“If change doesn’t cost you anything, then it isn’t real change.”

—Twords of wisdom from Tim Schmidt, @timschmidt on Twitter

This is a weekly review of great articles and resources from around the web on how to master everything from your finances to your personal development, run a successful business, go global, and live the life of your dreams.

The Nature of Hard Work

I get a lot of flak from some people for being a slacker entrepreneur, working on my time, traveling, meeting new folks, going to music events, and living cheap in Bangkok. But my Facebook or Twitter escapades don’t show you the totality of my life: life for any freelancer or entrepreneur is not all fun and games. There are many nights pulling 8-10 hour shifts after dinner, only to be snapped out of it by the birds chirping and the sun rising, or those days when you get up at an ungodly hour to take that client call, desperately roaming the city streets for a decent enough wi-fi connection to Skype with someone on the other side of the globe.

I’ve always enjoyed Yaro Starak’s writings—author of Entrepreneur’s Journey—and he recently shared something that I could really associate with:

I’ve started to look at how I work more closely because it’s become quite clear that how I “work” is how most people want to work, yet never seem to be able get there. People are curious to find out if I really do just blog only a couple of hours a day and how could I travel the world and run my business at the same time for almost an entire year. How can I live with such a fluid work structure?

Yaro has some incredible insights on psychology, productivity, and online marketing. Check out The Real Secret to a 2-Hour Workday for some insight into the traveling blogger/entrepreneur lifestyle.

On the other end of the spectrum, every once in a while someone comes along and completely challenges my assumptions. Watch this TED Talk where Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs”, discusses the importance of hard work and skilled labor in our economy. He notes how, as a society, we have declared a war on work, but shares why he believes work is not the enemy.

For those of you who still haven’t made the jump to self-employment yet (we love you too!), Dumb Little Man put out a helpful piece, How to Write Great Cover Letters for Your Resume—you know, for like, when you wanna apply for the CEO position of your company. :)

For you Entrepreneurs:

Jun Loayza, a busy young serial entrepreneur, included me in his recent post about the Best Blogs for Young Entrepreneurs. Great list, and thanks Jun! Also check out his new post about An honest take on making money online. Fantastic stuff.

Ashley Morgan made some great points to consider in ‘The power of free and how to make money online by giving away your work’ at Upstart Blogger. Free is a new paradigm of the web, and it’s an important thing to consider for you social networkers and bloggers—what value are you giving away for free that will attract users and attention to your site or service?

Freelance Folder compiled a list of the 15 Applications No Online Business Can Live Without, which will be a good resource for anyone getting into a web business or online collaboration.

Which leads us into…

Technology

Silicon Alley Insider broke the news about the U.S.’ new federal chief information officer: Obama Taps 34-Year-Old Whiz Kid As America’s CIO. The Federal government is finally recognizing the importance of all this information “in the cloud”, and how to manage it. Are you thinking about it yet?

Livingston Communications shared a fantastic new user guide for business users on Twitter: A Twitter Basics Primer. Additionally, Econsultancy has some methods for analyzing your social media marketing effectiveness: 10 ways to measure social media success.

AllFacebook shed some light on the recent changes in the Facebook Pages feature that might be important for some of you business owners who are leveraging social media: Facebook’s New Updates: Getting The Facts Straight.

For Travelers and Business Backpackers:

One I missed from last month was the launch of Chris Guillebeau’s new unconventional guide How to Become a Travel Ninja: From Hong Kong to Johannesburg and Everywhere Else. Chris is a great guy, and he’s already traveled to 103 countries and counting, so I’d take his advice if you’re interested in cheap travel, Round-the-World tickets, maximizing frequent flyer programs, or getting into countries like Iran, for instance!

Dell sponsored the first crowd-sourced white paper on their Digital Nomads blog: What Makes a Digital Nomad? This one is beautifully laid out, a great read for prospective location-independents, and especially for any corporate-types who manage remote workers or are thinking of instituting telecommuting at their company.

Want to opt-out of this global recession? You might try vagabonding your way over to Brazil.

And don’t miss Brooke’s latest article about what she learned from rock climbing over on our site BusinessBackpacker.com.

Do Some Good:

In a follow-up to his viral campaign which raised over $250,000 for DonorsChoose.org, 4 Hour Workweek author Tim Ferriss is offering $3 for every new Twitter follower he gets in the next two weeks, and hoping to raise a total of $150K for U.S. public school students in low-income and high-need areas. If you’re not already, then follow my favorite author and vagabond, @tferriss. Learn more: The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower.

The Girl Effect is a great new effort to raise awareness and create change in third-world economies by empowering young women.

If you’re in Bangkok by chance, make a contribution to my buddy’s Living Water Donation Drive. InSearchOfSanuk.com is collecting donations to benefit Bangkok’s migrant Burmese workers for the Songkran holiday.

Other great stuff from around the web this month:

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One of the most important parts of my job is keeping up with industry news and headlines, and cutting through the static for my clients to find what’s current and what’s important. If you’d like to receive good recommendations from me on a more regular basis, please feel free to connect with me on your network of choice: