It doesn’t matter if you’re looking in the blogosphere or the book store – Lifestyle advice is all around you. Build a business to support your dreams! Yay!
Lifestyle is the new black. Minimalism rules and pundits are trying to find the new definition of “enough”. It seems that any self respecting entrepreneur is supposed to build a micro-internet business to support their ambitions. Those ambitions usually revolve around tropical retirements and/or working from your PJs while homeschooling your kids.
Sounds great right?
Yet the psychology of these “lifestyle” entrepreneurs indicates they’re more unfulfilled, fatigued and miserable than ever before.
In New Zealand, land of sparkly waterfalls and lush rainforest, there is a thing known as a “Lifestyle Block”. This is essentially a hobby farm, a couple of acres stocked with all the barnyard animals and organic vegetables that a single nuclear family can ably take care of.
Moving to a Lifestyle Block is the solution to the urban existential crisis – when yet another day in the office seems like it’ll kill you. People swap expensive metropolitan rents, move to the sticks to bask in rural serenity as they nourish their body and spirt on self-sufficient produce.
At least, that’s what is supposed to happen.
The reality is much different. They also talk about the “Death-style Block” phenomenon in New Zealand That’s when moving to a lifestyle farm results in, practically speaking, the end of your life.
City slickers who want to grow tomatoes, keep bees and have a few pigs running around… don’t have a clue. They don’t realize the kind of work that is required. They naively believe they’ll be sitting out on their porch, snacking on roast pork, night after blissful night.
In reality, lifestyle farmers are up to their elbows in pig shit. Not once, but often – because any farmyard task that needs doing now will also need doing again. Soon.
The truth is, running a Lifestyle Block is damn hard work. It’s a never ending cycle of repetitive dirty work, with only the shifts in season providing any kind of variation… and even the seasons get repetitive after a while.
When people get seduced by the lifestyle farming dream, what they’re really looking for is what you get after you successfully farm. They’re pursuing a fantasy of end-of-season apples, fresh laid eggs and dripping honeycomb. No bee-stings, thank you.
The parallels should be immediately obvious. Entrepreneurs who dream the “lifestyle” dream are the same. In fact, all entrepreneurs can get sucked into this.
Wannabe writers want to “have written” not actually write.
Start-up dreamers want to “get funded” but not actually build a business.
Most of all, the home-business folk who want to sell info products, an e-course and some kind of consulting service… they don’t know what they want!
Trying to build a business to fuel your lifestyle design is attempting to do something part time that entrepreneurs with serious street-cred almost kill themselves over.
You’re lusting after the milk and honey, without thinking about the bee stings. You’ve probably never even seen (or smelt) a cowshed.
Think about it. Imagine overnight success, then multiply it by a decade. Imagine your online dog trainer coaching school (or whatever) being booked solid… year after year, after year.
Three years in, would you still be enjoying the “lifestyle” this business creates for you?
Imagine doing whatever you’re doing now (or want to be doing)… then imagine what it would feel like to do that, round the clock, for years.
Still sound like fun?
The idea of building a business so that you can do something else is a dangerous one. Most businesses fail. The ones that succeed require the kind of work that few people apply to their full time office jobs.
The only successful (and happy) lifestyle farmers are those who wake up pumped. Pumped to muck out the pigs, shovel fertilizer and do other uncomfortable and squishy things.
If you naively allow yourself to be seduced by the lifestyle dream, you’ll expose yourself to all kinds of mental self sabotage. Your unconscious mind knows you don’t really want to spend your time training dogs or whatever – especially if you’re only doing that to pay for your exotic vacations. Your unconscious self, in it’s infinite wisdom, will work hard to make sure you spend as little time possible on your business.
Eventually it will “save” you from having to run your lifestyle-business all together! Other people will call this “failure”.
Your business is your lifestyle. If it isn’t, you’re not really an entrepreneur. You’re just someone looking for a better job to do, to pay for your playtime.
