Cash, Stubborness and Music

I had the first cassette recorder when I was around 4. It was called Jola 2, a Polish make. I know, I know, Poland and cassette recorders. But hey, it was the peak of the communist era in the Eastern Europe, in very early seventies. We were all actually eating our own dog food.

I still have a very clear recollection of both the actual device and the context which lead to its acquisition. It was a black box with the cassette tray on the left side, with the speaker on the right side (it was an ellipse shaped speaker, I remember how I peaked through the small holes of the black plastic mask and realize the form which has letting the sound out). It also had a transparent radio scale with all the frequencies painted on it. A round knob on the right was moving (by the means of some complicated plastic wheels and thin strings) a small red line on top of that scale, so you know which frequency you were listening to. It was mono, of course, in 1974 having a stereo device would have been extremely difficult. The cassette was manipulated with a line of silver buttons, on top of the tray. One of them would open the tray, while the others were helping you play, record and rewind the tape.

We bought it, (actually, my dad bought it) one summer when we were on vacation at the Black Sea. At that time, Black Sea was a popular destination among other countries in the communist block. Many people from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia were coming along. The political police wasn’t so obvious and many small things were still tolerated. Like a nudist beach in each resort, which, usually, was also the place where a little bit of black market could be seen. I don’t know why the black market was always around the nudist beaches, but this is how it was.

The Negotiation

One day we went on a walk, me and my father, to see what was going on at one of these “bissie-nissie“ (a covert term for ”business“ of course) places. I remember that I got chewing gum and I was making bubbles. My father was looking very carefully at all the stuff lined up on black teeshirts on one side of the beach. At some point, he saw a small black box and he asked for the price. He didn’t know any English, and, apparently, the seller didn’t know any English too. But they were waving around hands and fingers and they were also drawing numbers in the sand, erasing them quickly with their feet, once they were sure the other part got it right. My father asked for a short demonstration and the seller put a small thing into the black box, pushed some buttons and, miracle, the black box started to sing. I was amazed.

We went back to our place on the beach and my dad started to talk with my mom. He took a small purse (which was holding the money, I was going to find out soon) and we went back to the bissie-nissie place. This time we went straight to the seller place, which was a small room in one of the hotels lined up on the beach. They started to talk. Again, they didn’t speak any English and the seller native language was very strange (it was Polish). But they were talking like 15 minutes and apparently they were thoroughly enjoying it. They were both smiling and laughing. Twenty years later I learned that what was going on in that room was called negotiation. At some point, my dad took out the money from the purse and put it down. The color of the bills, wrapped up in a moderately big package, was blue. I remember that very clear. The seller wasn’t smiling anymore and he didn’t look quite happy. But as my father was still talking, smiling and waving his hands, the grumpiness on the face of the seller started to fade. The money package was still on the floor. After a few minutes, the seller made a funny face, something that was clearly saying ”well, what the heck“, took the money and gave the black box to my father. We walked out of the room with my very first music device. The silver top of it had a strange word, with red letters: Jola 2.

For the next few years, that music device took a very prominent place in my day to day life. Names like ABBA, Boney M and others became common in my vocabulary. I soon learned how to play a cassette, how to record music from the radio, or even from the device’s microphone, starting my own proto-podcast. I was about 5 years old. The audio cassettes were still fragile at that time and the technology of that Jola 2 wasn’t very advanced, so, every once in a while, the tape was stuck inside. I learned how to take out the tape and use a crayon to rewind the tape again inside the cassette. Of course, once the tape was wrinkled, the sound wasn’t that good anymore.

The Problem

As years went by, the Jola 2 approached its end. At some point, it just stopped working. I had no idea why. But my father took a screwdriver, took out the back side and started to look inside, with just a soldering gun and a lot of patience.

I remember my first encounter with the inside of the cassette recorder. It was so colorful inside, so full of wires and strange shapes that I just couldn’t take my eyes out of it. I stayed near my father and watched how he slowly started to dismantle it, piece by piece, wire by wire. It was obvious he didn’t have any idea about how it’s working. Other than: ”this might be the power wires, they must be the power wires. Now, where do they have to go?“. He really had no idea how the whole device was working, but he had an incredible stubborness and patience. After the first few evenings (he was still working all day and he had time for the ”cassette repairing“ only late in the evening) I just gave up and went away, finding other ways to fill my time. But my father stood there and he even started to look at the electrical scheme (a huge piece of paper filled with strange symbols).

After a few weeks, in one of those long evenings in which my father was completely immersed inside the cassette recorder (sometimes  felt like he was literally inside that box, eaten up by those colored wires and shapes, melting inside the delicate electrical engines) well, one of these nights, I heard music again. I was so surprised that I was looking outside the room. Nope, it wasn’t coming from the inside. My father actually repaired the cassette recorder. It was working again.

I was so shocked that I couldn’t ask my dad how he did it. He just did, and that was all that counted for me. Before he put on the black panel I took a final look at the inside of Jola 2. It was as colorful as I remembered it, but now there were some new things popping up. In some places there were some new wires added, while in others there was something resembling to metal stitches. It was changed, that’s for sure. But it worked again.

After Jola 2 I also had a Kashtan, a Russian magnetophone on which I listened to rock music for the first time, but that’s another story.

The Business Approach

Around the age of 30, after I was rambling around, doing pretty much nothing with my life, I decided to become a business man. I started from scratch an online publishing company, which at its peak was the third player in the market. After 10 years, I sold it for a profit.

Starting it, making it work and then growing it wasn’t easy at all. But as I grew, both in terms of experience and lucidity, I started to realize something. It was related to my first cassette recorder, of course.

First: the negotiation in that room was something extremely important. If you go out and ask every business man which is the most powerful tool in a negotiation, they will always tell you: ”cash“. Cash is king. As a four year old kid I had absolutely no idea about it, of course. But I did recall the strange discussion between my dad and the Polish seller. As I was going to find out soon, in my own business, each negotiation is the same: both parties are just talking in their own language. There is seldom a real communication between them (that’s why my father and that guy were able to understand each other, although they didn’t speak each other language). But the moment my dad put the money package on the floor, everything changed. In a few minutes, the other guy made that funny face, like ”well, what the heck“, took the money and gave us the device. In other terms, we closed the deal.

I used this, unconsciously, in many deals as a business man. To this very moment, for me, cash is the most powerful tool in a negotiation.

Second, it was the ”breaking up“ moment. The moment the cassette recorder stopped to work. As a business man, I experienced a lot of crisis. Sometimes it was a cash crisis, sometimes it was a market crisis, sometimes it was all of that and even more. And each time I had a crisis, I also applied unconsciously the same approach as my father. Took up the back panel, dive into it without any knowledge of the problem, but with an iron like desire to make it work again. Studied the causes, did a lot of trial and error, sometimes drastically modifying the inside of the music box, but, after a certain period of time, the music was on again. I think you may call this discipline and stubborness. Without it, I highly doubt that any business can advance.

The Selective Recollection

We tend to select from our past the supporting memories. I’m sure there were a lot of details to be remembered from both the negotiation part and the breaking up of the device. I’m sure I could’ve remember the hotel room paintings or the color of the carpet (since I did remember the color of money package) or even the face of the Polish seller. I’m also sure that I could remember the shape of the table at which my father sat while he tried to fix the Jola 2.

But nope. I did remember what I needed to. Which is another way of saying that we have all the resources we need. We literally have access to an endless reservoir of inspiring and supporting examples in our own lives.

Each and every situation in our lives carries the seeds of something important. Just be aware and look carefully.

I guarantee that if you do it, the music will never stop.

An Tan Tiri Mogo Dan

Or, to be more precise, “An Tan Tiri Mogo Dan, Cara Cara Si, Princi Pa Ta Morin Go. Tan Go!”

In case you didn”t live in the Romania of the seventies, chances to know the meaning of those words are close to zero. Ok, it’s a “countdown”. You don”t know what a “countdown” is? It”s a sequence of apparently bogus words, spoken in a certain rhythm, almost like a song, each word being assigned to a certain person. Or, to be even more precise, to a certain kid, because this countdown is actually one of my strongest childhood memories.

Let me explain how this countdown thing worked: suppose we were 7 kids, and we wanted to play “hide and seek”. We had of course to pick one of us to be the actual searcher. For that, we gathered in a circle and one of us started the “countdown”: “an” -> the first one in the circle was tagged, “tan” -> the second one was tagged, “tiri” -> the third one was tagged, and so on, until we reached the final “go”. The kid that was tagged with that final “go” was out of the circle, sparred from the tedious job of being the searcher. Now there were only six kids left. So, we started to countdown over the circle again, until only one kid was left. That was the searcher. As simple as that.

Above All Doubt

We used “countdowns” in many ways. Whenever we had to pick someone for something, and all of our rational selection processes were ineffective, we resorted to the “countdown”. It was our universal selection process. We used it when we had to pick soccer teams for our afternoon soccer games in the school yard. We used it when we had to pick the teams for the ping-pong matches on the concrete table in front of the block. We even used it in school, to pick the one that had to be on duty for the week.

I don’t know who invented that specific countdown and I’m pretty sure the words were completely random and meaningless. Maybe they had to be meaningless, otherwise the magical power of the “countdown” was weakened. I think it was more like an incantation, a borderline magical stuff.

Once we finished a “countdown”, its results were above all doubt. Nobody could contest them. It was final. In a subtle and unexplainable way, the “countdown” was the glue that was keeping us together. Eventually, all our conflicts were solved with a countdown. And nobody would ever contest it.

