be even more dangerous. In most business settings, "manager" is a special role set aside for the biggest sucker, the one who is willing to do the owner's dirty work in exchange for a chance to boss people around. "Management" experience is valuable to a point, but as a general rule, it's better to have a life than to get stuck acting like an owner but being paid like an employee. Full disclosure: I currently manage people for my biggest client. It all depends on what you're getting out of it. In this case, my situation doesn't feel stagnant, and I have a profit sharing agreement in place. But I've been in crummy management situations before, the kind where you work way too hard for an extra quarter an hour and a bigger set of keys. You can get lost in so-called "management careers." The real secret is to learn just enough about management to know how to push your own ventures forward. The preferred approach is simple: "chase the skills, and the money will follow." There's no absolute rules - all you need is a knack for knowing when a job is drying up. If you head towards the biggest challenge, and switch jobs ruthlessly to find those challenges, you're on the right track. Notice that this approach clashes with how our corporate friends want us to play. Drop this line during an interview: "I'm here to learn as much as I can from your company, but as soon as I've outgrown this situation, I will move on." You've broken a cardinal rule by stating your self-interest; no offer will be forthcoming. Nevermind that your future employer would do the same to you in a heartbeat. Think of your business know-how as a container, and your cash flow as the water. Most people have pretty leaky containers. It doesn't matter how much cash you throw into a leaky container; it will all flow out the bottom. So what makes for a strong container? Some people think it's about tracking every expense and clipping coupons. At best, that's just the beginning. It's not as simple as treating expenses like Whack-A-Mole, popping each in the head when it pokes up. Expenses are not created equal; sometimes you have to spend money to make more of it. So we have to understand the power of investing, and that means grasping financial documents ... FFCA,Podcasts,,The,Book Jon Reed no No http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/26 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/26#comments Sun, 04 Jun 2006 22:21:34 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/26 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/26/feed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/21 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/21#comments Mon, 10 Apr 2006 22:06:09 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/21 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/21/feed 15:33 November 17, 2007: check out Jon's podcast update to this provocative chapter. You can't go a day without hearing someone get teary-eyed about the virtues of ... November 17, 2007: check out Jon's podcast update to this provocative chapter. You can't go a day without hearing someone get teary-eyed about the virtues of hard work. As someone who has worked as hard as anyone with a questionable life to show for it, I am here to testify that hard work is overrated. The "work smarter, not harder" crowd has the upper hand. Most of us were huddled over hard work while our greatest opportunities passed us by. We were too busy paying our dues to notice. Take an extreme example from the dotcom economy: in the mid-90s, I was working hard to establish myself as a technical recruiter. I knew all about the Internet and how it was changing the job economy. So I went about the business of making as many job placements as possible. Since placements averaged $20,000 and I had a fifty percent commission percentage, I wasn't complaining. But I was thinking small; you don't settle for a handful of nuggets in the midst of a gold rush. Each day I worked until the wee hours. I had so many voice mails I wrote them down on little paper squares and taped them to my windowshade until it made wallpaper. I did my best to return them all. Meanwhile, while I was being such a productive guy, a couple of nose-picking computer geeks slept in, put on their bunny slippers, and bought up some URL addresses, such as business.com. They held onto them for a year or two, and sold them for millions. I worked harder, they worked less, and they got a lot more back. That's because the economy is structured to reward ownership, not sweat. People have a hard time letting go of the ideal of hard work because they want to believe in some kind of meritocracy where those that bust their butt get their day in the sun. That's a wrong-headed, naiuml;ve way to look at life. Here's a better analogy: think of hard work as the accelerator and business strategy as the steering wheel. If you're heading in the wrong direction, working harder just smacks you into the wall sooner. In the early '90s, there was a club called the Bay State where the local music legends had their day. There was a bartender down there who was a double-shifter to the core. He worked days at a grocery and nights closing the bar. I'd never met someone so bitter and worn down. He was a relentless work zombie, and I was