The only successful (and happy) entrepreneurs are those who enjoy every step of their entrepreneurial journey, from day one to year twenty. And every day in between.
It's been an amazing couple of months and we were just reflecting last night that we'd probably be getting ready to wind things up if not for the energy that you have injected into this business since January.
{ 63 comments… read them below or add one }
SLOW STANDING CLAP!! This is brilliant, Peter – brilliant! Love this line: “Eventually it will “save” you from having to run your lifestyle-business all together! Other people will call this “failure”.” Hah! No truer words…
Hey Jenny! Fancy seeing YOU here
*takes a bow* thank you!
Brilliant! I love this! Thank you for writing what I’ve witnessed the past few years.
I’ve been saying that being a creative is a lifestyle and my business needs have a never ending ebb and flow -much like your hobby farm analogy. Funny thing is, I grew up in that hobby farm (sans pigs) and didn’t like it but it did teach me never to be afraid of long hard work and to appreciate each step.
PS. We had 5 seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, & Mud. Ack!
Hey Lisa,
I love how you got the reverse lesson of my metaphor here… but for real! Can’t knock an entrepreneur who knows how to get their hands dirty
I’ve always been one who likes to say it like it is…and it seems you are too!
Well said. The analogy of those farms is perfect for giving a clear visual image into what happens, and as I was reading, I was nodding.
When I built my writing course, Damn Fine Words, it was important to me to build something that I felt very strongly about. I knew it would be a lot of work to build. I knew it would be a lot of work to maintain.
And *that*s why I knew this had to be something that I WANTED to get dirty with. I made no false illusions about its potential success and I didn’t dream about the after. All I knew was that there was need and demand and that I had the skills – and the INTEREST – in the muck that came with it.
Very damned important, because I would’ve given up long ago. It took me a year to build.
I also keep in mind that DFW is what I want to do *now*. I don’t know what I’ll want to do in five years, and I didn’t make DFW to be a venue to that unknown. I made DFW for right here, right now.
I’m glad to report it worked. Nicely, too
PS: In Canada, we have two seasons. Winter and the construction holidays.
I can tell you’ve been working on your writing course, because you started this comment off sounding like an english professor! LOL
You actually bring up another good point though:
There’s a way to kinda moderate the “business is a hard, long road” phenomena – by building your career around projects that have you focusing hard, getting in the mud etc… for just six or twelve months. Then you refresh yourself by moving on to the next thing. The next thing will be muddy as well, but it’s a different type of mud…
…. and variety of mud is a sure-fire cure for entrepreneurial burn out. You can quote me on that.
I’ve read a lot of the lifestyle design books, and admit that I’ve been beguiled.
Then I noticed that all of these books are being written by single guys in their 20s with little responsibility beyond keeping themselves interested and happy.
I’m entirely in favor of finding the balance that works, and I agree that a lot of us work too hard. On the other hand, my personal concept of “enough” might be different from my wife’s, and she has an equal vote. Plus, the kids need braces and they both want to learn how to ski and to be a cheerleader next year.
At my stage in life, my insistence on living a bare minimum life in order to be able to spend four months a year in Bali, or to work my deadlift up to 500 pounds, may be denying my family the things they care about. And that is a huge transgression against my purpose on this earth.
In sum, there is no lack of honor in busting one’s ass, achieving highly, and creating a comfortable and safe existence for the people who depend on you. If Tim Ferriss ever gets married, he may run into some conflicting opinions.
Good on him for selling his ideas so effectively along the way though.
I couldn’t have said it better Will!
I love the idea of lifestyle design, and I’ve seen friends pursue the Ferris ideal varying degrees of success… and failure. I agree with you that starting a business without any interest in the business itself is foolish, but I also see the advantages of leveraging automation and efficiency.
Efficiency is always advantageous isn’t it?
I’m not critical of doing things efficiently, but I am critical of working on something for the express intention of NOT WORKING. Simply put, it doesn’t work like that. Pun and double meaning intended.
