About 6 years or go I was attending a sales presentation given by God. I say God, it may not technically have been the God, but it was by somebody that seemed to think he was God and he was certainly very senior in our company.

After a rather tedious hour or so the guy asked if anybody had any questions. In between stabbing forks into my leg to stay awake and trying to work out who it was that had farted, I’d paid enough attention to know the guy had been talking bollocks.

He’d delivered a load of sales figures that didn’t stack up and I thought I’d better bring it to his attention. I immediately thrust my hand into the air and he pointed to me. By the look of naïve expectancy on his face I think he anticipated me to say something along the lines of “Andy (a bit of a giveaway there for anybody reading this that has worked with me), you have the shiniest shoes in the world, you are a sales genius that honors us with your presence and I want to have your love child”

I think I failed to meet his expectations by some considerable margin. I explained that if he took another look it was obvious that there were a number of contradictions and there was nothing like the opportunity to make bonuses that he was suggesting.

The look on his face went from serene to flustered quicker than you can say “HR are putting you on objectives sunshine” Like the politician he was though he recovered his composure and swiftly moved on to the next person who complimented him on his extra shiny shoes and the use of lime green in his pie chart.

After the event I was approached by my area manager and asked in no uncertain terms wtf I was doing.  I explained that Andy’s figures were wrong and thought I should point it out. “Everybody in the $%&*#@” room knew that, but only you felt the urge to point it out.

It was about that time I realized that I wasn’t cut out for corporate politics and I needed to get out.

It has never been easier to work for yourself. Not only has it never been easier, but the dynamic regarding stability and security has radically changed. I laugh in the face of clients (metaphorically speaking of course) when they tell me they need the security and stability of working for a big business. Tell that to Ford and GM workers and ask them how secure they feel at the moment? Be prepared though, you may get punched squarely in the face.

Moving to a new country and starting up a business from scratch with no support network has been very tough. In fact, in my first year I made less than $10k! But with an incredibly supportive wife that believed in me and refused to let me go back into sales I’ve finally turned the corner.

I’ve made a LOT of mistakes, in particular with my marketing, and if I hadn’t stumbled upon an excellent SEO guy, a brilliant blog designer and a loud mouthed Canadian I may have given up the ghost by now.

CAREER RENEGADE

About three weeks ago I was sent a copy of Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields to review. I could have cried. This was the book I needed three years ago. This was the book that could have saved me thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours and lots of heartache and grief, if only the selfish Mr. Fields had written it then and personally presented it to me.

Career Renegade is the single best book I have ever read on starting your own venture and the book I will be recommending to almost every client. This book doesn’t just cover all the bases it smothers the infield, the outfield and the mound too.

If you’re a regular here you know that I don’t like writing traditional book reviews. I don’t like taking notes when I’m enjoying reading something and if I’m not enjoying reading, I usually stop. I read CR in two days without taking a single note. The reason this time though was because I’m going to read it again and then use it as a point of reference.

Yes CR offers lots of practical and highly valuable advice about social media, researching your niche, the power of blogging, and online advertising, but it goes way deeper than that. It doesn’t tell you to dive in gung-ho with no regard for family, but it does tell you how to build communities. It doesn’t tell you that you’ll get rich quick following your passion, but it does tell you don’t need to be world-class to make a world-class living. And it doesn’t tell you life will be easy, but it does offer ways to make life easier.

It is littered with examples of people (often the author himself) that have done exactly what it is you want to do. You really don’t need to reinvent the wheel, you just need to stand behind the guy making one and watch how he does it.

CR is very much a book of now! I suspect that it’ll either be obsolete or will have to be heavily re-written in two or three years time to remain relevant. The Internet is moving so fast that it’s difficult for printed product to keep pace, but right here and right now it’s the benchmark that similar books will be measured against.

If you’re thinking of working for yourself, or indeed if you already do work for yourself and could do with expanding your knowledge base, go and buy Career Renegade. In fact no, don’t. Go and buy two copies because you’ll wear the first one out in the first few weeks.

THE TOILET PAPER ENTREPRENEUR

Before you scuttle away to place your order though, let me make life even easier for you. I’m not sure how ethical it is to write a review of a book that I’m only ¾ of the way through, but as the guy that banned me from his blog the other day said because I politely disagreed with him, “It’s my blog and I can do what I want”

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur is aimed at the same market as CR, but it’s more of a companion read than a competitor. Whereas it isn’t quite as cutting edge with some of the information as CR, it’s value (and there’s lots of it) lies is in different areas.

I don’t know how many posts I have written on beliefs and values, but it’s probably in the hundreds of millions. I don’t write about them because I have some fetish for the little fellas. I do so, because they dictate every single aspect of your life. And when I say every aspect, I really do mean EVERY aspect.

How my heart sang then (that may have been a heart murmur I better get it checked out) when I started reading the TPE and Mike Michalowicz dived into the importance of beliefs and values. ‘Finally somebody in business that gets it’ Hurrah!

He then went on to prove to me that he gets it even more in his section on finding your life’s purpose. Whether you call it your reason for living, your sense of purpose or your purpose for existing doesn’t really matter. What matters is you know what it is. It springs from your values and is the thing that can drive you forward when things get tough. And by the way, they almost certainly will get tough.

MIchalowicz’s writing style is unconventional and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have too many scared cows adorning his office. I find him amusing, but I suspect some people won’t, because that’s the nature of humor.

My only point of issue would be his take on the Law of Attraction and advice to go and buy The Secret. My advice would probably be don’t, or at least go and read this post first. That’s a minor quibble though because the book offers real value to the budding entrepreneur.

I earned about three times the amount of money in my last year working in sales as I do now. You could move the decimal point another slot to the right for all I care; I still wouldn’t go back there. Working for myself is the best decision after getting married I’ve ever made. It’s not without it’s challenges and it’s not for somebody that likes to be told what to do and live on autopilot. It is however, satisfying, gratifying and most importantly of all, great fun.

LINK LOVE: Tom Volkar writes a blog aimed at people that want to work for themselves. Not unsurprisingly it’s called Delightful Work and you can read it here.

NOTE: I have linked the books through my Amazon Associates account and do earn a whopping 4% if you buy them. You can click here for Career Renegade or here to TPE if you’d rather I stay potless.