A big incentive for me going on tour was that it would force me to finally learn Final Cut Pro and become an expert with high-end cameras.  Or as I put it in an earlier post, I was going to get paid to earn a film school-level education.  Well, I’m finally proficient in Final Cut Pro and I absolutely love it.  If anything, this tour confirmed what I already knew: editing video is one of my favorite hobbies, and it’s something I’d love to continue doing for the rest of my career.  Now I just need to figure out what the next step is to increase my efficiency (I’m still not as fast as I’d like to be).  [Note: Check out the first and last videos I made if you want to see how much my style changed over the course of the trip  -> Seattle (first) vs. San Francisco (last)]

I have a ton of stories I could tell, but Tucker wrote down his account of a good chunk of them.  So here are a few of my highlights / random thoughts from the tour:

• Some of my favorite exchanges from our travelogue videos:

I’ll forever love Heineken because of Shandrika!  (Athens video – 0:51)

When Bill spontaneously starts laughing after asking a guy what planet he’s from (Chicago video – 0:15)

Bill: “Are you racist, sir?”  Guy: “Absolutely not.”  Bill: “…Do you want to be?” (Bloomington video – 1:13 – Warning: more offensive than usual)

• Seattle and Boston were my two favorite cities, and I could see myself moving to either one someday.

• At the beginning of the tour, we thought getting a girl to eat a page from the book or having a kid jump into a bush was hilarious.  Of course, we kept pushing the envelope, and by the end of the tour, we had pepper sprayed a guy, watched a middle-aged woman fellate dildos in front of a cheering crowd, and had a college student offer to make out with a 70-year old male homosexual in exchange for free tickets. Needless to say, I don’t think those early stunts we did are very crazy anymore.

• The Minneapolis stop was infuriating.  Greg, Bill, and I were going to take a day off, because we’d been working to the point of exhaustion for like 20 straight stops.  Of course, there were two guys protesting Tucker, so we had to film them.

• In Tempe, a grandma told us that she made sure her daughter induced labor early so she wouldn’t miss the screening.  Wow.

• Everything about Los Angeles was magical.  The planets must have aligned when we started shooting the pre-show, because every interview Bill did was hilarious.  He met Kenny G, then he had a dance off with Darth Vader, and… actually, just watch the video.

• One of the coolest things that happened on tour was being bumped from a small theater into the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood (a landmark movie theater with more than 900 seats).  I’m not sure how accurate this is, but we were told that the videos Bill, Greg, and I had been making at each stop were the primary reason the screening was moved to the Cinerama Dome at the L.A. stop.  The best part was before the screening, when the projectionists played all of the videos we’d made in front of an audience filled with fans, porn stars, Hollywood-types, etc.  Up until that point, the only people we’d witnessed reacting to our videos were the tour crew.  So it was pretty incredible to watch hundreds of people laugh at our footage of Dawes, being played on such an enormous screen.

As so many reality show contestants have said before me, I didn’t go on this tour to make friends. Aside from Tucker, Ben Corman, and Chris Griffin, I hadn’t really talked with anyone else before the trip started.  I now consider the entire IHTSBIH crew to be good friends of mine, and as an incredible tribute (VIA BLOG POST!), I would like to say a few words about each of them:

Jace: One of the most effeminate men I’ve ever met.  Jace reinforced this when he joyously proclaimed that he wanted to join me when I was going to get a haircut, but quickly changed his mind after I revealed that I’d be getting it cut at Wal-Mart.  A few days later, Jace scheduled a salon appointment in Tempe.  On the way there, we saw a barbershop with a sign that said “Walk-ins welcome!”  When we pointed it out, he was aghast at the mere suggestion of going to a place that didn’t offer facials or manicures.  All that aside, Jace is surprisingly adept at making dildo necklaces, and even better at having bottles of Frank’s Hot Sauce break and explode all over his face.  I seriously wish I could have witnessed the latter, because the aftermath was hilarious.

Jaimee: How Jaimee was able to tolerate all of us for a month is beyond me.  She’d often ride with Chris in the van overnight, being stared at by his jaundiced eyes and barraged with Canadian-accented innuendo (while ‘Free Bird’ played on repeat the entire time).  Jaimee somehow managed to take all of our ridiculousness in stride.  She retained a sweet demeanor and a moral compass the entire trip, and kept a bus that was overwhelmed with testosterone in check.  She did, however, insist on watching tennis, which was disappointing.