OK, I understand and agree. But now what? I have ambitions that require funding, how do I have a career that I love (or at least don’t loathe) and fulfill on MY purpose concurrently?
@ Will – I’m not where you are -yet- but applaud your clear vision and honor your commitment to your family. Should I hold my purpose in the same regard?
BTW, I know Tim and his current girlfriend… You may be right about future conflicts, she a real firecracker!
@Davis – I should be clear that I make no assertion either way on an entrepreneurial career objective versus a corporate one. Both have benefits, and there surely is more upside associated with the former.
Hey Davis,
Good question man. Without getting into the specifics (it helps to know what those professions are), the answer is simple: Find a way to make money doing what you love… or at least being in such a close proximity to what you love that it’s more or less the same.
I’ve a friend who started a high-end ski instructing, heli-tours company. He loves skiing. He knew building that business, clocking long hours on the slopes with clients, was exactly the kind of “getting dirty in the entrepreneurial mud” he actually COULD do …. season after season.
If you’re not THAT committed to your passions, there’s always the civilian option right? Take a vacation….
Great one Peter!
As a writer and someone constantly working with clients in this arena it is always refreshing to read your posts. Something that hasn’t been said a thousands times on the web already….
Keep it up!
Thanks Tim! I work hard to keep it fresh, so I appreciate your feedback
My definition of success is “enjoy my life while I am living it.”
I am far too impatient to wait for the fruits of my labors. The labors themselves had better be a damned fun time. And muddy, very, very muddy (aren’t we required to use that metaphor in the comments?).
I will say as a coach though that “it depends.”
Some clients are like me and really want to build a biz around a craft they love. Others are able to be more detached from the content of the work, and can have quite an enjoyable life and biz knowing that they are reaching their lifestyle goals by making good money with something that is not terribly engaging.
To each his/her own.
Frankly, I wouldn’t know what to do laying on a beach all day.
-P
Heya Pam,
One of the things I’ve noticed with the type of clients you’re talking about (I have them too) is that, over time (and certainly if they’re very successful) they start to appreciate “the game” itself. They get fired up not necessarily about the detail of whatever widget their business is about…. but about the challenges of leadership, operations, sales, whatever. They love the (mud) hustle for the hustle itself.
I’ve got a handful of clients who are founding partners of law firms, hedge funds and all that sort of very button downed stuff. Not exactly “passion business” material. Nevertheless, the folks killing it are usually lit up about … well, killing it!
Is it ironic that I’m reading this while drinking my morning coffee and watching my backyard chickens scratching around in the grass near the vegie garden? And we homeschool our daughter… LOL
“Imagine doing whatever you’re doing now (or want to be doing)… then imagine what it would feel like to do that, round the clock, for years.” That there is the reason I sold SuperWAHM. I couldn’t keep doing it. And as you also said, the subconscious will do everything to keep you from it. It did. I got to the point where I didn’t like where my business was going, nor how most of my clients were working.
Again ironically, it was the lifestyle dream that was annoying me. Mums wanting to work from home for a few hours a week and make a good full time income. And usually, by selling someone else’s products, and competing in crowded marketplaces. Because all these books/video’s/websites were telling them how easy it was. Being the bad news person, that it was hard work, full time work, didn’t make me popular.
Now, I’m on a 12-18 month break from business. Working out what DOES make me pumped in the morning that I can do for the next 10 – 20 years in order to pay for the lifestyle that I want. There’s no such thing as Work-Life balance. There is simply life, and work (be that as an employee or an entrepreneur or whatever) is a part of life.
Hey Mel,
I actually WAS thinking a bit about you when writing this post. I think you’ve made a good point about work-life balance. Talking about “work life balance” presupposes you’re not living while you’re working.
I thought I recognised myself, but the pigs put me off….. LOL!
