#22 • THE WORK ISSUE

I N T R E E H O U S E S

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The hackers vs. The chattersThe first of two face-offs in this issue. Here, it’s the productivity hackers versus the overly chatty procrastinators

The myth of effortless freedomDon’t let anyone tell you that freedom businesses are easy...

Magazines for the Rest of UsHow to start, run, and monetize your own one-person magazine

WelcomeAll about this edition

How to do great work, every dayWhen did being busy become a measure of success? Michael Bungay Stanier is leading a movement to get us all doing less busywork and more great work

Previous editionsThe In Treehouses that have come before

CONTENTS

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6

11

12

18

23

What percentage of your working day involves work?A short thought on the way in which we spend our working days

How to be consistently creativeTodd Henry wants you to be more creative, more often. In this interview he discusses why creativity is no accident

The passive freeloaders vs. The startup overloaders

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30

36

41

43

The second of two face-offs in this issue. Here, it’s the passive income dreamers versus the workaholic startups

Asymmetrical PressAnnouncing a new type of publishing company - part community, part press, all innovation and dangerous ideas...

Connect & followShare the love for In Treehouses

IN TREEHOUSES // 3 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

Todd Henry, from Accidental Creative, and Michael Bungay Stanier, author of Do More Great Work. Between their thoughts and the usual collection of features, articles, and other details, I hope this magazine will be of use to you in improving how you work on your freedom business. Enjoy the edition, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any thoughts or comments.

FOR BEST RESULTS, DOWNLOADYou’ll probably get the most out of this magazine by downloading it. When viewed in a browser, click-

ALL ABOUT THIS EDIT IONHello and welcome to the new edition of In Tree-houses, the online magazine that inspires freedom businesses. It’s great to see you here, as always.

This issue is all about work - the ways in which we do it, the ways in which we can improve at it, and the ways in which it can help your freedom business.

I’m delighted to feature interviews with two bril-liant thinkers about the way in which we work -

WELCOME

ing on links can sometimes take you away from the magazine and you might lose your place.

CL ICK WHAT’S BLUEWhich leads us to point two. Any words within the text that are highlighted in blue are clickable links.

SHARE, SHARE AWAYIn Treehouses grows thanks to you being brilliant and sharing the magazine far and wide. Please, if you enjoy the magazine then do feel welcome to spread the word to friends, followers, or random

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left my job as the marketing manager at a design agency to run the micropublishing house full time. Before all this, I studied English at the universities of Exeter and Santa Barbara, and have a Masters in Business & Management from the University of Edinburgh.

THE OUTPOSTSEmail • thom@mountainandpacific.comTwitter • @ThomChambersWebsite • www.mountainandpacific.comGoogle+ • Thom ChambersFacebook • Mountain & Pacific

I hope you enjoy the magazine, and that all is mag-nificent with you.

Thom ChambersWriter & Micropublisher //

strangers on the street. Thank you for any sharing you may do, I genuinely appreciate it.

MAKE IT YOUR OWNIf you have questions or comments to make, typos to highlight (I’m human), things you think I should be reading, products about which you’d like me to know, or anything else about which you’d like to get in touch, simply email me on thom@moun-tainandpacific.com. I read and consider everything that comes my way and will be sure to get back to you.

SET OFF FROM BASE CAMPThis, really, is just the starting point. As well as following the links within these pages, you can dis-cover plenty more on the Mountain & Pacific web-site. So go, explore, and enjoy...

THE PUBLISHERIn Treehouses is published by Mountain & Pacific, a micropublishing house that creates online maga-zines for the restless. Visit the website to discover other Mountain & Pacific publications, including The Micropublisher and the blog.

THE CREATORAll Mountain & Pacific publications are made by me, Thom Chambers. I’ve been publishing maga-zines online since June 2010, and in May 2011 I

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in the day, not enough days in the week. We need to keep up with the news, answer email, engage on social media, read the blogs, file reports, call the client, schedule a meeting... the list goes on.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?Amidst all this noise, though, a question has to be asked: are you actually doing anything of value? Are you making change and doing big things, or simply ticking things off a list and getting stuff out of the way?

“I think of myself as wildly ambitious and unapolo-getically lazy” Jason Fried, 37signals

If there’s one thing upon which almost everyone can agree, it’s that they’re busy. Not enough hours

HOW TO DO GREAT WORK, EVERY DAY

Recently, we’ve seen something of a fightback against the idea of doing more and more work. There’s an ever-growing school of thought that, by focusing on all the apparently necessary busywork that fills our day, we’re neglecting the important stuff that we could be doing.

Jason Fried, whose quote leads this piece, has written about how “our culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic. It’s considered a badge of hon-our to kill yourself over a project. No amount of work is too much work”.

WHEN DID BEING BUSY BECOME A MEASURE OF SUCCESS? MICHAEL BUNGAY STANIER IS LEADING A MOVEMENT TO GET US ALL DOING LESS BUSYWORK AND MORE GREAT WORK

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boss, setting your own path - but then there is the limitation of “I need to pay the bills” that might stop you from taking risks…

Michael • I think it might be a tad easier… but truthfully, it’s a challenge to step up to do great work whether you run your own show or you work for someone else. In either case you’ve got to ac-tively chase great work, got to make choices about what to say ‘no’ to, and got to choose who to let down so you can focus on what matters.

T • You talk about ‘good work’ as being the work in our job description. Is there an argument to be made that you should simply try to change up that job description - or write your own - in such a way that it leaves you with more room to do great work?

M • I think that often the seeds for great work lie in your good work. It’s a powerful exercise to look at what’s on your plate now and ask: what can I shrink, what can I give away, what should I focus on to make jaw-droppingly fantastic?

WORKAHOLISM IS STUPIDHe then offers a rebuttal. “Not only is this worka-holism unnecessary, it’s stupid. Working more doesn’t mean you care more or get more done. Workaholics aren’t heroes. The real hero is already at home because she figured out a faster way to get things done”. Damning words, certainly - and they’re part of a growing chorus.

One of the biggest advocates for doing less busy-work and more work that matters is Michael Bun-gay Stanier. His book, Do More Great Work, is a guide to help you identify how to find, start and sustain more great work.

Michael is the Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less good work and more great work. He’s also well known as the man behind the End Malaria book project, which brought together over 50 leading writers and thinkers to create a book that raised funds for Malaria No More.

I spoke to Michael briefly about doing more great work, being more efficient with the busywork, and the potential perils of productivity. Enjoy...

Thom • Is it easier, in your experience, for indi-viduals to do great work when they’re running their own businesses? On the one hand you’re your own

T • Now that we’re living in - to use Seth Godin’s phrase - ‘project world’, are there more opportuni-ties to do great work? Rather than rewarding days ticked off in a career, are we now seeing the prizes going to those who throw themselves into ambi-tious, change-making projects?

M • I think that if by “prizes” you mean a greater sense of meaning and engagement in the work you do, then yes - projects are one very powerful way to do this. Ticking off the days of a career can be safer - after all, projects fail as well as succeed. But the gift of a project is that it creates focus for your great work, rather than the comfortable rut of a job description

T • In light of this, is it possible simply to jump from project to project? Or is it still necessary to have that over-arching narrative of ‘good work’, among which you pick and choose projects as and when the time and situation is right for you?

M • I think you’re always trying to find the best bal-ance for you between good work and great work. If you do nothing but great work all the time, you collapse from nervous exhaustion. The challenge is that most people’s “mixes” have too much bad and good Work, and not enough of the stuff that matters, makes a difference, lights you up, and has a real sense of meaning. “Strategy” might be de-

“IT’S A CHALLENGE TO STEP UP TO

DO GREAT WORK WHETHER YOU

RUN YOUR OWN SHOW OR YOU

WORK FOR SOMEONE ELSE”

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is often about really efficiency. But great work needs a bit of faffing about and messiness.