in awe of his work ethic. Contrast this to another fellow I knew back then who he had a sizable ownership interest in a computer company. This guy hated to work. He was the kind of insufferable owner who comes in once a week, criticizes some people, messes up some good ideas, and heads out again. He lived in the woods and drew a nice salary while dragging his company like a car boot. The company became very successful in spite of him. Eventually they needed to get rid of him in order to have the authority to make decisions on being acquired. This guy ended up getting paid a hefty sum to go away. Nobody in the company worked less than him, but he got paid for being a jerk. The contrast between this fellow and the double-shift bartender taught me everything I needed to know about hard work. I'll be the first to stand up for the importance of discipline and consistency when it comes to reaching goals. But strategy comes first. I've been dismayed to see that my determination to go the extra mile has actually backfired, leading me to states of physical exhaustion that are, frankly, terrifying. It's better to accept that we have human limitations. Don't be like me and try to find out what those limitations are. So what's this rant got to do with anything? The goal of this chapter is two-fold: first, to scare corporate workaholics into realizing that accumulating massive timesheets is not a wise approach to wealth creation. Second, to encourage those who are considering developing assets of your own to give it a shot. Pull back from your day job a bit if you have to. Make sure to get time in on your own ventures. I measure my side p... FFCA,Podcasts,,The,Book Jon Reed no No http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/12 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/12#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:20:25 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/12 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/12/feed 16:28 December 2, 2007: Check out Jon's podcast update to this chapter, which Jon considers to be the most important chapter in the book. So what if ... December 2, 2007: Check out Jon's podcast update to this chapter, which Jon considers to be the most important chapter in the book. So what if you accept my argument? What if you concede that the working world has flipped and the real risk is working 9 to 5? Does that mean you quit your job and start your own business tomorrow? Not necessarily. True, plenty of entrepreneurs were "forced" into starting their own companies through pink slips - myself included - but that can be an icy plunge. It's not easy to find time to start a company when you're working full time, but your current salary gives you protection (and early stage financing) during the most vulnerable periods in the startup process. A big mistake is defining your startup options too narrowly. The business gurus mess this up on their infomercials also. Breaking free from corporate America is about creating assets of your own. But there are all kinds of assets. An asset can be a piece of real estate or a customer database, but it can also be a screenplay or an unpublished manuscript. Let's not be dreamy, not all assets are created equal. An unpublished piece of writing or a painting in your basement has questionable market value. In the end, your assets must achieve financial value in order to be deserving of that word. You must take your work to market. We can think of assets on a continuum, with proven assets such as residential real estate on one extreme and a book of unpublished poems on the other. Accountants might even call some of these assets "intangible," but I don't agree. It's hard to say what's intangible these days. Goodwill and business reputation, for example, used to be considered intangible assets, downgraded accordingly when businesses were acquired. But in the branding age, it's the hard-to-quantify brand name of a business that dictates much of its purchase price during an acquisition. (Many point to the acquisition of Kraft by Philip Morris in 1988 for $12.9 billion - six times Kraft's net asset value - as the dawn of a "new age" in the perceived value of intangible assets such as brand names). It's fair game to devote your energy to the creation of assets which have an uncertain market value. There was a time when Harry Potter was just a manuscript also. But assets with no established value are "speculative assets." Speculative assets are riskier, and we can't delude ourselves on this point. But here's the good news: there are ways to moderate that risk. Just how speculative an asset is depends on a host of factors, including your marketing skills, budget, and creative talent. This book is a speculative asset; I have no idea how it will be received. Since I do make money on my other books, I hope to make money on this book also. But there is always a risk when you devote time to creating something without a proven market. In theory, I could have reduced my risk if I had stopped writing after a few chatpers and secured a book deal, perhaps through an agent. If I had held off on sinking more time into this project until I had financing from a publisher, then I could have reduced the risk by receiving a cash advance for the