This articles is a case study by Henri Junttila, who writes at Wake Up Cloud, where he simplifies the path to passion and freedom. He is also the author of Passionate Living: A Guide to Doing What You Love.

For almost the past six years, I’ve been working for myself. I’ve never held a real job, except once when I had a summer job washing boxes.

I realized early on that I had absolutely no desire whatsoever to get caught up in the 9-to-5 grind. When I got out of school at the ripe age of 18, I jumped straight into playing online poker.

I read books and I talked to successful players. I was extremely motivated to make it work. I never put any of my own money onto an online poker site, because I’ve always been very careful with money.

I started off playing something called freerolls, where you can enter for free, but win small prizes. Online poker sites use these to attract clients.

I played them for a few months before I won $1.50 (yup, one dollar, fifty cents). I then proceeded to lose that and had to start all over again. I did that until something clicked and I started making progress. I played online poker for about five years until I finally quit cold-turkey in early 2009.

Being Uncomfortable

There are many different ways of being uncomfortable. In early 2009, I had been playing online poker for almost five years and I had been feeling like something wasn’t right for years.

I was making a living, but I was being drained on a soul-level. I was uncomfortable in what I was doing, but I was also very uncomfortable with the thought of leaping into the unknown.

Working for yourself means becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. That doesn’t mean that you’re not uncomfortable. It simply means you acknowledge that the feeling is there.

Showing Up

What I’ve realized during the few years I’ve been on this blue planet of ours is that showing up is essential. Almost everyone already knows that, but they don’t apply it to their lives.

You won’t feel on top of the world every second of every day, but you still have to keep showing up, taking action, and do your best.

I’m a pretty unconventional guy when it comes to how I make a living. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but working for myself hasn’t always been a walk in the park like many would like to portray it.

The Real Truth

I’m usually not this negative, but I wanted to make a point that there are times when you don’t want to pursue self-employment.

It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be scary and it’s going to take a lot of hard work, but none of that poses a real problem when you’re following your passion and doing what you love.

You see, what I realized one cold day in early 2009 was that while working for myself was awesome, I wasn’t willing to do it if I felt like shit.

That’s when I decided to take the leap and follow my heart. I’d always loved making websites, writing, and in general playing around in the online space.

I jumped into building websites and later writing my blog. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions of my life.

There’s nothing like working for yourself and loving every moment of it. The harsh realities of doing your own thing pale in comparison to the rewards when you truly enjoy what you’re doing.

The stars will never align and things will never be perfect, so listen to your heart, and go after what your heart yearns for, because that’s what life is all about.

Feature image from Nikki @ South East Asia Backpacker

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The Harsh Reality of Working for Yourself

Sean Ogle is the man.

Sean is someone who quit his office job, working in finance in Portland, Oregon, and took a huge leap. He moved to Asia and started a new life abroad, experimenting with working as a digital nomad.

Sean submitted a remote work proposal to his firm in Portland, and when they wouldn’t negotiate with him, he did it his way anyway. He was going to experience life abroad, one way or another.

He ended up being selected for the first Tropical MBA internship, working remotely with Dan Andrews of the Lifestyle Business Podcast and a team in Manila, Philippines, and his business partner in San Diego, California. Sean also helps manage affiliates for Chris Guillebeau—who just recently launched the hugely successful Empire Building Kit—and has many personal projects of his own on the way.

Sean soaked at Songkran festival in Bangkok (photo by Gary Arndt of Everything-Everywhere.com)

Sean’s blog Location 180 is where you can see this entire life transformation unfold over the last year and a half.

Sean took a huge risk, and made a big life change. I was lucky to get to know him pretty well and spend a lot of time with him here in Bangkok, Thailand for the last six months.

A few weeks ago, it was time for him to return home for a while, so I took the opportunity to sit down and catch up with him on video to ask him some questions about his travel experience, get his advice for other folks who want to make the jump into working remotely and living abroad, and share how he’s successfully built a location independent career and designed his ideal lifestyle.

