How are you?

Just letting you know that I have recently posted about 9 blogs that I find absolutely gorgeous, and yours is one of them. It is simply among the best and as I have been admiring it for a while now, I had to do a post.

If you would like to have a look, the link is
http://writinghappiness.com/2011/06/28/perfecting-the-look-of-your-blog-9-gorgeous-blogs-that-will-inspire-in-no-time/

Hope you enjoy the post. Thanks very much
Kind regards,
Marya

Just wanted to drop a line to let you know that you write very nice and usefull articles. Thanks ! I just read your article on How Business school Killed the Entrepreneur and though I could comment a bit, and hopefully, help a few people make the plunge: I am an engineer (with a Master’s) and have have worked in large companies for approximately 12 years. I then changed a bit my professional course and became a patent agent (it took 5 years to pass the exams…). I have worked in that field for about 5 years. I used my professional experience to learn many things (product design, 6 Sigma, intellectual property) while still earning money. About 6 months after I became a patent agent, I let everything go. I was aiming to become a partner and earn mucho $$ ( I was already earing 120K$, which is not bad itself), but then I realized I was building the dream of somebody else. Mind you, the stress and chest pains also helped take my decision…
Two years in the making of my projects, I haven’t earned much money yet. Mind you , I spent 1 year looking for investment partners right after recession, so my timing could have been better. I have another project that looks promising now, and I am going 100% at it, although I know that I won’t be making money before at least 2013. I love the experience (although sometimes it is though to be alone all day…) So here is my advice to fellow readers to make the plunge:

1- Prepare yourself 1: Education: get a basic education, ideally a Bachelor of something, ( I agree with Scott, forget the MBA unless you do not want to get up the corporate ladder working for someone else, which is not a bad idea in itself, if it fits you) and ideally get some work experience. Use that work experience to learn and add new skills (you get paid to learn !!!). Make contacts in the industry. This will be your PARACHUTE if something goes not as planned once you took the plunge. I know I can make a few calls and get a well-paid job within a couple of weeks.
2-Prepare yourself 2: Money: do not live above your means. My house was paid before I was 40. So we can live on my wife’s salary (she’s a teacher, she’s not making millions…). I sold my 2007 Acura MDX (which was almost paid) and got a Golf TDi (yes, with a wife, 2 teenagers, a dog and ski equipment. You’d be amazed how ingenious you become once you have no choice). Now I enjoy SAVING gas…
3-Prepare yourself 3: Have a well-defined idea of what you will be doing and prepare. I worked on my ideas a couple of years before I took the plunge (I had two business ideas: a vehicle (for which we did not find financing, so I switched to idea 2) and an innovative ski helmet which I patented). Obvisouly, your ideas of what to do should fit with your passions. For me, they definitely do.
4-Prepare your spouse: For me, my wife told me for years to leave my job. So it is rather her who prepared me. A supporting spouse is a must.
5- Just to it: Go. Not tomorrow. Now. Boss, I’m leaving. Bye ! I saw this experience as someone who takes a sabbatical to climb Mount Everest. It’s not easy (nobody said it would be, otherwise everybody would do it), it might even be scary, it might not be profitable at first (from a $$ standpoint), it is definitely challenging, it is not acheived overnight, but it will be your experience of a lifetime. So if you want to have something interesting to say to your grandchildren later, just do it…
6-If ever it does not work (which I doubt if you put your mind at it), call your contacts, go back working and wait a bit. Maybe the timing wasn’t right.

At this point, I do not know exactly how things will turn out for me. But it is looking good and I certainly put the effort to help then turn good. I’ll keep you posted (if that is of interest to anybody !).

Sorry, I realize I have taken much space. But it’s a change from talking to my imaginary friends, Bob and Marley, here in by basement…

Danny

Good luck with your blog. I am here to help any way I can. Just let me know. Please keep us posted on the progress!

Huge thanks. Big things ahead my friend.

-Scott

You are such a blessing to this cause of helping others, I just wanted to say, I’m hooked in your articles and your advice, I thought I had a good life pushing myself forward but you my brother seem to surpass and go beyond your own capacity of thinking. Thank you my spiritual brother, you have given me the confidence to think and plan beyond lifes experiences… Thank you

Very cool that the GLZ post lead you this way. As for food documenting, the best info I’ve read about is in Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Body where he cites a study at the University of Wisconsin with 43 subjects showed that simply taking photos was significantly more impactful than detailed food journals (which in the past had been proven to produce 3x as much weight loss as not using jounals). Have a deeper look at his book or website http://www.fourhourbody.com to do some more digging.

But the most important thing is to realize that photographing your food works and it’s super simple. The awareness alone will likely result in fat loss. You will be much more conscious and personally accountable for what you eat. After all, who wants to take a photo of a jumbo bag of M&M’s??

Too bad about eat.ly. I saw that right after the post. Not sure what Foodspotting’s plan is with it. The great news is that all you really have to do is take a picture using the camera on your phone before you eat anything. That alone will do the trick.

Let me know how you come along with all this and I hope you’ll stick around for the big things to come!

Scott

Thanks!
Donna

As for specific careers, I think that is much less important than the underlying SuperPowers, as I call them. Now I would suggest you spend further time with The Beginner’s Guide to Being Congruent and just writing out and thinking through the things you enjoy and how your strengths could relate. The details Stengths report should start to give a good feel.

I am here to help however I can. I also hammer this home in my Personal Freedom Coaching as well.

http://www.readingforyoursuccess.com/personal-freedom-coaching

Congrats!
Scott

Thanks for the mention! I’d appreciate if you gave my short bio at the end of the post as well if you don’t mind.

Happy New Year!