Melinda, you are a woman after my own heart! Yowza, that was like reading my own essay. We should talk
I pulled back from my online career a number of months ago because frankly, I was spending too much time feeling incensed by the lunacy of it all. People wanting something for nothing. People trying to sell (what amounts to) nothing for something.
And most of it mattering not a schwack to the world beyond our computer screens.
The false belief is that you can somehow “trade work for life” and vice versa and come out the other side whole. I suppose some can sustain this for a while but that’s one helluva way to spend 40+ hours a week. Ultimately we pay the price with our physical and emotional health.
The toughest (and most evolutionary) thing to do is step away from our egos long enough to get in touch with our own principles. Then live up to them.
Okay, Kerri! Yowza your bad self!
” People wanting something for nothing. People trying to sell (what amounts to) nothing for something.”
You’ve been in my head for the past 3 years, haven’t you? The hype is what turns me off and and the utter lunacy of it all is exhausting to watch. It’s nice to read that people are still living a reality-based lifestyle.
Yes, we can all be *reality stars* can’t we?
I’ll take more reality over more BS any day of the week. Much more filling.
This is the peril of anything that gets romanticized. We are trying to reap the *end* without thinking about the journey. Standing on the summit of Everest may be nice, but it requires going through hell to get there.
Great article Peter. Keeps things in perspective.
Well put Jonathan. Thanks for stopping by to comment
I believe many build a business just to create a platform to do something else. It’s ironic though – if you don’t love your business (and all the negative aspects that are involved with it), it won’t love you back. If you approach business as simply a tool, then I don’t think you’ll be as successful as you could be. Excellent post!
“If you naively allow yourself to be seduced by the lifestyle dream, you’ll expose yourself to all kinds of mental self sabotage. Your unconscious mind knows you don’t really want to spend your time training dogs or whatever – especially if you’re only doing that to pay for your exotic vacations.”
I love this post! Thank you for nailing so well why “lifestyle” business plans bother me. They always smack of a “wanting something for nothing” mentality. Before sharing, I had to think a while about whether I’m just addicted to my Protestant work ethic. Am I held hostage by some inherited “morality” that work must be hard and serious to be worthwhile, or to be considered “work” at all?
Nah…I think, for me, “work” needs to engage and awaken the best parts of me or I am wasting my “juice”. That waste dishonors me, my “creator”, my ancestors, and the ones I would serve. Not that creating lifestyle businesses are inherently bad. I would never accuse Tim Ferris of lack of engagement. but it seems his work, his lifestyle design is a means to engage an over-arching, near divine curiosity. That appears to be his blessing and curse. Those who try to copy him, thinking they can get rich enough to do what they want by putting more consumer crap in a glutted marketplace, miss the point entirely.
I’m guessing Ferris started out asking a question and it burned a hole in him to find an answer, which generated the next question and so on. Totally different energy from “get an idea, design some crap that can be brought to market cheap, automate it, sit on ass, the end. or fly around the world, the end. boring. Ferris has turned his curiosity into his fuel, his hero’s journey. THAT is what seems worth emulating.
Wow Cory, thanks for this comment! Really really good points.
It’s almost like those who follow instructions (from many sources) to build a “lifestyle business” are taking the shell, but leaving the nut.
Hero’s journey is right. It’s occurred to me that those trying to build lifestyle businesses are (unconsciously) aiming to create a venture that ISN’T at all a part of that journey – no challenges, no dragons… just smooth steep growth curves.
Trying to avoid your quest never seems to work out… funny that.. .
If you want a million dollars you have to put in a million dollars worth of work. Good post.
Or at least create a million dollars worth of value… which requires a million dollar idea AND the execution to make it real.
Morning Peter. Your post nails it. I used to be an investment banker, working nutty hours in a stressful environment. When I made the leap to being self-employed, the shift came as a huge relief, because I (foolishly) thought things would let up. In hindsight, I sometimes missed the ‘easier’ hours of banking….Self-employed is another term for busting-your-chops. The good news? When you love what you do, you whistle while you work, whatever your version of shovelling SH*T might be! Great post – thanks!