T • Are there any traits you’ve found common to those who spend a high percentage of their time doing great work? Is anyone out there really man-aging to spend 90% of their time on great work?

M • I think there are times when you might be 90% on great work, but it’s unlikely to be sustainable. Those that get up there find time to think, spend time reviewing their priorities and ensuring there’s been no “scope creep”, and can say ‘no’ - which means willing to trade being liked by everyone for being focused and respected.

fined as finding the right mix of good and great. You need some of the routine regular stuff for all sorts of reasons.

M • The productivity bug - in the form of Life-hacker, GTD, The 4-Hour Work Week, and the like - seems to have well and truly bitten in business today. Are you a fan of productivity shortcuts? On the one hand they get the good work done quicker to leave more room for the great work - but on the other hand, productivity often just makes room for more good work to flood in…

M • It’s a great insight. I do like efficiency - I was David Allen’s “Creativity Coach” for the GTD com-munity for a while - but you’re quite right that it can become an end in itself rather than a means to an end. I do sometimes find myself celebrating “inbox zero” when really, who cares? The big win should be that it creates the space - mentally and physically - to do the work that matters.

T • While we’re on the subject of productivity, should we look to be productive and efficient with our great work? Or is there an argument for giv-ing more rope to the great work, allowing yourself more creative space and the opportunity for flow?

M • To bastardise a quote from Einstein, you want to go as fast as possible - but no faster. Good work

T • Talk a little, if you would, about the balance between passion and profit. Many entrepreneurs and individuals running businesses - especially on-line - are keen to follow their passions in their work. While this may feel wonderful (they’re focused, they’re enjoying it) not all great work necessarily leads to profit or a sustainable business…

M • That’s absolutely right. And in fact, there’s a decent case to be made for not turning passion into work, as it kind of robs you of the joy of pas-sion. Great work is about doing stuff that matters and that makes a difference - and that’s not nec-essarily anything to do with business, either your own or working for someone. It could be, for in-stance, being an awesome parent.

I think if you’re an entrepreneur you want to be interested and engaged in the work you do and feel it has a purpose to it, but I don’t think that means it’s got to be your passion.

T • I see some similarities between ‘good work’ and Steven Pressfield’s idea of Resistance. Is it fair to say that we sometimes hide in the good work to avoid the great work that really pushes us? How do you personally (and how do you suggest others) snap out of the good work mindset in order to go after the great stuff?

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M • Spot on. Good work is seductive, comfortable, familiar - and because it’s never-ending, it’s easy to spend your life “just finishing off the good work” before you get to the great work.

My best suggestion for doing more great work is to take a best guess at what a great work project might be for you, tell some people and get their support to help you do it, and then start it and do a little bit day by day. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.

T • Finally, are there any questions that you’d like to ‘ask yourself’? Anything that you think would provide some extra enlightenment for the readers?

M • A final comment might be this: You can’t do great work by yourself. Or at least, if you’re do-ing it by yourself you’re probably not doing the great work you might. You need the emotional and sometimes intellectual and practical help of others to go big.

Thanks to Michael for his thoughts and insights in this interview. You can find more from Michael at Box of Crayons, and learn more about Do More Great Work here. //

3. This is the work that is meaningful to you, that has an impact and makes a difference. It inspires, stretches, and provokes. Great Work is the work that matters. It is a source of both deep comfort and engagement — often you feel as if you’re in the “flow zone,” where time stands still and you’re working at your best, effortlessly. The comfort comes from its con-nection, its “sight line,” to what is most mean-ingful to you — not only your core values, and beliefs, but also your aspirations and hopes for the impact you want to have on the world.

But Great Work is also a place of uncertainty and discomfort. The discomfort arises be-cause the work is often new and challenging, and so there’s an element of risk and possi-ble failure. Because this is work that matters, work that you care about, you don’t want it to fail. But because it’s new and challenging, there’s a chance that it might.

For organizations, Great Work drives strategic difference, innovation, and longevity. Often it’s the kind of inventive work that pushes business forward, that leads to new products, more efficient systems, and increased profits. //

THE 3 TYPES OF WORK From the introduction to Do More Great Work

1. Bad Work is a waste of time, energy, and life. Doing it once is one time too many. This is not something to be polite about. It’s not something to be resigned to. Sadly, organiza-tions have a gift for generating Bad Work. It shows up as bureaucracy, interminable meet-ings, outdated processes that waste every-one’s time, and other ways of doing things that squelch you rather than help you grow.

2. Good Work is the familiar, useful, productive work you do — and you likely do it well. You probably spend most of your time on Good Work, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Good Work blossoms from your training, your education, and the path you’ve traveled so far. All in all, it’s a source of comfort, nourishment, and success.

You always need Good Work in your life. At an organizational level, Good Work is vital. It is a company’s bread and butter — the efficient, focused, profitable work that delivers next quarter’s returns

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Here’s your chance to get your hands on any cop-ies of In Treehouses that you might have missed.The magazine has been running since mid-2010, so here’s how to get your copies of all those juicy back issues, just packed with information and in-spiration:

EDIT IONS 1 TO 8 // OUT OF PR INTThe first eight editions of In Treehouses are lost to the sands of time. Never fear, though, because everything else is available to you, as you’re about to discover...

PREVIOUS EDITIONS

were featured in the magazine through to the top-ics that were covered, on this page.

EDIT IONS 19, 20 & 21 // AVAILABLE HEREEvery issue of In Treehouses published thus far in 2012 is sent to you for free when you sign up to the magazine. If you’re reading this PDF then chances are you’re already signed up. If not, head over here to grab your copies. //

EDIT IONS 9 TO 18 // AVAILABLE HEREThe second ten editions of In Treehouses are avail-able right here. Over the course of these maga-zines, In Treehouses was all about helping you build a fan base and inspiring your lifestyle business. You can discover more, from the talented folks who

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MELISSA WRIGHT

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what is important, and (b) you must do what’s im-portant first” Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

THE MAGIC HOURSIn his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells a now-famous story about the power of deliberate practice. He explains how, in study after study, researchers have found “the magic number for true expertise”. That number, of course, is 10,000 hours - the amount of time at which you need to work on something in order to be ‘great’ at it.

“I go through the chores, the correspondence, the obligations of daily life. Again I’m there but not re-ally. The clock is running in my head; I know I can indulge in daily crap for a little while, but I must cut it off when the bell rings. I’m keenly aware of the Principle of Priority, which states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and

THE HACKERS VS. THE CHATTERS

PUTTING IN THE YEARSWhat people often miss, though, is the number that follows shortly afterwards: 10 years. “What’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice”.

Some quick sums will tell you that 10,000 hours over the course of ten years works out to a little under 3 hours a day. Surely, then, putting in more hours per day would help you to rack up those magic hours quicker? Work hard, and you could be an expert in 7 years, or 5?

THE FIRST OF TWO FACE-OFFS IN THIS ISSUE. HERE, IT ’S THE PRODUCTIV ITY HACKERS VERSUS THE OVERLY CHATTY PROCRASTINATORS

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This article is about the search for a balance be-tween the two extremes. It’s about rejecting pro-ductivity hacks and procrastinating chatter, and doing better work in your freedom business.

THE PRODUCTIV ITY HACKERSThere’s a reason I make publications for (and work with) individuals when it comes to freedom busi-nesses. If you’re trying to create freedom for yourself, you’re under far fewer limitations than if you’re trying to create it within an existing organi-sation. It’s not easy, but it’s certainly easier.

CRACKING AN EX IST ING STRUCTURECreating freedom within an organisational struc-ture is much like trying to fit productivity hacks into your work. You’re starting with an existing setup, and then trying to apply things to it. You’re literally hacking away at an existing system. It’s tough.

A L IMIT TO PRACTICEWell, no. It turns out that we have a limit to how much deliberate, useful practice we can do in a day. As Tony Schwartz explains, using a study of violinists at the Berlin Academy of Music by way of example, “The best of the violinists practiced in sessions no longer than 90 minutes, and took a break in between each one. The best violinists almost never practiced more than 4 ½ hours over a day. What they instinctively understood was the law of diminishing returns”.

While deliberate, focused work matters, it also has a limit to its use. Beyond a certain point, we all cease to be productive.

TWO EXTREMES, NO BALANCEAs I look around small online businesses, I see both halves of the above line being ignored. At one ex-treme, there are those who believe they can be uber-productive, all day long. By hacking their work and ‘getting things done’ they can squeeze every last drop out of themselves.

At the other, there are those who fail to do the work in the first place. They spend their lives in the chatter and noise of the constant online conversa-tion, always up to date with the newest and the latest, without ever contributing anything of real worth themselves.

Create room for yourself by building a freedom business, on the other hand, and you’re building from the ground up. Rather than trying to impose change on something that already exists, you’re able to start from scratch and build in a more logi-cal fashion. You can be holistic, building freedom into your work, right from the start.

FROM THE GROUND UPTake email, for example. You might find a nice pro-ductivity hack that allows you to process emails 20% faster, or to spend 10 fewer minutes in your inbox each day.

Or, you could build a business that’s less reliant on email in the first place, allowing you more free-dom and less stress. Rather than outsourcing or hacking the work you don’t like to do (and adding another layer of complication and hassle to your setup), it surely makes more sense to remove it entirely.

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?A good way to approach things is by considering your ideal destination and building towards that point right from the start. If you want a life that’s free from client calls, then that’s not the type of thing you’re going to be able to outsource effec-tively. It needs to be removed entirely.

“THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT THE

SEARCH FOR A BALANCE

BETWEEN TWO EXTREMES -

REJECTING PRODUCTIVITY HACKS

AND PROCRASTINATING CHATTER,

AND DOING BETTER WORK”

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idea and setup. Thinking about your work in terms of job titles binds you to traditional ideas of work, which don’t often involve freedom.

Thinking about what you want to achieve - to build a particular type of freedom business, to make a difference, to help people, and so on - and you fo-cus on how to reach your goal rather than how to do your job. You’re creating your own job descrip-tion, which can have freedom at its heart.

LET THINGS GET MESSYAs Michael Bungay Stanier says elsewhere in this issue, the work that really matters - the great work you do - needs to be messy. It needs a bit of free-dom, a bit of rope to explore what’s possible. If

Think a few years ahead. Do you really want to be in a position where you’re spinning plates with all your tasks farmed out to virtual assistants, your email timed in half-hour chunks, and endless pro-grams and apps all designed to save you a few scraps of time through the day?

GET LEAN, GET L IGHTOr would you rather not have to worry about all that? Because here’s the thing: if you build a busi-ness that relies on productivity hacking just to get through the day, then that need is never going to go away.

Focus instead on building a lean, light business that has freedom at its core, and you’re heading in the right direction from day one.

Start as you mean to go on.

IT’S NOT YOUR JOBA useful technique here is to stop thinking about your work as a job, and instead think of it in terms of what you want to achieve in the world.

Think of yourself as an ‘entrepreneur’, and you start to worry about all the things that come with the territory: the hours, the employees, the fund-ing. Within that, you try to squeeze the idea of freedom business. Again, it’s hacking at an existing

your day is ‘optimised’ down to the last second, you’re leaving yourself no room to be creative.

Great work doesn’t fit to a productivity calendar. It doesn’t use the Pomodoro Technique. It needs room in which to manoeuvre.

THE PROCRASTINATING CHATTERSNow for the other side of the coin. I’ve written be-fore about the problems with treating ‘a chat on Twitter’ as business, but the procrastinating chat-ter goes far beyond social media.

Those on this side of things actively seek out those time-wasting activities of which the hackers look to rid themselves. Whether it’s a quick catch-up on Skype, an extended exchange via email, or trawling the day’s blog posts for something to dis-tract you, there’s plenty of fluff available for those who are trying to avoid the real work.

And that’s what you’re doing when you indulge in all the chatter. You’re avoiding the real work.

AUDIENCE OR BUSINESS?This is most often seen in the blogging world. A whole parade of online solopreneurs have been raised on the idea that first, you build an audience. Then, you sell something to that audience. Brian Clark (head honcho at Copyblogger) actively ad-

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RELATIONSHIPS MATTER... K INDAFor evidence of this, look around at the number of bloggers who’ve followed in the wake of people like Brian Clark and Darren Rowse (of Problogger). How many are actually making a living from their blog? And how many have been writing away for two or three years, ‘building relationships’, whilst having no discernible business of which to speak?

The acid test: if you switched off your social media channels and blog tomorrow, would you still have a business? A dip in traffic is fine, a stumble in lead generation would be expected… but would you still have a business? If not, you’re probably relying too much on the chatter.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?Instead of the chatter, then, you’re better off first building a business about which to chat.

If that sounds like hard work… well, yes, that’s the

vocates this, pushing the idea of a ‘minimum vi-able audience’. Help people, talk to them, build a relationship, then work out what to sell to them.

This strategy can work. It has worked in the past, for people like Brian Clark - hence his support of it.

BUSINESS FIRSTThe problem, though, is that it’s a backwards way to build a business. In theory, having an attentive audience ready to purchase from you is a wonder-ful way to ensure success. In practice, building an audience first without any clue of your business often leads to yet another sub-par ebook about networking.

If you’re serious about building a freedom busi-ness, then the business part of that needs to be taken seriously. If you want to be a teacher or a consultant, then the audience-first technique is more legitimate, sure.

YOU’RE DOING IT BACKWARDSBut even then, the best consultants tend to have an agency to back them up, with a blog and social media presence merely to augment that. By build-ing your communication channel and then tacking a business on the back of it… well, you’re doing things backwards.

point. It’s not meant to be easy. It might be nicer to hear that you can build a business around a few blog posts and being helpful on Twitter, but that doesn’t make it realistic.

Instead of talking about the work, then, start do-ing the work. Rather than building trust and a repu-tation by being the person who’s always willing to have a chat on Skype, build those things through doing great work, over and over again.

EL IMINATING THE UNIMPORTANTWhen you cut out the chatter from your day, you’re able to focus on the work that matters. When you build your work from the ground up, eliminating what’s unimportant rather than trying to hack around it, you’re able to focus on the work that matters.

DO THE R IGHT WORKTrim back relentlessly on the types of work that don’t offer the chance to do great things. Do the right work.

Your potential reward? A shorter day doing better, more interesting work. //

“IF YOU SWITCHED OFF YOUR

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS AND

BLOG TOMORROW, WOULD YOU

STILL HAVE A BUSINESS? IF NOT,

YOU’RE PROBABLY RELYING TOO

MUCH ON THE CHATTER”

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The Micropublisher is an online magazine project running throughout 2012. There will be 10 editions in total, showing you how to make a living with

words by being your own publishing house.You can join the journey here. //

“LOVING Issue #1 of The Micropublisher” Ronna Detrick

“Thom is really setting a standard”Linda Gabriel

THE MICROPUBLISHER

“Just devoured the first issue of The Micropublisher. Wonderful production!”

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“Subscribed. Brilliant work, as always! And a more than reasonable price”

J.L. Forrester

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Making something appear effortless requires ex-ceptional effort. It’s the one-button design of the iPhone. It’s Roger Federer’s forehand. It’s Heming-way saying more in six words than others do in en-tire books. From the outside, it all looks so simple. The reality, of course, is far more complicated.

THE FREEDOM PARADOXI believe we battle with a constant conflict in our lives. Within all of us, there’s a natural, human desire to be free. We want to be independent, to make our own decisions, to choose where and how

Jonny Wilkinson tells a story about standing over a penalty against France with five minutes to go in the Rugby World Cup semi-final.