Chris: There were two things Chris never stopped doing on tour – bickering with Jace like they were husband and wife, and dry humping phallic objects.  In spite of Chris’ ability to attract cute girls from time-to-time, he may be the worst wing man on the planet.  This one night, Chris was sitting next to a random girl at a bar in Tempe, when he looked at me with a manic grin and said, “Watch, this girl is going to get so mad at me!”  Chris turned to her, and in less than three seconds, the girl flipped out, started berating Chris, and then stomped off.  “What the hell did you just you?” I asked.  Chris chuckled, “I reached into her purse.”  Bravo, Canada.  To be fair, I was a pretty terrible wing man, as well.  At the same bar, Chris was hitting on a really tall blonde girl, and she was pretty into him.  Suddenly, some random guy wearing a pirate costume walked past us, and I turned to Chris and said, “I can’t believe a pirate and a Viking (pointing to the girl) are in the same bar!”  The girl did an about-face and trudged away, while Chris stood in shock, on the verge of tears.  Sorry, buddy.  I guess I’m lucky you have A POSITIVE ATTITUDE! In all seriousness, Chris had the most miserable and thankless job on tour — driving the van that followed the bus.  And he did it without ever complaining, while I almost had an emotional breakdown the one day I had to drive it.  I salute you, Griffin.  We all look forward to you completing your thoughts on the trip in 2012.

Greg: The guy I spent the most time with on tour, whether he liked it or not.  When he wasn’t on the phone with his girlfriend, Greg was teaching me everything I needed to learn to get to the next level in video.  He also told me exactly what I had suspected – that film school is “absolutely not worth it.”  Greg is a big reason the videos we made were so good.  He’d film Bill Dawes before each show and whisper into his ear to keep going with a bit, or persuade him to say something even more inappropriate than the previous joke.  If you’re in need of a guy who can make a viral internet video, Greg is your man (a few of his videos have several million views).  I would tell a funny story or two about Greg, but he repeatedly made me swear that I wouldn’t write anything ridiculous about him online.  Done and done, sir.

Ben: After each show, Ben and I would pack up the stage equipment together.  And every evening, we’d find ourselves talking about business, marketing, standup comedy, writing, traveling, and life.  Or we’d just make fun of Jace and Chris.  Whatever we talked about, it was always deeper and more introspective than it should have been (considering the tour we were on), and for that, I’m grateful.  Because Ben’s very against self-promotion, I’ll step in and do it for him: Go read BenCorman.com – his fiction, blog posts, everything.  He’s a lot more honest and open about his emotions than most writers, which is probably why he kept getting compliments on tour.  He is apt to flicking out his knife when he’s angry, though – a terrifying yet oddly humorous tic.  Just don’t hover around the guy if you meet him at a bar.

Bill: After every show, Bill and I would go out with the camera and get testimonials from people.  It was my favorite part of each night because Bill would quickly get bored with asking the same questions, and he’d start going off on tangents (e.g. “If this film was a 14-year old girl and she offered you a glass of lemonade, would you still watch it even though you knew Chris Hansen was in the room?”).  One of my favorite memories from the tour was in Bloomington, where Bill, Greg, and I were hanging out with a few girls in Bill’s hotel room.  Bill made a remark about how one of the girls had hair that made her look like a cocker spaniel, then he continued to pound this idea into her head FOR 30 MINUTES.  And it was extremely entertaining the whole time.  Whenever the girl’s self-esteem faltered and she was on the verge of a breakdown, Bill would quickly reel her back in with a minor compliment, then go straight back to making fun of her lack of fashion sense.  That half hour was epic, and it’s one of the many things I wish we had captured on film.  I genuinely hope Bill gets really big someday — he’s a good guy, and he’s probably the funniest person I’ve ever met.