Hey Mandy!
The good news is, as an entrepreneur, you’re probably not doing anything edgy enough if you don’t occasionally wish you could give it all up for your old office job.
It’s easy to see how a farm is a lot of work, most of us have some idea of what a farmer does (work every day, all day). But I think the beguiling thing is that being an entrepreneur is a pretty foreign concept to a lot of people. I mean practically, what do entrepreneurs do every day? Because it’s abstract it’s hard to evaluate.
Also farmers end up doing lots of different things, fixing engines, birthing cows, shoveling /stuff/… Entrepreneurs need the same mix of being good at EVERYTHING; which results in making you feel pretty damn stupid most of the time.
Great perspective.
Thanks Brad! The metaphor is a good one. It totally applies to leadership too… the farmer who makes the jump to hiring help immediately finds him/herself burdened with a whole new set of challenges… and they’re a whole new kind of muddy.
Boy, I can think of a dozen people offhand who should read this.
You write, “Most businesses fail. The ones that succeed require the kind of work that few people apply to their full time office jobs.”
I was just speaking with a source for a story I prepared for a client. The source said (and I paraphrase), “I make referrals [to an exclusive CEO organization] only of people who love the game of business, the people who really get it.”
The people who get in the mud. They’re the upper echelon. Not the people waiting for the honey.
An outcome can be inspiring, provided it’s worth the work required to get there. But there’s still work to be done. I have watched more than one client fail on this premise. When they ask me what I’m doing right, all I can say is, “Working. Really, really hard. Right now. On and in my business–every day.”
Hey Lindsey, so glad you *get* this. I love your sound byte too – although I imagine those looking for a magic-bullet tip don’t appreciate hearing the truth so much
Peter — Great post. A friend forwarded it to me, and now you’ve got a new subscriber! Might even write a related post on my blog tonight and link to it… If I can take time away from my business to get to it
Lots of food for thought here, so thanks for sharing.
Hiya Alexis, glad to have you along for the ride!
Damn good post Peter. The part I love the best “Your business is your lifestyle. If it isn’t, you’re not really an entrepreneur. You’re just someone looking for a better job to do, to pay for your playtime.”
It’s why I so strongly recommend that people build their business around their Great Work – the work their soul came here to do. That way when they are spending all day everyday on it, it’s purposeful and meaningful.
I’m not so sure about this part because there is a lot of stuff that we have to do as entrepreneurs that I (and a lot of people) find just plain sucky. But, maybe the practice is to find the fun even in those things. Or to hire people to do those things and to make sure to have a business model that supports hiring people to do those things.
“The only successful (and happy) entrepreneurs are those who enjoy every step of their entrepreneurial journey, from day one to year twenty. And every day in between.”
I love your work.
Thank you,
Hey Alexis,
Good point on that second sentence. And I know what you mean… who enjoys filing their taxes? However, I guess the enjoyment is there for those entrepreneurs who appreciate “the game”.
It’s like how playing Monopoly is fun (for some!) … landing on someone else’s hotel always stings a bit… but you’re having a good time nonetheless!
Hi Peter,
You present a good point of view. Many wanna be entrepreneurs get seduced by the lifestyle without realizing the work that needs to go with it.
However, your statement “The idea of building a business so that you can do something else is a dangerous one” and “Your business is your lifestyle. If it isn’t, you’re not really an entrepreneur. You’re just someone looking for a better job to do, to pay for your playtime” is something I disagree with completely.
I have the same thinking as Michael Gerber (author of the book E-Myth) where he said “Your business us not your life.”
Excerpt from his book:
[Your business and your life are two totally separate things.
At its best, your business is something apart from you, rather than a part of you, with its own rules and its own purposes...Once you recognize that the purpose of your life is not to serve your business, but that the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life, you can then go to work ON your business, rather than in it, with full understanding of why it is absolutely necessary for you to do so.]