“As much as people might think that’s your job and you don’t look nervous I tell you: it isn’t like that. You can feel and see your shirt moving with your heartbeat.”

THE MYTH OF EFFORTLESS FREEDOM

we live. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.The world around us, though, rewards stability, se-curity, and restriction.

Finding an apartment to rent for twelve months is easier (and works out far cheaper) than finding one for a couple of months. Want the new iPhone? You’ll get it cheaper if you commit to a contract for a couple of years.

THE ACCEPTABLE L IMITS OF YOUR FREEDOMMost people have come to an uneasy truce with

DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT FREEDOM BUSINESSES ARE EASY...

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Choosing to create a freedom business adds an ex-tra layer of difficulty on top of this, because you’re trying to create a very particular type of income. Rather than doing anything it takes to bring in money, you’re trying to build something that fits in with how you want to live.

So you’re left trying to combine living with greater freedom than most (difficult) with building a busi-ness (difficult). It is, unsurprisingly, quite difficult.

It is also utterly and undoubtedly worth the dif-ficulty.

HOW TO BE DEL IBERATEAbove all, then, setting up an effortless freedom business requires you to be deliberate. Failure to be so, failure to put in that initial effort, will only lead to trouble. Here are some things to consider when you’re making those steps.

this state of affairs. We accept that, while we can choose where to live within our own country, visa restrictions mean we’re not entirely free ‘citizens of the world’. It’s not total freedom, but it’s an ac-ceptable amount.

To fight this, to push your personal freedom be-yond the accepted limits… well, it’s tough.

THE APPEARANCE OF EFFORTLESSNESSSo while a freedom business may look effortless from the outside - all that living-wherever-you-choose and working-to-your-own-schedule stuff - you would make a mistake to presume it’s easy. You’re challenging the status quo. In order to be successful, you need to be deliberate. Just like a Federer forehand, the appearance of effortless-ness is only possible as a result of lots and lots of initial effort.

THE MYTH OF EASY MONEYWe’ve all seen the stories of the ‘web entrepre-neur’ who works for two hours a day on his busi-ness, and spends the rest of the time sunning him-self on the beach. Or the Tim Ferriss devotee who’s outsourcing all his work to South East Asia.

Don’t let this sort of thing fool you into thinking that starting your own business is easy. It takes work and time.

1. DO WORK THAT ALLOWS FOR FREEDOMTwo words here: products and projects.

Products allow you freedom once they’re made. They scale. Services, on the other hand, tend to require a trade of your time for money. You’re just one person, and you don’t scale. In short, then, products give you greater freedom to earn income without needing to be present.

Projects, on the other hand, give you the free-dom of an end date. If you’re tied to an employer ad nauseam, then you’ve no prospect of any im-minent freedom. Working on projects allows you more freedom to hop from place to place, or to take a break between jobs to work on your own things.

The irony is that it’s easier to make a start earn-ing your own money with services and freelancing. Because you’re making an immediate trade of your time and effort for someone else, they see the benefit right away. A product, on the other hand, takes time to make, market, and sell. There’s a de-lay between your effort going in and the benefit going to the customer.

You may, therefore, choose to offer services (freelancing and the like) in your early days, while you’re working on products to sell later. While you

“WHILE A FREEDOM BUSINESS

MAY LOOK EFFORTLESS FROM THE

OUTSIDE, YOU WOULD MAKE A

MISTAKE TO PRESUME IT’S EASY.

IN ORDER TO BE SUCCESSFUL,

YOU NEED TO BE DELIBERATE”

IN TREEHOUSES // 20 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

dom. It’d be hugely frustrating if your business was set up perfectly for you to follow your dream and move to a new city, only to be shackled by a rental agreement you signed in haste a few months back.

3. SAY ‘NO’One of the joys of running a freedom business is the ability to be spontaneous. You can join in on projects that look like fun, move locations when you get bored of a town, or pivot your business in a new direction when you choose.

To enjoy such freedom, though, you need to learn to say ‘no’ to a lot of things. As I say above, the world isn’t set up for freedom. Your rental agree-ment, your cable package, your phone contract…

will have to sacrifice some freedom - you’ll be tied to clients, their demands, and their hours - you’ll bring in some income to tide you over. Then, once you’re set up with your products, you can look to step away from the client work and boost your freedom.

2. AVOID COMMITMENTSColin Wright has a great post about ‘committing to no commitments’. He commits to nothing - rela-tionships, locations, contracts - for more than six months at a time. At the end of the six months, he evaluates each commitment in his life.

More and more companies - online, at least - are allowing you to sign up for their services without commitment. You can cancel at any time, with no fuss or pain.

There are still many important places where this isn’t the case, though. Committing to office space is an obvious one. You’ll not only have the burden of an overhead, you’ll carry it with you for months or even years.

This isn’t to say that you should skim upon the surface of life, never making a connecting with any place or person. You needn’t even be as extreme as Colin. Just be aware of any contracts you’re signing and how they’ll affect your future free-

they’re all set up to reward you staying still, being bound to one place and one way of living.

Of course, when you burden yourself with this weight, you’re unable to be spontaneous.

You may also have to learn to say ‘no’ to things like expensive holidays, new cars, and fancy restau-rants - at least for a while. Saving up some escape money while your friends are out on a Saturday night may not feel like much fun, but in the long run it’ll be worth it.

To enjoy your freedom business, then, you may have to sacrifice the big cable deal. You may have to stay home a bit more, for a few months. Be de-liberate about how you spend your time and money now, though, and you’ll soon be able to live more freely and more spontaneously than ever.

4. MAKE A CONTINUED EFFORTEven once your freedom business is up and run-ning, you don’t get to switch off from being delib-erate. There are constant temptations to return to the status quo, to head back to the safety of the world in which you’re encouraged to live.

That said, things will get more comfortable. You’ll become used to pushing in different directions and fighting restrictions.

IN TREEHOUSES // 21 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

to live the life you want. Do that, and suddenly those 5 hours don’t feel like such a hassle. They feel like a gift.

ARE YOU PREPARED TO SWEAT?Effortlessness takes effort, in any walk of life. The more deliberate you are when you’re building your freedom business, the more effortlessly you’ll be able to live and work in the future.

To reach a point where they never see you sweat, you need to do a lot of sweating. //

You may even find that freedom isn’t really for you. That you’re happier living with more security and certainty. That’s fine. It can still be a lot of fun finding out.

5. DO YOUR HOURSThis might be the biggest myth of all when it comes to effortlessness. It’s the one that goes, “follow this method and you’ll only ever have to work 2 hours a week”.

Barring a miracle, you’re going to have to work for a long, long time yet. You can’t escape it, no mat-ter how much you want to believe in the passive income dream. Yes, some people manage to do nothing at all and make money, but they’re such a tiny minority as to be irrelevant.

This magazine is about freedom business, not freedom from business. You’re trying to create something that allows you the freedom to live as you want, but that lifestyle needs to find room for work somewhere. Dan Andrews describes it as your 5 hours a day.

Once you accept that, it changes how you think about life and work. If you’re going to be working on this for the foreseeable future, you may as well make it something of which you can be proud. You might as well set up a business that enables you

IN TREEHOUSES // 22 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

IN TREEHOUSES // 23 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

share the secrets of what I do and show you how to achieve similar success for yourself. The time has come for Magazines for the Rest of Us.

A QUICK OVERVIEWMagazines for the Rest of Us is an in-depth course that includes all the experience I’ve gathered from publishing over 25 issues of In Treehouses and The Micropublisher. An email course supported by eb-ooks, it’s a comprehensive kit, by the end of which you’ll know all you need to in order to build your own thriving micro-magazine.

