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Am I Being Too Hard on Corporations?

corporate-drones

I have a confession to make. Actually, I have a couple of them to make. First, I wrote my recent post about how lifestyle design isn’t for everyone out of frustration. I like the way it turned out (and maybe I should channel emotion when writing more often), but that leads me to my second confession.

When my wife read the post, she pointed out that it was lacking a little balance. I referred to how society teaches us to become corporate drones. She thought that it might come off as though I have some problem with people who work for corporations.

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Meet 5 More People With Awesome Unconventional Lifestyles

walking-in-istanbul

When you think about people who are able live in multiple locations each year, what do you imagine they do for a living?

You might automatically assume that nomadic and location independent people are rich or retired. If not rich or retired, you might assume they run an online business or otherwise rely on the Internet to make money.

The reality is that all kinds of people have designed unconventional lifestyles for themselves that allow them to live and work where they choose.

As I wrote before, I’ve met far more nomadic and location independent people while traveling this year who work in “regular” jobs than people who are rich or retired or who earn a living online.

The people I’m going to tell you about below are real. Each of them has designed a unique and unconventional lifestyle that lets them live just how they want to. I’ve changed their names to maintain their privacy.

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Self-Employment Starts With a State of Mind

Editor’s note: this post was written by Rasheed Hooda of Present Day Nomads. If you’re passionate about lifestyle design, contact me about writing an article yourself.

watching-the-sunset

I was at a Toastmasters meeting last night and during the Table Topics section of the meeting I was asked to answer the question, “What does Independence mean to you?” (Table Topics is where you get the opportunity to speak impromptu for one to two minutes).

Normally this is not a big challenge for me, because I can ramble on for couple of minutes for just about anything, and if I don’t know anything about the topic, I can ramble on for couple of minutes about how the topics is irrelevant or doesn’t hold merit for my valuable time. The idea is to get comfortable speaking in front of people while thinking on your feet.

But I had just delivered an eight minute speech about my new blog which has “Living Life on Your Terms” as its tagline. So I had to really think on my feet and come up with something worthwhile or humorous to say. While I rambled on for couple of minutes about independence, it gave me a new twist to put on the article that I promised Corbett a little while back.

So, let me ask you. Are you ready to claim your independence?

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An Interview with Cali and Jody of the Results-only Work Environment (ROWE)

home-office

A results-only work environment (or ROWE) is a radical new way of working that focuses on results instead of face time. ROWE in practice means “each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done.”

I recently wrote about the ROWE concept and speculated about why ROWE hasn’t been implemented more widely.

After that first ROWE article, I received a number of questions about the specifics of implementing such a program. How exactly are results measured in a ROWE? What does a typical day look like for someone working in a ROWE?

To get some qualified answers, I collected questions and contacted Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. Cali and Jody created ROWE originally for Best Buy and explained it in the book Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It.

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Why Doesn't Everyone Work in a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE)?

lights-out-offices

Some people are able to live a life of flexible work hours and location independence without being self employed.

How do they do it? They’re some of the lucky few who’s employers have embraced a “results-only work environment” (or ROWE).

ROWE is a radical new way of working that focuses on results instead of face time. ROWE in practice means “each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done.”

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