THE ART OF NON-CONFORMITY by Chris Guillebeau

• Think for yourself instead of following the crowd.
• Whenever you find yourself confronted by a request, obligation, or expectation you don’t like, it helps to look carefully for the motivations and rationale behind what you hear.
• It’s your own life, so why not set your own rules?
• Bullshit is work that is done merely to complete requirements, make you look good, or otherwise fill up the hours of the day.
• Just as faking it can be an effective way to get through higher education, mediocrity is the standard by which much work is judged once you get out of school.
• “Always look carefully for someone’s motivations and agenda.”
• You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.
• Whether it’s this book or any other resource, almost nothing you encounter will ever be 100 percent relevant to your situation. The goal is to focus on what is relevant and apply those key ideas to your life.
• 11 WAYS TO BE UNREMARKABLY AVERAGE
• 1. Accept what people tell you at face value.
• 2. Don’t question authority.
• 3. Go to college because you’re supposed to, not because you want to learn something.
• 4. Go overseas once or twice in your life, to somewhere safe like England. 
• 5. Don’t try to learn another language; everyone else will eventually learn English.
• 6. Think about starting your own business, but never do it.
• 7. Think about writing a book, but never do it.
• 8. Get the largest mortgage you qualify for and spend 30 years paying for it.
• 9. Sit at a desk 40 hours a week for an average of 10 hours of productive work.
• 10. Don’t stand out or draw attention to yourself.
• 11. Jump through hoops. Check off boxes.
• You must take responsibility for what happens in your future, good or bad. Our past may be somewhat responsible for defining who we are at present, but it does not need to define our future.
• Many people believe that the key to an improved lifestyle is less work. I think it’s better work. I believe that most of us want to work hard, but we want to do the kind of work that energizes us and makes a positive impact on others. That kind of work is worth working for, and the other kind of work is worth letting go of, finished or not.
• Instead of being easy, the most memorable times in our lives are often the most challenging.
• Almost everyone says they are open-minded, but when it comes down to it, most of us are deeply uncomfortable with change.
• Most people accept the status quo without question, sleepwalking through life, looking in from the outside. When other people manage to escape, sleepwalkers find ways to marginalize or ignore them by pointing out something wrong with their escape plan.
• The time to leave the best job in the world is right before you get tired of it.
• the choice of an unremarkably average life represents a life of sleepwalking.
• If the sleepwalking life is the “real world” of the unremarkably average, the clear alternative is the living world of adventure.
• We need money to live in a modern world, and we should find a way to get what we need without harming anyone else. However, by itself, money has no value—the value is produced only when we exchange money for other things. The reason why this is important is because many people don’t know how much money they really need to do the things they want. They often wildly overestimate or underestimate how much money they need to exchange for their desired life.
• According to near-unanimous scientific research, pursuing wealth for wealth’s sake won’t get you very far. A certain amount of money produces happiness, and a bit more produces a bit more happiness, but beyond that, the correlation between money and life satisfaction is null.
• Give yourself permission to dream, and then get to work planning.
• Never forget that changing the world is not always a practical endeavor. Throughout history, most people who have made fundamental shifts in science, humanities, or the arts have been frequently accused of being impractical.
• There’s nothing wrong with thinking ahead, but life does not begin at age 65. Planning for tomorrow is good, in other words, but it doesn’t have to affect every decision you make today.
• As a final note, don’t waste time in taking action toward assuming control of your life.
• As a general rule, it’s usually better to do something than not do it. This may not always be the case—if you’re on the fence about robbing a bank to buy donuts, it might be good to think of another way to acquire the donuts—but speaking generally, we tend to regret what we haven’t done more than what we have.
• No, in the end it is not all about you—but there is also nothing wrong with doing things entirely for yourself.
• Your dreams and big ideas belong to no one but you, and you never need to apologize for or justify them to anyone.
• when it comes down to it, most of us do not want to sit on the beach and take it easy every day for the rest of our lives.