In May of 2010, I’d never made a magazine. Within 12 months I’d published a dozen of them, built a following of devoted readers, and quit my job to make magazines full-time.

Now, after 2 years of writing, designing, editing, and publishing magazines, the time has come to

MAGAZINES FOR THE REST OF US

WHY RUN A MICRO-MAGAZINE?What would it be like to run your very own maga-zine? You’re starting on a journey – an adventure – in a new type of publishing. In just a few short weeks you can be the proud owner of a quality publication, to which readers are eager to sub-scribe.

Call them online magazines, e-magazines, or, as I have in this course, micro-magazines – the point is that this type of publication is a new, exciting world unto itself.

HOW TO START, RUN, AND MONETIZE YOUR VERY OWN ONLINE MAGAZINE (IN AS L ITTLE AS ONE HOUR A DAY, ALL BY YOURSELF)

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SOME OF THE (MANY) BENEFITS FOR YOU• Discover how to build a quality PDF publication that earns you attention, trust, and reputation• Steal the secrets, tips, tricks, tactics, and tech-niques I’ve learned over 2 years of running maga-zines• See how to go from zero to your own income-generating magazine• Learn how to increase the number and quality of readers, subscribers, and paying customers• Avoid the many potential mistakes of micro-magazines and discover what I wish I’d known in the early days

“There’s room in the market for 100,000 profitable micro-magazines. Don’t expect overnight success-es in this form of media, but certainly expect that once someone figures out how to be the voice of a tribe, the revenue will take care of itself”- Seth Godin, on micro-magazines

While thousands of bloggers battle to be seen, micro-magazines simply stand out. Magazines can be elegant, enjoyable to experience, and visually stunning. When was the last time you said that about a blog?

“While there are still people hoping to make a living writing a blog, that’s awfully difficult to do. Micro-magazines, on the other hand, feel very different to me. They have elements that make them very attractive to advertisers and readers” - Seth Go-din, on micro-magazines

What’s more, you can even make magazines that bring you an income. Because they’re quality pub-lications, you can potentially charge for them. I’ve done it with The Micropublisher, and am happy to be able to show you how.

WHY I ’M OFFERING THISI get a lot of emails asking for advice on how to make micro-magazines. This course is a compre-hensive guide, giving you all the answers you need.

When I started In Treehouses, I had no online pres-ence at all. What’s more, I had no help in making magazines – so I made plenty of mistakes along the way. This course is my way of giving you the help I never had. You can avoid the mistakes I made, see what worked, and create your own success.

IT’S EASIER THAN YOU THINKWhat’s more, I want to show that running your own micro-magazine isn’t so hard.

At its core, you’re delivering a PDF via email. Sim-ple. But, just as installing WordPress doesn’t mean you know how to run a successful blog, so there’s a lot more to micro-magazines than just making a PDF.

That said, I believe running a micro-magazine is no harder than running a blog. It needn’t take too much time, either – you could potentially run a magazine, by yourself, with around an hour’s work a day.

Of course, to succeed will take time and effort and work. But you shouldn’t be intimidated. I ran In Treehouses for a year while working a full-time job. With Magazines for the Rest of Us, you even have the head start that I didn’t, to help you on your way.

WHAT’S INSIDEHow to Run a Micro-MagazineThe full 27-day email course on how to run a suc-cessful micro-magazine. Based on 2 years’ experi-ence of starting and running online magazines, this course shows you all that I’ve learned along the way. By the end, you’ll be equipped with all you

“YOUR MAGAZINES ARE A

CREDIT TO THE ART. I ESPECIALLY

APPRECIATE THE SLOW NATURE

OF THE GENRE. THEY’RE MEANT

TO BE READ DEEPLY AND ALMOST

SAVOURED” - SHAWNACY KIKER

IN TREEHOUSES // 25 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

• You have a blog and want to take the next step. Micro-magazines are great either as a replacement for a blog that isn’t going as well as you’d hoped, or as a way to extend a successful blog and take it to the next level.• You have a small business and want to add a quality publication to your offerings.

THIS ISN’T FOR YOU IF:• You want a get-rich-quick or passive-income scheme. You can make an income from micro-mag-azines, but you’ll need to do the work.• You’re only interested in print magazines. Print is a whole world unto itself. Online magazines have been great for me – and I believe they can be great for you, too.

need to make a magazine that gets subscribers, attention, respect, and fans.

21 Days from Free to PremiumA 21-day email course that shows you how to monetize your micro-magazine. Following directly on from the end of How to Run a Micro-Magazine, you’ll discover how to turn your free magazine into one that can creates real income.

The EssentialsThe comprehensive 55-page ebook on how to build the foundations of your micro-magazine. Whether you’re starting from scratch or already running a magazine, The Essentials provides a vital guide to a solid, successful setup. It’s the starting point from which your success will come.

How to Design a Magazine in 30 MinutesA 20-page behind-the-scenes walkthrough guide on how I design my magazines. Packed with screenshots and easy-to-follow instructions, this shows the core essentials from which I build every PDF issue of In Treehouses and The Micropublisher.

THIS IS FOR YOU IF:• You’re interested in running your own micro-magazine but don’t know where to start.• You’re already running a magazine but not seeing the results you want.

• You’re only after design templates. I offer plenty of design advice in the course, but half the fun of making a magazine is in playing and experimenting with design for yourself.

HOW TO GET YOUR COPYYou’ll have to act swiftly, because there are limited copies available. Because the core of Magazines for the Rest of Us is an email course, I can’t open it up to hundreds of people. Answering all the (inevi-table) emails as people move through the course would be overwhelming.

If you head over to the Magazines for the Rest of Us website, you’ll be able to see whether there are still any copies available.

ASK ME A QUESTIONIf you’re still unsure whether Magazines for the Rest of Us would be a good fit for you, you’re more than welcome to email me with any questions you may have. I’m on thom [at] mountainandpacific [dot] com.

Magazines for the Rest of Us »

IN TREEHOUSES // 26 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

IN TREEHOUSES // 27 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

tweets – and little creative, problem-solving work.Boo to that.

There’s a secret hidden in The War of Art, the rightly-lauded book from Steven Pressfield about fighting Resistance and “doing the work”. It’s right there in the excerpt on his website.

“It’s about ten-thirty now. I sit down and plunge in. When I start making typos, I know I’m getting tired. That’s four hours or so. I’ve hit the point of dimin-ishing returns. I wrap for the day. Copy whatever

Judging by the amount it’s been shared, this post - about the types of work that fill your day – strikes a nerve.

The illustration that leads the article shows a de-pressingly accurate breakdown of how many of us spend our time. Lots of reactionary work – an-swering phones, responding to email, replying to

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF YOUR WORKING DAY INVOLVES WORK?

I’ve done to disk and stash the disk in the glove compartment of my truck in case there’s a fire and I have to run for it. I power down. It’s three, three-thirty. The office is closed.”

Because his percentage of reactionary work in this time is precisely nil, Steven is only at work for “four hours or so” in a day. Not bad. Plus, those four hours of creative work are still more than most will fit into a day, even if they’re at work for ten hours.

Trim back relentlessly on the types of work that

THE FOLLOWING ORIG INALLY APPEARED ON THE MOUNTAIN & PACIFIC BLOG, WHICH YOU CAN ENJOY HERE.

IN TREEHOUSES // 28 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

ply to the money side of what you do—how do you determine which actions are money-generating vs. busy work?” Read more »

don’t offer the chance to do great things. Your po-tential reward? A shorter day doing better, more interesting work. Visit the blog »

A COUPLE OF WORKING L INKSBy which I mean ‘links about work’, rather than ‘links that work’. Behance always provides inter-esting reading material, and the following two arti-cles are no different. The first article is the one to which I refer in the above post. Enjoy:

The 5 Types of Work That Fill Your Day by Scott Belsky“Hacking work is all the rage these days, along with tips for managing email, taking notes, and running meetings. But, at a higher level, what can we learn from analyzing the different types of work we do and how we allocate our time?” Read more »

The Difference Between ‘Money Work’ and ‘Busy Work’ by Chris Guillebeau“In your business, agency, or solo shop, you’re probably familiar with the idea of creative work vs. non-creative work. You also probably know of the famous Pareto principle, which states that 20% of inputs are responsible for 80% of outcomes.