The Collapsing World

But, as we grew up, we noticed that some of the kids were somehow luckier than others. They seemed to be surrounded by this magical chance: never picked to be on duty at school, always in the best soccer team, never the searcher at “hide and seek”. Hmm…

It didn’t take long to find out that, if you were doing a fast mental calculus, you could actually “predict” which kid will be the last one tagged. So, the “luckier” kids were just doing these mental calculations and they were starting the countdown each time from the “appropriate” kid. Like that, they knew how to manipulate the countdown, so they were the first ones out, if the task was tedious, or the first ones in, if the soccer team was the best one. Think of counting cards in a casino, but much simpler than that.

When I first realized that, I was shocked. My entire world collapsed. What once was above any doubt, now was questionable, to say the least. My small and simple universe was literally shaken apart.

The Modern Countdown

But I survived. It wasn’t the first nor the last perfect image of my childhood universe that was trashed away. Time passed by and I soon had more interesting adventures to pursue than the soccer in the school yard, the ping-pong at the concrete table or even the all mighty “hide and seek”. Among these new adventures: girls, getting into college and finding my first job.

But, in some remote corner of my unconscious mind, the mantra of the “countdown” was still very powerful. I think I was well into my thirties when I realized that. Only now the mechanism was a little bit changed.

Now, I realized that every time I was in a situation which was unsolvable by rational processes, I was always resorting to my own personal mantra. For instance, when I was having heavy problems in my own business, like clients not paying, stretching the business beyond my means or employees leaving for better salaries, I was always resorting to some sort of personal mantra. Sometimes it was “everything will be allright, I just know it”. Sometimes it was “you gotta hit the bottom if you want to bounce higher”. And sometimes it was “I’ll go through this, no matter what”.

I was repeating those mantras to myself, the same way we were doing countdowns as kids. I was just expecting it to work, because it had to. Like the countdown, my unconscious mind invested that mantra with universal powers. It was above all doubt.

But I wasn’t a kid anymore. And the realities surrounding me were now far more complexes than a soccer game in the afternoon or a short shot of “hide and seek”. Mantras, as much as I wanted them to work, were useless. They had this power to keep me going for a while, just like the countdowns did until I realized they can be manipulated, but in the end I had to surrender. Just like my childhood universe collapsed when I realized that other kids were playing us because they knew more or they were faster at calculus, each of my mantras were trashed away but the existing realities.

In the end, I was able to overcome pretty much every adverse situation (except the ones which are still unfolding as we speak, which is, of course, another story). But I did this outside the mantras. I did this by facing the facts, accepting the outcome and weighing my odds, in a cold and calculated way. I manipulated the countdown in my favor, starting it again and again, until I found the favorable positions.

There is no magic mantra. There is no lucky shot at your command. There is nothing except your own strength and honesty. There isn’t even this post. Don’t believe it. Don’t make a mantra or countdown out of it.

Because I wrote it only to manipulate you. I counted all the words in such a way that it puts me in a better position. I’m out now .

Information Is Cheap, Action Is Expensive

Remember how understandable it was to be late 20 years ago? It wasn’t like the world will collapse if you’re late 5 minutes. There were no cell phones. If we had to meet you, and you were late, we first assumed that you simply forgot. After more than 15 minutes, we simply decided that you didn’t want to meet us anymore and think of a way to solve this next time we meet. And then went on with our lives.

20 years ago, if you wanted to go from point A to point B, you had to rely much more on action, than on information. Action meant to just start and see how you’re doing later on. Get on that train and figure it out while you’re on it. Get on a bus and negotiate your arrival later. Just be out there somehow. Action was the cheapest merchandise out there. Everybody has it and used it.

Information, on the other side, was very expensive. To know a lot of stuff was a ridiculously difficult task. Most of the time, information was confined within thick walls, like libraries or laboratories. And if it wasn’t that, it was distance. It was very difficult for you to visually experience a tea ceremony, for instance. Because the information had a very slow propagation speed. There was no internet. Only TV, printed papers and books. All very, very slow in spreading information.

Now, things are completely different.We know everything we need to know about point B, but we’re unable to foster the necessary resources to get there. Information is no longer confined within thick walls, we can learn everything we want about everything we can imagine. Yet, we almost never get on a bus, ready to negotiate our arrival later on. In a strange and almost imperceptible way, action became prohibitive to us. Information is everywhere, but the ability to act on it it’s almost a dream. It’s all backwards now. Information is extremely accessible, while action seems to became the most expensive merchandise in the world. We seldom take real action on what we want. We spend our lives processing and consuming incredibly high amounts of information, but we almost never take action on what we know.

For instance, it’s very easy to spot an opportunity business now. You have the internet and most of the time, all you have to do to get some information is to google it. You can verify if somebody else already implemented your ideas in minutes. 20 years ago this was basically impossible. We have lower risk barriers now. Yet, we don’t take the necessary action to actually make it happen.

I experienced this on a few levels, but the most visible is by far the business level. I meet very often with young entrepreneurs, and they’re telling me their brilliant ideas. Some of them even have presentation skills. Some of the even have enthusiasm. But almost none of them has the guts to actually implement that idea. Most of the time, they mask their inability to take action behind the “we need seed money” excuse. But even if they get seed money, they don’t have the necessary internal resources to make the best out of their business idea.

The incessant race towards more and more information drastically affected our ability to act. And if I would be a tabloid journalist, I would write now a very strong sentence about the end of the world. Luckily, I’m not a tabloid journalist, so I would write this: it’s an incredible opportunity, folks! While others are spending their lives watching that twitter stream, you can start a real life conversation with a potential business partner. Just go ahead and do it! It won’t cost you more time or resources than any of those dozens if meaningless – yet incredibly rewarding from a psychological point of view – interactions on Facebook you have anyway. Instead of reading blogs (including this one) just go ahead and DO something with your life. Your action doesn’t need to be perfect. On the contrary, even if you screw things up, you may end up in a much better position than those who are not even screwing their life up.

From an economical point of view, the value of information is constantly degrading. Not only it gets cheaper to be consumed, but it also gets cheaper and cheaper to be produced. On the other side, the value of action is keep getting higher and higher. The less you find a needed product on the market, the higher its price. Action, any action you may be able to create, it’s now more rewarding than information.

There is only one exception to this rule, and that is this very article. The information you got from it it’s very precious. Now go out there and DO something about it!

Living Off The Grid

For the last 3 years I’ve been living completely off the grid. I don’t have a regular job anymore, my income sources are completely erratic, and my personal relationships are either collapsed or very hard to understand from a traditional perspective. I travel a lot and when I work, I set up my own hours and spaces. From the outside, I often characterize myself as a digital nomad, but on the inside, I’m just living off the grid.

It’s an incredibly powerful experience and, the more I get into it, the more I enjoy the whole process. But, as cool as it may look or feel, living off the grid is not easy. Also, it is a socially alienating lifestyle, and that’s for a very good reason: any individual living outside normal rules is intrinsically a threat to the society. Which will in turn do whatever it takes to alienate those who are not obeying its rules. And believe me, I’ve been treated like this by what we call “society” more than once.

What Does “Living Off The Grid” Means?

Before diving too much into the causes and consequences of such a lifestyle, let’s stop for a moment and try to understand what “living off the grid” means. At least for me.

First of all, it means I’m not socially enrolled as a worker. It doesn’t mean I don’t work, it just means I don’t have a regular job. I don’t fit into any socially accepted description of a job, although I do perform a lot of value creating roles. I code iPhone apps, although I’m not a programmer. I write on a popular self-improvement blog (the one you read read right now, that is), although I don’t define myself as a blogger. I wrote 5 books, though I’m not a writer.

In fact, I do have a very odd lifestyle and it took a while even to me to come to the terms with it. After jumping from one definition of what I do to another, from blogger to writer and from entrepreneur to programmer, I finally decided that I’m neither of them. And that I just live outside of a normal grid of rules. With all the good and bad stuff that may come out of this.

Second, living off the grid also affects relationships. I don’t have any of the socially accepted roles in this area, nor do I want to embark on one anymore. I’m not a husband to anyone (I’m twice divorced, as a matter of fact). I’m friend of a few, although I do have a rather eclectic taste in friends. I have short bursts of powerful social interactions, followed by long periods of solitude.

All in all, I’m not following any traditional patterns in living my life. I do not comply with a lot of socially accepted rules. Also, I’m not a nice guy, by any standards. And that’s true, although parts of my blog may have mislead you in this matter.

And yet, I live an incredibly fulfilling life. I don’t experience any of the limitations that come with following the rules. I have an unbelievably diverse field of experiences. I see a lot of places and interact with a lot of people. I create and provide value on many levels. And all this while still maintaining a decent level of comfort, enabling me at least to provide for myself and for my kids.

So, that’s what “living off the grid” means to me. Now let’s move a bit to the reasons for this lifestyle.

After giving it a lot of thought, I came to the conclusion that living off the grid has 3 main reasons: impossibility to adapt, boredom and, finally, curiosity. Let’s talk a bit about each of these and then we’ll go deeper with the implications that this lifestyle had on me for the last 3 years.

1. Lack Of Adaptation

Some of the people living outside of the grid are just unable to cope with the normal rules imposed by society. They simply can’t accept something that is imposed to them. The energy necessary to follow all the rules will simply dry them out. They’re the unadapted.

To some extent, we’re all unadapted. We do not obey to all the rules, all the time. But we do obey to a certain set that allows us to survive in the grid. We’re able to cope with the majority of rules imposed on us, and we do this for the vast majority of time. But once we reach a certain threshold, once we’re not able to fit in properly, we’re off the grid.

