Feature photo by Diego Cupolo
To get you guys thinking like proper renegades, today I share some of the absolute best manifestos I’ve come across. This is my guide to 14 of the best-available ebooks out there—some free and some not—that will help guide you through the long process of branding yourself, creating your own successful freelance business, outsourcing, automating, systematizing, and turning your business into a vast empire with the power of the web, easing into an unconventional nomadic or otherwise remarkable lifestyle and getting the best travel deals while you’re vagabonding around the globe.
Add these to your Christmas gift wish list or use them as stocking stuffers for that special nomad in your life, and check out my page of lifestyle design and digital nomad resources for more tools to help you on your journey.
A Brief Guide to World Domination by Chris Guillebeau
One of the world’s most traveled dudes—Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Nonconformity—offers you a clear alternative to being unremarkably average, giving lessons on how to identify the work you’re most passionate about and how to go about changing the world. Awesome!
Probably the first ebook you should download and consume, right this instant! Download it from The Art of Nonconformity.
New Economy Superstar by Corbett Barr
This isn’t a book about fame or celebrity or making millions. It’s about a new type of success that isn’t reserved for the lucky and well-connected few. This opportunity wasn’t available until just a few years ago, and you’re just in time to take advantage of it. Learn how the biggest opportunity of this generation will make you happy, wealthy and independent!
A great primer for making a successful living outside the corporate career, including interviews with many remarkable people. Download here and visit Corbett at FreePursuits.
Rockstar Personal Branding by Skellie
Personal branding isn’t very different than product branding, except that the entity being branded is you. Just like Nike uses its brand to attach a certain personality and uniqueness to the shoes it sells, your personal brand is made up of the qualities and unique traits you relay about yourself. Your personal brand represents the way you want other people to think about you.
Download for free when you sign up for Rockable Press’ free newsletter here. Also visit Skellie’s great blog Anywired.
The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself by Chris Guillebeau
The greatest benefit of self-employment, or even a side project that produces additional income, is personal freedom. When you can take more control of your choices, you’ll experience an independence that money can’t buy. No one will do this for you. If you want freedom, you’ll have to make it happen for yourself. This guide can help.
Let Chris teach you how to create personal freedom through your own very small business. Get the book here.
How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer from FreelanceSwitch
Covering everything from getting started to expanding your business, if you want to start your freelance career the right way, then How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer will give you everything you need to become the best freelancer in town!
Get 212 pages of expert freelancing advice from Collis & Cyan Ta’eed—the founders of FreelanceSwitch. Grab your copy here.
SourceControl by David Walsh
David is an entrepreneur who’s been pushing the limits of outsourcing for years to build projects and create companies—and he’s blown an absurd amount of time and money along the way. Anyone who tells you outsourcing is simple & cheap is lying to you. After all the chaos, the mistakes, the blown budgets and the wasted hours—yes, it’s simple and a massively profitable. Everything leading up to that point is anything but. He’s taken every lesson he learned over the last 3 years and put it into a 160 page, fully annotated, resource-packed book that is everything you need to start outsourcing successfully. No other resource available gives you this level of detail toward leveraging your time and money.
Get this incredible outsourcing framework for the dangerously ambitious from MuseLife genius David Walsh now!
Not By The Hour: A Guide to Making Passive Income from FreelanceSwitch
Streams of passive income can take a bit of work to get started, some even take a little work to maintain, however they are well worth it. Having a steady source of income is particularly useful for a freelancer as it helps mitigate risk and balance out some of the ups and downs of freelancing. Besides who doesn’t want a source of income that keeps generating with or without your input!
Another useful guide from Collis Ta’eed, founder of FreelanceSwitch. Grab this one for free here!
The Zero Hour Workweek by Jonathan Mead
Learn Jonathan’s story of liberation and his journey to getting paid to be himself (by doing what he loves). Discover why the world needs you to do what you love and how to find the intersection between what you’re good at, what you’re passionate about, and what people will pay you to do.
