Author: Phil Garland

Thanks to Kylon at “The Successful Dropout” interviewing Omar Zenhom this week, I listened to one of the podcasts on “The $100 MBA Show“. And I happened to choose a podcast with shipping involved.

Basically, Omar laid out four challenges to complete in a short time-frame. His challenges, from easiest to hardest, are:

1. The Coffeeshop challenge – Ask for 10% off when ordering coffee at a coffeeshop
2. Hire somebody to do a job (Fiverr or Freelancer)
3. Create a great piece of content
4. Create something for sale in 24 hours

Of course, I skipped one thru three and am trying to tackle number four. Create something for sale in 24 hours. Sorry to be short with this post, but creating something for sale is what I am working on now and want to have a finished product tomorrow.

Your Team Will Find You

The best advice I ever received in finding a soccer team to cheer for in the English Premier League (EPL) was “Watch a season of EPL without choosing a team. You won’t find your team. Your team will find you.” Unfortunately the team that found me was Aston Villa. After 5 years watching them barely stay above relegation, last year they were abysmal. I now only see how they did from following a blog because Championship League games aren’t televised. But that’s beside the point.

The point of the advice is taking action and the team will find you.

Blogging Niche

I think most people don’t blog because they don’t know their niche. They don’t think they have anything important to say. They aren’t experts in a field and can’t add to the conversation. I think that’s completely untrue. I also think, like with the Premier League, “You won’t find your niche, your niche will find you”.

I am 18 days and counting into my daily blog posts. I still haven’t found my niche. I read a lot about the future of technology, blockchain, freedom of rights, and making the world a better place. But when I try to write blog posts about those things I stumble. I’ve found I’m passionate to read about them, and to take action on them, but blogging about those things isn’t as easy.

Blogging isn’t about adding to your niche. It’s developing a habit. It’s about learning/growing and taking action on your thoughts. If I read an article or listen to a blog post I now start to think how I’d outline that thought into a blog post. In today’s environment everyone should have a blog. It’s free to start a wordpress. It’s quite cheap to connect wordpress to a domain of your choosing. And it’s simple to write.

Blogging is about doing. Once you start doing, the theme of your blog will unfold.

Domestication

Whether you like it or not, we have all been domesticated. We are living in a society of predetermined law. Social structures, hierarchies of power,  schooling, and government oversight are all platforms to domesticate us. Language is even a form of domestication. Did you choose to speak English?

Our lives are in a bubble, a fence. We play by the rules, get a treat for being good, and continue playing within the rules. This allows society to maintain a strong hold while keeping the individual domicile. Instead of exploring outside the bubble, we are motivated by fears to remain sheepish. But that will not breed freedom or happiness.

Living Free in a Domesticated World

Apparently I’m on a spirituality kick as of late. My girlfriend got me reading “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz. Below is a passage about the punishment/reward cycle of our society:

When we went against the rules we were punished; when we went along with the rules we got a reward. We were punished many times a day, and we were also rewarded many times a day. Soon we became afraid of being punished and also afraid of not receiving the reward. The reward is the attention that we get from our parents or from other people like siblings, teachers, and friends. We soon develop a need to hook other people’s attention in order to get the reward

An important part of being “free” is getting rid of the need for attention, forgetting about rewards, and remembering that failure is a step forward. Blogging has taught me to ship, whether it’s perfect or not. I have submitted applications to jobs that the old me would’ve waited days, or weeks, to get the “perfect” product. Perfection is something deemed by society. Living free is getting rid of the need for perfection. It’s rebelling against society and living the life you want, because you want to. That doesn’t mean wreaking havoc or becoming a bum on the street. It means we practice becoming a better person because we want to make ourselves better, not because we want to fit into society.

Breaking Domestication

We must be proactive in treating ourselves as the individual we truly are, not seeking immediate gratitude, and learning from failure. Failure is not a sign of fear, it’s not something to be punished for. Failure is a step forward. It’s a way to self-reflect and become a better version of ourselves. We will not be able to break free of the societal bubble if we live in fear. We have to be ready to fail. We have to keep exploring who we are and what makes us happy. Most of the time that won’t be in line with society. Because society is breeding sheep. And sheep follow the herd. We must be proactive in breaking the rules in order to better ourselves and lives of the people around us.

 

How I Blog

Since I’ve started blogging regularly I’ve become very aware of how people, especially journalists and media outlets, post articles. They’ll write a catchy headline, you’ll be able to see the first few sentences (all fluff) and they’ll try to get you to click on the link (aka clickbait).