If there will be a scale for people living off the grid by lack of adaptation, to the most violent end of it we’ll find criminals, homeless or other “extremes” of the human nature.Their lack of adaptation is so obvious and aggressive that society simply can’t manage them in a frictionless way, and they have to be put away. On the other end of the scale are the shy, unobservable, silent people. So shy and unobservable that we don’t really know they’re there. But they are. We’re only not accepting them in our “circle”.

2. Boredom

Another cause of living off the grid is boredom. You know, when you just had enough and need a break. Everybody needs a break every once in a while. We’re designed in such a way that we need diversity, otherwise we tend to implode sooner or later.

Boredom makes rules so unfulfilling that simply obeying them became a chore in itself. Why being a socially correct individual when you don’t get any excitement back? What’s the good in being correct if you don’t get back anything funny?

And, sadly, this is true: the role of rules is to keep the larger structure going on, not to provide excitement. Rules are made to keep everything under control while excitement, by definition, it’s something completely out of control.

3 Curiosity

That’s the third, and, if I may say that, the most “healthy” reason for living off the grid. If lack of adaptation is your “child” mode and boredom is your “adult” mode, this is what I call your “experimental” mode. The playful one, curiosity in action, but doubled also by responsibility. Trying things outside the normal scope, just to see what happens. How you feel. What you can get off of it.

It’s different from lack of adaptation because you know you can cope with the rules, but now you just want to play. Deep down you know you’re fit, you just try something different.

It’s different from boredom also as it doesn’t set any expectations. In the boredom mode, you expect a thrill as result of your action. In the curiosity mode, you already have the thrill inside, regardless of the outcome of your action.

So, to finish this part, my main reasons for living off the grid are in order: curiosity, boredom and lack of adaptation. I always was almost clinically curious, I was really bored after running my own business for more than 10 years and I also have my share of not coping with the rules. Like I told you, I’m not a nice a guy.

Consequences Of Living Off The Grid

During the last 3 years many things in my life were changed. I will only talk about a few of them, namely about those who may be of interest for a broader audience.

Business

Doing business when you live off the grid is kinda difficult. You must rely only on your own efforts for branding and networking. You won’t get any help back from society: none of your diplomas will work here. It’s only what you know to do and how well are you able to sell it. If you’re good at these, you may end up pretty good. You may create an image of success and you may attract a lot of partners. In my case, I have to admit I also relied heavily on my successful history as an entrepreneur. Before living off the grid, I acted as an important society pillar: I created a big business, which in turn created jobs and generated a lot of extra value. But if I wouldn’t have such a successful history, my current position as an “off the grid” business man would have been very different.

Doing business when you live off the grid is also borderline fraud. Or, to be more correct, this is how it’s perceived by normal society. And why is that? Because you, as an outsider, claim ownership to stuff that is no longer backed up by your lifestyle. You want money, right? But money is a value that was generated inside society. You’re no longer part of that society now, you live by your own rules, so why you still need money? Of course, what’s happening in real life is that you start to align some of your “off the grid” rules to those of a normal, protective society, in order to keep the revenue area in sync, so to speak. Many of the popular icons of this lifestyle are actually doing it. Think Tim Ferris or Steve Pavlina. Although they’re prophets of a lifestyle in freedom, outside a regular job, some of their rules are making (a lot of) room to (a lot of) money.

In my experience, doing business off the grid took a lot of trial and error. The good news is that my initial model, building an online brand around a blog, was validated. This thing is actually working. The bad news is that I have to work way more than I initially thought to make this happen. And I also had to increase the speed of my experiments. If you’re reading my blog, let’s say, twice a month, you wouldn’t have notice any of these. There was very small experiments in monetization, like advertising, affiliate products and so on, each in a very narrow time window. They were taking place at a very high speed, so the regular flow of my messages wasn’t disturbed. Also, I had to invest a lot of time in building some real life connections. These efforts couldn’t be seen also on the blog, but they were part of this new lifestyle.

After 3 years I can finally testify that doing business as an off the grid individual can work in a sustainable way. But it’s not even remotely as easy as doing business in the normal society. So if you wanna take on this path, be prepared to work your arse off.

Personal Relationships

Probably the most challenging area. First of all, when I really got into this new lifestyle, my traditional relationships went bonkers. Although it worked well for a year or two, starting with the third year, my traditional marriage collapsed. It took almost 2 years to solve the whole separation related stuff and it was one of my most painful and difficult times ever. Mostly because my daughter, Bianca, had to witness a lot of unhealthy emotional reactions.

I won’t blame entirely my new lifestyle for my marriage collapse, but it was certainly an important part of it. As much as we, as men, don’t want to believe this, women are also starting partnerships with our images, not with us, as human beings. Just as we, men, are attracted by their exciting shapes or flirtatious games (which are almost never exact mirrors of their real human beings), they’re also attracted by our (often unconsciously projected) images of protection and power. In my case, being “the CEO” had a big impact on my last marriage. So big that when the “CEO” part of me was gone, wasn’t much left, at least in the eyes of my ex-wife. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no one to blame here, this is just how things were and I don’t hold any grudges to anyone.

Subsequently, starting new personal relationships when you live off the grid is equally difficult. You know, before this, every time a woman was asking me what do I do for a living, the answer was easy: “I own my own business”. From that point on, things were usually pretty straightforward. But now, I am having a real hard time trying to explain to my new acquaintances what I do for a living. In the beginning, I was taking this question seriously and started to really explain that I have a blog, and around it I built an ecosystem of products, and brands, and so on. Big mistake. Now I only tell them: “I do everything I can to avoid a 9 to 5 job”. It seems that it keeps their minds busy enough so we can move to other parts of the game.

But even if they eventually understand what I do for a living, the real bonding is very difficult, especially if the other person is very much “into the grid”. As a matter of fact, the higher is on her career path, the most difficult is for a woman to relate properly with a man off the grid. Their minds are pretty hard wired into stability and protection (usually, that’s the main reason behind their effort to climb on the career ladder anyway). So, if at any moment they will perceive (and women are extremely good at perceiving things, you know) that you’re not into this protection role anymore, and you’re just experiencing and looking for adventure, they’ll back off. Of course, there is also the other side of the coin, when your adventurous image will arouse them and made them push things even deeper, just to experience a little bit of the thrill they see inside you. But in the end, the planet represented by society is way bigger than you, and its gravity will attract them back.

There is always the possibility to meet a woman who also lives off the grid, or who has a deeper understanding of the world. In that case, things will really work out. But, as you may imagine, this is an order of magnitude more difficult to happen than a normal, society compliant relationship.

Health

This area was one of the few that benefit 100% from my lifestyle change. I will just start by saying that every time I’m asking an unknown person to tell my age just by looking at me, I invariably get “30, 33 or 30 something”. I will be 41 in 3 months.

The main reason for my huge massive health improvement was that I escaped a very tiring work routine. Getting to work day in and day out, whether you like it or not, well, that’s not a good thing. I know you know that. I’m just saying. Doing things in a forced way is not good for anyone. Unfortunately, when we sign up a social contract to have a job, we gotta follow through, otherwise the whole universe around us will collapse. And that mere thought is literally killing many of us slowly. And don’t even imagine that just because I had my own business I didn’t have to go to work day in and day out. As a matter of fact, I think I worked more than any of my employees.

Another important consequence for my health was that I also had a lot of time to experiment. One of the most interesting health experiments I did in the last 3 years was my raw food diet. I stayed raw for like 9 months. During this time I lost 12 kilos and I felt like I was 14 again (minus the hormones thing). I was sleeping 5 hours a night and felt absolutely great. But in the end I had to give up. The main reason for that: society is not ready for this lifestyle. I simply can’t be 100% raw and still have a normal social life. Right now I’m omnivorous but I also drastically changed my physical exercise routine.

And by that I come to another fortunate consequence of living off the grid: the ability to start complex 30 days challenges. I started a 30 days challenge to exercise 2 years ago. I also started a “taming monkey” experiment in which I re-learned how to run. And in the meantime I did countless of other small improvements in my physical health. Like walking instead of driving and not eating after 7 PM. And more. But there’s a very important caveat to this situation and I’m very much aware of it. None of these experiments would have taken place if I wasn’t a self-improvement obsessed freak. And by that I mean it’s much more difficult to get motivated when you’re off the grid. When we’re sharing our lives with other people, by following the same rules, much of our behavior is on auto-pilot. Most of the time, this is a bad thing. But there are situations when being part of a larger group are beneficial. Like your weekly basketball game, for instance, if you know what I mean.

Social Interactions

And with that, I’m going to the part that was most heavily changed by living off the grid: social interactions. In the beginning, the most important consequence was that I was able to filter all my social contacts based on a simple rule: whether I like them or not. You have no idea how heavily our social contacts are influenced by our jobs and how little we can influence them when we follow the rules. Once you’re off the grid and once you can make a conscious choice, your social life will be completely changed. You will meet only people you want to meet. This simple change will have enormous effects on your social life. You will simply be able to ignore people you don’t like. Because you’re not forced to deal with them anymore. Massive amounts of anger and rejection won’t be triggered at all. Instead, your emotional life will start to heal. At some point, you will grow so strong that you will not need this filter anymore. You will be able to deal with all kind of people the same way you deal only with people that you used to like. And that’s huge. It’s an internal transformation that will literally catapult your social life. As of today, I have no difficulty whatsoever to normally relate with basically anyone. And I mean anyone.

Also, another important consequence was that I started to work from home. For the last 10 years I had an office. All that was “work” was happening in that place and in that place only. But after I sold my company I didn’t want an office anymore. So all my work started to happen at home. As surprising as it may seem, this was one of the most effective disciplinary measures I ever took. Working from home, instead of making me a lazy couch potato, transformed me into a productivity freak. There were also a lot of other lessons I learned from this.