I believe all entrepreneurs begin with a dream or the end in mind. The successful ones are those that figure out what the next steps are and follow through.
I invest in real estate not because I love buying buildings, doing renovations, dealing with contractors, tenants and bankers, far from it. I do it because of the income it provides me. It allows me to be free and to do the things I love (playing golf for one).
I think the important point you that you make here is that if you’re going to build a “lifestyle business” don’t ignore the work that comes with it. And if you’re okay with the work that comes with it then by all means go for it.
Hi Peter, I got this from a friend’s link post and after reading it, I was v impressed with what you just imparted. Finally someone wrote a post that gives the real score and calls the BS vs all those scummy lifestyle design business (yup I’m no fan of Tim Ferris here).
But I esp loved your reply to one of the commenters: “I’m not critical of doing things efficiently, but I am critical of working on something for the express intention of NOT WORKING. Simply put, it doesn’t work like that. Pun and double meaning intended.” Hah! and double Hah!
Hah! I’m soo adding you to my RSS feeder.
Wow! Thanks for the eye opener. It’s like you were watching me. Boy, have I been on the wrong thinking path. Sucks to find this out, but at the same time, better to know now then when i reach failure point in a few short months, lol.
Thanks for this very insightful post.
For God’s sake Peter, Shut-up.
Can’t you hear all the Internet Marketing gurus yelling, “Don’t mention that the Emperor has no clothes”.
This is the information that no one wants to hear. It takes years and decades of constant work to be the overnight and continuing success.
Wow Peter – great article.
It made me look away from the screen and think!
Why is it that when someone states the bleeding obvious, it’s a revelation to the rest of us?
That’s invention.
Thanks,
Anna
Such a *real* post. Great reminder for me, that the fact that I love what I DO, is more important than the fact that I’m able to do it from home, with a view of the garden, and be here for my kids. Being able to sit down at my desk with a happy heart to *get going with work* is all the reward I need
A friend forwarded this post to me, she thought it mirrored my thoughts on the subject. In future whenever somebody asks me about going from hobby to business instead of giving them my “business plan vs lifestyle plan” speel I will point them here.
Hey,
This expresses my beliefs on “lifestyle design” almost perfectly! Especially fond of this line: “The idea of building a business so that you can do something else is a dangerous one.”
Brilliant!
Ha! you are awesome. Its so true how we get so easily whisked away by rose colored glasses. Reminds me of how so many of us get all nostalgic about times gone by as if it was easier and simpler………I’m sure our “ancestors” are rolling in their graves.
Can’t wait to read more!
A good founder is someone who is pumped and love to solve problems. Eg: find a more efficient / creative way to muck out the pigs.
Lovely! my point exactly. I think the biggest problem in business is not laziness, its lack of innovation.
Excellent article, thank you! I had no idea how much work it was to start my own business when I started my own business
Thankfully I love what I do and see it as an expression of who I am, not as the work that I do. I can say that I definitely saw myself at harvest time with my feet up without actually picturing the hard work that led up to that. I am only know, six months into it, beginning to grasp what it takes to run my own business on my own. I may have even thought twice if I had read this article before I got stuck in 
Great post Peter – well said and worth repeating.
Now that you’ve identified the issue, I believe that more exploration under the hood of the problem is the next step (or maybe you’ve already done that).
Why are people abandoning their day jobs?
Why are they moving to New Zealand and chasing pigs?
What is that drive for fulfillment?
Why are so many people becoming lifestyle coaches?
There is nothing new under the sun. I believe people have seen others do it, and instead of drawing on their own unique combination of gifts and talents and expressing from that place, they resort to copying. I know that I have fallen prey to that. You think, “They’ve done so well why not just do that? They seem so happy, I want to be too.”
