December 9, 2007: check out Jon’s podcast update to this chapter.

To free yourself from corporate America, you need to join the cult of the expert, and then renounce it. The second part takes a bit more doing.

The logic of becoming an expert is easy to understand: to compete against big companies, you need to excel at something that has been overlooked by the mass marketers. The way to develop that niche is by becoming an expert at something.

In an earlier chapter, we talked about the crucial distinction between an expert and an “aficionado.” The way I am using the term, “expert” implies that you have mastered a talent that has (or will soon have) a market value. “Aficionado” (as I am using it) means you have mastered something entertaining but financially useless. “Aficionado” means you are good at something but the world is indifferent. Harry Potter figurine collecting, hair band memorabilia, and fantasy football are examples of “Aficionado” activities. Indulge them by all means – as long as you have cash to burn or are comfortable treading water financially. At certain points in life, it’s fine to coast.

Those of us with bills to pay and ambitions to satisfy need to take our heads out of the crossword puzzle and developing a meaningful expertise. How do you know when you’ve become a marketable “expert?” That’s an easy one. You’ll know because the phone will ring, and it won’t be a telemarketer. You’ll be approached with new job offers, new business partnerships, and speaking opportunities.

That’s the point where most people screw up. They start to buy into their own hype, becoming infatuated with how billable they are. It’s true that being a sought-after expert is a big step. It means you have options. No matter what kind of messed-up job you wind up in, your niche is a better parachute than any kind of severance package. But unless you can gross millions yelling at companies like Dick Vitale, the cult of the expert is a trap.

It’s a trap because you can’t step away. If you’re not billable, you’re not making money. And the more sophisticated your expertise is, the harder it is to train someone to step in when life throws you a curve ball or an extreme sports accident.

This book is not about achieving conventional power or feeding the ego. It’s about accumulating the resources to reclaim the ultimate commodity: your own time, spent as you see fit. Work when you want, on your own terms. Experts generally can’t do that. Experts are at the beck and call of their expertise. It is wonderful to feel indispensable – that is, until that terrifying day when you realize you are chained to your desk.

The happiest entrepreneurs I know built systems on top of their expertise – systems that were easily taught to others. Once you figure out how to stay billable, you need to take it one step further, and remove yourself from the equation. You do that by creating teachable processes and cash flow streams that other people can manage. You want to create “turnkey” operations – businesses that are ready out of the box, businesses that smart high school students could run.

The harder it is to teach someone to do what you do, the further away you are. I am still far away. I still count on my expertise in the SAP marketplace to foot my bills. My ultimate goal is to create assets that others can manage. Publishing is one route to that goal. True, I’m the only one who can write the books (unless I hire other authors), but I can definitely teach people to handle the other aspects of publishing (especially marketing and publicity) that take up so much time.

I used to thrive on feeling indispensable; now I see it as a warning sign that I’m headed in the wrong direction again. At this point in my career, there’s nothing worse than a list of tasks on my plate that only I can do. It’s on me to come up with business ideas that are easily implemented by others. The real riddle is to find a way to do what you love without letting it grind you. Either that, or hit the home run: write the bestselling book, become a pro basketball player. At the highest level, you can afford to be billable because you’re banking so much per hour. But the rest of us are better off cultivating systems.

Real life examples of “teachable systems” span across industries. I’ve seen people do it with staffing firms, database consulting, and even restaurants. I wouldn’t wish the restaurant business on my worst enemy, but the most successful restaurant owners *are* able to turn their operations over to managers – if they have their egos under enough control to step away. A lot of people are in the game to lord their power over others. You can’t free yourself until you get over yourself.

There’s nothing wrong with being an expert at something. It’s a lot better than being a generic middle manager that companies can hire and fire at will. But unless our goal is to work ourselves into the ground, expertise is ultimately a trap – unless our expertise is training other people to run our businesses.

Most of us have a hard time imagining the downside to getting paid to babble on about things we are good at. But there will come a time when the only thing you want is the one thing you can’t pull off: to step away from the wheel without having the bus run off the road. There is nothing more frustrating than knowing that most of your ventures cannot do without you for more than a couple of days. And on the flip side, there is nothing more satisfying than income earned with little ongoing effort. To me, that is the true definition of “passive income,” and the more passive your income is, the freer your life can be.

But developing truly “passive” income is no easy trick. Most of our so-called “assets” dry up as soon as we step away. The solution is a combination of perseverance and a willingness to question assumptions about what success really means and how to get there. Profit should be measured partially by how much life energy we expend to get them.

I have referred to my friend who makes a bunch of money from traffic on his web sites. Between advertising and book sales, he is doing well, and his ongoing workload is minimal. I make more money than him, but by our standard of time-versus-money, he is the more successful businessperson. So join the cult of the expert, but move beyond it as soon as you possibly can.

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. The published version of the book is significantly enhanced from the web version available on this site.