But probably the most important thing that happened to me on the social level was traveling. It may sound strange to you but I never left my country until I was 35. And since 37, when I sold my company I went over the world and back 2 times. I started a company in New Zealand (and thinking to start one in US too). I went to Asia, from Thailand to Japan. I gambled in Vegas, ate cooked rice in Hong Kong and croissants in Paris. Visited half of Europe and also crossed my natal country, Romania, in any conceivable way. I learned how to fly in Christchurch and also made my first tattoo. I simply can’t imagine myself being capable to have all these experiences by living a socially accepted lifestyle. Like having a regular job and so on. If there is one, I simply cannot see it, so I’d greatly appreciate any insights in the comments.

The Most Important Lessons From Living Off The Grid

Living off the grid is cool. It’s also pretty difficult, as you already saw. But there is also one thing that proved to be the most important of all. A thing so simple and yet so powerful. A thing that made me realize that I can really keep this lifestyle for as long as I want to, provided I won’t forget it.

Without further ado, here it is: living off the grid doesn’t have any positive outcome if the grid doesn’t take something back of the outside experiments. In other words, if you’re living off the grid for yourself, you are not improving anyone’s life. In fact, you’re not improving your life either. You may say that, as a result of your actions, you’ll be a different person once you get back to the grid. But, since the grid hasn’t changed at all as a result of your absence, your newly acquired abilities or skills are useless.

So, if you really want to live off the grid, remember to give back. Stop every once in a while, look back and see what you can share with others that will make the grid a better place. Start telling your stories, for instance. Or start teaching others, Or just start providing some service you learned on your off the grid experience.

In my case, I’m giving back on this very blog more than 500 self-improvement articles. All free of charge. Just browse and read at your leisure. Also, I wrote 5 books and created an iOS productivity app. All these are some of my ways to give back to the grid.

Because I have no intention to get back there soon. It’s way too cool out here.

Even if it gets really tough at times.

The Secret Art Of Keeping Cards Castles From Falling Down

You know how to make a castle from deck cards? Once you learn how to do it, it’s very easy, actually. You take two cards and make them hold one against the other on the top edge. Near this triangle you make a new one, using another pair of cards. And then you lay out horizontally a new card on top of those two triangles, which will hold them together. On top of it you put another triangle. Voila. You have a deck cards castle. The smallest one, of course, but still a card castle.

The hard part comes when you want one of these to last longer than 2 or 3 minutes. These types of structures are very sensitive. Just a little bit of wind and they’re all down. Very, very sensitive.

Our Life Structures

There was a time when I was thinking that only castle cards are sensitive structures. That the vast majority of the other things in my life are much solid than a card castle. But, as I grew old, I realized this is just an illusion. At a very deep level, our life structures are pretty much identical with a card castle. We may think they aren’t so easy to broke down, but in fact they are.

Let’s say you’re running your own business. You got your stuff together pretty well, you have a little bit of market share, paying customers and loyal employees. You have a pretty neat and shiny castle built there. Then, out of nowhere, a financial crisis hits in. Your customers are running out of money, you can’t pay your employees anymore and you have to close the business down. Your castle is literally falling apart.

Or, let’s say you got yourself a pretty solid relationship. A marriage, for instance. You communicate well with your partner, your life is unfolding peacefully in front of the two of you and you act like a team. Then, one day you wake up and realize you’re in somebody else’s dream. Not in your own dream. And you decide to end that relationship. All your shiny castle will fall down in a few months.

A business, a relationship, even a house. They can fall down anytime.

As I grew old, I realized that keeping your life together is pretty much a question of keeping your card castles in good order. Do anything you can to make them as solid as you can. I call this the hidden art of keeping the castle cards together. And today I’m going to share with you some of my secret techniques.

The 4 Secrets Of The Hidden Art Of Keeping The Castle Cards Together

Something like this... (A real cards castle on Waiheke Island, New Zealand)

1. Build It In A Safe Place

Always look for a good foundation for your castle. Find a quiet place, with not too much wind.

In other words, pay close attention to your surroundings. And by surroundings I understand pretty much everything that surrounds you, not only space. Pay attention to the relationships you’re building with this castle. Are they usually stormy? Unpredictable? Sometimes we like the unpredictable, it gives us a sense of thrill, but when the unpredictable hits our castle, we’re sad. So think things over.

Also, be careful at the outside conditions, is this a stormy place? In business, this would mean that your market has a lot of ups and downs. In relationships, it means your partner friends: are they in the same league as you?

A castle card built in a windy place won’t last more than a few minutes.

2. Build It With Quality Cards

This always goes down to picking the best available resource you may have access to. It involves the best people you may have access to for your business. It involves a reliable and trustworthy partner for your relationship. It involves the best materials for building your house, if that’s the castle you are building right now.

A castle built with poor quality cards will not even stand, regardless of the surroundings. You may have the best place, the best conditions, but if you’re not paying close attentions to your cards, your castle won’t grow. For instance, your cards may be too soft, not able to hold on to the responsibility of the card on top of them. Or they may be too slippery, not really willing to be part of a fixed structure.

Just do whatever you feel like to put your cards to a stress test before starting to build a castle together. It will save so much trouble later on, when you’ll be focused on the actual building process.

3. Build It With Care

Pay attention to joints and the distance between cards. Make them optimal. A far fetched business will equal to a bigger distance between two triangles. It will weaken the whole structure. A relationship in which you wait for the other person to “grow up” or to quit an addiction has the same effect. It affects the whole structure resistance.

Leverage your structures. If you built a triangle here and then another one a mile away, it will take years to build the intermediary triangles, until everything will be linked. Whatever you built in your life and you’re proud of, use it. Don’t throw it away in search of another thrill, as spectacular as it may look like to build a new beginning in a far away place.

A card castle build in a safe place, with good quality cards and with a lot of care will last far more than you believe. I have build cards castles which lasted years and I know I can build others again too.

4. Prepare For The Fall Down

This is the last one. It took me a lot of time to get it, but I consider it to be the most important secret of this hidden art.

Keep in mind that everything you build is subject to decay. No matter how safer the place, how good the cards and how perfect the structure, there will be at some point something that will shake it down. Accept it. Even more, wait for it. The subtlest thing in the secret art of building deck cards castles is that they are meant to go down.

And they do this for a very food reason: to give you room to start a new one.

The joy is always in building those castles, again and again, and not much in keeping them from falling down.

Hence, this post is a little bit useless.

Taming Monkey Number Two: Done

There’s a very good chance that I’ll be in Christchurch when you read this. For the last week I’ve been in Auckland, as part of my second attempt to tame some inner monkeys. If you don’t know what I mean by this, you can learn more about why and how I ditched my New Years resolutions and also how I partially failed at taming my first monkey.

Back to my New Zealand trip. Some of you may already know that I intend to live in this country, at least partially. In the process of moving to New Zealand, a couple of years ago, I set up a company here. But I never got it to get my full focus. Sometimes I had some personal issues that I had to focus on, sometimes there were other real problems that I have to deal with and sometimes I admit I simply let it slip away. Fact is this company was never developed to its full potential. And that’s what I call a monkey.

Taming Complete

So, here I am, in Auckland CBD, trying to get a hold of what I have to do in order to move things in the right direction. For the last week I’ve been swamping myself in meetings, projections, scenarios and other funny things you do when you want to make a company move forward. And, to my real joy, almost all of these were successful.

Right now I am ready to file my first annual tax report. I also have all the financial tools required to manage the company remotely. There is one more thing needed, and that would be getting a International Tax Number, because there will be an increasing flow of business coming from US this year. That I hope to solve it somehow by the end of the month, because it doesn’t really require my presence here in New Zealand.

Not to mention that, as little as it was, this company already received a little bit of a cash, mainly from my iPhone apps business channel. It’s not like I’m going to get instantly rich from it, but it will be enough to support at least two more visits to New Zealand this year. Each visit being at least one month long. For the record, this visit has half financed by the money I already have it here. It’s the first time I’m spending money made in New Zealand for New Zealand.

Anyway, if I look at this company now, I don’t have any feelings of “monkeyness” whatsoever. The taming is complete.

It May Be Simpler Than It Seems

And that brings me back to what is to be done when you want to tame a monkey. Sometimes, all you have to do is to get up, take a plane, fly to the end of the world, solve what is to be solved and call this a tamed monkey. In other words, get up and do what you have to do.

Every “monkey” is different. The first one was pertaining to things I never lived up to. Unfulfilled promises (to my self, in this case). Incomplete commitments. The second one was not as much about lack of fulfillment, but about finishing up. Tidying up things a little. Shutting up and do stuff. As a matter of fact, during the last week, I was extremely quiet. My Twitter timeline was extremely sparse and my Facebook updates were consisting mainly on two-three pictures. Sometimes all you have to do is to step out from your natural environment and fix stuff by yourself.

I wish I had more things to write about this second monkey, but fact this this one was much simpler than it looked. Of course, I had to fly 28 hours, book a hotel, set up meetings and attend to them. But I didn’t find it complicated. Or hard. It was actually fun and relaxing.

A Little Bit Of Life In Between

Having my job done for the whole month, it’s time to think at the fun part too. As I already mentioned, this whole downshifting / downsizing thing I’m embarking into has a “compulsory” part. And that part is to still have a life while getting things done. Which, by the way, is the main goal of my productivity framework.