I think instead, people need to sit quietly with themselves and look at their own unique collecting of education, gifts, passions and talents and coming from that place, serve the world. It may or may not pay any money, but at least you are doing your meaningful work. Once you are coming from that place, things start to seem clearer, I believe, because you aren’t all tangled up in trying to live somebody else’s dream.
Thank you again for saying what needs to be said. You realized something and noticed that it wasn’t yet written and wrote it. Bravo.
Hrmmm…
So at first glance, I was like – this guy is a jerk!
Then I kept reading. and I thought – yup, cynical jerk.
Then, I sat back and really had a think about it.
And I realized I was taking it personally.
I have just started my coaching practice, and yes, I have designed it to fit with the lifestyle that I love, so I suppose you could call it a lifestyle business.
I love spending time outdoors, and grabbing my climbing bag and going to explore new crags. I love road trips and spontaneous adventures to warm sunny places. And I like random Wednesdays off.
But I never expected it to be easy. Since I launched my website just 2 weeks ago, I have been working my ass off, and LOVING IT. I don’t foresee any immediate end to the hard work, and I wouldn’t want there to be.
I practice what I preach, and there’s no way that I could run a business that I didn’t feel 100% passionate about. And I see where you’re coming from in saying that there are people out there who expect it to be a walk in the park.
I guess the difference is that it *feels* like a walk in the park because i LOVE what I am doing. The work is rewarding now, and getting paid for it? Man – It’s amazing. I guess I just didn’t realize that so many people would think it was a breeze?? My experience is that everyone seems to think running a business is “too hard”, rather than too easy…
So I guess if I don’t take this personally and just assume you’re talking to the other 99% out there, then jerk status revoked. You have a well written blog post here my friend!
Yes indeed, a good warning to anyone venturing into this black hole.
I have been quite successful in so-called “lifestyle design” (http://wpacademy.tv and http://lifestyledesignschool.com) however its been 7 years of “blood sweat and tears”.
Certainly the outcome has been worth the effort (income both active and passive, time freedom, location independence etc) but to go into this thinking its going to be an easy street — as Timothy Ferriss implies (despite his own example to the contrary) is foolish
And regardless it’s an all-consuming passion in which you are going to need to do a lot of things both pleasant and not-so-pleasant (the “jack of all trades” problem), some of which you are going to be terrible at but you need to do anyway because you can’t hire someone
So good warning to all
I think It had been around four years since I’ve read the 4hww. Truth is it wasn’t the catalyst that made me want to do lifestyle design.
I’m now 22 and I want to do LD even when I was a kid. Because I don’t want to work. Right now, I am “achieving” the lifestyle that I want. My action course is somehow simple. Work in one month and then take a vacation for the rest of the year. It is possible. (Or work when I want to to further increase the funding for the next years)
Though it took me around 2 years to get all this info about business, and internet marketing, and other stuff into my system, I am seeing the fruits of it. Now I can do what I want without restrictions. (I still work though. I coach from time to time, when I want to. It also gives me extra income.)
Lifestyle Design, it won’t really make you miserable. As long as you know what you are doing and it is getting the results that you want. Make it simple, make it calculable, it won’t make you miserable.
What’s your ultimate goal?
What are the exact and actionable steps that I need to do in order to achieve it?
What are the results that I would like to have?
That’s just it.
Ciao
These comments are sad. What happened to believing in the power of the mind. There is a great misconception here on what lifestyle design is all about. Of course nobody goes into any business or financial engagement without some interest in it. You state that start up dreamers want to be funded but wont start an actual business but that isn’t really true. If they knew how best to start it they would. Writers want to have written and they also want to write if the right idea and technique are in their hands.
The idea everyone here is missing is that with lifestyle design there is a need to scale your income source. Make one product available to many and that way it will pay you great sums all at the same time. When you point out that some work will be done over and over again it appears like we are all dreaming of running one man shows where its DIY or die! That’s what automation and outsourcing is for.Take a book for instance. With the right amount of quality and market strategy, you can have thousands of copies sold in weeks. If you cant market for shit, get a pro to do it for you. If you think you’re writing is a little off, hire an editor, proof reader or even a ghost writer to rewrite it. If you really want to write great stuff then its a win win situation for you because this time it will be an effort of passion. By all means, if you don’t like pig shit, why can’t you hire people who do?