I was honored to be featured as a Zero Hour Case Study for Jonathan’s 0HWW book. Check out some of my thoughts on how to get paid to be you.
How to Be Remarkable by Colin Wright
Colin wrote this book to share some valuable tidbits of knowledge with everyone because he firmly believes that if the world has more inspiring, ambitious and remarkable people we’ll all be a lot better off. John Bardos, Diggy, Kristin Norris, Carol Segrave, Carlos Miceli, Anoush Rima Tatevossian, Amber Rae Lambke, Paul Smith, Christophe Galland, Jenda Michl, Alan Perlman, Sean Ogle, Robert Granholm and JD Bentley all contribute useful lessons to this great compilation.
Download this free ebook from Colin Wright at Exile Lifestyle.
Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World by Anil Polat
Anil’s blog series on overcoming obstacles to traveling the world turned out to span 2 months, generated over 100 comments, and had his inbox filled with messages from people who wanted to, had, or were currently overcoming the 7 obstacles themselves. Hear personal stories and advice from other world travelers … and build your knowledge of how to prepare for and sustain long-term travel.
Anil interviewed me to get my personal experience and advice for other long-term travelers too! Download the book here and visit Anil at foXnoMad.
Life Nomadic: The Life Changing Guide to Travel by Tynan
Life Nomadic is a book that will change the way you think about travel. Rather than think of it as an expensive luxury, you will understand it for what it is: a surprisingly affordable necessity for fully experiencing life. In 2007, Tynan sold everything he owned and began traveling the world. He became a nomad. This book is a collection of the travel strategies, tips, and philosophies that he’s accumulated since then.
Download Tynan’s helpful and revealing guide to the nomadic lifestyle at Tynan.net.
007 Lifestyle: Living Like James Bond by Derek Johanson
This is a definitive guide to living a kick-ass, real lifestyle just like James Bond’s. Derek will share with you the essential ingredients of how he lives the ultimate 007 lifestyle. Follow this guide and you will feel like 007. Your friends will be jealous as they watch you travel the world with ease and take control of women’s hearts effortlessly. You will be able to design a lifestyle that rocks your boat. You will have more options and freedom to pursue your goals and ambitions. You will become a positive influence on others to live happy and fulfilling lives.
You can read more about the ebook and see Derek’s recent MI6 Report where he interviewed me for the 007 Lifestyle series here. Also find Derek at Live Uncomfortably.
How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog by Nomadic Matt
Matt makes over $3,000 dollars a month from his travel websites and has been for many months. That is enough to keep anybody traveling and being a digital nomad for a long time. Even if you don’t want to be a digital nomad, it’s still a nice side income. This ebook has all of his tips, tricks and advice on how to build a successful blog, rank high in Google search results, and how to make money through advertising.
Check out my recent interview with Matt Kepnes and see Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site for more info.
Frequent Flyer Master: Free Travel Anywhere by Chris Guillebeau
Chris has traveled to about 120 countries so far and has roughly 80 more to visit every country in the world. He has a war chest of Frequent Flyer Miles on eight different airlines and all three airline alliances. Between earning and redeeming, over the past year I’ve been through well over half a million miles. My current balance is 676,583 miles in eight accounts. Learn how to go anywhere in the world for nearly free using Frequent Flyer Miles, even if you don’t travel very often.
Chris even guarantees that his book will earn you at least one free plane ticket! Check it out here.
What are your favorite guides for creating a remarkable life? Be sure to check my resources page for more useful lifestyle design and digital nomad resources.
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Great list Cody. I’ve only read about half of these, so thanks for introducing me to some new material. Do you have a favorite?
It’s hard to pick favorites, but I really really love Chris Guillebeau’s Brief Guide to World Domination.
Derek’s 007 Lifestyle package is really cool compilation of all kinds of stuff from lifestyle to freelancing to exercise to dating advice.
And if you’ve got a business already, David Walsh’ SourceControl is an AWESOME guide with lots of actionable, concrete advice, processes and resources you can put in place to systematize and automate your biz processes.