• 0:45 – What catalyzed the change Sean wanted in his life
• 1:40 – About the Tropical MBA & bootstrapping a product development company from the Philippines
• 3:45 – Sean’s travel itch before redesigning his life
• 4:35 – Advice for taking the jump from corporate life into self-employment
• 6:55 – How to stay productive & accountable when you work at home
• 8:30 – Changing your mindset for a location independent lifestyle
• 9:25 – What Sean does to earn a location independent income
• 11:55 – Sean’s upcoming course to help you Overcome the Fear of Uncertainty
• 16:25 – About Location 180 & seeing Sean’s personal growth as he turned his life around 180 degrees
• 18:05 – Sean’s favorite travel experiences in Southeast Asia: Ubud, Bali, Koh Tao, Thailand and Puerto Galera, Philippines
• 20:00 – Expat life in Bangkok & meeting entrepreneurial people from around the world
• 23:05 – What’s next for Sean Ogle?

UPDATE: Sean’s product Overcoming the Fear of Uncertainty is NOW available, and it is indeed an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to start their own freedom business or work location independent. Fear of the unknown is the only barrier between you and the life you want to have, so I’m certain nearly anyone can get something out of this. If you want to take action to break each of your fears into much smaller, actionable items, to facilitate change and actually take control of your life, I highly recommend Sean’s program. (P.S. Click here to learn more about my own experience with petrifying fear.)

Learn more about Sean’s ultimate guide Overcoming the Fear of Uncertainty by clicking here→

You can connect with Sean on Twitter, and also be sure to subscribe to his mailing list at Location 180 to get a great free audio interview all about how to craft a remote work agreement.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How Sean Ogle Quit His Job and Became a Location Independent Rockstar

I LOVE getting messages from readers who’ve benefited from the things I write, people who have shared passions, and those who seek further advice for how they can get the most out of their lives. (Note: I actually file a LOT of these emails into a special folder for when I need motivation and positive reinforcement!) Today is my birthday, and especially this week, I’ve been blown away by all the incredible feedback I’ve received about my writing, birthday wishes from around the globe, and incredible questions from all the awesome friends I’ve been fortunate to make through this site! So I’ve been brainstorming all week to come up with some way I can say “Thank You” for being part of what I’m building here at Thrilling Heroics. If you’re not already subscribed to my newsletter, take a moment to jump on my exclusive email list. You’ll immediately get a couple cool freebies, and over the next few days I’m going to be working on offering something really special STRICTLY for subscribers to the newsletter.

How to Go from High School Student to Master of the Universe

Today I want to start off by answering one particularly good question I received, here on the blog, because I think it’s definitely something that could benefit a lot of people. This is especially relevant for 18-year-olds recently out of high school, but I hope my thoughts will be useful to people in all stages of life. This comes from reader Binbin here in Bangkok:

Dear Cody,

First off, kudos to you for breaking free!!
I am truly inspired by your lifestyle. My question is…what would you tell your 18 self about earning money and opportunities with your current knowledge?
I want to explore the world but need to start earning money top fund it. How should I begin??

Best regards,
Binbin.

If I could jump into a time machine and go talk to my 8-years-younger self, there are all kinds of things I’d tell me:

A Winning Mindset:

The first step in dominating the world is to cultivate a strong mindset. This is one of the many things you won’t learn in school. The first valuable belief to instill in yourself is that you truly can achieve anything. What most of our parents told us as kids—that we can be anything we want to be when we grow up—is still true; there is no goal that is out of reach, no person you can’t speak to, no place you can’t go, no possession you can’t have, nothing you can’t be. If you really invest your time in understanding your desired end results, break that goal down, and do what’s necessary.

