All creative folks have their favorite ways of re-lighting their imagination. On those days when I need a little jolt, but don’t have a lot of time to devote to it, a swing through my neighborhood branch library or bookstore usually does the trick.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who has discovered these idea palaces, [...]
According to Wikipedia, singer Josh Groban has sold nearly 20 million albums in his short career. The other evening he told his Twitter followers that he’d just finished a two hour voice lesson and “think it’s time to turn pro.”
So why would a rich and famous performer keep taking lessons? More to the point, why [...]
One of my favorite things about the holiday season is hearing from people who have been busily making the world a better place. This past week, has been filled with all sorts of reconnections with people I don’t hear from on a regular basis.
There was a newsy Christmas card from Marty Marsh sharing his adventures [...]
In Making a Living Without a Job I tell the story about the day I received a cold call from a stockbroker saying he wanted to discuss my investments. When I told him that my business was my major investment, he sounded shocked. “Isn’t that risky?” he asked.
“Not as risky as giving my money to [...]
There are plenty of Wealth Gurus around insisting that we should all aspire to millionaire status. Maybe that’s your goal. Maybe it’s theirs. What I know for sure is that prosperity consciousness involves getting rid of limiting notions about our own worth and that’s best accomplished incrementally. Small daily actions add up, after all.
Here’s a [...]
Every time my UPS driver delivers another case of Making a Living Without a Job books, I am reminded that this idea almost didn’t happen. In fact, I was downright clueless about how big an idea it was.
Several months after I moved to Minneapolis, I discovered Open U, our local independent adult ed program. I [...]
Longevity was the furthest thing from my mind when I started my first business 35 years ago, but when I do an inventory of those years, it’s obvious that creating things with a lengthy life span has been part of the process. Nobody is more surprised than I am that Winning Ways newsletter is in [...]
One of the things Malcolm Gladwell discovered after researching outstanding achievers for his book Outliers is, “What we call talent is really the desire to practice.” He’s not the first person to point that out.
Three years ago, Tiger Woods told the audience of 60 Minutes that he’d been working with a coach to change his game [...]
On February 29, 1992, I woke up in my New York hotel room scared to death. I was about to teach Making a Living Without a Job to 125 students at the Learning Annex. Although I’d taught the class dozens of times before and had done so on three previous occasions in NYC, this [...]
Every Wednesday my suburban newspaper shows up in my mailbox. I always look forward to reading it since the editorial staff seems to think that the most fascinating folks in our community also happen to be joyfully jobless.
This week there’s a story about a woman who decided to turn her parents’ home into an art [...]