Dave: The main reason nothing went disastrously wrong on tour.  Dave was our personal hero (i.e. the tour manager), and would continually impress me with his attention to detail and business savvy.  What I liked most about Dave, though, was that he didn’t act like he was above menial work.  Almost every night, he’d help me move the heaviest equipment and set up the P.A.  And he’s been doing this stuff for 20 years – he has toured with David Bowie, Motley Crue, Britney Spears, N*Sync, etc.  He also had plenty of very entertaining stories from over the years that I’m probably not allowed to repeat here…

Jeff:  In terms of physical exertion, I don’t think anyone worked harder than Jeff on this tour (here’s a picture of him passed out in a parking lot after a show).  Whenever anything started to go wrong, Jeff was the one who quickly fixed it, even when it was seemingly impossible.  In San Francisco, I idiotically left the camera at the hotel.  And I realized this sitting at the airport, with a half hour before our flight departed for Chicago.  Instead of just over-night shipping the camera, Jeff ran all the way back through airport security, met up with Chris and Jace to grab the camera, bum-rushed back through security (nearly getting arrested in the process), and made it back in time to board the flight.  He handed me the camera, his face pouring sweat, and said, “Why do you insist on making my life miserable?”  The intensity of Jeff’s work ethic and his, um, methods of crowd control (see: choking people out) tend to overshadow the fact that he’s a genuinely good guy, albeit underneath an abrasive exterior.  One of the highlights for me on tour was hanging out with Jeff and his friend Ally in Toronto, joking about Canadian mannerisms while taking a nice break from the daily screenings.  Then again, Jeff constantly mocked me for writing an e-book and was unable to compliment me on it without laughing… So there’s that.

Nils: I thought I’d built up a pretty good tolerance to the type of jokes Nils would tell, which is to say “wildly offensive,” but even at the end of the tour, he’d still manage to shock me.  Not in a bad way – I wasn’t offended; just continually shocked.  He told me a story about how he managed to get kicked out of a “Most Offensive Costume” Halloween party one year because… his costume was too offensive.  The purpose of the party was to offend, and he still managed to cross a line that wasn’t supposed to exist.  That’s Nils’ sense of humor in a nutshell, and it was the reason he got the biggest laughs during the pre- and post-shows, night after night.  There were times where Tucker would walk out of the theater, or hide his face because he was laughing so hard at something inappropriate that Nils had said.  Then after he regained his composure, he’d swear at Nils for coming up with funnier jokes than him.  Anyways, Nils and his wife Jen couldn’t have been nicer to me and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know both of them.

Tucker:  Without a doubt, Tucker is one of the strangest guys I’ve ever met.  There aren’t many people in this world who would be rabidly ecstatic over receiving fellatio on X-Ray video (well, aside from Jeff).  But Tucker was the main reason all of us kept working hard every day.  He gave a brief speech at the beginning of the tour that stuck with us – he told us we were up against enormous odds with a small margin for error, but that if we focused and worked really hard, we might be able to pull it off.  In spite of Tucker’s attempts to make it sound like he was ruining my life on tour, we actually got along really well.  There were several great discussions we had over the course of the trip on relationships, business strategy, and life.  Tucker and I are very different people, but we have one driving belief in common – that most people are too afraid to live the life they truly want.  The polarizing character that Tucker created has turned him into a magnet for the crazy and emotionally unstable.  But the guy is happy, and I don’t think he’d have it any other way.  I genuinely appreciate the fact that he offered me a spot on the tour, knowing that I wanted to improve as a video editor.  It was pretty much an ideal job for me, and I’d gladly do it all over again.

I miss all of you guys, and hope our paths cross again in the near future.

Today is a big day — the premiere of “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” at the Arclight in Hollywood.  It should be a lot of fun, and I pray to god that we walk away with some hilarious footage of Bill Dawes talking to somebody like Corey Feldman.

Anyways, I did a few interviews recently, and they aren’t too shabby.  Check them out:

• FOX Business – A few quotes from me about the benefits of free work.
• Jet Set Citizen – Pretty broad overview of my backstory, work experiences, etc.  Please notice the title of the article, as it confirms a lifelong suspicion of mine.
• Go College – Specific questions about my RPGrad e-book.

We’re less than a week away from the film’s national release.  I haven’t written much at all on this tour, in spite of my intentions to do so.  A big reason for this is because I just haven’t had much time to assemble a cohesive post. Even though it’s fun, we’re often working for 16-18 hours each day.  I’m normally too exhausted to even call my family.  But I also haven’t written much because of something Ben Corman and I were discussing the other night: our perspective on this tour is so heavily skewed that it’s hard to maintain our grasp on reality.  We all quickly realized that we’d be operating in some sort of alternate universe for a month and a half.  