I don’t see how that’s worthwhile, other than trying to gain website traffic (usually full of spammy advertisements). It’s not informative and doesn’t help me gain value from the author. I try to label my posts as concisely as possible, include the main takeaway of the post in my Facebook status and hope the first two sentences that are displayed are enticing. I get it might not lead to the most “clicks” but I don’t think that’s the most important. If I have something worth saying, people should be aware as soon as they look at my Facebook post.

I will continue to be upfront about my posts. Not everything I post will be of significance to everyone, and that’s okay. But for those that it is significant to, and don’t have the time to read my every word, I think it’s my duty to convey my message in as short a way as possible.

What I’m Reading

Buddha Plain and Simple – you can see my post about it here.

Self Control or State Control – I blog about this book a lot. Almost through all the chapters, a must read if you want to take control of your own actions.

What I’m Excited About

Attending Voice and Exit (for the first time!)

When: November 11-13

Where: Austin, TX

What it is: Part TED talk, part Burning Man – Voice & Exit is a festival for the future with an emphasis on changing the world for the better.

Escaping New England

As a junior in high school I knew I wanted to get out of New England, Maine especially. There was nothing “wrong” with living in Maine, but I needed to explore a different culture and lifestyle. My parents were understanding, we went on college tours all over the country, and I ended up applying to three colleges: Louisville, Temple and George Mason University. My parents pushed me towards George Mason for a few reasons, mainly the cost was in-line with any other out-of-state four-year college Maine, and the campus was to their liking. That is how I ended up in Fairfax, VA, and the Washington D.C. area.

Washington D.C. Living

Upon graduating college I had a job lined up (which many of my classmates were desperately looking for) at a large public accounting firm. This was a good experience, I lived all over northern Virginia, moved to Downtown Washington D.C., and eventually back to Fairfax, VA. What was I searching for? Why wasn’t I happy? How do so many people live in the rat race? These were all questions that formed during my time in the D.C. area. I have previously posted about the problems I had with DC (here) and have outlined who I am trying to become in my About Me, but these fail to mention the “Why” I moved to Denver and how moving to Denver helped me answer those questions.

On October 15, 2014 I took a bus to NYC with the hopes of finding the next place to call home by January 1, 2015. Denver became my choice, but there were still hurdles.

Putting a Denver address on my resume

My first hurdle was finding a job. I knew I needed something lined up before coming to Denver. I didn’t have the funds to finance an extended time unemployed. I also knew Denver is one of the top places for millennials to move to and hiring managers rarely took job applications from out-of-staters. So, I put my buddie’s Denver address on my resume. It worked, within the first day of applications I had an interested partner at a CPA firm and a recruiter feeding me with jobs. When asked if I could interview for the position in the next couple of days I said “of course” while sitting on my laptop in Fairfax, VA…

Flying out same day as application

I quickly booked a same-day flight to Denver (not cheap), knocked on my then roommate’s door asking for a ride, and texted my buddy to make sure crashing on his couch, for the foreseeable future, was okay. That night I was in Denver, and the next day I was interviewing for a CPA position. Call it foolish, call it determined, call it short-sighted.

I’d call it impactful. My decision to take that interview has changed my life.

The impact of changing cities

I am a firm believer that you cannot run from your problems. Whether mental, physical, addiction, or some other problem, you cannot run. The only way to get away from problems is to change yourself. However, changing cities led to me figuring out more about myself. The determination I showed myself in moving from the known, Washington D.C. to the unknown, Denver has had a lasting impact on my life.

I have also found the confidence in myself that if something isn’t working, I am in control to make the change. If I start asking myself questions about Denver’s culture or the life I’m creating, I now know I am the one who can make the changes. The lessons learned from changing cities will go down as one of the best lessons I’ve ever learned.

You can do it too

If you are even asking yourself “Should I try another city?” then I challenge you to do it. The lessons you learn will be worth it. Do it!

 

“The only way to live in an unfree world is to become so free that your very existence is an act of rebellion” – Albert Camus

Buddhism Plain and Simple

I started reading Buddhism Plain and Simple, thanks to a recommendation from a Buddhist-practicing couch-surfer I hosted.

Instead of discussing Buddhism as a “religious” practice, the author, Steven Hagen, writes about the teachings of “the Buddha”. Buddha means “the awakened one” and Hagen refers to the practice of Buddhism as “Buddha-dharma”. He also strips down the spiritual vocabulary of Buddhism, like karma, into plain English. It is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone seeking to be awake.