“To get creative work done, you have to be willing to block off time and focus on deliverables instead of the email of the moment. But how does this ap-

IN TREEHOUSES // 29 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

IN TREEHOUSES // 30 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

WE’RE ALL CREATIVESTake creativity. Whatever work you do in your free-dom business, there’s a good chance that creativi-ty will play a part. Whether you’re problem-solving, brainstorming, or actually coming up with original creative work, there’s a pressure on you to deliver.

So why should we think of creativity as such an uncertain thing? Why should we wait until inspira-tion strikes? Perhaps we need to stop approaching creative work in such a wishy-washy fashion, and start making it work for us.

In a working world where we place such emphasis on productivity, it can be hard to find an excuse simply to sit back and think. As it becomes easier and easier to measure, manage, and obsess about statistics when it comes to work, where do the so-called softer aspects of business fit in to the picture?

HOW TO BE CONSISTENTLY CREATIVE

THE DEL IBERATE CREATIVE“The moment you exchange your creative efforts for money, you enter a world where you will have to be brilliant at a moment’s notice”. Todd Henry is on a mission to revolutionise how we think about creativity - and to help us harness our own creative abilities on a more consistent basis.

Founder and CEO of Accidental Creative, a compa-ny that “helps creative people and teams generate brilliant ideas”, Todd is also the author of The Ac-cidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant at a Moment’s

TODD HENRY WANTS YOU TO BE MORE CREATIVE, MORE OFTEN. IN THIS INTERVIEW HE DISCUSSES WHY CREATIV ITY IS NO ACCIDENT

IN TREEHOUSES // 31 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

their approach to the creative process. In truth, most of us are accountable for generating ideas on a daily basis, solving problems, and otherwise turning our thoughts into value in the marketplace.

This means that we all have to be creative in order to be productive, and can benefit greatly from put-ting some intentional structure around our crea-tive process.

T • Taking the idea of Resistance from Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art, is the notion of inspiration as something that ‘strikes’ merely a way of avoiding doing the work? If creativity comes from the gods, after all, then there’s no sense in being deliberate about it or working at it…

T • It’s always difficult to know where to start. This is, I believe, the key reason for procrastina-tion, frustration, and spinout. Most people, if given a specific task, will put their head down and do

Notice. In it, he offers strategies for how to thrive creatively, teaching “simple practices that help you unlock brilliant ideas and establish a rhythm that supports your creative process”.

I talked to Todd about our understanding of crea-tivity, making great ideas happen, and how to give yourself the best possible ‘creative diet’. Enjoy...

Thom • Is the first challenge of creativity perhaps recognising that all jobs are, in some way, crea-tive? We often tend to think of ‘creative types’ as being a separate species, feeding off inspiration - but creativity is much broader than that. Is the creative aspect of work too often ignored in some professions?

Todd • I think the creative aspect of work is ig-nored in harmful ways, and much to the detri-ment of the average worker. We tend to confuse “creativity” with “art”. This means that we often overlook the very basic problem-solving types of activities most of us have to do on a daily basis and fail to recognize them as the creative acts that they are.

The unfortunate byproduct of this is that few peo-ple consider their creative process as something to be developed and maintained, and as a result they lack any kind of structure or intentionality around

what’s required in order to be successful. However, when the next task is something like “develop a great idea for project X”, we don’t know where to begin.

As a result, we default to something - anything - that feels immediately productive. We check e-mail, we return phone calls, or we check in on our colleagues. All of these things give us the imme-diate “ping” of being productive, but they aren’t truly moving us forward with the work.

The good news is that getting started is the hard-est part. Once you commit to the work, and get into it, unexpected ideas emerge.

Many great creative minds have noted that their best ideas always come in the midst of working, not while doing something unrelated to their work. I don’t mean to discount the difficulty of idea gen-eration, but if you look at it this way, creative block is often a choice to avoid the work altogether.

T • You talk about “eliminating fake work from your life”. Is that one of the biggest challenges of being deliberately creative: simply reducing the amount of time you spend on the unimportant or the insignificant, so as to allow more time for pro-ductive, creative work?

“WE CONFUSE ‘CREATIVITY’

WITH ‘ART’. THIS MEANS THAT

WE OFTEN OVERLOOK THE VERY

BASIC PROBLEM-SOLVING TYPES

OF ACTIVITIES MOST OF US HAVE

TO DO ON A DAILY BASIS”

IN TREEHOUSES // 32 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

ficient, but ultimately incredibly effective. In order to create space for the creative process to flour-ish, we need to lose our efficiency obsession and be willing to build practices that make us more ef-fective.

T • With that in mind, should we worry about fram-ing our creative time in terms of productivity? Or should the creative process be less restricted and allowed to flow?

T • True freedom requires structure. Freedom without structure is an illusion. We’re not wired to be able to deal with it. It’s important to have enough structure that we understand (a) the rules, (b) the game plan, and (c) the desired outcome for

T • I don’t know if it’s a matter of important or not important. Rather, I think it’s a matter of differen-tiating efficiency and effectiveness. It all might be important work, but it may not be adding signifi-cant value.

One example of this is with idea generation. When speaking at a conference, I’ll often ask “how many of you think that great ideas are important to the future of your business or career?” Nearly every hand in the room goes up. Hundreds or thousands of them. There are cheers and hoots. People are clearly of the opinion that ideas are important.

After calming them down, I’ll ask, “OK... wonder-ful. Now, how many of you had dedicated time on your calendar in the last week for doing nothing but generating ideas for your most important pro-jects?” It’s silent. A few scattered hands go up.

Why this discrepancy between what we say is im-portant, and what we actually do? It’s likely be-cause it doesn’t feel very efficient to sit around trying to come up with new ideas for projects. It feels much more productive to crank through a few more e-mails, or to do things that give us an immediate productivity surge.

In the end, the things that add the most value to the bottom line are frequently immediately inef-

our work. (These correspond loosely to the sys-tems, the strategy, and the objectives.) The better we get at defining the work - what we’re really try-ing to do - the better we are setting our minds up for creative success.

This means providing just enough structure to our process to focus our minds in the right direction, but not so much that we are ignoring peripheral data that could be valuable to our process. The best mode of operation for creative idea genera-tion is to function with alternating hard and soft focus. This means to define the work very specifi-cally and dive into it, but step back at regular in-tervals to ask, “what am I really trying to do now?”

This keeps us aligned and on the rails, and pre-vents us from drifting too far off course, but also allows for a good amount of latitude in how we approach the problem.

T • How far do you buy into the culture of ‘hack-ing’ and finding shortcuts when it comes to crea-tivity? You talk about structuring your life to be more creative, so does creativity require a more holistic approach than that in order to be continu-ously successful?

T • We cannot rely on hacks as long-term solu-tions. What we need are practices, structure, and

IN TREEHOUSES // 33 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

T • Part of the Accidental Creative philosophy is about “higher quality stimuli” - taking in better mental material so as to get better work out of yourself. Do you think we’re often too indiscrimi-nate when it comes to taking in media? In a world of so many inputs, how do you create effective filters?

T • There’s an old saying about food that “you are what you eat.” This means that what you put in your body eventually affects your overall health. The same principle, I believe, applies to our crea-tive process. The kinds of stimuli we put into our head eventually affect our creative process, be-cause they are the raw materials we use to com-bine, synthesize, and generate new thoughts.