• Life planning begins with an unfortunate fact: many people have no idea what they really want to do or accomplish over the course of their time on earth. Instead of moving toward a destination, they become mired in “life avoidance” by ambling around without a clear sense of objective or purpose.
• To break out of the sleepwalking pattern, we have to define what we want and then find a way to make it happen.
• “Whatever your dreams are, start taking them very, very seriously.”
• I tend to think if something is worth doing, you might as well do it all the way—so
• Radical goal-setting begins with a “life list” of things you’d like to do at some point in your life. A life list, also called a “bucket list,” is composed of a long list of anything and everything you’d like to accomplish before you die.
• The interesting thing about setting big goals is that once we get serious about planning for them, they tend to be achieved much more quickly than we initially expect. This is because we tend to overestimate what we can complete in a single day, and underestimate what we can complete over longer periods of time.
• we’re not as super-disciplined as you think.
• As long as what you want does not cause harm to others, you never need to apologize for pursuing your own dreams and big ideas.
• As a general rule, if you don’t know what to do on any given day, spend at least some of your time helping someone else.
• There is almost always more than one way to accomplish something.
• Granted, the specific expectations and job positions vary by industry—but almost all industries follow a similar pattern of apprentice, beginner, mid-level, and executive.
• The alternative path (also called the “unconventional choice” throughout the book) is not only more efficient; it’s also often more effective.
• When faced with a choice between abundance and scarcity, choose abundance.
• Scarcity involves hoarding, and abundance involves sharing.
• When faced with uncertainty about taking a leap of faith, take the leap.
• You’ll regret the things you didn’t do much more than anything you did, so you might as well try new things.
• Intelligence is not a prerequisite, but determination is.
• To take over the world, or do whatever you want to do, you don’t need to be especially intelligent.
• You can have unlimited dreams and goals, but not unlimited priorities.
• Many people are uncomfortable with change and different ideas, and they’ll work hard at rationalizing their own choices when they come across someone who has made different ones.
• If you get a few things in order, the stages of growth are exponential.
• “It is not the decision you make that is most important; it is the degree of commitment with which you make the decision.”
• You can create the life you want, you can make the world a better place at the same time, and you can have it all. Just be prepared to work for it.
• The pathway to world domination, or whatever it is you want to do, begins with clearly understanding what you want to get out of life.
• Once you begin taking your ambitions seriously, you can usually accomplish most things in less time than you initially expect.
• In the end, it’s not all about you. Most of us want a life that leaves a positive impact on others.
• When you start doing what you really want, not everyone will understand. This is okay.
• When you choose to defy convention, you’ll run up against all kinds of people who are resentful of your decision to chart your own path. With preparation and courage, you can usually find a way to stand up to those people, and other times you can just do your own thing and ignore them.
• Be forewarned, though: the toughest obstacles most of us have to overcome are the direct result of our own fears and insecurities.
• When we really get serious about our insecurities, we usually find that three specific fears emerge: the fear of failure, the fear of success, and the fear of change. The greatest of these is the fear of change itself.
• All things being equal, we generally resist change until the pain of making a switch becomes less than the pain of remaining in our current situation.
• To break the cycle, the fear of the unknown has to become less than the stale acceptance of the current situation. There are two ways to make this happen:
• Increase the pain of the current situation
• Decrease the fear of the desired situation
• Typically, the people who are ready to change want the change more than almost anything.
• Conquering fear begins with acknowledging fear. Because our fears and insecurities are often illogical, it helps to break them down to the most basic level. You can do this by making a list of all the things you’re afraid of at any given time.
• Apply the “no regrets” mind-set. After acknowledging fear, you then need to change your mind-set and prepare for making a change.
• Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
• Take the worst case scenario. Asking yourself, “What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen?” if something goes wrong can be very empowering. It helps you put things in their proper perspective.
• Create mass accountability. You can also create mass accountability to help you smash through the wall.
• We have big dreams and ideas, but we also have big fears. The quest to overcome fear is lifelong, and almost no one is truly fearless. Instead of pretending it doesn’t exist, you have to be willing to smash through the brick wall of fear. You won’t be the first to do it, and what you find on the other side might surprise you.