Buddha-dharma Economics

When I wrote a post on the moral teachings of economics, I was describing the ability to live free with a strong understanding of economic beliefs. Buddha-dharma isn’t far from the teachings of being free. Here is a quick passage from the of the book:

You are the final authority. Not me. Not the Buddha. Not the Bible. Not the government. Not the president. Not Mom or Dad. You. No community of philosophers, scientists, priests, academicians, politicians, or generals, no school, legislature, parliament, or court–can bear responsibility for your life, or your words, or your actions. That authority is yours and yours alone. You can neither get rid of it nor escape from it.

The idea is you are the one in control of your actions. It is similar to the message being portrayed in Self-Control or State-Control and other books about taking responsibility for your actions. The Buddhist teachings in Steven Hagen’s book are quite similar to my moral economic learning.

The other passage that stood out to me was:

To be fully alive, we must be fully present. The question is: how do we do it? In order to experience the answer to this question for yourself, you must come to three realizations. First, you must truly realize that life is fleeting. Next, you must understand that you are already complete, worthy, whole. Finally, you must see that you are your own refuge, your own sanctuary, your own salvation.

1. We must realize life is fleeting
2. We must understand we are already complete, worthy, whole
3. We are our own refuge, sanctuary, salvation

These three principles are of the utmost importance in Buddhism, as well as living free. We will not become free by acting in line with society or government regulation, but by practicing self control, having salvation within ourselves, and being confident in our worthiness. These lead to awakening ourselves. By continually practicing bettering ourselves, and looking inwardly, we are practicing becoming free in an unfree world.

Where does my passion lie? I have asked myself this question a lot lately. In my current situation there are three options: founder, entrepreneur, employee. Founder and entrepreneur aren’t far apart, my definitions differ in the speed they grow the company and their vision of success. I have provided a breakdown of my definitions below.

Founder

I use this word to describe people who start businesses with the idea of being a fast-growth startup.

What is a startup? I like this definition “A startup is a temporary organization used to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” At the end of finding a repeatable/scalable business model there is an exit, usually being purchased by another firm.

In my opinion, founders are chasing the quick high. Yes, they are making a big difference in the world by creating value, but they are also pitching their creation to investors or other businesses as to make money and exit.

Entrepreneur

Not much unlike a founder, entrepreneurs see problems in the world and try to make a difference with their own two hands. My definition of an entrepreneur differs from a founder on the “motivation” of their product. Founders are more motivated by high growth, scalability, venture capital and pitching a dream. Entrepreneurs try to tackle everyday problems with the same way you learn fundamentals. With a resilient approach of habit training and a day-in, day-out belief that their blood, sweat and tears will make a difference.

I am not saying entrepreneurs aren’t searching for money, or that founders are only chasing money, but entrepreneurs are looking for opportunities to create a better world with a methodological, planned, slower approach. They look at problems as things that can be corrected by the market. And they find solutions by either developing them or joining a group that’s solving the problems.

Employee

An employee is someone who does the tasks for a founder, entrepreneur, or established business (small, medium or large). They can be on all ends of the risk spectrum and can have differing mentalities. There’s the apathetic employee who only goes to work to collect a paycheck, there’s the employee who is trying to help their company make a difference, and there’s the employee who is using the opportunity to grow their personal skill-set.

I’ve been all three…

Employees should be value creators. They should implement processes, add to the business’s dream, and develop rapport with clients and vendors. However, they differ from founders/entrepreneurs because they aren’t the ones risking it all. There is nothing wrong with being an employee and businesses will always need them to grow the business’s dream.

Which Do I Want To Be?

Sometimes the life of an employee can eat at me. I don’t want to go to work for someone else’s dream. I want to build my own dream. And a lot of times I convince myself I can. Until I go be the employee. It’s comfortable, and even if I don’t always agree with the businesses direction or capabilities of my company to execute, they are the one’s risking it and paying me to do my job.

Until I can convince myself I WILL be the entrepreneur, who goes out on a limb to start my own business or freelance on the side, I am the employee. My next step is shedding my shell as employee and going out on that limb. It’s coming. I know I’ll break free, probably fall to the ground like a sack of rocks, but will inch my way back up.

Time will tell, but I believe my passion lies as the entrepreneur.

The Future is Decentralized by Overstock.Com CEO Patrick Byrne is one of my favorite posts of all time. I am going to summarize his sentiments, however, if you have time it’s best you read his article, it is definitely worth it!

The Need for Central Institutions

Central intuitions have been around for centuries. They were created out of the belief that we needed an authority to oversee exchanges. As Byrne puts it “Well, if I have a camel and you’re going to give me a gold coin in exchange for it, I have to trust that you did not debase this coin.” The government would step in, with an army by their side, and take control of the coin. That way if you debased the coin, there would be retribution. Although centralized institutions lead to many other issues, they are supposed to be a third party trust verifier.

