I’ve been enjoying Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success. I’m not a fanatic reader of non-fiction business books – although I do read quite a few business magazines and business fiction – but I’ve been captivated by Malcom Gladwell’s unveiling of what actually contributes to noticeable success.

I’m not going to do a book review here, per se, rather I want to share with you off the top of my head in bullet point fashion what has impacted in reading this book thus far. (I’m about 3/4 of the way through)

• Outlying success is largely a product of practice – 10,000 hours or so
• What appears to be intrinsic talent leading to success rarely turns out to be anything more than practice combined with timing and circumstances.
• One’s environment growing up greatly contributes to one’s success regardless of innate intelligence or talent.
• Sheer determination counts and reaps rewards.
• Success follows a predictable course. It is not the brightest who succeed.

I’m not doing justice to the book by any means, but these are some of the key points you may come away with as well.

What’s most encouraging to me is the demystification of success Mr. Gladwell provides. I’ve often looked at those who have achieved what I call success and said, “How’d they do it?” Were they lucky? In the right place at the right time? A beneficiary of some blessing from above not available to the poor losers to the right or to the left? And it’s not that I haven’t been successful in my own life. I’ve been, by many people’s definition, successful in many ways. (and a failure in others) But I’ve always struggled with the notion of becoming successful. And reproducing that success over and over again.

It turns out that success is actually not that mysterious at all. And that’s a challenging realization. I actually can engineer success more than I thought I could. Sure, some components of outlying success are outside of my control or have come and gone. (i.e. The environment that I grew up in.)

I encourage you to read this book. And then come back and share your thoughts with me. I’d like to hear what you’ve learned or your criticisms of Malcom Gladwells’ approach to explaining outlying success.

I’m very passionate about this idea of getting out of the office, living life, not being defined by our work – yet making a killing anyways.
I know this is a very Tim Ferrissian sentiment but I don’t care. I’ve been working my whole life to achieve this. And by some measures, I have. (From time to time)

I started working for myself in my early 20’s and I’m 35 now. I had about two years of 15 hour work weeks and I loved it. Unfortunately, that business mounted up on wings like Icarus and then swiftly plummeted to the depths of the sea called “housing market train wreck”. That’s right, I was an evil real estate developer. Bwah-ha-ha!

My “self-employment” history:

1. A Waterjet processing facility - Cutting big thick hunks of metal and plastics.
2. An architectural metals company – Cutting aforementioned hunks of metal and assembling them into something that (supposedly) looked cool.
3. An industrial design firm – I had grand hopes of creating interactive kiosks and placing them everywhere. That would have been such a service to humanity! (by the way – That company was called Interacticon. I know, Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto…)
4. A licensee of interesting products I could sell to the public – That lasted about a month.
5. A real estate developer - This is where things start to get very, very interesting. In good and very bad ways.
6. An internet marketing professional -And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where I am today.

The sum total of this journey of capitalism has encompassed roughly 13 years or so.

I’ve learned a lot!

However, one thing I’ve learned above all, and I guess this is the reason for this post, is that it’s all meaningless if you’re not enjoying life. It’s an absolute waste of time.

If you’re someone who is entirely and completely defined by your job title, the amount of money you make, how many people call you “sir”, or how many hours you work per week, (and I’ve met plenty of these people and struggled with this myself) then this blog may not be for you. Or, perhaps, it’s what you need more than anything.

This isn’t an easy subject to write about…not only are these concepts very broad they apply to so many different niches/approaches/practices/etc.

Here’s what I believe it is though:

• Not putting in the hours a normal American commits to their job.
• Not focusing on how much money you accumulate but the spread between your life costs and your earning capability.
• Being able to point to the most important aspects of life and engage in them: Family, friendship, service, faith, health….

There are also business tools, business models, and modes of thinking that apply to all this.

I hope to explore this subject on a more regular basis in the future. Please share your thoughts in the meantime. I’d love to hear from you.

Why do you want a systematic business?

If you own a company that is creating profits day in day out that performs independently of your own daily efforts you can enjoy life more while not sacrificing your income. It’s a simple concept but it doesn’t happen automatically. You have to plan and be persistent until you get it right.

There’s a difference, in my mind, between a business that does the same thing over and over again – like an accountant repeatedly doing taxes for a set group of people – and a business that has a few distinct systematic elements.

• Scalable – If it works well small it will work well large
• Independently reproducible – Success doesn’t require you to be hands on for every sale
• Predictable – Through a combination of demand and marketing you can largely predict your growth and success
• Outsourced – Whether the work is done by in house employees, contract labor, or vendors, you’re not responsible for executing the work.

For example: A website designer that creates websites on a case by case basis is different than a business that sells custom designed websites based on a predictable template, at a price that is attractive to the largest demographic of potential customers, and is staffed by talented contract employees.

Here are a few more examples of what I consider to be great systematic business:

Affiliate Marketing – Find a product niche and create a low cost website to promote the product. You are then paid by the merchant whenever someone clicks from your site to their site and makes a purchase. Merchants will also pay for leads and sometimes clicks. Even though you may set up the initial offers and maintain them they are working for you day and night.