You can bend the rules of reality. We’re mostly limited by fear and traditional “rules” that we think apply to us. (Subscribe to my newsletter and you’ll get a 1-hour recording about how to overcome fears and live a remarkable life, by the way!) Start challenging assumptions. You don’t have to go to college, graduate within four years, take a desk job, stay close to home, get an MBA, climb the corporate ladder, or anything just because it’s what society tells you it’s what you’re supposed to do. Your life is your masterpiece, and you are the painter.

Find people who’ve done what you want to achieve successfully, and “model” them. Everything in life is pretty much a game—relationships, business, money, politics—figure out the rules and adopt the most empowering beliefs that will get you where you want to go. Follow people who are really passionate about something, and have broken the rules of “reality” to achieve great success. A few people that have done their own thing and become wildly successful at it: Chris Guillebeau, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk.

Continuing Education:

Parents may not like my advice here, but if I could go back and do college over again with the knowledge I have eight years later, I would have made some very different decisions. First, you need to ask yourself if a university degree is even worthwhile for you at all. A lot of universities provide a tremendous amount of value, and college life will give you experiences that will help you grow in many ways—but there are also plenty of skills you won’t learn in school (see Mindset above, for one). Some of the most successful business leaders today were dropouts: Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Michael Dell, Jerry Yang, Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Rose, and so on. And I know some wildly successful people personally—some of the most brilliant young entrepreneurs I know, and people who’ve been successful in the corporate world—who didn’t get degrees. That’s not to say that dropping out guarantees success—but there are other things you can invest your time in that might be more valuable than putting those years, and all that money, into traditional education.

I’d say that college is a good decision if you know what you want from your career. If you know what line of work you want to get into, and it tends to require a degree in order to be successful, or open doors, then go for it. If you’re just window shopping though, and you’re not sure what you want your life to look like, take a year and travel the world instead. Or take an interesting internship; experiment with entrepreneurship and fail; or even just read books! As much as I enjoyed and got a lot out of my college experience, I’d say I had no idea what I wanted, I had little direction, and could have made a lot more progress if I’d just gathered more life experience and gone into a degree knowing what I wanted out of it. If you’re going to go to university, pick up some hard skills—mathematics, science, economics, a business degree. Like Marc Andreessen says, “Graduating with a technical degree is like heading out into the real world armed with an assault rifle instead of a dull knife.”

Whether you go to a university or not, that’s not to say education is overrated. Either way, you’ll need to take initiative to learn a lot on your own if you want to be successful. You can almost get the same education from one of the top schools—without the diploma—on your own. Look at open courseware and things like the Personal MBA program. It’s important to keep your skills sharp, stay competitive, and continue learning throughout your entire life. Most people don’t read a single book after college. Don’t be like them.

If you want to see the books that have been most influential in my life, check out the Required Reading section at the top of my resources page for my top-10 most important books.

Purpose and Goals:

As stated above, you can do almost anything in this life, despite what the haters will tell you. But the fine print is that you have to be willing to give something in exchange. Our mission here on earth is to provide value of some sort or another to other people. Napoleon Hill said that you need to get clear and realistic about what what value you intend to share with the world in exchange for the success you seek out of life. You need to figure out what your purpose is—what drives you and what you want to build; to share with the people around you.

Once you figure out who you are and what you want, you need to create a roadmap for yourself to arrive at your destination. Most people don’t clarify any well-thought-out goals for themselves. But if you spend time figuring out what few goals are most important for you—whether you set new resolutions once a year, or come up with your own system—even if you don’t achieve everything, simply making the plan in the first place will make you about sixty percent more likely to follow through on the action. Check out how to set SMART goals or New Year’s resolutions—but this is useful any time of year. USE IT.

Now that you know what you want, you should surround yourself with like-minded people. Take a good look at your friends, seek out people on social media, blogs, meetup groups, and at networking events for others who want to do similar things as you. Build a support group for yourself—you’ll find simply by hanging out with people that are doing what you want to do, have the things you want to have, and are the way you want to be, you’ll begin to change. One of the best decisions I ever made was to build a mastermind group with a small group of friends in college where we met weekly to hold each other accountable to our goals.