Decentralized Knowledge

What’s better than centralized institutions? Decentralized ones. One of the best pieces of economic literature, The Use of Knowledge in Society by FA Hayek, describes how “a single agent [central institution] is only a small fraction of the sum total of knowledge held by all members of society”. Using the power of the people is a far better mechanism in ensuring the best outcome. Since each individual holds much more complete knowledge than a single institution can, the masses can create a better outcome. We have never had the capability of connecting individuals on a large scale. Until blockchain.

Blockchain as the “Bomb”

“With the block chain, we liberals — those of us who have been fighting authoritarianism, whether it’s socialism or fascism or “social justice-ism,” for 500 years — just got “the bomb” in this fight. It’s something new.” Blockchain lets us connect the masses. We each can have a say in the decisions being made, and verify exchanges that have occurred. Instead of needing a central institution to provide verification, we can rely on our peers. Entire communities could adopt blockchain governance that are run by the rules outlined in a community contract. There are many ways to apply blockchain for decentralized governance. The important fact is now we have it. We have the “bomb” to turn the wealth of individual knowledge into a connected group.

Optimism

We have already begun dismantling the powers of central institutions.

The CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, for example, wrote a letter to shareholders in April that basically freaked out over the block chain. He told shareholders that “Silicon Valley is coming to eat Wall Street’s lunch.” Since he did that, everybody on Wall Street in the last three months — it seems every day, there is a new announcement coming from another corporation — whether UBS, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, saying “we have to study this and get involved.” But it’s too late for them. A year and a half ago, we started on this, and we’ve been very aggressive about developing new systems that can challenge these old central institutions.

I have great optimism in the future. Instead of needing central institutions to be “trust verifiers”, we as individuals, connected as nodes on a chain, will provide authentication of exchanges. The knowledge of the masses will be the new, decentralized, institution.

Today I read a post in Bitcoin Magazine about a new web browser called Brave.

The Idea Behind Brave

Everyone hates being inundated by advertisements when going to a website. Brave is a web search provider that eliminates ads. Instead of sites profiting off advertisements, Brave allows webhosts to make money from the users that actually visit their site.

How Brave works:

1. Go to www.brave.com and download the browser

2. Go into settings and add your bitcoin to the “Payments” tab (You do not have to put money into the website in order to utilize it’s no-ad capabilities)

3. Once you’ve added bitcoin, start using Brave as your web browser and look at your “usage by website”

4. Depending on how much you pledged for the month, the funds in your account will be dispersed to the websites you visited the most

Is this enough to disrupt the trillion dollar industry of marketing? Probably not. But Brave is an introduction to the new economy. Where peers interact with peers voluntarily and there is no need for the middleman.

Another week gone, another 7 days of blogging in the bag, and another Sunday summary…

Thankful for Reverse Cameras in Cars

I have always gotten nervous when I see other people parallel parking. Maybe it’s a belief destruction is bad, see Broken Window Fallacy, or maybe it’s because I don’t trust the person driving not to ram into the car behind them. Thanks to technological innovation, and almost every new car being equipped with a reverse camera, when I see someone backing into a tight space I almost never get nervous anymore. When the driver gets extremely close to the other car and stops just short, I remember they’re being guided by technology. I am very thankful of this innovation and the nerves it has saved me while watching people parallel park.

Blogging After 30 Days

I counted today, this will be my 17th straight day of blog posting. My goal is to blog every day, for 30 days, and post each blog on Facebook (to hold myself accountable). After 30 days I am trying to decide on one of two options. (1) Continue blogging daily (2) Blog weekly and elaborate on a bigger idea, more of a research paper approach. I still have 13 days before I hit 30, but that is currently what I am debating.

New Podcast I’m listening To

I started listening to Successful Dropout. It’s a podcast by Kylon Gienger where he interviews successful dropouts and they discuss their stories in entrepreneurship. He also has weekly Friday podcasts where he talks about whatever is on his mind. I have already taken two good ideas away from his podcast.

1. His podcast starts with an introduction that says “The people who are crazy enough, who believe they can change the world, are the ones who do”. This is a powerful message and in line with my current attitude. The head of GoogleX says we should be thinking of solutions with moonshots and the idea that it’s easier to improve something tenfold (10x) then it is to improve something 10%.
2. My other takeaway from Kylon’s podcast is the phrase “Stay hungry, stay foolish”. I think it’s a perfect summary of the entrepreneur mindset. Always be hungry to improve, but also be the naive kid who falls off the bike because that’s the only true way to learn.

That’s my Sunday summary. Have a great holiday weekend everyone!