In fact, today starts the second part of the trip, the “pleasure” one. I’ll be heading to Christchurch in a few hours, stay there for three days, and then fly to Rotorua. After one night there I’ll be heading back to Auckland and from there I’ll fly to Hong Kong. I always wanted to visit Hong Kong and I admit I’m really eager to get there. After three more days in Hong Kong, I’ll finally head back to Bucharest.

Where, from what I read in my email messages, there’s plenty of work to be done.

The Subtle Comfort Of The Discomfort Zone

I have a very close relationship with the discomfort zone. We’re somehow friends. Over the years I slowly learned the subtle science of feeling good in my discomfort zone. What follows is a short description of my approach.

But first, let’s have a glimpse of what I understand by discomfort zone in some areas of my life.

Social Life

Last week I attended to an astrology workshop. I am somehow into astrology and since I already knew the woman who held that workshop (from a mailing list, not from real life), going there seemed like a nice idea. But the atmosphere, the people and the whole workshop approach proved to be completely new and somehow disturbing. I literally felt like an alien taking notes with my iPad, the only man among 20 something middle age women (there was another man attending but he was an astrologer too, so I guess it didn’t counts). That was a very uncomfortable place for me to be.

At the same time, I am on board of a business event called Venture Connect where I meet with people from the online industry. While I do enjoy being there, the challenges this position brings are quite interesting. I have to search for new, valuable online businesses, evaluate them, meet with entrepreneurs, balance their expectations and so on and so forth. It’s the second edition of the event and I’m starting to feel a little bit more relaxed, but it still requires some serious stretching from me.

In the last two months I started a consulting project (quite a big one, it will end in March next year) where I have to spend a few hours every day in an office, evaluating progress of a team, provisioning, negotiating deals, creating and implementing strategies and so on. That’s a very interesting position for me, in a very subtle and new way. I had my own business for more than 10 years, but positioning myself somehow outside of the power and control position of a business owner, while still trying to get measurable results as a consultant, well, that’s something completely new and, of course, uncomfortable.

And during the entire day, every day, I socialize on Twitter and Facebook, interacting with dozens of people and trying to manage thousands of followers. Some of them are just having common interests, some of them are just into chit chat, while some of them are completely unknown strangers who are trying to make new friends. For a rather reserved person like me, this routine is really uncomfortable.

Work

Although I am seasoned web programmer, lately I decided to enter the Apple ecosystem, creating and selling my own iPhone / iPad (and, lately, even Mac) apps. For that, I had to learn Objective C from scratch and implement myself all the functionality I needed. It’s true that the first prototype of my iAdd app was ready in just 30 days, but those 30 days were an incredibly wearing period for me. iAdd is not a walk in the park, it’s a solid, Core Data based app with a lot of underlying features.

And maintaining, bug fixing and improving iAdd takes a very big chunk of my time, even if I’m becoming more and more experienced. But the distance from my comfort zone of being a regular PHP programmer to becoming a skilled and effective Objective C programmer is huge. Objective C is still a very disturbing place for me, although I spend a few hours in that realm every day.

Personal Relationships

Although what you read so far can give you an idea about my general discomfort zone, nothing from it compares with what I have in my personal relationships. As some of you may know, I’m separated from the mother of my 4 year old daughter, Bianca. I also have another child, Victor, who is 13 years old.

Until recently, my personal relationship approach was a very “clean”, cutting edge one: either “100% in”, or “100% out”. Meaning that if I commit to a relationship, I’m there 100% no matter what. But when I’m out from the relationship I’m out for good. Like no messages, no phone calls, no nothing. From the other person point of view, I may be considered as well as dead. 100% out.

While I’m still committed to keep the first part the same (whenever I may decide to enter a new relationship, that is, which is something that won’t happen very soon, for sure), the second one, the one related to “100% out” is something that I decided to change. I want to start to maintain a (former romantic) relationship going on on a different vibe, not for my own benefit, but to give to my children access to their father too. Even if they’re not in a regular family, being able to get in touch and maintain permanent contact with their father is fundamental. That’s something I’m committed to do, no matter what.

But well, here comes the difficult part. All my partners were accustomed to my “100% in” approach. So each contact we have is seen through those lenses. Although I’m well out and beyond the romantic relationship we had and all I want is to create a friendship, they’re still expecting me to perform as I was “100% in”, which I’m not.

Anyway, fact is I find the process of creating and maintaining healthy boundaries in personal relationships incredibly difficult. Not because of the actual me, but because of the image I created into my partners minds by the former me.

On top of that, I have to be really careful not to create too many expectations on my new romantic relationships. I kinda managed to have a balance on this area so far, but it tends to get a little crowded lately .

That’s one hell of a discomfort zone, believe me.

How To Stretch

Why am I telling you all these? Not because I’m creating public reports of my social life, work or personal relationships, that’s for sure. But because I want to show you how and why I find the discomfort zone fundamental for one’s growth.

So, here’s how to stretch:

1. Take A Leap Of Faith

Jump. Start doing what you’re afraid of. Immerse in it without too much thinking. The discomfort zone is not a rational one. If one would have to use reasoning for jumping into the discomfort zone, he would never do it. We’re wired to search and enjoy balance.

But too much balance is dangerous. Too much balance is like sitting on a chair at a party and enjoying your staying, while everybody around is dancing. The dance is where the real fun is, not sitting on the chair. Life is a dance and just because you’re invited to the party, if you don’t get up and dance it doesn’t mean you’re really having fun.

And it’s true: to start dancing you gotta summon courage, not reason.

For instance, in my social life I just dive in whenever I feel the drive to. Going to that astrology workshop was a leap of faith. I felt like an alien during it, that’s true, but the leap of faith proved really beneficial. I stretched out. I made my muscle work somehow.

2. Observe Your Reactions

Fundamental. See what everything means for you. See what muscle is strengthened. See how the new you unfolds. If you don’t observe what the discomfort zone is doing to you, the leap of faith was in vain. Was just a gratuitous, selfish and useless act. But if you’re staying aware, you start reaping off the benefits.

This is the learning stage of the process and if you’re not taking the time to follow through, you’re not using your discomfort zone. The discomfort zone uses you to create frustration.

For instance, in my social life (again) every day spent at the office is a day of learning. I position myself more and more accurately based on my own reactions to what happens. It’s like I’m building the muscle of being a consultant instead of a business owner. It’s something I never did before, so I must work this muscle pretty hard. But each day I find a new exercise for it.

3. Integrate

Take a break every once in a while and see what exactly was changed in your life. And then start to find a way to fit that change into your new you. If you don’t integrate the change, the new muscle (along with the leap of faith that created that muscle) will be useless. If it won’t be used, it will get thinner and thinner until it will disappear.

For instance, in my personal relationships, I realized that my “100% out” approach had to be changed. So, I took the leap of faith to morph my (former romantic) relationships into friendships and started to observe my reactions, to build this new muscle, fiber by fiber.

But as things are progressing, I’m integrating it into other areas as well. Meaning I try to first become friend with a potential romantic partner and then see if there’s something more than that. If anything. I’m just using my newly strengthened friendship muscle.

4. Enjoy

That’s the part where the subtle comfort of the discomfort zone really kicks in. There is a certain time when all the first three steps are coming together, forming a fantastic realm of pressured satisfaction. Things are moving, are transforming around you, there is still a lot of pressure to be solved, you’re tired and frustrated, but, somehow, you’re thriving. And you feel it with all your being.

The simplest comparison is with a workout. It’s hard to push and push and stretch yourself out of the comfort zone. But as you progress, as you stay there doing what you wanted to do, something is starting to change into your body chemistry. You’re releasing endorphins. And although if you’re still feeling tired and frustrated, you’re enjoying the hell out of that workout. I know you know the feeling.

That’s exactly what I’m currently doing with my Objective C discomfort zone. I’m still frustrated and tired, but I’m already seeing results (customers are happy with my products, the app is regularly featured by Apple, etc). I’m starting to enjoy the endorphins of my Objective C workout, although I’m far from finishing it.

So, there is time to enjoy your comfort zone. But not for long.

Because you gotta take the next leap of faith.


Fear Of Failure, Self-Sufficiency and Money

After my first successful exit, 2 years ago, I tried to keep a close contact with the local business community. Although my non-compete agreement was a little bit tougher, preventing me from starting something again on the same market, I somehow managed to keep my business network alive. Looking back (without anger, of course) this proved to be a very good thing to do.

As of August, this year, my non-compete agreement is over and I am already involved in a few local projects. One of those projects is in fact an entrepreneurship-investors event, called Venture Connect. In short, it’s a place where local entrepreneurs can make a pitch about their business an ask for funding from the VC’s. It’s not a competition, meaning there is no prize to be won. It’s more like a networking event. Entrepreneurs get a chance to present their business in front of some (very) big investors and those aforementioned investors get a glimpse of the local market. And there is no limit to the amount of money the investors can put in a business. If someone could convince them they have to put 1 million, they will put it in.

Along with other 3 very respected local entrepreneurs (Radu Georgescu, Marius Ghenea and Orlando Nicoara) I am in the board of this event. The other 2 seats of the board are taken by the initiators, the Biris Goran law house. Basically, my job here is to screen interesting projects, to evaluate them and to make sure they meet a certain criteria.

What does have to do with fear of failure or self-sufficiency? A lot. Being in this position I get a direct response from many of the interested entrepreneurs. Very few of them are actually getting to pitch, although almost all of their businesses are qualified. Today’s post will try to explain some of the reasons behind this rather unexpected response.