Entrepreneurship & Location-Independent Work:

If you truly want to be in charge of your time, your location, and the projects you get to work on, then self-employment is for you. Even if you work for someone else, if you want to become “location independent”, then take all of the lessons I’ve given above, and focus all your energy on limiting distractions and making enough time to invest and concentrate on your own projects. Creating value for others and finding ways to give back are the most important things you can do, but it is far too easy to allow yourself to be overwhelmed with other people’s agendas and never make any progress towards your own goals.

I’ve been asked a few times if lifestyle design can work for people in the “developing” world, and my answer is a resounding YES! Just like anyone else, you need to take stock of your skills, your abilities, and what you’re passionate about—and identify the things that others find valuable (i.e., worth paying money for). Anyone who is like Binbin, living here in Asia, I actually think you’re especially well-positioned to take advantage of geoarbitrage and the global economy. If you can identify ways you can provide value, especially if you can work online, look for unconventional ways to take advantage of those skills. Can you start doing freelance work for firms in the US or Europe, rather than just doing business locally? Can you sell your services online, to a global market, at a higher price that will allow you to work fewer hours and leverage your time to do more of what you love? Even just start part-time, as a side job. But get started.

Blogging:

Like my friend Sean Ogle, probably the most life-changing thing I ever did was start this blog. Go start a blog and start talking about the things that interest you! Blogging gave me a good excuse to keep reading, keep learning, to talk about the current events, ideas and technologies that interested me. Blogging also gave me a means to reach out to interesting folks from all walks of life, ask questions, and make friends with people around the globe. I’ve expanded my network of friends to include people I would never have imagined; I’ve made friends on the other side of the globe, landed clients on five continents, had incredible mentors, become involved in great collaborative projects, gotten into conferences, been interviewed in papers and massive media sites, had free business books sent to me, gotten access to countless great information products, and been involved in organizing incredible events—all because of this blog.

Additionally, on the social web, the barriers are very low. There really is almost nobody that’s out of reach—entrepreneurs you look up to, your favorite author, who knows! If you find yourself especially inspired by someone—start a conversation with them! If you need an excuse, simply take Karol Gajda’s advice and thank them for their writing. This really is the best way to pay a blogger without having to spend any money.

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On that note, I hope you will leave a message for me, and as I said, I always enjoy getting great questions from readers. Your feedback keeps me going most days, and it’s what keeps me creating useful content here! The best way to get in touch with me is to ask your questions in the comments or leave your comments on my Facebook fan page.

Feature photo by andresrueda.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: A Student’s Guide to Mastering the Universe

Thrilling Heroics was born in 2006 with a different purpose than it serves today, and it has gone through many “evolutions” if you will, but I wanted to take this opportunity to share my personal life philosophy and my hopes for this site with loyal readers and new-comers alike.

Why I started this site:

By the time I graduated from college in 2006, I had become rather unenthusiastic about my major, as I had with most of my education. I believe it was a reflection on the poor public school system in the U.S.—an antiquated institution that was crafted during the industrial era to brainwash train young people to gladly take their number and accept social norms. (Translation: I don’t think public school teaches kids any of the skills necessary for true greatness.)

I had gone through the motions. I was going to college because it’s just what you do. I chose a major that probably wasn’t best for me because I just had to finish in four years. Then I took a crappy staff job because it basically fell in my lap.

This all turned out to be very boring. Like many a poor sap, I ended up pushing paper, going to a lot of dumb meetings, and basically sitting around watching my life end one minute at a time.

I must have gotten lucky somehow, because it was at this point that I became interested in technology, startups, and entrepreneurship. I started watching Stanford lectures online, listening to podcasts, and I got this crazy idea in my head that it would be cool to get an MBA from one of these top business schools and start something big.

