Nonconformity and Taking Over the World

The Brain from my beloved Pinky and the Brain would be very upset with me right now. I have, in fact, figured out how to take over the world. Well, I didn't figure it out myself. Someone else figured it out and was kind enough to share. Not surprisingly it does not involve hair-brained schemes performed by lab mice. Neither does it involve wishful thinking or passive visualization. What does it take? Good old-fashioned hard work and sacrifice. Shocking, yes? Isn't it funny how we obviously know something, but it takes someone telling it to our face before we believe it? Everyone is always searching for the easiest, fastest way to reach their goals and "get ahead." Chris Guillebeau is here to tell you, that's not how it works.

Who is Chris Guillebeau to tell you such things? Nobody, really. Just some guy who has managed to do remarkable things. He has never had a typical "real job," but he spent four years in West Africa with his wife as a volunteer aide worker. He has visited 83 different countries and plans to visit every single other country within the next five years. The couple doesn't have many worldly possessions - he is a writer and she is an artist. Yet they manage to give back. Chris is the author of a manifesto, "A Brief Guide to World Domination (and other important goals)." I have to admit that when I first heard about this manifesto, I thought it would be full of lots of bull. Why is this one different?

First off, Chris targets a very specific set of people - those that want to be remarkable. Whether or not you want to be remarkable, the information in the manifesto is worth reading. He reminds us all that we can do anything we want if we put forth the effort and make the sacrifices necessary. See? Effort + sacrifice = success. Simple, really. He outlines a great plan of attack that includes planning, effort, sacrifice, and helping others. I truly believe that following such a system will help you to be remarkable - or at the very least reach your goals.

I encourage you to read Chris' manifesto, then come back and let me know what you think of it.

The Process

This may be weird, but I started out writing this post by hand with good, old-fashioned pen and paper. I generally just type a post, skim through it for errors, and then up it goes. However, I was recently told that if I want to grow as a writer (and I do), I needed to start going through several drafts before I post. I'm not entirely sure I agree with that. In school there were always writing assignments that followed the same routine. I turned in a rough draft, a revised draft, and a final edition. To me, this was a pointless exercise. My finished product never really differed from the original. Now maybe my teacher did not properly demonstrate to me the value of writing more than one draft and making changes. Or maybe she did and I just didn't get it. Regardless, the fact remains - I am unconvinced of the value of writing more than one draft. Despite my reservations, I am going to try it. That is why I began by writing this post by hand. I feel more of a connection when I write with pen and paper. And because I write slower than I can type, it gives me a bit more time to think about what I'm writing. So, here's my plan: The first draft was, obviously, the handwritten one. Then I typed it into a document and tweaked it a bit as I went. Finally, I typed it into Blogger.

I'm interested to track how many changes I make between the first draft and the final posting. I am going to follow this process for the next several posts that I make and see how much of a difference it makes. The most important judge is you, my readers. So please take a second to leave a comment and let me know what you think. I want to hear your writing advice and if you notice a difference, good or bad, in my writing. Wish me luck!

Should I Have to Go to College?

A coworker of mine who is based in San Mateo is down in our home office with us this week for a few days (yay! finally another girl in the office with me). It's a nice change of pace and great to have her energy here. After work yesterday we went out for a much-needed drink and started talking about life and work. I've been with this company for 2-1/2 years and she has been here for about three years. Due to the market, we have gone from a large, flourishing niche recruiting firm to four recruiters. She encouraged me to go to college so that I could continue to progress in my career.

My question to her was, Why? Why is it that I have to go to college in order to make a decent living? I understand that people who go to school for something specific certainly have something I could not get on my own. However, I would make more money right now if I had a degree in . . . well, anything. I see people around my age who have degrees in sociology or communications. No offense, but usually they are not using those degrees for anything specialized. They didn't know what they wanted to do, so they just got a degree. And they will make more than me at my job. I started working here when I was 18. So that means that the four years they spent at college (probably partying) I've been getting real-world experience in learning how to do the job.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing college. College is a good thing and everyone that can go, should. However, I don't feel that just because someone completed a four-year degree, they are smarter than me or automatically more qualified to do my job. And I understand that in this society, you absolutely have to have a degree to get a really good job. I just feel that it is unfair to those that do not have the opportunity to go to college, but have the drive and smarts necessary to do fantastic at a job.

What do you think? How did going to college help you in your career?

Why Do I Blog?

That may seem like an odd title for a post on a blog that has been inactive for a month. There are some things about myself that I have always known in my subconscious, but that have become very apparent as I've become an adult and undertaken new projects. When something disrupts my plan or my goal, I get a little freaked out and I tend to drop it altogether. For instance, at the beginning of the year I bought a Nintendo DS and bought BrainAge. I played religiously every day for nearly two months. I missed one day, and that was it. I haven't picked it up since. The same thing happened with blogging. I was trying to blog on a regular basis, and be on Twitter, and learn how to network. I got overwhelmed, I stopped, and obviously I didn't pick it up again.

This is not something I'm proud of. Obviously it's a hindrance in many ways. I'm forcing myself to work around it. So I'm writing this post. I've been thinking about the reasons I like blogging and being on Twitter and so forth. The list is not particularly extensive, but I thought I'd share.

1. I like to have an outlet for whatever I'm thinking about or feeling at a particular time.
2. I enjoy writing. It makes me feel smart and creative.
3. I like Twitter because I can get to know amazing people I would never normally meet. This has helped me broaden my horizons.

And that's all I've got. But now I've also got a starting point. I've made a post. So now it's not so overwhelming to make another. :-)