Low cost products sold over the internet – If you can come up with a useful product to sell that lends itself to internet or mail order sales you can produce a pilot run of the product and ship directly to the customer. Don’t be scared of competition. The more the better. As a matter of fact, if you sell your product directly to the consumer you may have a huge advantage as you’re not having to pay distributors who receive a large percentage of the profit in exchange for their services.

Any service business – You could start a copywriting service, a website design company, a consulting firm for a particular business niche, or any other you can think of. The important thing to remember is that the demand you create should not be met by you alone and you’ll need reliable employees who know their stuff and can work efficiently based on the particulars of the business system. You’ll also need a methodology for acquiring new customers predictably.

I’m working on a few business systems right now: An online mattress sales company, a website design service for small business, an affiliate marketing company, and internet leads sales.

What about you guys? Who’s successfully running a profitable system?

I’m not exactly sure when GoToMeeting web conferencing started to work with Macs. All I know is that it has been amazingly useful for my mobile lifestyle.
I’ve been traveling for the last month and I have another couple weeks to go. In the time I’ve been away from my desk I’ve launch two websites and performed training for the customer using GoToMeeting. I also held a performance review for one of my internet marketing clients where I was able to log into her advertising accounts and go over the numbers.

Here’s what I like about using software of this type. Especially GoToMeeting:

1. It’s actually a better experience for demonstrating software and online work than being face to face. I know this may seem counter intuitive. It works though. Rather than crowding around a screen each participant can sit in front of their own computer comfortably and fully participate.

2. You can have multiple presenters and the hand off is super simple. With one of our meetings I had three presenters going over the areas that they were responsible for. To switch to their screens and give them total control all I had to do was choose their name from a simple drop down and instruct GoToMeeting to make them the presenter. You also can opt just to give them control of the keyboard and mouse while staying as the presenter.

3. It makes your clients feel good. Yes, it gives them the “warm fuzzies”. Or, at least, I’m assuming it does. A lot of your clients/customers/partners may have not had a web conferencing or webinar experience before. It’s a high-tech communication experience for them that gets the job done.

4. You can provide support easily. If a client needs help setting up a piece of software, needs training on a web tool, or needs you to look at something on their computer, it’s super simple to switch the present and have control of their mouse and keyboard. This has been very useful to me more times than I can count.

Check it out. They have a free trial period that includes all the features and functionality. Let me know how you like it (or don’t) in your comments below.

GoToMeeting: Free Trial + $10 Off.

Travel removes you from your current situation and your circumstances. It allows you to stand back and evaluate your world from a distance. It’s the great perspective machine as far as I’m concerned and everyone should do it. There’s, of course, the upside of digging your toes into the white sandy beaches of Mexico with a Corona in your hand or cruising the volcanic plateau of Santorini, Greece on your rented scooter. No matter your destination travel refines, relaxes and releases you from your cares.

Of course we’re big on the tools of travel but what’s the point of being able to connect from anywhere if you don’t have anywhere to go? So here’s what we’re going to start doing on the Vacant Desk blog. We’re going to start highlighting locations, accommodations, and the associated costs with escaping there.

Let’s start with one of my all time favorite destinations: Puerto Vallarta Mexico.

I used to live in Guadalajara while going to Spanish language school back in 1998. PV was a scant four hour bus ride to the coast. We’d stay in a partially completed hotel called La Paloma. (I think that was its name) We didn’t care if it wasn’t completed. We just wanted to hang out on the Malecon and the beach. Ahhh the carefree days!

You can still find some incredible deals in this pristine and historical coastal town of Mexico. I dug one up off of Craigslist in a cool part of town. It’s not on the beach but it’s got awesome views. Check it out.

8,000 pesos is about $630 US. Not bad for a month in a very beautiful and restful place. For about $1,000 – $1,500 per month you could have a great time in Puerto Vallarta. Throw in the abundance of wifi connected coffee shops and restaurants and no one will know you’ve left!

Here’s a link to the property’s booking website.

…Now, I will admit that I haven’t always been as strong a believer in the importance of taking time off as I am today. For eight or nine years after starting my first business, I took breaks only when my wife, Elaine, forced me to. She would go to Florida, where we had a second home, and I would join her on the weekend — maybe. If the technology had been available, I would probably have been one of those poor souls sitting on the beach with a BlackBerry in one hand, a cell phone in the other, and a computer on my lap. Or I would have been doing deals while riding a ski lift up the side of a mountain. It took a long and painful trip through Chapter 11 to make me realize the dangers of becoming consumed by the business. Looking back, I could see that I had gotten in trouble in part because I had lost perspective. My business obsession had clouded my judgment and kept me from asking important questions about what I was doing and where I was going…

A couple of salient points from the article worth taking note of:

• He’s been more successful the more vacation he took
• It took a chapter 11 to help him realize the dangers or being consumed by his business
• The business ran just as smooth (or smoother) when he was gone
• Not taking vacations is dumb
• Your business needs to up and running, cash-flowing, and largely succeeding before you can start vacationing aggresively

Anyways, it’s an article worth checking out. Find it here…

It’s a combination of the above. But what’s, possibly, the best industry to be in? Here’s what I believe it is…you ready? It’s…

…Affiliate Marketing

(Bells, whistles, applause. Raucous noise making.)

This industry could also be characterized as Search Internet Marketing in general but for the purposes of this article we’ll stick with Affiliate Marketing.

I admit there are a ton of ways to make money out there but very few allow for the location independence and scalability of affiliate marketing. Let me give you a few compelling reasons to back this up:

1. Anywhere you have an internet connection and access to a computer you can do your job.
2. It’s massively scalable. Once you get a good campaign going it’s possible to ramp it up very aggressively and multiply your profits exponentially with very little extra work. Most of the work is in the front-end.
3. If you’re a good affiliate marketer you’re actually learning what I consider to be the most valuable 21st century business skill: moving eyeballs (with money) from one opportunity to the next. Imagine what that’s worth to the average online retailer or business looking for leads or new business?!
4. There is a massive (and by that I mean….massive) amount of individuals searching the web for products, services, and solutions to a myriad of everyday problems. i.e. What’s the best price on truck tires? How do I interview an accountant? How do I break free from my desk job? I read recently that in August of 2007 there was around 700 million unique search queries on search engines!

I personally know people who are bringing in over $800,000 per year in profits. (Yes, profits. Not revenues. Profits) I also know people who are making a couple of thousand dollars per month but only need to work a few hours per week to maintain their income giving them a lot of time to do other things than focus on making money. (And, if you think on it, is a pretty good definition of what wealth really is.)

Rather than go into a 10,000 word treatise of how affiliate marketing works, how to get started, and what you need to know in great detail I’m going to lay out some general concepts. (Hey. This isn’t one of those annoying “Work from home and make a million!” biz opportunity sites)

O.k. Here we go: (This is a mish-mash. Sorry.)

1. This isn’t an easy business. To do well you need to outperform a majority of the advertisers that are on the search engines for the niche or product you want to promote. It doesn’t, however, mean that you have to be especially clever. You’ll just need to follow some best practices consistently and innovate.
2. Although it’s not absolutely critical to have technical skills – web design, coding – it sure helps. I don’t have those capabilities but I have a team that works with me. We all share in the upside. It’s possible to outsource all this if you understand how to give proper directions. No one is going to be able to produce what you need if you don’t know what you need.
3. You can actually do this business from anywhere. If you’re going to do it seriously you’ll at least need the following: Laptop, Business entity – it doesn’t really make sense to be a sole-proprietor the more you get into this, and knowledge.
4. Knowledge – Listen carefully here: There are many, many, many people out there publishing an ebook or newsletter that tell you how to make millions doing this. Most of it is crap . I’ve combed through quite of this and come out the other side actually doing this for a living and experiencing increasing amounts of success. Here’s what I recommend for the beginner: Jeremy Palmer’s Black Ink Project. This guy is not sensationalist and actually gives great step-by-step training on how to be a successful affiliate marketer. Other credible resources are Rosalind Gardner and Ahmit Mehta

There are probably a hundred effective ways to make money and be unchained from a desk – overseas teaching, consulting, transcribing, graphic design, photography, etc, etc. etc. – but I think affiliate marketing is one of the best.

Keep in mind, whatever you do you’ll need to “engineer” it in a way that allows for freedom.

You stay classy San Diego. (I don’t know why that’s been popping in my head lately. I’m just trying to purge it.)

If anyone wants to school me on the proper (and highest) use of Squidoo please do so in the comment section.

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Topics covered include: How to start a location independent business, Travel tips, How to deal with family and friends that rain on your parade, Challenges and impracticalities of the location independent lifestyle, and on and on it goes.

This blog is all about helping others who don’t want to play by the rules…

• Realise that there are ‘real’ and ‘normal’ people living this kind of lifestyle (who aren’t millionaires)
• Understand how you could create your own Location Independent lifestyle
• Get a better quality lifestyle for less work & less money

Check out Location Independent Living here

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Right now she’s kicking it in Shanghai and blogging about her activities at NerdyNomad.com
Her situation is a perfect example of what I talked about in the “What is Wealth?” post. You don’t need millions to live a life like a millionaire. Here’s an excerpt from a post made while in Bangladesh.

When I think of earning a living online I imagine my work day will involve sitting on a beach with my laptop sipping strawberry daiquiris listening to waves crashing all around me. I don’t image being holed up in a hotel room drinking tea and listening to the call to prayer but that doesn’t mean it might not be an interesting way to work. I doubt Bangladesh makes anyone’s list as a dream destination for the mobile worker but if you’re up for something different then it might be worth a look…

Check out the Nerdy Nomad here