Meanwhile, I watched a lot of my good friends fall into the same trap I had fallen into: taking shitty jobs after college and buying into this myth that that’s all there is to it. 1) Get a career. 2) You’re not gonna like it, but just do it like everyone else and keep your mouth shut.

This ain’t no race. And I am certainly not a rat.

To fight off the apathy, I started a mastermind group with some friends where we discussed our careers, entrepreneurship ideas, and personal development. Sort of a Napoleon Hill/Tom Peters-inspired support group where we would encourage each other to kick asses.

I also started this blog, which had a huge impact on my life. That might sound nerdy, but yeah:

Starting a blog was a defining moment in my life.

Blogging gave me a good excuse to keep reading, keep learning, to talk about the current events, ideas and technologies that interested me. Blogging also gave me a means to reach out to interesting folks from all walks of life, ask questions, and make friends with people around the globe. People I never imagined would take a naive 22-year-old kid seriously.

It was when one of these new friends needed help—an amazing serial entrepreneur who I was incredibly lucky to call a mentor—that I started the next chapter of my life: working for myself.

Books like The 4 Hour Workweek and a few fantastic blogs convinced me that jobs are for suckers. I started doing freelance web development for small businesses on the side, and I quit my job shortly thereafter.

I’ve spent over a year-and-a-half learning to master the whole self-employment thing, and now I’ve set out on a year-long journey to live abroad and do remote work on the web. It’s rarely easy and it’s not always fun—in fact I frequently want to pull my hair out—but I enjoy the freedom that freelancing and entrepreneurship have given me. And the philosophy that underpins my choices is that I make the rules. I’ll say that again:

This is my life. I make the rules.

This blog is all about breaking the traditional “rules” that we think apply to us. It’s about challenging assumptions. There is no such thing as a One-Size-Fits-All lifestyle. You don’t have to go to college, graduate within four years, take a desk job, stay close to home, get an MBA, climb the corporate ladder, or anything just because it’s what herd mentality tells you you’re supposed to do. The world is a complex and beautiful place with a wide spectrum of possibilities, and full of unpredictable opportunities. Your life is your masterpiece, and you are the painter.

A few other like-minded rule-breakers out there—folks like Chris Guillebeau, Tim Ferriss, John Bardos, Clay Collins, and Andrew Warner—are preaching similar nonconformity. Here at ThrillingHeroics.com I approach this philosophy from a career/lifestyle point-of-view, and you’ll find discussions on personal development, travel, productivity, personal finance, entrepreneurship, web marketing and collaboration, lifestyle design and more.

Optimize your Life, Rock your Career, and Make the World your Playground!

That’s my motto. My number one priority here is to encourage my peers—young professionals and entrepreneurs—as well as readers at any stage in their career, to strive for excellence and make a positive difference in the world by doing what they’re truly passionate about.

For over three years Thrilling Heroics has been my baby—my “pet project.” It is and always will be “the professional blog of Cody McKibben,” but it is also a community-centered project where I hope to encourage others to pursue an exciting, unorthodox lifestyle and career. I’ll try to highlight individuals who are breaking the rules and living their dream lifestyles. While this is my “personal” site, there are many ways you can join or support the community, like joining our community on Facebook and subscribing to the exclusive newsletter, and I leave the door open for guest posts and other contributing writers in the future.

Is the idea of an unorthodox career—living passionately—exciting to you?

Well, I’m recruiting believers. Sign up here. Follow my journey and learn from my mistakes while I attempt to sidestep the traditional corporate world, concentrate on personal growth, travel around the world, and create my ideal lifestyle!