For the first time in our lives, Corman and I are consistently being approached by people for our writing.  It’s really humbling/exciting, and neither of us have gotten used to it.  And as much as I try to just enjoy the moment, I’m extremely aware that when I go back to Colorado, this fantasy will come to a screeching halt.  No one will know who I am, and I will no longer be approached by friendly strangers.  This insular world will cease to exist for me.

When you show up at a venue and you see people who have been lined up since noon, reading Tucker’s book in their lawn chairs, it’s very easy to think that this movie will undoubtedly be a hit.  But that’s foolish, because these people are the early adopters.  They’ll convince you that you’re amazing, that you’re unstoppable, and that you’re already a success.  They delude you into thinking that you’ve hit the mark when you’re still working towards it. 

This mentality is just as contagious at the other end of the spectrum.  There are quite a few folks who hate Tucker with an almost unbelievable fervor.  It’s difficult to understand how people who have never met the guy could hate him so much, but they do.  If we only listened to them, we’d be in constant disbelief that Tucker hasn’t been assassinated yet. 

What both the lovers and the haters don’t realize, however, is that they are nothing but vocal minorities.  They sit around talking to each other, affirming their viewpoints until they believe they’re operating within the only true reality.  They mock the other group for being sycophants or trolls, while completely ignoring the fact that there is a HUGE group of people who remain silent, and are not nearly as passionate.  

This is why most people suck at marketing: they are unable to perceive a reality outside of their own.  Like I’ve said over and over on this site, people are self-interested.  Very few of us are able to be truly empathetic.  It’s extremely difficult to imagine anyone else’s reality other than your own.

I received an email from someone a few months ago.  He broke down the numbers on how many fans Tucker had, and correctly pointed out that even if all of them bought a ticket to see the movie, it would still only result in a fairly small profit at the box office.  So how could I say that I thought the movie would blow up?  

I’m not betting on the rabid fans and/or haters to make this movie into a hit.  I’m betting on the people who have never read his book or seen his site.  I’m betting on the people who have never heard of Tucker Max.  I think that almost anyone who sees the movie will talk about it with one or more of their friends, and eventually more and more people will see it.  I’m betting that this movie is remarkable enough to cross the chasm into the mainstream.  It may blow up right away, or it may be a slow burn.  Either way, I think it will do really well.  And if I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be here.

I haven’t been able to write as much on here as I would have liked, due to the ridiculously time-consuming task of filming and editing every stop on this tour.  Someone messaged me on Twitter the other day, asking what the hold up was on the videos, and I just busted out laughing.  I guess it’s hard for people to understand how much time goes into making these 2-minute clips.  For each one, we get about three hours of footage (that’s why all of them have been so good — we whittle away A LOT).  Then we have to put that footage onto a computer, which tragically happens in real-time (i.e. another three hours).  Then we get to edit it, which usually takes another few hours.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that we’ll be working the entire time on this tour, even on our “days off.”  Thank god Greg (the other videographer) and I get along, because we have to spend a ton of time together.

I don’t want it to seem like I’m complaining, because I’m not.  The tour has been awesome and really fun so far, and I knew going into this how crazy the hours were going to be.  In exchange for remaining in a perma-exhausted state, I’m getting paid to receive a film school-level education in less than six weeks.  Sounds like a good deal to me.

It’s funny, because whenever I really try to explain to anyone what I do or how I got here, their eyes kind of glaze over and I can see my explanation flying straight over their head.  This is probably my fault, as I haven’t found a succinct way to explain it yet, but I also think that they just never considered a path like this as being within the realm of possibility.  And actually, I wouldn’t think it was possible either a few years ago.

I haven’t really talked about this before, but I’ve failed more times than I can remember.  I’ve tried starting up several businesses, tried patenting inventions, tried starting up online communities, tried building several websites, tried to win contests… and failed almost every single time.  But I never chalked any of them up as failures in my head, because I learned so much in the process each time.  So now, when I’ve finally reached a point where things seem to fall into place with far less effort, I can’t help but think about all those times where I didn’t succeed over the course of the last eight years.  And I look back in fondness, because those lessons learned are the reason I’m here.  None of this stuff happened over night — in a way, I’ve been working to reach this point since I was 15.

I actually shouldn’t even call them failures, because they were really just attempts.  There’s a huge difference there. Everyone has failures, but most people never attempt things just for the sake of trying out something that looks fun, interesting, or challenging.  For some reason, a lot of us reach a point where we stop doing things for the hell of it.