Fear Of Failure

Every time I ask some local entrepreneurs if they are interested, almost 70% of them are shaking their head in a very obvious attitude of mistrust and they’re almost invariably answer: “Why?”. Well, because you can accelerate your business, I respond. Grow. Expand. Develop. “Well, I don’t think I’m able to do this. Right now, at least. I don’t know…”

This answer always makes me smile. Sometimes I even laugh out loud, making my conversation partners really preoccupied with my mental health. Behind these sentences I can literally see the real words they’re avoiding to say: “What if I’m not going to make a good impression? What if I’m not going to succeed? What if I’m going to make a total fool of myself? It’s better not to do it at all.” And that makes me smile big time.

Fear of failure is one of the biggest obstacles in business. The difference between successful entrepreneurs and wannabees or just perpetual losers is always made by this. The successful ones aren’t afraid to fail. They have a lower tolerance to risk. They’re ready to jump into something, just for the thrill of it.

Although this Venture Connect event seems like a very technical situation: a bunch of skilled people with their own business facing a bunch of investors, it’s really not. It’s just a transaction. And the same type of transactions  occurs in every business situation. If you want a piece of the pie (or the market, in business terms) you have to make your pitch, convince several million people to consume your product, and find a way to get their money for that. In the case of this business event, it’s even simpler: you gotta make a pitch to convince only one person to get a piece of an already existing pie (the entrepreneur’s business) for a certain amount of money.

Well, no risk it, no biscuit. Fear of failure has nothing to do with entrepreneurship.

Self-sufficiency

The next answer in terms of percentage, amounting for about 20% of the total answers is: “Well, I don’t need this right now”. And it’s a genuine answer. They really think they don’t need money. They’re well as they are. But there’s a big trap behind those words. Usually, I get sad when I hear that. Because, as an entrepreneurs, you can’t really be satisfied. Unless you’re aiming for the comfort zone, which is not a good place to be.

Every business should grow. The business ecosystem is build in such a way that only things which are growing can survive. There is no such thing like: “keep a low profile” in business. You will be squashed like a bug from your competition in a matter of months or, if you’re lucky, years. If you ever feel, as an entrepreneur, that you have did enough, go see a shrink. Because your entrepreneurial vibe is getting way too low.

It’s not a pattern of greed here, don’t get me wrong. It’s a pattern of creativity. Do something better, do something more ingenuous, do something more pleasurable for your clients. But do more than you’re usually doing. Otherwise, your competition will.

So, every time I hear entrepreneurs they don’t really want to get in touch with their own growth, I try to keep away. It’s not a good vibe. And it’s contagious.

Money

In business, money is just a resource. It helps you make things happening. Many entrepreneurs are mistaking money as the ultimate goal. It’s a very good indicator of your business health and money has its own importance in a number of financial reports, but, other than that, is just a resource. Like human resources, or like the building in which you are having your offices.

Every time a young entrepreneur hears about money, I notice a split pattern: they’re either jumping on it, taking as much as they can without giving too much back, or they’re running away from it, as it would be something dangerous.

Between these two categories, somewhere in the middle, there is the relaxed entrepreneur, the one that you read about on Mashable or TechCrunch, securing another round of financing. Or, in my terms, those are the balanced entrepreneurs, the healthy ones. They are accounting for 10% of the answers. One in ten. Not too much.

***

Well, after all, Venture Connect is just an event. It will pass. But my personal lessons from it are here to stay. Here they are, in just a few paragraphs.

Fear of Failure

If you’re not jumping on each and every opportunity you can face, you’ll never know your real boundaries. You can’t really test your limits unless you stretch them. Unless you put yourself in a very difficult situation, which will, for real, finish with an undesired outcome. Yes, you can have an undesired outcome at some point. The subtle difference is that the undesired outcome is not a failure. It’s just a lesson.

Self-sufficiency

If you think all you have is just enough, you’re doomed to dwarfing. You’re going to be a very happy dwarf, looking for the rest of your life from the bottom up to those who thought they never had enough. Self-sufficiency is just another word for the comfort zone. The sweetest prison of all. But still a prison.

Money

Money is just a form of energy. It helps you translate some ideas into reality. Bringing things into matter. That’s all there is to it. But as simple as it may be, money is a very dangerous type of energy. Because if you’re not taking all the necessary measures to keep the energies balanced, you’ll end up in a wild whirlwind which will eventually take over your life.

In much simpler words, it means that every transaction should be balanced. The amount of money you get should be equal with the amount of value you provide. Being it a product, part of your company, the value of your consulting hour, whatever.

If you’re getting too little for your value, you will become drained. For instance, if you charge too little for your services. You’re putting out too much energy and getting back far too little. You’ll be tired, depressed and sad. I’ve been there a number of times too. And found out that the best way to avoid this is to just leave your current transaction. Go out, find a different one. Balance the energies until you’re starting to feel empowered and relaxed.

If you’re getting too much for your value, you will become vulnerable. You charge too much for what you offer, or, in other words, you’re getting money for nothing and the chicks for free. Be very careful: the extra energy you get, without your control, will eventually take over. The most obvious example is of the people who are unexpectedly winning the lottery. They’re seldom putting something out in exchange of the money they get (some of them are doing it, and they’re managing to live a balanced life) so they become, rather sooner than later, the victim of their own money. In a few years they’re worse than before winning the lottery.

So, where are you now in terms of fear of failure, self-sufficiency and money? I’m just curious…

A Guide To Pursue Your Passion With Success: 14 Essential Steps

What follows is a guest post by my friend Celestine Chua, @celestinechua.

This is a great opportunity to be writing a guest post at DragosRoua.com. I’ve known Dragos for over a year now, back when we first started actively growing our blogs. It’s amazing to see how everything has evolved since then. In just a year, DragosRoua.com has grown from a less than 1,000 subscriber blog to a 4,000+ strong subscriber base. It has also evolved from a blog into a proper business, with multiple products (books, audio) and services (workshops).

For me, my blog, The Personal Excellence Blog, has grown from 0 to over 2,500 subscribers today. It now has over 150 free personal excellence articles and free ebooks, chocked full of content and value. I started my personal development school late last year, giving workshops and 1-1 coaching. My blog has also been featured on CNN.com and other prominent local media outlets.

All these didn’t happen by chance though. They came as a result of conscious strategies and actions. Before I pursued my passion to help people grow 1.5 years ago, I was working in a regular, corporate job. I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I ditched my full-time career to pursue my passion. It has certain been a journey of trial and error, and it continues to be today. Along the way, I tried many different strategies, learning from others and trying different things on my own. There were things which helped me, and then there were things which didn’t.

Looking back, there were 14 essential steps which have been critical in my path. If you are planning to pursue your passion, they are definite essential steps in your journey. If you are already pursuing your passion, these strategies will certainly give you a big boost. I know following these 14 strategies in the upcoming years will continue to help my passion and business grow.

Throughout the article, I’ll be using mainly blogging as an example to bring out the points since my blog is closely tied to my passion, but bear in mind these strategies are applicable no matter what you do. Many of these strategies may be intuitive, but they work and they are precisely what have helped me in my path. Here they are :

1. Know what you want to do

So you know you have a passion in something. How do you want to pursue this passion? What are the key channels you want to use to express your message? Choose the channels you are most passionate and build your business around them. These will become the foundations of your business. You don’t need to be limited with just 1 medium.

For example, my passion is in personal development. I love helping others achieve their personal best in life. There are many ways I can do this, such as via being a counselor, a teacher, a coach, a trainer, and so on. I decided to start off with The Personal Excellence Blog, as the internet as a medium has the low barriers to entry and allows me to instantly reach out to large audiences. From there, I write articles and share my best learnings and advice. It has since become the key channel where people know about what I do.

After 4 months of blogging, I started to give 1-1 coaching for readers who want personalized attention on their goals. I also began to branch out to speaking and training via workshops. Most recently, I started writing a book to reach out to more people. All these channels help me express the same message to help others.

There is no limit to the number of channels you can use to express your passion. The most important thing is you need to know what exactly you want to do first and how you want to do it. The clarity will give you focus in your path.

2. Identify your target audience

Every venture has an audience it is reaching out to, and the same goes for yours. Who do you want to reach out to? How old are they? What are they doing in life? How can you help them?

Knowing your target audience is important because they will become central to your plans. For example, what product you want to sell (step #3), how you are going to reach them (step #4) and the pricing you are going to adopt (step #9). You can only answer these questions if you know who exactly you are reaching out to. There is no one size fits all solution. The more you know who your audience is, the better you can cater to them.

Don’t just think you know your audience too – really get down to understand them. Research if you need to. Do a survey. Talk to them. Get up close and personal. The degree you understand your audience determines how well you can meet their needs.

For example, I’m currently writing a book on Passion & Money (how to pursue your passion and earn money doing it). To ensure I’m writing in line with my readers’ needs, I wrote a blog post to ask my readers to share with me the questions they want to have on the topic. Some were questions I anticipated and quite a few were new angles I did not consider before! It was a pleasant surprise and I’m really glad I had sought for their opinions. If I hadn’t asked, I would be writing a book which I thought will be valuable for them, but wouldn’t be. I would have wasted all that time writing the book! Their replies helped me to write a book that will be valuable to those who want to pursue their passion successfully.

Further reading:

• How To Define Your Target Market (Success Designs)
• How To Define Your Target Market (Entrepreneur.com)
• Determining the Target Audience of Your Small Business

3. Create your products/services

I’ve been to many blogs where the bloggers yearn to make a living out of their blogs, but I’m not entirely sure what they are selling. There are 1-2 ad channels here and there, a free ebook gets readers to sign up for their feed, 2-3 affiliate products and a bunch of amazon links. It seems more like a random “try any method that earns me money” rather than a clear product/service selling strategy. Unfortunately, as random as this is, the earnings you get will be random too.