• Fear is normal! The goal is to conquer the fear, not to avoid it or pretend it doesn’t exist.
• The pain of making a change must become less than the pain of staying in the current situation.
• Most remarkable people are not remarkable by nature. Instead, they made a few key choices along the way that helped them overcome their fears.
• Asking yourself “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” helps to put big decisions in perspective.
• The question is not who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me.
• People will always try to stop you from doing the right thing if it is unconventional.
• Nearly all people who choose unconventional careers or lifestyles, or who otherwise wish to challenge conventional beliefs, will encounter opposition from authority and the status quo.
• sometimes people fall in line because authority figures are very skilled at keeping them in their place.
• Gatekeeper. n.
• 1. A person or group with a vested interest in limiting the choices of other people.
• 2. An obstacle that must be overcome to achieve unconventional success.
• Gatekeepers are especially effective at telling you which choices you have, thus giving you the illusion of freedom while simultaneously blocking access to what really matters.
• In reality, very few opportunities are open to everyone—in
• Understanding that few opportunities are truly democratic is the first step toward successfully challenging authority.
• Gatekeepers are “no” people. They are skilled at swatting down ideas and coming up with all kinds of reasons why a request should be denied or why a particular strategy won’t work. Many organizations have an entire Department of No, which usually goes by a disguised title such as Legal or Human Resources.
• Gatekeepers maintain their hold on power by convincing people that their roles are necessary.
• When someone threatens tradition or asks questions, gatekeepers will appeal to a logic based on history, even if their recollection of history is incorrect.
• Change the way the game is played.
• In other encounters with authority, you can simply nod your head, smile, and then go out and do what you intended.
• As mentioned, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, but thankfully, you don’t really need to ask for either one very often.
• Authority figures don’t know it all. You know that, and I know that—but many of them devote a great deal of their time to convincing us that they are the experts who must be listened to.
• Either way, keep the words of an old Chinese proverb in mind: the person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.
• If you’re not happy with the way something is done, you don’t have to accept it.
• Gatekeepers are authority figures who seek to limit the choices of others—you can do a or b, but not c, d, or e.
• Gatekeepers are good at justifying their actions through circular reasoning. A typical argument involves the phrase “Everyone else is doing this, so why shouldn’t you?”
• When challenging authority, direct confrontation is not always the best way. Instead, use the underdog strategy to change the rules of the game.
• Whatever has led you to where you are today is good enough to launch you into where you need to go next.
• You can’t outsource the responsibility for planning the course of your life.
• If you don’t feel passionate about anything, chances are you haven’t discovered what you’re really good at yet.
• When you let go of all the things you don’t need, a lot of other things become much easier.
• when times are tough, you’d better get creative.
• No one else can be responsible for your success or well-being but you.
• Of all of the things that are difficult to accept, this is definitely one of the most difficult of all. Here it is: your own competence is your best security.
• The gap between ignorance and knowledge is much less than the gap between knowledge and action.
• Paradoxically, when you manage to survive a crisis that had “deathblow potential,” you’ll often end up stronger than you were before the walls fell down.
• When you focus on escaping the humdrum of the cubicle (or wherever you spend your workdays), you also need to have something to escape to. Otherwise you may end up no happier than you were prior to the escape.
• the most important thing is to take the control of your career into your own hands.
• No one else will be responsible for you or care about your well-being as much as you.
• You can create your own security in a regular job or by working for yourself. (I think working for yourself is easier, but it’s not the only way.)
• Like Allan Bacon’s “Life Experiments,” slow and steady change can produce big improvements when done consistently over time.
• Some people think self-employment is risky, but the real risk lies in deriving your security from an external source
• Don’t just escape from something; escape to something
• If the goal of graduate school is to prepare students for a more advanced career, it’s fair to measure that goal against alternative methods.
• Personally, I value learning, but formal education and learning do not always go hand in hand. If your primary goal is to learn instead of to prepare for a career, you may be better off going it alone.
• When you consider investing large amounts of time and money in something, you should think carefully about what you’ll get out of it.
• Relate your education to what you actually want to do when you finish.
• Don’t use graduate school, or any other course of study, as a form of life avoidance. Pursue the course only if there’s a good reason.
• Much of higher education consists of learning to make yourself look good. It’s an essential skill, but you might as well learn something else while you’re there too.
• Regardless of how you feel about college or university, consider some form of alternative learning to increase your knowledge.
• No matter the goal, you’ll likely discover that you’re going to need some help along the way.
• The price of greatness is responsibility. —WINSTON CHURCHILL
• Leadership has little to do with titles and everything to do with influence.
• Most recruitment and maintenance activities for your small army fit into these three steps:
• Step 1: Recruit Your Small Army
• Step 2: Train and Reward Your Army
• Step 3: Ask Your Army for Help
• To stand out from the crowd, you’ll need a platform to speak from, a good reason why people should pay attention to you, and a welcoming environment that encourages prospects to get involved.
• A personal note, especially one that is unexpected, will almost always create a real impact on the recipient.
• One of the most interesting facts about social networking is that most people love to introduce and connect other people.
• Strong Ties = People you know directly
• Weak Ties = People known to your network (friends of friends)
• If you want to destroy the relationship between you and your followers, all you need to do is abuse their trust. To defeat your own small army, simply don’t do what you say you’re going to do, and don’t apologize when you make a mistake.
• In short, your goal as a leader is to challenge people without insulting them. You want to lift up your followers and improve their lives in a meaningful way.
• Think carefully about how you can help people get what they want. If your campaign uplifts others or meets an important need, you’re on the right track.
• Create at least three ways your followers can connect with you—examples include a blog with RSS feed, a profile on a social networking site, a newsletter, or a live event.
• Communicate in at least two mediums. For example, if you are a writer with a blog, supplement the written posts with an occasional podcast or video message.
• Directly ask people to join your army, and then ask them for specific help.
• Set a target goal: within the next x months I will have x new followers in my small army.
• More than almost any other aspect of identity, if you don’t have clarity of purpose over how you view the role of money in your life, you’ll likely end up going along with what other people do.
• No matter how you decide to manage your money, it greatly helps if you’re clear about your values.
• There is no such thing as good debt.
• To get serious about saving, focus on increasing income more than cutting expenses.
• If you’re already in debt and want to escape, you can do one of two things:
• (1) find a way to pay it back, as quickly as possible, or
• (2) look for an alternative solution like deferral or debt forgiveness in exchange for public service.
• One final tip about giving: when you give, let go.
• Once you give, let it go. It’s literally out of your hands at that point, and that’s where it should stay.
• Money and happiness are correlated to a certain degree, but not much after that.
• Your behavior with money has to match up with your overall values.
• Consider “investing in yourself” through spending on unique life experiences more than “stuff.”
• A good savings program also includes investment in others. It’s not about guilt; it’s about gratitude.
• One thing’s for certain: when you set out on an unconventional journey, you’ll attract attention and criticism. If you succeed in your quest, you can expect more of both.
• Some people enjoy nothing more than putting down winners.
• People who possess self-confidence and focus are often labeled as arrogant by those who lack both qualities.
• convergence is the state of being where everything in our lives is in alignment.
• If you want to take on the world and live life your own way, you’ll need to be fairly determined, because there will be no shortage of distractions that crop up every day.
• When you’re starting to redefine how you spend your time and you’re not sure which responsibilities you should commit to, it can be helpful to begin to apply a filter to all the inputs that come your way. Asking two questions—“Why should I do this?” and “What will happen if I don’t?”—will clarify a great many responsibilities for you.
• Fair warning: when you choose to limit inputs and withdraw from social requests, not everyone will understand this behavior.
• An important principle of life planning is that you can have anything you want, but you can’t have everything at the same time.
• The best way to stop spending time on unnecessary distractions is to make a “to-stop-doing list.” This is better than a to-do list, because it helps you see what’s bringing you down. Your to-stop-doing list is exactly what it sounds like: a list of things you simply don’t want to do anymore.
