What Should I Do With My Life Now?

"That could be an existential wail, self-indulgent musing - or the beginning of real transformation."
Po Bronson Fast Company, April 2009.

Mr. Bronson has a few myths he wants to "bust through" as it relates to the question, "What should I do with my life now?" Here are three ('job' can equally mean 'business'):

"Myth 2: All it takes is passion.
I call this the Modern Dream Machine Industry. Media companies have made a killing selling content - number-one example: The Secret - that makes false claims that you can just dust off your fantasies and live your dream. This is selling transformation irresponsibly...

"Myth 3: Your dream has no sucky parts.
I call this the Fallacy of Intrinsic Fit. There's this notion that you should love the mere act of what you do so much that just by virtue of it being Monday morning and you're at work, neuro-transmitters of joy will drip on your brain all day.

That is not how real people do it. All jobs have things you hate about them. But real people feel fulfilled enough by the overall purpose that the crummy parts are worth it.

"Myth 5: There is "the one."
There is no one perfect thing each of us is meant to do on this planet.

...For each of us, there are dozens, even hundreds of careers any one of which could provide a sense of meaning and goodness. The biggest mistake is being seduced by the myth that you're looking for the right answer, as if there were only one. Your calling is something you grow into by having an impact on your organization and your community...one enters a phase of "positive feedback experience" which makes you feel good about being where you are."

Given the challenging economic times and fears going around like the flu, sometimes it's possible to think your way to a better place. Even if it takes a little shock therapy.

You take on these 'myths'?

You have a skill? Market it here online

In this strange economic environment, one needs to be creative and even weird to make money from home.

Do you have a skill? Someone's likely looking for part-time help. From PHP to copy-writing to admin support to marketing, you can bid on jobs here. You can do them all from home, too.

And if you're looking for help of any professional kind online, try these places.

Find Professionals (Elance)
Find Professionals (Guru.com)

Anyone have other sources? I will be happy to post. No affiliate links, please.

Skinny Bitch and edgy stuff

One reason the book "Skinny Bitch" took off is that the authors get something that most people don't:

"In case you haven't noticed, it's become 'cool to be bitchy' lately. It's a sort of 'statement of individuality' for immature (yet adult) women who want to come across as fashionably sophisticated and edgy.

"And the idea of 'skinny' - well you may have heard that some women desire that as well...but only a few.

"Together, these words are MAGIC as a book title (obviously)" - E Pagan.

And it's not just edgy words (yes they offend some, but make the users rich if there's decent content to go with the edgy title...)

But designs as well.

Threadless, a hugely successful online T-shirt company, sells designs that are submitted by its readers - and voted on by readers. They don't just choose designs with the highest score, but those that are controversial. Like

"how many 0s (lowest score) and 5s (highest) a design gets; designs that inspire passionate disagreements often get printed because they tend to sell."

Edgy is good for sales. Edgy works for ads, too.

Which how-to-improve-your-golf-game ad are you drawn to read first?

Driving, Chipping, and Putting Like A Pro

OR

"Beat Your Boss At Golf (And Get The Raise Your Deserve!"

Words, phrases, and designs that create an emotional reaction are those that grab attention.

Notice the book title and golf ads that get the attention are NOT about the product or the wonders of the service being offered - but the words are about the people - who they are (skinny bitch, anyone?) and the dreams and urges (beat the boss) they can relate to instantly.

Oh yes - plan to offend some people if your ad is any good at all. Anything that gets attention and a strong following (of any size) will draw out detractors. So get used to that. If you're the plain vanilla ad, you'll be safe, yes. No one will raise an eyebrow. Because no one will notice.

Was I wrong?

For years, I have encouraged my readers and students to market programs and products that you love. Stuff WE are passionate about. Why?

It's the best known way to stay with something long enough to survive the process - of learning how to market it and find the audience who's looking for you. Because it usually takes longer than we hoped for the money to appear.

But there's other approach: find what people want to buy, and give it to them.

While that sounds dumb simple, it isn't, of course. First you have to find a niche where the buyers are rabid about buying the product and related items - e.g. surfboards, video games, exercise equipment, canaries, camera equipment, wellness products, online copy writing, paid surveys, you name it. Then, you have to figure out how to get them to buy it from YOU. It doesn't even need to be your product. You can be a reseller (affiliate) for existing products

The other day, I offered readers two options to make money online: A way to make income with an extremely popular RISK offer here (under $100) and a way to make guaranteed income online with a big-selling NO RISK $-by-the-piece offer (under $40) (both have 60 day guarantees, so stop worrying. These are strange times and money comes from innovative places).

Both under $100. Both with big success.

Lots of buyers for both, although the no risk offer is ahead. Even though I don't think most folks who do that will "love it" they are guaranteed income by-the-piece from home online. And many people are buying it right now.

What does this mean? Should we be seeking out genuine no-risk online opportunities, love it or not, in case the 'maybe' income from our on-the-come-businesses doesn't come as soon as we need? That is, give people what they want, whether WE love it or not (assuming there's the 60-day guarantee from a reputable place, like with these, of course.)

Do we (temporarily) - as sellers and doers - give up love for money right now?

Take the love or money? survey here and see what our community is saying. I will post the results later this week.

Is MLM the safest place to be in this weird economy?

A top recruiter was gent selling the NM business the other day. He announced that network marketing was "the safest place to be" in this "new" economy.

What do you think? Is that statement true or false?

TAKE THE FIVE QUESTION SURVEY:
Is MLM the safest place to be in this weird economy?

UPDATE: Here are the results so far. One clear result is to question 3:

3. Should we show recruits ways to find their customers and recruits outside of their warm market?
98%+ say YES.

What are some methods you have used successfully to find customers and recruits outside of your warm market?

Use Comments below. No need to sign in or anything else.

Another clear results is question 5:

5. Should recruiters stop pretending it's easy and anyone can do it when the evidence shows 95% of persons drop out in debt and unhappy?
92.7% say, YES, stop pretending it's easy and risk-free

What should we say in the opp meetings instead, then?

Again, use Comments below. No need to sign in or anything else.

"Downturns are good...the pretenders are gone."

Do you agree or disagree? From the New York Times today...

“A downturn can be a very good time to build a company,” contends Michael Moritz, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist. “The parvenus and the pretenders are gone. The only people who want to start a company in a time like this are the ones with the greatest conviction.” See here.
(PDF here in case.)

You know, those who love it madly. That's who they think will survive the process in this economy.

Your take?