Why do you think I’m such a huge proponent of free work?  Doing work for free forces you to find jobs where you can honestly say, “I would do this even if I weren’t being paid for it.”  That’s an expression I took a bit too literally, but it is spot on.

My favorite part of The Dark Knight is when the Joker is talking to Harvey Dent in the hospital, and he says: “Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just DO things… I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.”

And therein lies the best career advice I could possibly dispense: just DO things.  Chase after the things that interest you and make you happy.  Stop acting like you have a set path, because you don’t.  No one does.  You shouldn’t be trying to check off the boxes of life; they aren’t real and they were created by other people, not you.  There is no explicit path I’m following, and I’m not walking in anyone else’s footsteps.  I’m making it up as I go.

It’s harder, for sure, and kind of scary sometimes.  But it will allow you to look at yourself in the mirror and know you’re playing by your own rules.

I have to write a quick post on this, because it’s awesome.

Seth Godin unexpectedly wrote about my e-book today, and the response has been amazing. First, it became today’s most talked about Slideshare e-book on Twitter, and the second most talked about e-book on Facebook (next to a slideshow put out by Whitehouse.gov)

Click image to enlarge

UPDATE #1: I have beaten Obama!

Normally, I keep any emails I get private, but I received a few that are just great and I wanted to share them:

“Hi Charlie, Read your ebook today (via Seth Godin’s blog). It makes awesome sense and I am going to forward to our interns here at Google Zürich.” – Jos V.

“Charlie: One week from today I turn 60 years old.  Your ebook on recession-proofing ourselves makes the most sense of anything I have read or done since Zig Ziglar’s early days.  Bless you for your great gift of hope to many.” – Jon S.

“I read your e-book via Seth Godin today and I have to say thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing it.  I am no where near being a college grad (twenty years older than that!) BUT I do work with career transitioners and job seekers and I’ve been saying for years (even pre-recession) that the OLD ways DO NOT work. To hear it from a cutting edge youngie just makes this middle-agie feel even more powered- up to spread the ‘gospel’. Well done!” – Laura F.

But my favorite email, by far, came from Kim B.:

“Charlie, I just got your link of Seth’s email blog and I cannot tell you how impressed I am with the book you’ve created and your approach to life.  It is in fact, exactly how I made it starting fifteen years ago. In 1994, I moved to LA without a job, a portfolio of my paintings and an absurd obsession with the computer.  I offered to make a free website for a magazine and another for a company owned by the son of Walt Disney.  I had no skill set, I had no contacts, just some books, free time, and a refusal to work a job I didn’t love for an hourly fee.  (I had unfortunately been doing that for a several years after college).  On a meager living I went into only slight debt to do this.  I learned.  I was one of the first.  My next client was Apple.  I went from making $20/hour in September to $100K in May working as the creative director of a major company. A year later I left to start my own company called Lightray Productions.  My first client was NASA, then Intel, then AOL and for the last fifteen years I’ve made my own destiny.  I employ artists an engineers— all over the world.  It’s awesome.  Whenever we want to get into a new industry, [we] will offer to redo someone’s website probono.  We put our link on the bottom and the calls start coming in.  I’m living proof that what you say in your book is right on.  Congratulations!”

I love it.  This is EXACTLY the kind of story I want for the next version of the book.  If you have one you’d like to share, shoot me an email.

I was delusional last week. I legitimately thought I’d be able to take a break from the internet while on tour.  Instead of spending several hours each day staring at my laptop, I thought I’d check email once or twice per day and just focus on work.  Well, that’s clearly not gonna happen.  I can already tell from just two screenings that there are going to be waaaay too many things I’ll want to write about.

Long story short: I’m back, baby!

And now, my assorted thoughts (musings, if you will) on the Portland and Seattle screenings:

• I’m going to die.  Or at the very least, age dramatically, gain weight, and develop a mild addiction to Tylenol.  I know my limit for the number of days in a row that I can drink before my health starts to dwindle.  Be on the lookout for my obituary in The Maryland Tribune.

• Everyone knows Tucker is hilarious, but I think Nils Parker is going to be a pleasant surprise for all the people who come to these screenings.  That guy is hysterical, and his wit is lightning fast and razor sharp.  A lot of the funniest lines came from Nils in the Q&A, and I had to make a strong physical effort in order to keep the camera from shaking too much whenever he dropped a one-liner.