Hey Sam,
Your comment here implies an over-arching generalization, the simplicity of which betrays you.
Plenty of people do the things you claim they don’t. I know (and work with) a number of very successful authors who would disagree with your comments about the publishing of books.
I think we’ve missed some dots somewhere. Everyone I know who’s built a successful business has done so because they get a reward from “doing the work”.
Woah.
I REALLY needed to read this, especially with that quote “Your business is your lifestyle.” As an artist trying to get my freelancing off the ground, I really needed to hear that so I’m not distracted by notions of grandeur (like getting up at 2 in the afternoon for poops and giggles).
At the same time, though, there’s something to be said about being thoughtfully fun and responsibly relaxed, and I think that’s what this post is really trying to say. So thank you.
Beautiful post, there is deep wisdom in “The idea of building a business so that you can do something else is a dangerous one”, and is the fundamental fallacy of the Tim Ferriss model (which was really more of a strategy for selling books than for creating a succcessful business in the first place). I actually have a whole website on this topic http://lifestyledesignschool.com
cheers,
marc
I don’t know which lifestyle designers you’re referring to, but the ones I know ALL say that you have to love what you’re doing and that you have to work damn hard at turning it into a business. Typically working longer hours than you would a a 9-5 job. The Lifestyle Designers I follow are all about doing something that you’re passionate about so that you never want to do anything else. I agree they seem to be single men that want to travel the world and want very little belongings. I’m a Mother, I want to create a business doing what I love, I don’t want to travel, I want a nice, comfortable home, I want nice things, and I want to raise my daughter. I don’t see why I can’t enjoy my life and my business?
I live a designed lifestyle, in which my freedom is non-negotiable. Yes, it is a hard slog but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Sometimes it feels much harder than having a job, then I get a consulting gig and have to be in a client’s office at 9am for a couple of days and I remember it really isn’t. I might work until midnight this way, but at least I can watch a movie before I start work, if that’s what I feel like doing.
Tim Ferriss is an incredible marketer, hence he makes it sound easy to give his readers the ‘can do’ impetus they need to make a change. I think what also comes through in his stories is extreme self-discipline.
Discipline and tenacity are really the traits for success, whether you’re an entrepreneur or athlete. Working yourself into a position where you sit on your ass while your bank balance notches up requires intense planning, preparation, groundwork, analysis and discipline. Without this, lifestyle design disappoints and doesn’t work (no surprise really, as otherwise everyone would do it!).
Done right, lifestyle design offers a methodology for prioritising tasks more effectively, wasting less time on low value activities, becoming more mindful of the things you hate doing vs the things you love and the art of delegating the former so you can focus on the latter.
There really isn’t much difference between lifestyle designers and entrepreneurs. They are both practising the art of defining a vision, identifying market opportunity and rigorously, continuously testing their assumptions and analysing results of their experiments. If all marketers and new product development teams understood these principles, R&D would be less wasteful and strategies would be more agile.
The ability to identify an unexploited market opportunity and make yourself heard over the noise is very challenging.
Having the clarity of thought to separate tasks you can delegate from those you can’t, then give foolproof instructions to ensure the delegated tasks are carried out effectively, is also extremely challenging. Both are essential ingredients of entrepreneurial success.
Overall, I think if you interpret lifestyle design as a quick fix, it will hopelessly disappoint and will make you miserable. If, however, you take the principles and apply them to your life, with the necessary (massive) dose of discipline required – whether you’re in a corporate job, are founding a tech startup, or are trying to write a novel – they should make you more successful. How ‘free’ you end up is entirely dependent on the foundations your build and the hard graft you put in up front.
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