Can’t get enough heroics?? Follow me on Twitter.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Choosing the Life Path Less Taken

As a follow-up to my post the other day, How to Make Friends with Career Columnists and Influence Mainstream News Organizations, I’d like to share some more of the insights from my conversation with ABCnews.com columnist Michelle Goodman. She asked a number of really great questions, and naturally only a very small part of our discussion made it into the final print article at ABC. I’d like to take the opportunity to share about my experience as a freelancer so far, and I’ll also take this time to officially invite you all to visit Thrilling Heroics Consulting, my business site and sister site to Thrilling Heroics where I offer business blog consulting and WordPress help aimed at professionals and non-geek users. If you need a blog redesign or are looking for some simple tips and tricks to increase your blog effectiveness with the WordPress blog platform, I hope you check it out and share it with friends. And for those of you who are interested in working from home yourselves, or interested in learning about web design, check out the conversation below. Michelle’s questions really got my wheels turning, so hopefully there are some good tips in here:

How long did it take me to fill my schedule with freelance work?

I’m actually consciously building my freelance business as a part-time venture to allow myself to concentrate on writing and a few other pet projects in my spare time. But, I left employed life about 11 months ago, and I strived to over-deliver and impress the pants off of my first several clients, which has paid off ten-fold in referral business. I’d say that after four or five months of freelancing, the work just started to come in on its own without me having to chase it too much, because I had built a good reputation, a great network, and a quality communications platform for my business.

Who do I consult with and where have I found my business clients?

I work with all kinds of small-to-medium companies and professionals, but my consulting is definitely aimed towards authors, columnists, speakers, coaches, and other thought leaders who already have decent writing skills or something important to say—blogging is a great tool for broadcasting a discussion and maintaining client relations, and particularly for personality-driven businesses where a CEO’s personal brand is tied to the business, for instance.

My first few gigs started with a few mentors of mine and clients who just happened to stumble across me, and I went all-out to deliver the best product to them at a low cost, so that created a lot of word-of-mouth and referral business which still keeps my freelance inbox full to this day! I’ve also found many clients and partners just through interacting with writers and users on existing blogs and social media sites, or just through conversations with other professionals at business conferences for example. But for me, it’s been truly impressive how many interesting people I have been able to connect with virtually through the blogosphere, and how much work one can find globally via the web! I’ve had clients across the States, and now in Canada and even France.

What skills or strengths does it take to be a freelance blog consultant?

Personally, people tell me that my strongest ability is in translating technical information and jargon into business-oriented language. My favorite part of what I do is actually hashing out ideas with my clients—talking directly with authors and business owners and helping them learn how to use their technology or interact with other online writers. So as a consultant, you definitely need some people skills and you need to be able to sell yourself. On the other end of the spectrum though, I currently do every part of this process from finding new clients to customer service to coding, and to be successful at the web design and programming, you just need the patience to sit at a computer screen for 10 hours straight some days, and a hungry desire for continued learning and improvement.

What are some good resources to learn the basic skills necessary for web design?

My college degree was in religious studies and history, so my business and web design skills have been completely self-taught over the last two years, often through lots of trial and error. Some people may not realize that web design and development are actually huge spheres, so there are tons of niche-specific resources and organizations, but the World Wide Web Consortium, W3Schools, and A List Apart are a few good places to start learning to write valid, attractive code. If you work with open-source content management systems like I do, there is usually a large, knowledgeable developer community with lots to offer (see the WordPress Codex, for example), or guidebooks like Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress might be useful.

What surprises have there been working as a web developer? What should other hopeful freelancers know?

As a consultant in any field, some people will expect you to be available at all hours, and some clients will have unreasonable expectations, so you need to learn to establish firm boundaries and you need to learn to say no sometimes. The earlier you learn these things, the less painful your experience will be. Other things to think about are the stigmas and challenges of self-employment and working from home, so I would recommend you do some research on those things before you take the jump, but I also highly recommend it to anyone who’s got the determination to do so.

One other huge tip I’d offer is to establish relationships or partnerships with people who complement your weaknesses or just areas you don’t focus on. So for instance, my niche is blogs, but I can pull in someone who’s a great graphic designer, or a wiki or podcast expert, or a web hosting guy when necessary.