• Bill Dawes, the comedian who’s on tour with us, was cracking me up.  He was doing impromptu interviews with people before and after the screening in Seattle, and at one point we came across a crazy homeless man.  Bill walked up to him and said, “Excuse me, sir.  What did you think of the I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell movie?”  The guy starts ranting nonsensically and we both quickly realize… he has an enormous stutter.  He rambled for about 10 seconds, never addressing that he hadn’t seen the movie, then paused.  Dawes, with a completely straight-face: “And what would you say to your friends who want to see the movie?”  This provoked a lengthy tirade about Vietnam.

• The dynamic for filming testimonials is weird — I knew this from doing similar stuff in the past — but some people switch from super high energy to mannequins as soon as they’re on camera, and vice versa.  I think a lot of people just don’t like having a camera unexpectedly in their face, because they’re basically obligated to talk to a machine while trying not to embarrass themselves.  We’ll have to think of some ways to overcome this and quickly uproot any timidity the person is feeling.  That being said, Bill and I got a few great testimonials.  We had two people tell us it was legitimately the funniest movie they’d ever seen.  Another guy was so enthused and over the top when he sung his praises for IHTSBIH to the camera that I thought, “Damn, we’re not going to be able to use this.  It looks set up.”  Just then, Bill stepped into frame and said, “I swear to god, we did not pay this man.”  And while a bunch of people said it was better than The Hangover, we did find two girls who were hesitant with their answers.  I think one of them decided they liked IHTSBIH more, and the other preferred The Hangover.

• The PA system at the Seattle screening drove me insane.  We set it up and tested it beforehand, and it sounded great.  Then Nils’ mic wouldn’t pick up his voice during the Q&A, and Tucker’s mic’s volume was all over the place.  Lavalier mics suck.  We’re going to have to get some wireless handhelds.

• There was a guy wearing a wolf shirt at the Seattle bar, and I’m pretty sure he was not wearing it ironically.  So everyone started chanting for him to ditch his shirt.  He took it off and walked around shirtless for awhile, which was pretty funny.

• The after-show in Portland was… weird.  Two bros followed Tucker to the bar, and both of them had had a toxic amount to drink.  And when I say ‘toxic,’ I do mean that.  At one point, the younger of the two was just standing there saying, “Ah, my shoulder hurts.”  As he reached up to rub his shoulder, he fell down.  He didn’t trip.  He didn’t say, “Ah, my LEG hurts,” and then try to balance on one foot.  No.  The act of raising his arm caused him to lose balance and fall down on his back.  Meanwhile, his drunk friend had decided to play Jeff in a game of pool.  He volunteered that, if he lost, he would allow Jeff to choke him out.  Ah, the logic of the town drunk.  Jeff beat him one-handed (literally), then proceeded to choke him out.  Unbelievable.

• The most surreal moment (for me, at least) was when someone in Seattle recognized me from my e-book.  Bill Dawes had just finished interviewing two guys in line, and I think he mentioned my name or something.  Then one of the guys said, “Wait, are you Charlie Hoehn?”  He then told me how he’d read RPGrad, recommended it to his friends, and was excited to implement some of the ideas.  Truly awesome, and something I won’t soon forget.  I get emails from people every now and then, but I almost never get to hear their voices or see their faces.  This incident suddenly made things very real for me.  So thanks, Bradon.

If you read my stuff and see me at a screening, please don’t hesitate to say hey.  I’d be happy to chat with you, even if I’m running around frantically and sweating profusely.

Tomorrow, I’m flying out to Portland for the first two screenings on the I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell tour.  I’ll be doing a lot of filming and editing, setting up equipment, etc.  You’ll be able to see footage I shoot/edit here.

I was going to write a semi-long post about how great this tour is going to be, and how this sort of thing has never really been done before, but Ben already wrote a much better post than anything I could slap together tonight.  And honestly, I’m exhausted just thinking about what the next month and a half is going to be like.

Anyways, I’ll probably be away from this site for awhile.  Or I might write about the tour every now and then.  Who knows.  I’ll try to post semi-frequently on Twitter about funny/weird/cool things that happen over the next several weeks, so follow me on there if you’re interested in reading my undeniably fascinating tweets.

“See people for who they are, and not who you want them to be.”

I’m sure many of you have friends who want to start a company with you, yet they have nothing to their name (other than your friendship) that proves their value as a potential business partner.

They have no track record of putting in long hours on weekends.

They don’t take on side projects.

They don’t know what it’s like for a struggling entrepreneur who, in spite of his constant efforts, has never been in the black.

I don’t think I’ll partner with friends like these.  At least not in the beginning.  Enjoying a conversation about a mutual vision is one thing; fulfilling that vision after years of non-stop frantic work is a different story.

Show me, instead, the person who has been practicing, prepping, and conditioning himself for start up work…  He’ll have the tenacity to keep plowing away, even when the light at the end of the tunnel wanes from time to time.

Last year, I was working with a guy who was trying to introduce a new product to the health industry.  He brought me on board to help with online marketing and to fix the design of his website.  I actually got pretty excited about the potential for his product, and decided that I wanted an even bigger role in the company.

A few months later, we went our separate ways.

I wanted to focus on making sales and gaining some traction.  He wanted to take care of international patents and ensure that his design could never be stolen.  That’s a bit oversimplified, but it was ultimately this fundamental difference in our approaches that caused the split.

A few months prior, I was talking with someone about an idea he’d been wanting to pursue for years.  I distinctly remember him saying, “You’re free to take this idea from me and run with it, I’ll probably never get around to it anyways.”  And he said it as though he’d just blessed me with a million dollars on the spot.  What a saint!  He didn’t realize, however, that (A) I don’t usually care about an intangible idea unless it was mine to begin with, and (B) I don’t have the energy, time, or money to waste on someone’s half-baked concept when it has no legs.

The most difficult hurdles for realizing any idea are gaining traction and building momentum. The vultures that you think are going to swoop in, steal your idea, and be more successful than you are usually imaginary (I think it’s actually far more likely that your business partner will screw you over, rather than some stranger who catches wind of your idea).  Being protective of an idea is fine to an extent, but it’s counterproductive when you become paralyzed by your own paranoia.

If you’re in the early stages of getting an idea off the ground, it’s silly to sit around and count your chickens.  You haven’t accomplished anything yet!  I think it’s more important (and practical) to put your energy into these things:

• Determining whether your idea is solving a problem or not.
• Developing a deep understanding of the industry you’re going into, on both a macro and micro level.
• Finding a way to be first in a category (even if it means creating a new category).
• Building a narrow and loyal customer base.
• Actually getting those people to buy.

Worry about the patents and NDAs for when they’ll actually matter.  No point in stressing over paperwork if it’s only protecting a hypothetically successful idea.

Stop being so defensive.  Just go out and make something happen!

Overall, I’ve been thrilled with the reception of Recession-Proof Graduate.  It’s been downloaded and read by a few thousand people, and nearly all of the feedback has been positive and appreciative.  I even got a couple emails from college career advisers, thanking me for advice that was not “insipid” or “actively bad” (their words, not mine).  I’m extremely happy that I was able to give away something that so many people found valuable.

Of course, there were a few people who completely missed the point of the book, which didn’t surprise me.  Whenever anyone doles out advice to a large group, no matter how relevant or useful they think that advice is, there are always a few people in the crowd who believe it doesn’t apply to them:

“I’m a plumber.  How am I supposed to use free work to gain an advantage over all the other plumbers?”

“I’m homeless and I’m emailing you from the local library.  You can go to hell if you think I’m going to get some skills under my belt.  Now please… click the link below to donate to my Paypal account.”

“I lost all my limbs in a freak Zamboni accident.  How can I build an online presence if I’m just a torso and type with my forehead?  Very disappointed in this free e-book!”

Look, I’m very aware that a few of the principles aren’t applicable in certain situations.  You can’t become a neurosurgeon through free work, I’m sorry.  I didn’t cater to the 0.02% of people who have those jobs, and for that I apologize.  I suggest ignoring the principles that are irrelevant to you, and embracing the ones that will work.

I will continue targeting the 85% of graduates that these principles will work for, and hope to make a much, much better version of the book next time around.

Just to reiterate what I said before: in the next version of the book, I plan to expand on all of the principles, in addition to covering a bunch of subjects I didn’t discuss in the first version.  These new subjects include:

• How to find work you’ll care about
• The stepping stones of self-employment
• Advice on doing free work
• Email scripts
• Case studies

And probably even more stuff on top of all that.

To all those who read the first version of the book… Thanks.