Get clear on what you are selling. What are your key revenue streams for your business? Is it through products? Through services? What products? What services? With the 80/20 rule, typically we can expect 20% of the items we are selling to generate about 80% of our revenue. Get clear on those 2-3 key items that will help you generate the bulk of your revenue. Then, ensure you create these items with the highest value possible (step #12).

4. Have a marketing plan

No one is going to know about your business if you don’t market it out. You have to create a marketing plan to get people to know about you. There are different ways to do this. One way is to study how other businesses in your niche get the word out. Another way is to imagine yourself as the target audience and think about how you will seek out information on the topic. Then, tap into those channels as your marketing plan.

When I first started The Personal Excellence Blog, I did a sizable amount of research on how to market and promote my site. I found out there were many different methods like as (1) social media like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Twitter (2) posting comments on other blogs/forums (3) posting articles on popular article directories like Ezine and Hubpages. A lot of time was spent in the first few year on getting the word out. Some worked very well (such as hitting the front page of Digg, Delicious and SU), while others were not so effective. The key is to experiment and choose what works best for you. Even today, a key part of my blog development plans includes marketing, primarily through guest posting. If you want to grow your business to a larger scale, you need to have a plan to market it out.

Further reading:

• 10 Small Business Marketing Strategies That Work
• 4 Free Ways To Market Your Business

5. Have clear goals and stick to them

When working in an employee in a company, there are structures in place and clear list of responsibilities for your role. There are expectations from top management and targets to fulfill for your appraisals. However, when you are working for yourself, you are the person who calls the shots. When you don’t have to account to someone else, it can be easy to slip and stagnate. Form clear goals and hold yourself accountable to them.

Further reading:

• The Art Of Setting Great Expectations
• Success Goal Achievement Step 1: Establish Your Goal
• Locke’s Goal Setting Theory on SMART goals (MindTools)

6. Create your business guidebook

For every project I do, I have a guidebook where I write my goals, strategies, plans and learnings.It’s like a success roadmap. I use excel workbook because it’s so easy to organize information. Similarly, for my personal development business, I have a guidebook which guides me through the running of my personal development business. In it, there’s my business purpose, values, strategies, plans, long-term and short-term goals, administrative information, etc. I started this book since the early days I started my business, and it’s been with me ever since. Over time, I built on it to include more information, such as my learnings from rolling out my plans and what to do differently. The objective is to have a guidebook that contains the essential information to bring your business to success. This is a document you will refer to every step of the way. It is meant to be work-in-progress, meaning to be updated every step of the way as you acquire new learnings.

Further reading:

• Create a Business Plan by Answering 4 Simple Questions (Wisebread)
• How To Write A Business Plan (Entrepreneur.com)

7. Do things for free at first

As part of your marketing drive (#4), you might want to consider giving value away for free to drive quick awareness. This is a strategy I’ve used and it has worked really great for me.

For example, I give away many of my best advice and learnings for free at my blog, through my articles. Not only that, I also invest many hours writing these articles. Every article takes me about at least 5-6 hours to craft, write and revise. I’ve written many series that took days and a lot of hard work to write, such as how to discover your purpose, how to overcome procrastination and how to move on from relationships. Giving so much value away for free has undoubtedly help to drive quick awareness of my work. Many readers have since passed my site on to their friends, family, and through Facebook/Twitter. If I had made my blog a subscription only channel, it would not have the awareness it has today. Even for my coaching and workshops, I initially offered them for free to get the word out, though I never got to do that for long as the demand quickly soared.

8. Have monetization plans in place

Your business may have high awareness among your audience, but if you don’t have monetization plans in place, you aren’t going to earn money. Your traffic isn’t going to automatically convert into money by itself. Get clear on how you are going to earn money. Are you going to monetize through products, services, or both? What is your anchor product/service going to be? What are the ancillary products/services?

One of the reasons that makes DragosRoua.com a business, and not just a blog, is that Dragos has a clear portfolio of products and services he’s selling. He sells ebooks/books, audio podcasts and he runs workshops, and there are probably more to come in the future.

Further reading:

• The First Year Of Blogging ñ Money
• 101 Ways to Monetize Your Blog Without Irritating Your Readers
• How To Make Money Online (John Chow’s Blog)
• Shoemoney – Skills to Pay the Bills (Jeremy Schoemaker’s Blog)

9. Know your pricing strategies

If you are not careful, it’s possible you can price yourself out of the market. In one of the workshops I just did last month, I had priced myself significantly out of the market range. I had set the full-day workshop for 15 people to be $180 USD. I came up with the pricing as it was an affordable pricing for corporate training. The value that was packed in the workshop was also definitely worth more than that. However, as the workshop was direct to the public and not corporates, pricing was an immediate barrier. As I observed the competitor strategies, I realized a better method would be lower pricing ($30 USD) but to a large audience of about 100pax. Overall revenue is consistent due to the higher volume of people.

Do your research first before you design your pricing strategy. Understand how the other companies in your niche are pricing their products/services. Compare your product offering with theirs, then decide the pricing strategy that you are most comfortable with.

10. Get your accounting straight

Keep clear accounting of how much you are earning and spending. In business terms, earnings are referred to as revenue, or top-line. Some people only look at their top-line and neglect to keep tabs on their expenditures, which results in high revenue earned but little to no profits. Some others are so obsessed about reducing costs that they just hold back on spending until they earn money.

The important principle is not to spend excessively, while at the same time not scrimping on necessary costs. The question I usually ask myself is this – Does this affect the value I can deliver to my audience? If it gives a significant positive effect, I’ll spend it. If it doesn’t affect that much and cashflow is tight, I wouldn’t go ahead with the spending.

11. Learn from your competitors (allies)

I always see my competitors as allies because they want to achieve same objective as I do, but I’ll just use competitors to make it simple. Your competitors have been in the industry and have acquired their own experience. Hence, chances are there is a good reason behind the strategies they are using now. Identify your biggest competitors, look at what they are doing, and learn from them. In establishing my blog, I’ve picked up different tips from bloggers such as Darren Rowse, Steve Pavlina, Leo Babauta, Glen Allsopp, Dragos, and an array of many other blogs. I analyze what are the things they did that moved them to success, and then I adapt those steps to fit me. It has worked great so far and I intend to continue doing so.

12. Focus on value creation

Ultimately people pay for your products or services because they see value in them. So the most important thing is to focus on value creation – creating the most value to your audience. How can you make sure what you are doing provides the highest possible value for your audience?

For my articles, coaching and workshops, I spend a lot of time on them to ensure the audience gets the most value possible. I’ve spent countless late nights working because I wanted my audience to get more value for the experience. On my blog, I’ve trashed a number of articles because I didn’t think they were of good value to readers. Because of that, my audience knows the quality standard with what I produce and they keep coming back for more.

When your audience knows they can expect the best from you, they will regard you as a credible opinion leader, or authority in the field. They will trust your recommendations and your perspectives. This trust is only built through spending a lot of hard work and time to generate genuine value. There is no quick short cut to it.

Further reading:

• Creating Value
• Making Money With A Purpose

13. Have regular reviews

Review is essential to know how you are doing. In the first 6 months of starting out, it’s especially important to review, especially since you are just starting out and there are many things subjected to change.

I have a weekly review with myself every Saturday morning, where I review my progress in my goals the week before. This helps me know if I’m on track in meeting my targets or off track. If I meet my targets, it’s a sign that I’m doing the right things . If I don’t meet my targets, I’ll understand what went wrong and what I could do better next time. Then from there, I plan out my action plan for the next week to achieve next week’s goals. These weekly goals ladder up to the monthly goals at the end of the month, where I do a monthly review.

Further reading:

• Building the Weekly Review Habit
• Review Your Goals Weekly
• 12 Ways to Upgrade Your Weekly Review
• The 6 Stages Of A Failure
• 27 Ways You Can Develop Bounce Back Muscles In Difficult Times

14. Believe In Yourself

Last but not least, believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams, your passion, your goals, your abilities. Believe that if anyone is able to bring these to life, it’s you and no one else. If you don’t have the power to bring them to life, you wouldn’t be able to given the ability to conceive them in your mind. As Napoleon Hill puts it: ìWhat the mind can conceive, it can achieveî. In my journey, I have never once doubted that my dreams would come true. I knew that as long as I put in all my heart and soul into it, it’s a matter of time before things come to fruition.

So move forward with great vigor and belief. As long as you keep at it, you will bring your dreams to life.

Further reading:

• How To Be The Most Confident Person In The World

Celes writes Personal Excellence Blog, where she gives her best advice on achieving personal excellence. If you like this article, you might enjoy her reader favorites like 101 Things To Do Before You Die and Are You Sleepwalking Your Life Away?. Get her RSS feed directly here and add her on Twitter @celestinechua.

10 Steps to Turn Your Passion into Business

This is a guest post by Anastasiya Goers of Balance In Me, @balanceinme

Our passions are the winds that propel our vessel. Our reason is the pilot that steers her. Without winds the vessel would not move and without a pilot she would be lost. – Proverb

Do you have a dream to do what you want to do and get money for that? Support your family while being fulfilled in life?

I always enjoyed watching nature and travel shows because the hosts seemed like the luckiest people in the world to me. They could travel all around the world, do fun stuff and get paid for enjoying their lives. Now that’s what I call life!

I must say that I didn’t become a TV host of any of those programs and I am not even Chris Guillebeau (from the Art of Non-Conformity) but now I earn my living doing what I love. I have been pursuing my passion for many years (eight if you want to be exact) and now it is finally turning into a business.