How much have I invested to start my business and what were some of the biggest expenses?

Most of my operation has been budget-free because I work from home and use a lot of tools I already had from school. After I’d had some cash-flow, I did invest about $2k in a new desktop Mac for my development work, but I use all open-source and web-based design and development software, so licenses are almost always free or very inexpensive. My next move will be to put some money into very targeted online ad campaigns, but my research shows that investing even just a few hundred dollars via Google Adwords can be very effective.

Great related resources on the web about freelancing:

• 10 Misconceptions the Self-Employed Deal With Daily
• How to Ensure Working from Home is Not Boring
• How Working from Home Improved My Social Life
• A week of journalism: How to be a freelancer without starving
• Freelance Switch

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Thoughts on Working From Home and Starting Out as a Freelance Web Worker

Part three in Heroines of Personal Finance and Entrepreneurship series at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com: Alexandra Levit is the author of They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World, and a regular corporate and university speaker on Gen-Y employees. She is the founder and president of Inspiration@Work career consultancy and also serves as a VP at Edelman public relations agency. Here are a few questions with her:

Already in this series we’ve heard from Pam Slim, who specializes in helping people transition out of corporate life and into self-employment, but you actually encourage young people to stay and excel within the corporate world. Why?

I’m fond of saying that not everyone is cut out for the life of working for oneself. Not only is being an entrepreneur costly, nerve-wracking, and incredibly hard work, but because of the way our economy is structured, it’s simply impossible for everyone to be one. It reminds me of a psychology study my husband told me about recently, which showed that 75 percent of people believed they were above-average looking.

I bet the same thing is true of would-be entrepreneurs. A lot of people believe they have what it takes to run a successful business, but in reality, few probably do. When considering employment, young people should look at an array of options, including those that involve working in the business world.

At the end of the day, most people will end up employed in a more conventional work environment, so it may be wiser to develop the skills and the attitude that allow you to succeed and achieve your professional goals within the context of that setting. Maybe someday you will have the opportunity to “go entrepreneur,” but your happiness and success shouldn’t be contingent on it.

So tell us about your book They Don’t Teach Corporate in College. What makes you an expert on the challenges facing young employees in the workplace?

Well, you see, I graduated from college as a straight-A student hell-bent on skipping up New York City’s corporate ladder. But after six months on the job, I was so stressed out that I was ready to join the large numbers leaving the business world for graduate or law school. Eventually, though, by sticking around and paying attention to the few people around me who weren’t dropping from stress-induced coronaries, I developed many of the skills crucial to staying sane and building a career.

I wrote They Don’t Teach Corporate in College because I thought that if I shared my experiences with other twenty-somethings, maybe I would save them some of the pain I went through. The premise of the book is that the business world is not a natural fit for graduates who leave school expecting results from a logical combination of education and effort. Suddenly, the tenets of success they were taught since kindergarten don’t apply, because getting ahead in the business world has little to do with intelligence or exceeding a set of defined expectations.

If twenty-somethings want to survive in the corporate world, they have to treat their first jobs like first grade and learn the practical lessons that will help them climb the ladder painlessly. They Don’t Teach Corporate in College focuses on tangible tactics that twenty-somethings can put to work immediately to be successful and satisfied working in the business world.

You say that twenty-somethings experience lower morale and higher turnover in the workplace. What can young professionals do to avoid such challenges? And what can organizations do to improve their employees’ experience and productivity at work?

There’s no doubt that the business world can be frustrating at times, so I recommend that twenty-somethings combat poor morale by understanding their hot buttons (i.e. what pisses them off or stresses them out) and plan in advance how to react without getting angry or upset when those buttons are pushed.

They should also try to banish irrational expectations regarding what their organization or boss SHOULD do (i.e. my boss should give me a raise, the company should have a policy against this). Life does not always play out in a logical or fair way and twenty-somethings do themselves a grave disservice when they hold on to a fantasy of what work or people should be like. Finally, young professionals can motivate themselves by focusing on the big picture and acknowledging little but significant career successes along the way.