If we are perpetually snacking on mindless stimuli, we are missing an opportunity to challenge our thought process, to develop our mind, and to im-prove our capacity to think systemically. This isn’t

rhythm. There are certainly tips, tricks, and hacks that can help you generate ideas quickly, and I use them as well, but they don’t provide the kind of deep, abiding sense of creative awareness and ef-fectiveness that capacity-building practices do.

We need to develop the capacity to think deeply and sustainably about problems, to relate to oth-ers and collaborate well, to manage our energy, to fill our heads with stimulating and challenging insights, and to use our time effectively. These traits cannot result from hacks, they only result from persistent, dedicated effort.

T • Rory Sutherland talks about how, although business types often get to approve or disapprove creative work in a business, the creative minds rarely get to have any say over business decisions. Do you think creativity needs to play a more prom-inent role in how we run our businesses?

T • I think the value here is in, as Steven Johnson says, “getting more parts on the table”. This means that having creative teams at the table when mak-ing business decisions might illuminate opportuni-ties that would have otherwise been overlooked. This is important to ensure that we’re avoiding fossilized assumptions, safe bets, and short-cuts to value that compromise the long-term viability of the company.

to say that we should never watch or read mindless things - I certainly do! - but it must be tempered, just like we need to temper the amount of junk food in our diet.

The best way to filter is to develop a study plan. Identify the top few natural areas of curiosity in your life, and begin to funnel resources (books, videos, seminars) into your day that help you pursue those curiosities. It’s a wonderful way to jump-start your thinking and to ensure that your curiosity isn’t dying on the vine due to neglect. Be more purposeful, and commune with great minds!

T • Following on from that, is the willingness to be idle a part of the creative process? Despite being passive, the ability to watch and observe and take things in would seem to be an important part of the work, in its own way…

T • Idleness is certainly important. Reflection is the doorway to our intuition, which is the value that creatives bring to their craft. If we are not structuring contemplation into our day, then we aren’t bringing our full self to the process.

Creative engagement is an alternation between passive contemplation and active contemplation. Passive contemplation means simply thinking deeply about the problem we’re facing, and ac-

“THE THINGS THAT ADD THE

MOST VALUE TO THE BOTTOM

LINE ARE FREQUENTLY

IMMEDIATELY INEFFICIENT,

BUT ULTIMATELY INCREDIBLY

EFFECTIVE”

IN TREEHOUSES // 34 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

T • The final bit of advice I would give is to ensure that you don’t fall into the trap of burnout that plagues so many creatives. Make sure that you are pursuing a life that is prolific, brilliant, and healthy.

Don’t sacrifice long-term effectiveness for a little short-term gain. Put structure into your life, de-velop practices that give you a deep well to draw from, and make sure that you’re finding time each day to do the work that matters most to you.

Thanks to Todd for his thoughts and insights in this interview. You can find more from Todd at the Accidental Creative website, and learn more about the book here. //

tive contemplation means working our way toward a solution. This rhythmic alternation allows us to swing back and forth between these two modes of engagement and engage in the hard and soft kinds of focus discussed earlier.

I’ve found the best way to ensure this happens is to have a structured time, preferably early in the morning, to read, think, reflect, and plan for the day. This allows the opportunity for contemplative reflection combined with a plan for acting on in-sights that occur.

T • Finally, are there any questions that you’d like to ‘ask yourself’? Anything that you think would provide some extra enlightenment for the readers?

IN TREEHOUSES // 35 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

IN TREEHOUSES // 36 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

They’re often focused on the endgame, for one. Rather than trying to build an ecosystem that makes sense on a daily basis, they involve intense amounts of initial work with the aim of a big payday at the end.

And so you see passive-incomers working their socks off to build a stack of niche sites that they can then outsource to a virtual assistant in the Philippines. Or tech startups who are actually ad-vised not to make money - if you’re not making money, it’s harder for investors to price your com-

“To do great work, you need to feel that you’re making a difference. That you’re putting a mean-ingful dent in the universe” Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

It may not seem like it, but passive income and startups have a few things in common.

THE PASSIVE FREELOADERS VS. THE STARTUP OVERLOADERS

pany, meaning the potential buyout price could be huge.

The way in which these two mindsets approach work is seen across the web, but that doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for a freedom business. This article is about the potential flaws in each, and how you can steer clear of the most common pitfalls associated with them.

THE PASSIVE INCOME IDEAL“Every time I’ve seen someone create a business

THE SECOND OF TWO FACE-OFFS IN THIS ISSUE. HERE, IT ’S THE PASSIVE INCOME DREAMERS VERSUS THE WORKAHOLIC STARTUPS

IN TREEHOUSES // 37 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

to do your keyword research too), put up a cheap landing page (with copy written by… guess who!), press “Go!” on the PPC campaign, and voilà… just wait for the money to roll in while you sleep!”

GAMING THE SYSTEMPassive income is, for the most part, a corruption of the product model. It uses the internet in an ef-fort to game the system.

Thing is, it’s often just as hard to game the system as it is to make things of value in the first place. What’s more, maintaining those passive income sources is a job unto itself. To stay up to date with the latest SEO changes in order to keep your Goog-le ranking, or to make more affiliate sales than all the other affiliates - it’s all hard work.

BU ILDING VALUEIf you’re going to go to the effort of all that, why not instead use that energy to make something

with the ultimate intention of getting away from that business and its customers as quickly as pos-sible, instead of moving towards that business and its customers, it fails.

“What makes business work is creating value. If you’re going into the business with the intention of not creating value, but of having it magically provide money for you, then you often make really bad choices” - Bryan Franklin

If chatters are all about avoiding the work, passive incomers are about getting rid of it entirely.

PRODUCTS AND PASSIVE INCOMEProducts scale. Rather than trading time for mon-ey, you’re making assets that can create income without you needing to be present. Passive income takes this idea to an extreme, with the notion that you can maintain, manage, and even create prod-ucts without investing passion, effort, or even much money.

THE FANTASYAs Michael Ellsberg explains, “you know the fan-tasy: write some ebook (or better yet, hire free-lancers in Mumbai to research and write it for you at $.20/word!) on some niche topic, set up Ad-Words and Facebook campaigns targeted to the right keywords (you can hire those Mumbai guys

of value? Why not use it to build trust, attention, and respect?

When you earn those things, you have a fan base that moves with you. It follows you to new projects and pursuits. It spreads the word about your work. If you’re relying on passive income, what do you do when your VA quits? Or when Google changes their search algorithm?

YOUR PASSIVE STATEIn that sense, passive income becomes an accu-rate description in more ways than one: you’re pas-sive to the whims of others. You’re not in control of your own business. You’re vulnerable to the com-petition, who are busy making products with the aim of overtaking you. It’s hardly a freedom busi-ness if you’re so bound to the vagaries of other people.

Nobody ever built a passionate fan base by being a good affiliate or drop-shipper.

EASY MONEYThing is, passive income is often a pretty joyless pursuit. Rather than doing work that matters to you, you’re focused entirely on creating easy mon-ey. As Ellsberg points out, “what is most certain-ly not meaningful is some temporary party on a beach funded by some lame ebook you don’t even

“EVERY TIME I’VE SEEN SOMEONE

CREATE A BUSINESS WITH THE

ULTIMATE INTENTION OF GETTING

AWAY FROM THAT BUSINESS AND

ITS CUSTOMERS AS QUICKLY AS

POSSIBLE, IT FAILS”

IN TREEHOUSES // 38 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

Instead, why not (as the saying goes) pick your-self? Build a life where you can enjoy each day - with work as a part of that - rather than forcing yourself to look to the future.

Elsewhere in this issue I mention Steven Press-field’s working day, which lasts four to five hours. In REWORK, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson put forward the belief that, “you don’t have to work miserable 60/80/100-hour weeks to make it work. 10-40 hours a week is plenty. You don’t have to deplete your life savings or take on a boatload of risk”.