time invested. When you find a third party willing to mitigate your risk, they will ask for a healthy piece in return. That's why the "upside" for this book is significantly higher if I either (a) sell it through my company (at a much higher net margin than I could get from a larger publisher), or (b) wait and sell it to a larger publisher when I have already established a market demand and can negotiate more favorable terms. Because I have assumed the risk of proving this book has a market, I will be in a much better negotation position down the line. (Though in this case, the main reason I am publishing it myself is because I don't see how I can write about freedom from corporate America without total editorial control.) Risk tolerance comes down to the individual. Because I am relatively stab FFCA,Podcasts,,The,Book Jon Reed no No http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/10 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/10#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2005 05:00:08 +0000 Jon Reed http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/10 http://freefromcorporateamerica.com/archives/10/feed 11:04 November 25, 2007: check out Jon's podcast update to this chapter. I can hear the people who know me stifling a laugh. How can I ... November 25, 2007: check out Jon's podcast update to this chapter. I can hear the people who know me stifling a laugh. How can I possibly advocate ldquo;lifestyle businessesrdquo; given the absurd nature of my own existence? Fair enough: I wouldn't wish my lifestyle on anyone. But I have no doubt that these principles can be successfully adopted by folks with a more balanced approach. One of my role models is an Internet book publisher who makes a very good living in his underwear. He optimizes his web site for Google when he gets bored. It bothers me when people turn away from these ideas because of how hard I work. The only reason I work like this is because I made some fateful decisions a long time ago that turned into a pretty big hole. Donrsquo;t step in the hole, and you wonrsquo;t have to work like I do. So where did I veer off? To sum up this cautionary tale, I was not raised to be an entrepreneur. And if you donrsquo;t understand the entrepreneurial approach to life, you probably wonrsquo;t succeed. Even if you do, your success will be precarious, as it will be based on the blessing of fickle institutions rather than on ownership of your own creations. These are strong statements, but Irsquo;ll back them up before this book is done. Itrsquo;s possible to be educated and have no clue: I graduated from college with absolutely no idea how to finance my creative ventures. The job I was most qualified for? Grocery bagger. My degree had an astonishing impotence, but I didnrsquo;t wake up. I idealized the fact that I had no strategy and no financial competence. I would simply ldquo;do what I lovedrdquo; and ldquo;the money would take care of itself.rdquo; If anyone reading this feels the same, I would urge you not to jump off that particular cliff; the ground will rise up and smack you good. To enter the economic world without an economic strategy makes no sense. To see yourself as an employee in a world that caters to business owners is an even more terrible mistake. I made both of them. Even when yoursquo;re somebodyrsquo;s employee, you must never lose your ldquo;ownerrsquo;s consciousness.rdquo; There has to be a side project out there with your name on it; you need an asset to call your own. Simple? It took me a decade to get that, and thatrsquo;s ten years after I graduated from college. I know some professors who should be ashamed of themselves. The ldquo;do what you loverdquo; doggerel of liberal arts fantasyland haunted me well into my twenties. When the bill for those illusions came due, it was mighty steep. My ldquo;clawing up the cliffrdquo; lifestyle is not a judgment on the quality of the ideas in this book, but it is a damning indictment of the combined incompetence of family and schooling to prepare me for the life I have chosen. I canrsquo;t romanticize my own bad decisions either. I call those self-limiting acts ldquo;piling onrdquo;; itrsquo;s the worst form of betrayal you can ever feel. The only thing worse than my own predicament has been watching my friends twist in the economic wind. If I had hunkered down in academia I might have found a comfort zone, but then again, comfort zones are breeding grounds for mediocrity. Academia can be a great career, but for me, it would have been a cop-out. Now, at 39, I'm a long way towards digging out. The excavation is still a 24/7 project. The reason I push so hard? I'm determined to live a life beyond the stereotype of the meek, ldquo;Irsquo;ll settle for thisrdquo; white collar existence that some seem to find acceptable but I see as total capitulation. I know it (and itrsquo;s not fun to type this) because Irsquo;ve lived it. Disclaimer: one of the biggest misconceptions of all is that you succeed in life by outworking people. The upcoming phrase is full of cheese, but the corporate trainers are right: ldquo;working smarterrdquo; is more important, and we'll return to that theme. For now, let's steal one from Charles Barkley: I am... FFCA,Podcasts,,The,Book Jon Reed no No