punk

There are 2 posts tagged punk.

My future self would point at Latin America

This post will answer the prompts 21 (Future Self) and 22 (Travel)  of Reverb10. Join us and reflect on your year 2010…

Something about Reverb10

Before answering Prompts 21 and 22, I want to make a quick note about Reverb10. In short, it’s been helpful for me to reflect on my year 2010 and to prepare for the new year. I can’t quite figure out what’s behind the order of the prompts, but I do feel there’s a significant pattern and how they are put together helps me significantly. You don’t need to publish your answers on the web, but you can simply take a look at the prompt page of Reverb10 and answer the prompts in your free time. I believe it will be valuable to take some pause and make some reflections about your life.

Prompt 21: Future Self

Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?)

(Author: Jenny Blake)

What advice would my future self give to my current self for the year 2011 (apart from this advice)?

  • Keep evolving and keep rocking.
  • Believe in yourself and show up.
  • Chase dreams and follow your heart.
  • Do what makes you feel alive and nothing else.
  • Bring that punk rock attitude back in you.
  • Do travel to Latin America.
  • You are ready to bloom in 2011.

What would I tell my younger self? As I think about it, I’d probably tell him the almost same things as above. If I were to tell my 80 year old self something, I would tell these things, too. How simple. But I believe my 80 year old self wouldn’t need my current self to tell those things to him, because he would be a kick-ass, punk rock man still chasing his dreams.

Prompt 22: Travel

How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?

(Author: Tara Hunt)

{Future Tool: New Year’s Goal Questions for No-Goals Creatives from Jeffrey Davis. For the next 10 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}

Although I didn’t travel much this year, when I did travel, it was always great.

But I will travel more next year. In the previous post, I wrote that I’d go to Buenos Aires. Earlier today, it occurred to me that I could go there via the USA. If I compared a flight from Tokyo to Buenos Aires with a flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, the latter would be much cheaper. The same result would hold if I compared a Tokyo to Los Angeles ticket with a round the world ticket.

So, I thought, instead of saving money to buy a round the world ticket, which would cost me about $4000 for the cheapest option, I could simply fly to the US, start heading south by land (whatever that means), and aim to get to Buenos Aires at some stage. This may sound counter-intuitive, but I’d probably save more being on the road to Buenos Aires than living in Japan anyway, provided that I have a location independent source of income, which I kind of do, although it’s not in its ideal state yet. Not only saving money, but also I’ll get great experiences on the road as well. So, why not heading south?

Now… when would be the best time to do it? Oh wait… I will happen to fly to the USA in June for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Championship and for World Domination Summit. World Domination Summit would be a great start for this trip.

So.

Yes.

I’ve decided to start a trip from Portland and to head towards Buenos Aires in June 2011.

What’s great about making this choice and letting people know about this plan is that I have a greater focus on what to do. I’m really excited and happy about this choice. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I’ll work on making it happen.

Am I simplistic? Yes, perhaps. But I don’t think it’s necessary to make things difficult when they can be nice and simple.

—-

What’s your thoughts on these prompts? Tell me, because I’m curious. If you enjoyed reading this post, please share it with your friends by clicking the like button or the tweet button below. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or e-mail, too. I’m looking forward to connecting with you!

Photo: Tambako the Jaguar

Review: Question the Rules by Johnny B. Truant and Lee Stranahan

For the last two weeks, I’ve been listening to and learning from Question the Rules, an online course created by Johnny B. Truant and Lee Stranahan. It’s a great course for anyone interested in entrepreneurship and taking an unconventional path to get your business going. Before my review, let me quote the official blurbs for it first.

Question The Rules is packed with content that will show you how to identify your real goals and show you how to achieve them faster than you thought possible. The course includes…

  • 4 Modules created by Johnny B. Truant and Lee Stranahan containing over 8 hours of audio content
  • Special bonus interviews – over 12 hours of in-depth interviews with successful rule breakers
  • A whole bunch of bonuses contributed by Johnny, Lee, and our successful guests

Now, here’s my review. There is a lengthy subtitle to the course, and I love it: Noncoformist’s punk rock, DIY, nuts-and-bolts guide to creating the business and life you really want, starting with what you already have. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that I got drawn into the course for its punk rock taste, because I’ve been into punk rock since my teenager years and punk rock has influenced my life a lot.

You might want me to go straight into the materials of the course and evaluate the good and the bad of the course. But, I want to share a story with you instead rather than going through each material like a proper review. What? You are in rush? If that’s the case for you, here’s a brief version of my review. I’ve listened to 90% of the recordings and I think they are all great. Probably the only down side is that there are so many great advices to take from the course that it will probably take ages for me to internalize each lesson. Does that sound too good for you? Perhaps you should read on then.

I got to know about Johnny via Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit course. Chris interviewed Johnny as one of successful entrepreneurs, and Johnny’s records did look impressive. But I didn’t check his business closely.

On the last day of the special deal for Question the Rules, I happened to see some tweets about this product. I think there were only a few hours left to get it for $97. It is now sold for $397, which I think is still way cheaper than the actual value of the product. But, paying $397 upfront would have been out of range for me at the moment-I’m glad I managed to get it for $97. It’s a bargain, really.

You are not convinced that it’s more valuable than $397, aren’t you? There are some ways to estimate its value. There are 4 modules and 16 interviews with some extra audios like introduction, a wrap up talk, an interview with Johnny and that with Lee. Here’s one way. Assume that there are 30 hours of audio and each audio is a one hour lecture you can attend for $20. So, it comes to $600. Here’s another way. Assume you ask Johnny, Lee, and each entrepreneur featured in the course, for a one hour of consultation. I can easily imagine they would charge you more than $100 for that. So, perhaps it would come to something like $1800. You might say you are not sure if each audio is really worth $20 or covers what you would want to know. All I can say is: Yes, those lectures and interviews were really helpful for me.

If you are not sure about the course yet, I can understand that feeling. In fact, I was afraid that I would flood myself with taking so much information at once, because I’ve been working on Chris’s course as well. But I took the leap anyway and I’m happy for that decision.

I liked the course title instantly, because I am interested in philosophy and ask the rules more often than ordinary folks. But what really caught my attention is the subtitle I mentioned above. There is a sense of punk rock in the course.

The whole tone of this course resonates with me, because I’ve been into punk rock since I was a teenager. But I didn’t see a strong connection between punk rock and entrepreneurship before taking this course, even though it seems rather obvious when we think about things like the DIY spirit and the community aspect of punk rock.

So, one of the most important things I learned from this course is simply – yes, I’ve already had my punk rock education and I can do something with it. I can totally start with what I already have, as the subtitle says.

What I like about those modules and interviews is that most of them, if not all of them, deal with something much more broader and deeper than entrepreneurship – they deal with life, really. It’s more like Johnny and Lee are talking about life and just applying life lessons to running businesses. Or perhaps that’s one of my realizations from the course: entrepreneurship, at least the kind Johnny and Lee are doing and the kind I want to do, is all about how you live.

If you are an entrepreneur in training and have a punk rock spirit burning in you, then by all means go for it. It will be worth it. However, if you want bullet-proof step-by-step lessons on how to run your own business without taking an unconventional path, I think you should look for something else. The things Johnny and Lee discuss in the course can be abstract at times, although what they talk about is based on their experiences and what worked for them; I don’t consider being abstract to be a bad thing and they are not being fluffy either.

Are you interested in questioning the rules about running a business and walking your own path that you create for yourself? If so, check Question the Rules!  *Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. Please note that I don’t advertise what I consider to be worthless.