Archive for March, 2008
The Essential Skills You Need To Run A Location Independent Business - And How To Tool Up
Photo by flattop341
As someone who comes from a corporate background of management consulting, one of the things I found the most thrilling about our journey to becoming location independent was the “skilling up” required… I love learning new stuff.
In consulting, it was the constant need to learn something new, to assume the status of an [...]
Photo by flattop341
As someone who comes from a corporate background of management consulting, one of the things I found the most thrilling about our journey to becoming location independent was the “skilling up” required… I love learning new stuff.
In consulting, it was the constant need to learn something new, to assume the status of an expert amongst far more experienced people and in all honesty, to be able to blag with the best of them which created the love/hate relationship I had with consulting.
One day I’d be cramming my brain with everything I could find out about credit management for a global bank, the next it could be refreshing my knowledge on the client journey to talk to the Customer Relations director of a global cellphone company; but the fear that I would some day be “found out” nagged at me in the background and overshadowed the challenge and thrill of all that learning.
These days, running my own business and writing my own blogs, presentations and marketing materials, I only write about and sell what I know - the things I’ve got experience in and what I’ve actually done successfully myself.
I live safe in the knowledge that my skills are usually good enough, that the depth of knowledge is sound and that I can basically deliver what I promise to deliver. That can’t be said of everyone sadly.
But this isn’t another rant about how some bloggers blag with the best of them and advise others on things they’ve never done (which irks me something chronic too), it is a post about the essential skills I believe you need if you’re aiming to become location independent by running a business of some sort…and how you can skill up if you find yourself lacking.
Here they are…
Enjoying The Here And Now: And Why It’s Really All We’ve Got
In the course of striving for something more, something better or something different, it can often be hard to enjoy the here and now.
We experienced this not only in the run up to our location independent lives but also whilst living our LIP lives in the early days. For us, it manifested itself like this:
Before [...]
In the course of striving for something more, something better or something different, it can often be hard to enjoy the here and now.
We experienced this not only in the run up to our location independent lives but also whilst living our LIP lives in the early days. For us, it manifested itself like this:
- Before we left we were so focused on what we were trying to achieve, that we didn’t savour our last few weeks and days of having a stable base, a gorgeous home we owned and our nearest and dearest close to us.
- For the first few destinations, we felt we couldn’t settle in and enjoy it fully until we’d sorted out where we were going next and had it all booked up.
- Striving so hard for professional success on some projects that it no longer felt fun.
- Focusing far too much on an arbitrary blog subscriber number (which really didn’t matter) and losing sight of why I write on this blog.
As an over-achiever type, I’m often my harshest critic - constantly striving for that little bit better, that little bit more (ideally perfection although I know that’s a relative term!) and that next little step.
But life is too short… Read the rest of this entry
Street Smart Tips For Location Independent Professionals Plus How To Avoid A Common Trick: Part 3
Photo by Auntie P
Concluding this series on Safety & Security, which includes my previous post about how to keep your stuff safe whilst you travel and Greg’s post on how to keep yourself safe in a foreign country, in this post I’ll be sharing the story of how I was robbed by a group of [...]
Photo by Auntie P
Concluding this series on Safety & Security, which includes my previous post about how to keep your stuff safe whilst you travel and Greg’s post on how to keep yourself safe in a foreign country, in this post I’ll be sharing the story of how I was robbed by a group of 10 year old girls and how you can prevent the same from happening to you.
I’ll also be sharing a few other street smart tips on keeping yourself safe whilst gadding around the world as a location independent professional.
First up, here’s the story…
Why Escaping The Rat Race Was The Best Thing I Ever Did And Why You Should Consider It
Price Pritchett, an internationally-recognised expert on change, once said “Change always comes bearing gifts.” I believe this to be true although the gifts may not always turn out to be what you expect.
My decision to leave the rat race over a year ago was not an easy one. Despite growing tired of the office politics, [...]
Price Pritchett, an internationally-recognised expert on change, once said “Change always comes bearing gifts.” I believe this to be true although the gifts may not always turn out to be what you expect.
My decision to leave the rat race over a year ago was not an easy one. Despite growing tired of the office politics, the actual work and the long commute I had a lot of good reasons to stay in my job:
- I earned plenty of money
- I had great career prospects ( I still do!)
- My social life thrived
- I lived in a nice part of town
But I found that there was a price to pay for all these good reasons - I became institutionalised. My daily working life was run by someone else. Decisions that shaped my future were not made by me and I was deluding myself that I was in control…