A BALANCED APPROACHLook around, and you’ll find more and more people

care about which will soon be competed into oblivi-on anyway. Of course, you can make honest money in internet info-products, or affiliate marketing, or other such areas where people tend to get drawn to ‘passive income’ fantasies.

“But, to make real money over the sustainable long-haul, you must treat these like any other busi-ness. In other words, you must provide real value to real customers with a real need”.

THE STARTUP OVERLOADAt the other end of the scale, much has been writ-ten about the over-intensity of the startup atti-tude. You know the one: go big or go home. Work every hour of the day in the hopes of the million-dollar payout at the end.

All this is fine, if you actually enjoy it. For a free-dom business, though, you’re probably not look-ing to overwhelm your life with constant work. You want work and life to be in balance.

LOTTO T IMEThe big problem I have with the startup attitude is that you’re effectively playing the lottery. If you don’t love the work you’re doing, then you’re hoping to hit the jackpot and escape as quickly as possible. You’re waiting to be picked - again, it’s a passive attitude.

espousing a more balanced approach to life and work than we see in the startup-overload attitude. Call it a lifestyle business, a freedom business, or whatever you want.

The startup mindset is all about tomorrow. Tomor-row we’ll reach our goal, tomorrow we’ll be able to sell up and relax, tomorrow we’ll start living in a balanced way. It’s a never-ending cycle, as Leo Babauta points out: “You don’t need to wait until you’ve changed everything and made your life per-fect before you’re happy — you have everything you need to be happy right now.

TOMORROW NEVER COMES“The mindset of waiting for happiness is a never-ending cycle. You get a better job (yay!) and then immediately start thinking about what your next promotion will be. You get a nicer house and imme-diately start looking at how nice your neighbours’ houses are, or the faults in the house you have. You try to change your spouse or kids, and if that works (good luck), you’ll find other things about them that need to be changed”.

Rather than overloading now in the hopes of a brighter tomorrow, focus on a brighter today. It’s hard not to look ahead and think how much better life would be ‘if only’, especially if you’re struggling to bring in much income from your business. But

IN TREEHOUSES // 39 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

the sooner you can reach an equilibrium and find a balance between working hard and living well, the better.

YOU HAVE TO WORKIf there’s a cure to the startup overload and the passive freeload, it’s this: accept that you’re going to have to work. Even if you made a million and sold your business, you can’t spend your days doing ab-solutely nothing. That way lies tedium. We all need passions in our lives, we all need the motivation of making a difference in the world.

So don’t try to escape work with passive income, or to cram it all in now through a startup that you’ll one day sell. Instead, find work that matters to you. To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, if you work for the money and the money doesn’t come, you’ve got nothing. If you work for the love of it and the mon-ey doesn’t come, you’ve still got the work. And that’s something of which you can be proud. //

“YOU DON’T NEED TO WAIT UNTIL

YOU’VE CHANGED EVERYTHING

AND MADE YOUR LIFE PERFECT

BEFORE YOU’RE HAPPY. YOU HAVE

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO BE

HAPPY RIGHT NOW”

IN TREEHOUSES // 40 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

IN TREEHOUSES // 41 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

work being created today”. I’ve been working along with Colin, Josh Millburn, and Ryan Nicodemus (the latter two will be familiar to you from their hugely successful site, The Minimalists) and we’re delight-ed with how things have progressed thus far.

To explain the details of Asymmetrical, here’s Colin with a little more information:

YOU ARE A PUBLISHERI am too. I don’t mean that in the ‘rah-rah we’re all so great’ way, but that anyone who creates

It’s a busy time of year. Along with the launch of Magazines for the Rest of Us, I’m delighted to an-nounce my involvement with an innovative new publishing venture. It’s called Asymmetrical, and it’s a publishing company with a difference. The brainchild of Colin Wright, it’s a project that aims “to raise the quality of all independently published

ASYMMETRICAL PRESS

something — anything — today is capable of bridging the gap between themselves and those who consume what they create. By writing down your thoughts on Facebook, curating your tastes in Pinterest, and engaging in concise, witty dialog on Twitter, you’re publishing. Neat!

What’s even neater is that people who do more than that — say, writing books, producing news-letters, creating podcasts or videos, or maintaing blogs — are also publishing, and stand to gain from their activities, in terms of satisfaction and profit.

ANNOUNCING A NEW TYPE OF PUBLISHING COMPANY - PART COMMUNITY, PART PRESS, ALL INNOVATION AND DANGEROUS IDEAS...

IN TREEHOUSES // 42 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

and share your work with others for feedback, cri-tique, and advice.

The community will be a place to showcase your work, bounce ideas off other people who care, and interact with me and my co-founders. We’ll be launching the Asymmetrical Community a little later in May, so sign up now to be notified when you can log in and start interacting.

The second piece of this puzzle is Asymmetrical Press. Josh, Ryan, Thom, and I each have years of experience publishing, and all make the majority (or all) of our incomes from our published work.

We’re going to be expanding upon that through Asymmetrical by continuing to publish our own work, but over the next few months we’ll also be looking for people we can team up with and work that we can ‘invest’ in, a bit like an angel investor would invest in a startup or team. We look around and see all kinds of amazing work that is going

The resources available, when combined with the culture- and industry-shift that publishing is un-dertaking right now are more than enough to el-evate a humble scribbler to well-known-name in whatever field they’re passionate about; it’s just a matter of getting the right tools in the right hands, and in some cases getting a leg-up from people who know how to use them.

[We’ve decided to] build a new type of publishing company, one that focuses on getting great work out to the right people, and does so by making use of new technologies and experimental meth-ods that few (or no) other companies are utilizing. The company is called Asymmetrical, and the first two facets of said company are the Asymmetrical Press and the Asymmetrical Community.

The Asymmetrical Community will be launching first, as a hub for people looking to polish their published work, whatever kind of publishing they might be involved with, or learn the publishing in-dustry from scratch.

It’s a place to make connections with other pub-lishers, learn from each other’s experiences (eve-rything from technical issues like publishing your work on the Kindle store, to grand strategies like building a publishing empire with multiple moving parts, intended to replace your full-time income),

“IT’S JUST A MATTER OF GETTING

THE RIGHT TOOLS IN THE RIGHT

HANDS, AND IN SOME CASES

GETTING A LEG-UP FROM PEOPLE

WHO KNOW HOW TO USE THEM”

unrecognized because the people producing it are great at writing or creating amazing videos or podcasts, but don’t have the networks, marketing skills, or desire to self-promote.

We want to become a non-invasive partner in the process. All work stays the property of the crea-tor, and we serve as agent, editor, designer, pub-lisher, and spokesperson for the folks we take on under the Asymmetrical label.

More information on both of these projects will be available soon, just know that these are just two of many ways we intend to raise the quality of ALL in-dependently published work being created today.

You can discover more on the Asymmetrical web-site. Exciting times... //

IN TREEHOUSES // 43 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

CONNECT & FOLLOWWebsite • Twitter • Google+ • Facebook

IN TREEHOUSES // 44 OF 45 // THE WORK ISSUE

16 • gogoloopie18 • miamism20 • savanna-smiles26 • iquanyin moon27 • matrianklw29 • troismarteaux34 • gogoloopie35 • philcampbell36 • MoustachemanTheFirst38 • skampy40 • ozgecan41 • Fiaaaaa

Thanks to all those who’ve helped with this issue of In Treehouses, especially Todd Henry and Michael Bungay Stanier, and to the talented photographers whose images are used throughout the magazine. They are listed here by Flickr username:

1 • KayOne732 • K.Hurley5 • LikeSpinningPlates10 • Guy Leech12 • jennsteria14 • koalazymonkey

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

43 • DebMomOf344 • Remy Sharp45 • LINUZ90

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