Proud to have my new eBook on here among so many other really fantastic pieces of work. I’ve read all but 2 of these, so it looks like it’s time for me to finish up the list!
Great recommendations Cody. I think I have read all of these but two (which I am going to go read right now), and would highly recommend them all!
Hope all is well, and looking forward to catching up in person here in the next month!
Thanks for the recommendations. I have gone through about half and all have been amazing.
So far my favorite has been A Brief Guide to World Domination. Looking forward to reading the others.
Cody, thank you so much for the inclusion on this impressive list.
I haven’t read them all, but I love David’s ‘Source Control’ and I think everyone should go check out Tynan’s ‘Life Nomadic’ as soon as possible. Tynan’s really got the nomadic lifestyle locked down tight.
Great list. I’ve read a few of these but off to check out Rockstar Personal Branding now which looks interesting.
Wow Cody! This is an impressive list. Looks like I’ve got more reading to do. So many books – so little time!
Goddamn it! Don’t you know I’m busy?! Stop presenting me with awesome shit that I really need to read! ;-P
Ahhh! More to read! Great compilation and looking forward to digging through some more material.
Great list, I haven’t read too many of these.
I have read most of Derek’s 007 Lifestyle: Living Like James Bond.
I recommend it.
Will be doing a review soon.
- MPM
Great list Cody, will have to check a couple out I’ve not heard of.
Awesome list, Cody. I was thinking about doing a post like this myself sometime soon. You’ve covered just all the picks I would have on my list here. There are a couple I hadn’t heard of as well. Thanks!
Great post. I plan on going through each of these and seeing what I can do to make my blog more effective and productive.
I love following your blog and look forward to reading it in the future.
Thanks
I think I’ve read most of the ebooks listed, but there are a few new ones that I need to check out.
Along with Chris’ A Brief Guide to World Domination, I got the most out of How to Be Remarkable, the Zero Hour Workweek, and the Unconvential Guide to Working for Yourself. Reading Tynan’s story was really entertaining, too.
Thanks for the list, I’ll be checking out the others that I missed.
Excellent list! But you left out my favourite – Wishcraft by Barbara Sher. It’s an oldie but still essential reading for anyone who wants to redesign their life for more happiness and satisfaction. You can get it free, as echapters rather than a single ebook, at http://www.wishcraft.com
Most people like to own it as a physical book too, which is why it’s been continuously in print for 30 years. A special 30th anniversary edition came out in March 2009.
Great list man
Thanks for this list.I’ve heard of some before, but now I have a nice reading list for the week. I’m new to your site and have enjoyed it quite a bit so far.
Great list but I disagree with Tynan’s book. I found it to be poorly written and not filled with anything really useful other than a semi interesting story. He should stick to pick up lines.
Awesome list, Cody. I love e-books and manifestos – they’re concise and can be read in one-sitting, on a plane, or anywhere else.
I have only read a few of these. I highly recommend anything by Chris Guillebeau. If you travel, Frequent Flyer Master is worth every penny, and then some! Also, Jon Mead’s is top notch inspiration.
I’ll have to go comb through the rest and update my “to-read list”.
I’ve yet to read many of these books but will add to my list of reading when things slow down a bit in January. I can say though I found Matt’s ebook to be very useful and to the point.
Thanks also for including my ebook as well (and contributing to it as well!)
Jon.
Looking fwd to jumping into some of these puppies!
Just found your blog and this great list. Thanks for details on all these great books – several I haven’t read yet (but will now!)
I would add Scott Fox’s “Internet Riches” to this list.
It’s more about how to start an online business than about travel but it was probably one of the first books to detail the nuts and bolts approach to becoming a lifestyle solopreneur online.
I’m going to have to read these. To see that you and Colin have read these ebooks, and to see that some of the writers of these books have read most of them, it makes sense that these resources are useful because you’re all successful lifestyle designers. Thank you! I just added these books to my reading list.
Thanks for posting this awesome reading list – I’m looking forward to digging into a lot of material which I’ve not seen before.