Following your passion is the only way to be great at something (we’ve all heard that saying, right?). It is the only way to be thrilled with your life and the only way to be fulfilled. However if you follow only your passion then you will most likely find yourself broken-hearted somewhere along the road. Your dreams will be just your dreams and your reality will get boring and sad again. When you decide to follow your passion you must make sure that your reason is always showing you the right way. When you combine reason and passion you can create a great business that you will enjoy.

Here is what you need to know in order to turn your passion into your business.

1. Make sure that you have a passion not just a mere interest/hobby. There is a huge difference between what we like and what we are passionate about. I like cooking, it is my hobby but I am not passionate about it. The thought of spending the entire day in the kitchen cooking for hundreds of people is horrifying to me.Ask yourself this simple question “Am I ready to do this every day of my life for 5, 10, 20 years?” If your answer is “yes” then you have found your true passion.
2. Expand on your passion. Look at your passion from different angles in order to see what the real source of it is.I have been a fitness instructor for 8 years and I considered it my passion. However, a few years ago I realized that my true passion lied in helping people perfect their bodies, improve their health and find their life balance. This is how Balance In Me (my blog) was born. Pilates, Yoga, self growth, spirituality and healthy eating are different branches of this passion and they help me stay enthusiastic about my goals.Do not choose a very narrow passion that you might outgrow in a couple of years. Look at the broad picture by analyzing everything that makes you feel fulfilled in life. Do you see a connection?
3. Think of all possible ways how you can pursue your passion. This is the opposite of the previous tip. Brainstorm all possible ways how you can pursue your passion. Let’s say that you are passionate about cooking. You can become a chef and eventually open a restaurant, you can write a book of recipes, you can have a blog about cooking, you can give private cooking lessons or cater for private parties. The more business opportunities you see the easier it will be to find the one that will work for you.
4. Get support from your family. If you are married then this is a must before you even start thinking about making business out of your passion. Misunderstanding, arguments and constant nagging can kill your passion really quick.
5. Treat your passion like business. A lot of people when they venture out in the pursuit of passion make a mistake of treating it like a hobby. There is a common misconception that when they love something they must do it only when they feel like it. In terms of writing it will mean writing only when you have inspiration (whether it is once a day or once a week). Treating your passion like business means:
   - Doing it whether you feel like it or not.
   - Having a to-do list or some plan that must be completed in a certain amount of time.
   - Having regular work hours (do not let your family or friends disturb you during those hours even if it means skipping a cup of coffee with your best friend or missing that great movie at the theatre).
   - Getting dressed for your work (you will need this if you are going to work from home. I can never come up with post ideas while I am wearing my pajamas).
   - Having an organized uncluttered work space (even if your office will consist of a chair and a table, make sure that you do not have any clutter or anything that will distract you from work).
   - Not expecting to earn a lot at once (at first you might even have to do everything for free just to gain the experience)
   - Having days-off and vacations (otherwise you will experience burnout really fast).
6. Be prepared for the boring stuff.  Every business has its boring side. Even though your passion will be your business you won’t escape this part of being an entrepreneur. Whether it is accounting, meticulous personal tax software, cleaning tons of dishes (if you choose cooking), fighting hundreds of spam messages on your blog or dealing with customers, you will have to get used to it. There is nothing much exciting about it other than the fact that this boring stuff lets you enjoy what you are doing 90% of the time.
7. Get some critique. You might think that your passion and idea for business is awesome but in reality it might be a disaster waiting to happen. Talk to your friends or family and let them critique your business to make sure that you have realistic expectations. Do not get offended when they criticize but rather use this information to come up with better plans for business.
8. Try a few different ideas. It is important to try a few different business ideas to see which one will work for you. A passionate writer might be great at writing children’s books but he/she will suck in personal development articles. Figure out what works for you.
9. Do not turn your passion into obsession. When you love doing something you must still be realistic about your plans and expectations. How do you know that your passion has turned into obsession? It is when you start thinking about your passion/business 24 hours a day and when you give up any other opportunities in your daily life (spend an evening out with your friends or take an unexpected trip to the ocean with your family). It is also when you stop noticing any critical comments of your friends or relatives and keep following your passion even when you are on the verge of bankruptcy.
10. Always have a backup plan. When you are just starting out it is good to have some funds built up in your account (enough to let you live for 6-12 months) or have a half-time job that will let you survive even if your business idea fails. Business laws have nothing to do with passion and your business might be a failure. Be prepared for any consequences and be ready to readjust your plans if needed.

If you follow these tips you will definitely turn your passion into a successful business and start living a brilliantly better life.

Anastasiya Goers writes passionately at Balance In Me. If you feel that your life needs some balance and you are ready to join her journey to a happy and balanced life, subscribe here or follow her on Twitter

Blogging 101 Workshop and Mentorship Update

This week I finished two of my real world events: the first mentorship program and the first series of Blogging 101. Both events were incredibly fulfilling, to say the least. If anybody would tell me in August that by the end of November I will have 2 major live events completed, I wouldn’t believe him.

Mentorship – Take One

The mentorship program started in September had 6 attendees and a total of 10 guests. If you want to know more about the format of the mentorship and the role of both attendees and guests, you can read this post from September.

One of the things I didn’t mention in that post is that I filmed the attendees at every mentorship session, asking for some expectations and conclusions at each start and end. I ended up with more than one hour of footage which still waits to be edited. That will be fun. If they will agree, I will try to make a short clip and publish it here (they speak Romanian but last time I heard, subtitles were still a hype ).

We had a lot of fun during these sessions and the interaction seemed to increase in intensity during the last 2-3 sessions. I think everyone had at least one “a-ha” moments and that includes me. Speaking with young entrepreneurs, listening to their problems, their expectations and their approaches was certainly one of the most fulfilling parts of this event for me.

A lot of people asked me if I will do another mentorship session. The short answer: I will. The long answer: I will modify the format. It will not be spread across 6 weeks anymore and I guess I will squeeze it into a whole week-end. So far, a few potential mentees already agreed with this format. Still a few tweaks to be made but, generally speaking, it will be a full week-end from now on, not a sequence of 2 hours chunks spread across 6 weeks. I will surely make an announcement about the exact date pretty soon.

A lot of people asked me what exactly I do in those mentorship sessions. Well, if you read my blog, you already know the tune. The mentorship puts the words in that tune. Basically, I help people to become better at what they do. If possible, brilliantly better. There is a catch, you have to have an online business. This is what I did for the last 10 years and, allegedly, I did it pretty good. Meaning I’ve been lucky enough to make a gazillion mistakes and stubborn enough to get up after each and every one of them. An important part of the mentorship sessions is about mistakes. Their mistakes as well as mines.

The whole mentorship event created a powerful flow of motivation. At the end of the last session (there will be a final reunion next week for the final evaluation, but, technically speaking, that will not be a mentorship thing) everybody suggested we should do this again. Not in the regular, casual “hey, mate, we should get together sometimes, k-thanks-bye” style. But rather in the “I think this was useful and, if possible, I want some more”.

Which gave me the idea of a new type of event. I already sketched the format and I will make a presentation live at Open Coffee next week.

Blogging 101

The blogging workshop had an unexpected exposure. Some of my old partners wrote about it (as was the case of Doru Panaitescu, [Romanian content] one of the most respected online advertising professionals in Romania) while some of my twitter followers retweeted the workshop announcements for several days.

To be honest, I was a little bit concerned about this workshop. Not only it was the first 3 days event I ever did, but I was completely unaware of the general blogging expertise of my attendees. Turned out that they were all pretty much at the same level, which made things a lot easier for me. The attendees were middle and top managers from automotive, financial, media and human resources industry. All very well respected professional and all very eager to learn. We’ve been able to connect very quickly. They weren’t shy at asking questions and I was extremely pleased about that. Besides being very (and I mean VERY) fast learners they were also very kind and supportive. If this sounds like a fairy tale, imagine how it is to actually live it .

At the end of the first day everybody had his own blog and we were ready to start doing some creative writing exercises as well as some technical tweaking, which gave me the opportunity to give them even some home assignments. I think the fact that they had their own blog for the whole course was one of the key points and made them understand much better the whole concepts. I’m satisfied with the practice / theory balance in the course and, apparently, they were happy too.

The first series ended 1 and a half day ago and I realized I have a ton of things to add, modify or enhance. I’m still browsing my course notes and tweaking my schedules and presentations. The live feed-back made me understand how I can improve certain areas and also realized that very few persons are associating the blogging process with a business process. Luckily, having over 10 years of experience in running my own business, I could easily create, explain and clarify the links between blogging as a social phenomenon and business, as in making real money blogging.

To make a long story short, the blogging workshop will have a second series, starting on December 4th. I already had 4 signups even before this public announcement and I guess this tells a lot about the workshop exposure. If you’re in Romania, Bucharest, and want to attend, contact me for more information and will find a way to do it.

Next Steps

I think I’m start to enjoy doing this. As I already said, if you would tell me in August that I will have 2 live events already finished by the end of November, I wouldn’t believe you. But now I will. So, here’s the deal: I’m telling to myself that by the end of March I will have at least one live event finished abroad. Like in another country. Exactly.

Which means I’m making myself available as a keynote speaker, coach and blogging teacher for the English part of the world, as of… right now. And if you want to know more about me, this is the right place to start. If there’s something in my blog you would like it detailed or presented live in an event, don’t be shy. If you can gather an audience for this type of event, even better. Contact me and let me know. I’m sure we can find a way.

After all, I’ve already done it twice, so I know how to do it.

I will even eat your cookies.