• If anything you read, including this book, is not interesting and helpful to you, you should put it down and spend your time in a more meaningful way. Apply this strategy militantly, and you’ll see positive changes in your life almost immediately.
• Practicing the art of radical exclusion is good for two reasons: first, it eliminates the unnecessary from our lives. But just as important, when you say no to some things, it gives you the chance to say yes to many more.
• You can probably have anything you want, but probably not everything at once. Radical exclusion is the process of eliminating things that are unnecessary, or even stepping away from almost everything for a set period of time.
• Creating a to-stop-doing list can usually help eliminate several hours of tasks in the average week.
• Asking “What’s the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do this?” may help you feel better about eliminating an obligation.
• After eliminating the unnecessary, start opening up to everything you’ve always wanted to do. It’s not a paradox; it’s a life of abundance.
• Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.
• One of the things that separates a goal from a dream is a deadline,
• Some people become expert planners without ever actually doing anything.
• Once you earn elite status with one airline, you can request a “status match” from several others to become a high-flyer on every major airline alliance.
• Most people have at least one place in their minds they’d really like to go to “one day.” By saving just $2 a day, you can usually get there within two years or less.
• Working on location from anywhere in the world rarely involves sitting in the sand with your laptop. It isn’t for everyone, nor is it always easy—but for me and many others, it’s worth it.
• As with most things in life, if you choose to get serious about travel, you can find alternative ways to accomplish almost any specific goal.
• “Travel hacking” helps to reduce costs and allow for more interesting experiences than conventional travel planning does.
• The kind of travel you value is better than anyone else’s idea of fun and adventure. Figure out what you like, and structure your roaming around those preferences.
• Here’s a novel idea: wherever you are in life, however old you are, begin thinking about every day as the first day of your life.
• Good work is useful, productive work. There’s nothing wrong with it, but the problem is that we have too much good work. Great work, on the other hand, is revolutionary. Great work leads to innovation.
• While most good work is comforting, great work is simultaneously comforting and discomforting because it pushes us to go further.
• A key principle of legacy work is that it usually involves creating something new as opposed to responding to something that already exists.
• Measure work in output, not hours.
• Which is more important—showing up for eight hours or actually doing the work?
• I follow a classic rule of writing and editing: when writing, don’t hesitate to include something; when editing, don’t hesitate to throw it out.
• Chances are, it’s never “too late” to get started on what you secretly wanted to do years ago, and maybe some things will be easier now that you’re older.
• By focusing on deliverables and metrics instead of hours, you’ll avoid the bad feeling that comes at the end of a day when nothing has been accomplished.
• Sitting down to do something and forcing yourself not to get up until real progress is made can work more powerfully than any time management program.
• All those good things you’ve done before are nice, but the future can be even better. Focus on that.
• Increase the percentage of legacy work as opposed to busywork (or even just “good work”).
• Setting a continual metric (like the 1,000-words standard) can help keep you focused on what really matters to you.
• Wake up in the middle of the night with good ideas. Share them with the world.
• The most common criticism of unconventional ideas is that they are unreasonable or impossible to implement.
• Innovation comes from entrepreneurs and others who are wiling to accept risk and try new things.
• Improvements in social justice come from those who question authority.
• The belief that career security can be found internally rather than through a traditional job is highly dangerous.
• In fact, the basic belief that you should do what you want most of the time is uncomfortable and troubling for some people.
• A combination of factors has led us to become who we are today, and for better or worse, we cannot be completely responsible for our past. What we are responsible for, however, is our future. What matters from here on out has little to do with luck and much more to do with our own choices.
• In choosing to live a remarkable life, failure is a real possibility, but regrets are completely optional.
• You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.
• Assert integrity against the play-it-safers and slaves of the ordinary.
• No one is self-taught, and unconventional ideas do not usually arrive independently.
• Choosing to be different is partly about questioning authority and conventional assumptions, but also about embracing life as a joyful, meaningful experience.
• You can start most businesses for less than $1,000, and many for less than $100.