I tell managers of twenty-somethings that they should aim to understand each individual’s unique capabilities and go out of their way to develop mutually-beneficial relationships. The manager should position himself or herself as someone who is available to help twenty-something employees grow and improve, taking them to lunch to learn more about their career aspirations and the type of work that get them excited.

Twenty-somethings don’t want to be micromanaged, but they do like to receive timely and consistent feedback, and to have assignments customized in a way that helps them meet their individual performance goals. Managers shouldn’t be fooled by twenty-somethings’ assertiveness and independence – there’s a lot these young professionals don’t know and they’re looking to the more experienced managers to help them learn it!

Continue reading at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com: Heroines of Personal Finance and Entreprenuership #3: Alexandra Levit. Also pick up her book They Don’t Teach Corporate in College and check out her blog Water Cooler Wisdom.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: An Interview with Alexandra Levit, Author of They Don’t Teach Corporate In College

I’ve been working on a interview series over at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com about women and their relationship with personal finance and business, featuring several successful female entrepreneurs, consultants, and freelancers. The first one-on-one is with Pamela Slim, a great gal from Mesa, AZ. Pam left the corporate world in 1996 to start Ganas Consulting, and she writes a great blog called Escape from Cubicle Nation, about transitioning from the rat race to independence! These women each have some amazing firsthand experience and a lot of great advice; they’re an amazing source of wisdom, and it’s really eye-opening to hear their viewpoints. Here’s a short excerpt:

What challenges did you have to overcome in the process of setting up Ganas? Did you face any hardships you think most men in the consulting business might not face?

I actually had it pretty easy when I started my business since I got a nice, juicy client right off the bat (Hewlett Packard) and a six-month project that guaranteed I could pay my bills without worrying about hustling for new work. Since I was selling my brain and not a physical product, there were no big start-up costs or financing hurdles, which is sometimes where you hear stories of slightly increased challenges for women to get VC funding or bank loans.

My challenge in the early years had to do with pricing my services appropriately, since I tended to undervalue my services and felt uncomfortable asking for “too much.” I know that this is something that affects many new entrepreneurs, but in my 11+ years of self-employment experience, I would say that it affects women at a much higher ratio then men. It could be that there is a big conspiracy by the misogynistic male white corporate machine that starts to disempower us in kindergarten and stop us from all kinds of things like getting into math, finance and engineering careers. I discount nothing, as I was raised with a healthy dose of skepticism and a fondness for theories of oppression.

Another likely theory is that females are raised in many societies to be in a “helper” and “nurturer” role, and to downplay material gain. Fathers historically talk to sons more about business and finance than they do their daughters. Women are taught to compromise and broker peace, not to engage in hardball negotiations. Whatever the cause of my beliefs, I had to get over some ineffective mental blocks in order to charge what I was worth. I am always curious what other women (and men!) think about this topic, so please comment here.

You say you went through a phase of self-employment evangelism. What are some of the more effective methods you found to encourage others to go solo?

My best experience with encouragement is through my blog. I call it the Magical Mystery Tour, because ever since I began to write it, I have experienced a strange and wondrous connection with thousands of people I never would have had the chance to talk to. I never know which topic or post is going to make an impact…sometimes what I consider the most off-topic or “out there” subjects get the most heartfelt responses. Perhaps my favorite compliment ever came from a reader who told me that I represented “virtual hope.” How cool is that? I would like to stress that my goal is not to have everyone in the world quit their corporate job to start a business. Some are not ready, equipped or naturally suited to self-employment. What I do want to do is demystify the process so that more people feel comfortable exploring the option to see if it is right for them.

Continue reading at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com: Heroines of Personal Finance and Entrepreneurship #1: Pamela Slim.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: An Interview with Pamela Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation