8 Steps to Getting What You Want… Without Formal Credentials 354 Comments

Written by Topics: Entrepreneurship


(Photo: ElMarto)

Michael Ellsberg has been a good friend since 2000. 

In the last few years, he has made a study of self-study. How do the best in business do what they do? Using his findings, he has:

- Overcome a debilitating case of bipolar II (here’s how).
- Landed one of the most powerful literary agents in the world.
- Published not one but two books from major New York publishers, the second scoring a 6-figure advance.
- Found the woman of his dreams and married her.
- Built a well-followed blog on Forbes.com with zero prior blogging experience.

Most recently, Michael has interviewed the likes of fashion magnate Russell Simmons, Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook founding president Sean Parker, WordPress lead developer Matt Mullenweg, and Pink Floyd songwriter and lead guitarist David Gilmour. Dozens of iconic figures pepper his list of case subjects.

Why? Because none of them graduated from college, and he wanted to learn how they educated themselves. His findings were then encapsulated in “The Education of Millionaires.”

In this post, Michael will discuss how uber-successful people leapfrog their peers without any formal credentials. By the end of this post, you’ll have a roadmap for hacking “job requirements,” degrees, and the lot…

In the words of Alfonso Bedoya in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:

“Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”

There is a surprise ending to this post. Don’t miss it.

Enter Michael Ellsberg

A phrase you’ll see a lot if you search for a job these days is “BA required, MA preferred.” A recent New York Times article was entitled “The Master’s as the New Bachelor’s,” and ended with the following question:

Given how many people are now getting master’s to stand out from those with bachelor’s, “Will the Ph.D. become the new master’s?”

This anxiety around educational credentials has launched a million self-criticisms across the nation…

“Well, if I don’t have my BA, I better not even think about getting that ‘BA required’ job!” Or, for those who have a BA: “Well, that’s just like having a high school diploma these days. I better go back to school so I can spend two years and another fifty-to-hundred grand getting an MA. That way, I can stand out from all those BAs and compete with the MAs on an even playing field.”

The purpose of this article is to even the playing field for you, without the BA, MA, or MBA, and without the student debt. You can get those degrees for other reasons (if you feel they will enrich your life, for instance). But never again should you feel that they’ll give you a massive advantage in job searches or economic opportunity. For your typical job search, those advantages are massively overhyped. They can be sidestepped, outsmarted, and overcome.1

Forget the Formal Job Market—Focus on the Informal Job Market

At age 25, Eben Pagan had a resume that consisted of dropping out of community college after one semester, touring in a Christian rock band, and various stints at manual labor. Most people would say this resume qualified Eben for a life of asking “Would you like fries with that?”

Thinking that he might get into real estate, Eben signed up for a course by a real estate marketing and sales trainer named Joe Stumpf.

“I immediately recognized I had to somehow work for this guy and soak up his knowledge. But I didn’t know how I was going to do that. Here he was, leading big group workshops all over the country, and I was barely scraping by.”

Most likely, had Stumpf’s organization been advertising open positions (which it wasn’t), those positions would have had all kinds of job requirements attached to them. Eben, with his lackluster resume, wouldn’t have made the cut.

This, however, is where Eben began “hacking” the concept of job requirements and credentials.

“I started calling up his outbound telemarketers. These guys are trying to sell you on something, so they’ll talk to anyone! I told them about my experience at the workshop and became friendly with them. I found out they were all fans of Tony Robbins. Once, I found this set of Tony Robbins tapes at Goodwill for ten bucks, so I packed the tapes up and sent them to them. Things like that.

“One day, they sent me some audiotapes of Joe. I called them up and said, ‘The audio on this program is not good.’ I had a background in sound from my band days. So I talked to the general manager of the company, and I went to work for them, first doing audiovisual for their live seminars. I worked there for three years, rising up the ranks.”

The skills Eben learned in those three years, studying from a world-class master of marketing and sales, set him up for the massive business success he’s had in the rest of his career. Shortly after, Eben began selling info-products (mainly e-books, membership communities, Web-based trainings, and in-person weekend workshops) on the Internet. Today, Eben’s company, Hot Topic Media, now brings in around $30 million a year in revenue and employs about 70 people around the globe. He founded it himself, and grew it over a decade with no investors. He is a self-made multimillionaire, and would never have to work another day in his life if he didn’t want to. He runs his business off his MacBook, and spends his time either working from his home office in New York (which has a majestic view of the Empire State Building), or his beach-side home office in Miami.

The story of how Eben got this all-important first job demonstrates a distinction that will be crucial for you in seeking opportunities throughout your life, no matter the status of your formal credentials.

It’s the distinction between the formal job market and the informal job market.

The informal job market comprises all jobs that are not filled through someone responding to a job advertisement. Usually, these are jobs that are filled through relationships. Either there is a position at the firm that needs to be filled, and an employee at the firm knows someone who’s qualified. Or, the firm wants to bring a specific person they know to join the team, and they create a position for that person out of thin air.

If you do some Googling on the informal job market, you’ll learn something shocking: according to various estimates (on CNN, CBS, MSNBC, and NPR) somewhere around 80% of jobs get filled informally. In other words, only 20% of jobs get filled through people responding to job ads (the primary method of job seeking most people do).2

So, how does the 80% of hiring that occurs in the informal job market actually happen? The way Eben did it: by building up a professional relationship with people within the organization doing the hiring, long before the hire is made.

Connections. Referrals. Knowing people who know people.

This means that, in the vastly larger informal job market, human relationships and a solid network are far more important than GPA figures on a resume.

Yet, nearly all the educational and career advice you’ll get (focused on making your resume perfect for recruiters) optimizes you for competing on the much smaller and tougher formal segment of the job market, rather than on the informal job market. Seems a bit ridiculous, given that the informal job market is much larger and easier to “hack” into.

Employers Require Skills, Not Degrees

What’s the relevance of the course content for a BA or MA program to a typical corporate job? In most cases, absolutely zippo. What employers actually mean when they say, “BA required, MA preferred,” is that they want prospects with a certain set of skills, character traits, and attitudes. Specifically, they’re looking for organizational skills, the ability to follow instructions and make deadlines, critical thinking skills, writing and communication skills, research skills, and so forth. Plus, they want applicants with the general maturity, stability, perseverance, respect for authority, and work ethic required to get through a multi-year academic program.

In the formal job market, there’s no easy way for employers to rapidly assess all of those traits without some kind of objective screening tool. Educational attainment has become that screening tool.

So let’s get clear about one thing. Saying that a BA and MA is “required” to do a certain job is BS. These degrees are not actually required to do the job well. Rather, they serve as convenient screening tools for recruiters needing to wade through piles of cold resumes on the formal job market. That’s it, nothing more.

Your entire multi-year, six-figure education is reduced to a simple check-mark used to get past impatient screeners on the other end of a Craigslist ad.

For a person seeking a job or economic opportunity, this whole system of job screening is wildly inefficient.

What if instead, you focused on the informal job market, which is vastly larger and more accessible (especially if you learn some basic networking skills)?

The screening process in the informal job market does not happen through cookie-cutter grades, degrees, scores, numbers, or letters. It doesn’t happen through educational checkboxes and punchcards.

Rather, the screening process is embedded within human relationships: whom do you know, and who knows you? It happens through the layers of trust, credibility, and reputation that occur naturally within flesh-and-blood, offline social networks.3

Thus, in seeking opportunity within the informal job market, your networking, connecting, and relationship-forging skills are far more important than your academic test-taking skills. (I’ll be giving you some specific pointers on how to begin learning these real world skills in a moment.)

Formal credentials are not irrelevant in the unadvertised job market. All else equal, it’s still better to have more educational attainment than less. But that “all else equal” is the kicker, because within that is buried the “else” that actually matters in the informal job market: social-based credibility, referrals, your online and offline reputation, and your portfolio of demonstrable results achieved in the past.

Thus, the informal job market allows for many creative ways to hack “job requirements,” by simply developing relationships with the employers, as Eben did. People like to give economic opportunities to people they know and trust. Requirements be damned.

Create Your Own Damn Credentials; Create Your Own Damn Job

Most people wouldn’t dream of opening a designer wellness center, charging $500 per hour to coach VIP corporate clients on weight loss, if they didn’t already have some serious credentials to their name (at least a registered dietician, if not an MD or a Ph.D. in nutrition).

Unless you’re my wife, Jena la Flamme. Then you do it without even having an undergraduate degree.

Jena dropped out of college her junior year to travel around India for two years using the $6,000 she earned teaching English in Martinique. (You can get a great real-world education traveling around India on $3,000 a year, which is far cheaper than most colleges.)

She had struggled with overeating and binge eating throughout her teens, and was perpetually trying to lose twenty pounds. Through self-education in eating and nutrition, she was finally able to end her struggle with food, and lost the weight. She started coaching other women on how to do this, initially charging $100 an hour for her coaching sessions.

Reading The 4-Hour Workweek inspired Jena to build up an outsourced backend office in India, which allowed her to handle a higher volume of business and ramp up her coaching to the masses, offering one-to-many Internet-based classes. She began studying marketing and sales (learning much of it from college dropout Eben Pagan), and her business exploded.

Soon, Jena’s time became so scarce as her business grew that, if clients wanted access to her training, they started having to pay more and more for it — $200/hour, then $250, then $300 and up. Today, she charges more than a lot of lawyers and Ph.D. psychologists make per hour.

Her credentials? A large following online, free content in her blog and newsletter, a great set of real-world testimonials, her public image and reputation through great marketing, and her personal story.

Jena hacked her professional credentials.

By the end of this post, you’ll know how to do this for yourself.

Common Objections to Hacking Job Requirements, and The Yellow Pages Portfolio Fallacy

“But the higher the degree you have, the more you earn, on average!”

Yes, it is undeniable. The College Board reported the median income for various degrees back in 2010. This is what they found:

- High school diploma = $33,800
- BA degree = $55,700 (65% higher than those with a high school diploma)
- MA degree = $67,300 (21% higher than those with a BA)
- Ph.D. = $91,900 (36.5% higher than those with an MA)

Yet these statistics suffer from a rather serious problem. I call it the Yellow Pages Portfolio fallacy.

Imagine investing $1 million in the following manner: You are to call up companies in the Yellow Pages, in alphabetical order, and see if they’ll take $100,000 for a 10% stake in their company. The first ten companies that say “yes” will complete your investment.

That’s your $1 million portfolio.

Now, compare the financial future of two people who have an identical overall investment portfolio (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.), except that one person also has this extra $1 million Yellow Pages Portfolio on top of all their other investments. Who earns higher returns from their overall profile of investments?

All else equal, the person with the Yellow Pages Portfolio.

Therefore you should invest $1 million in the Yellow Pages Portfolio, as well.

Uh, actually, no. That is the Yellow Pages Portfolio Fallacy in action.

All the example above suggests is that having an additional $1 million in net capital (no matter how moronically it is invested) is financially superior to having $1 million less in net capital.

The example says nothing about the best way for you to invest $1 million!

The above College Board statistics, which are the basis for nearly all public arguments about the financial advantages of higher education, are riddled with the Yellow Pages Portfolio Fallacy through and through.

All they show is that, on average, people who have invested more in their learning earn more. Big whoop. They will never answer the more important question: Is spending your time and money on formal credentials the best way of investing in your continued learning?

I’m not sure of a way to test that latter question with anything close to scientific rigor. However, we’ve seen that formal credentials have a much higher salience in the formal job market (which is the smallest part of the job market). Cheaper and more informal modes of career development, such as learning to become a great networker (à la Eben Pagan) have a higher bang for your buck in the informal job market, which is vastly larger.

So, my own unscientific guess is that, outside of fields which legally require credentials for licensure, there are far more efficient ways to go about investing in your earning power, rather than increasing your formal credentials. Just as there are far better ways of investing $1 million than in the Yellow Pages Portfolio.

“But degrees are an advantage in a tough market.”

Yes, and it would be an advantage for heightening my wife’s attraction to me if I showed up for our next date night in a custom $100,000 Alexander Amosu suit.

Talking about an advantage in absolute terms, without comparing it to the costs and benefits of other options (i.e. opportunity cost), is pointless.

To extend the analogy: Given the resources now available to me, are there ways I could go about increasing and maintaining my wife’s attraction to me which would be more effective, per dollar spent, than buying a $100,000 suit?

Using the 80/20 principle, I can think of a few things that would go 80% of the way towards increasing her attraction for me, without having to spend a lot of money. Perhaps a thoughtful handwritten poem, a home-cooked meal, a massage afterwards (or even something learned from, um, that section, in The 4-Hour Body). I could live without that last 20% of extra attraction the Amosu suit would get me (hot as it is), and save the hundred grand for other things, like a home for us.

There’s no question that increased formal credentials can give you an advantage. The question is, is it the best advantage you can buy with the amount of money and time you’re going to spend?

A master’s, for example, can cost two years, up to $100,000 in tuition (hmm, similar in price to that custom Amosu suit), and another $50,000-$100,000 in foregone earnings. Sure, that will give you an advantage. But the primary advantage it gives you is in slipping past screeners in the formal job market, where there are such things as “job requirements.” If you get creative in the informal job market (and outside of legally licensed fields like law and medicine), the notion of “job requirements” is—as we’ve seen—negotiable. Thus, the advantage a master’s gives you is far less salient.

I could think of a lot of ways you could spend $100,000 and two years that would give you a better advantage in the informal job market, over having a masters degree or even a bachelor’s. In fact, I’m going to outline an example of how I think you could spend a fraction of that $100K and get far superior results in just a moment.

“So… what should I do?”

There is no good data (and I don’t think there ever will be) on what the best way to invest in your own learning would be. There is only data showing that more investment in your learning is better than less. (Duh!)

In the absence of any data suggesting what the best investment in learning is, you will need to rely on your gut.

If your gut tells you that investing in your own continued learning informally would be the most effective for you, then don’t let the salesmen of formal credentials scare you out of it. The other option, of course, is to spend years of your life in an undergraduate or graduate program, dropping major cash on tuition, incurring foregone earnings, and going into massive debt in order to rack up ever-more formal credentials, so you can “compete” with millions of others getting the exact same credential each year.

If you instead decide to make more informal investments in your learning for success, over your whole life and career, my book is designed to point you on the path to getting started.

In the spirit of blogging, however, I’d like to give you a robust outline of how to go about investing in your own success in the informal job markets. This content is original to this post, and is not even in my book.

As I present this outline, I will assume that you are currently unemployed, and that you’re willing to devote full-time effort into finding employment or creating a practice or business. In other words, you’re willing to invest all the time you’d otherwise spend surfing Craigslist jobs sections, sending out resumes and cover letters (and hearing crickets), to hacking job credentials instead.

I did not follow the path below exactly—my path was much more random and meandering, and took about 10 years through trial and error. Instead, I’ve tried to distill what I’ve learned from this decade into something clear and simple that could be followed by a focused, determined person, in one year. If I were to do it over again, this is how I’d do it.

Without further ado, here are my 9 steps to conquering the informal job market within one year (at a fraction of the cost of a Master’s degree.)

Step 1: Choose Your New Field of Learning

Timeline: Month 1 (Starting out)

Figure out a field you’d like to build a career in. You don’t need to have great (or any) formal credentials. As I said earlier, the more creative and less regulated a field is, the more amenable it is to this kind of job credential-hacking. It’s easier to hack job credentials in programming, design, writing, sales, photography, multimedia, the arts, and entrepreneurialism, or in general “I need a job, any job!” type situations, than in accounting, law, or medicine.

So before proceeding to the next step, you’ll need to choose a field whose formal job credentials you’d like to hack. My field of choice was commercial writing.

Cost: $0

Time: An epiphany in the shower; a long walk on a beach; a few hours surfing Google.

Step 2: Showcase Your Learning

Timeline: Months 1-2

In this step, you will start a simple blog detailing your journey to learn everything there is to learn in this field.

But first, you’ll need to kickstart the learning process: Read one professional, business, or how-to book related to your chosen field per week. Choose a mix of classics in the field, along with some off-the-beaten-path books you discover through your reading and research. These books are typically written by active practitioners in your field; they are not the abstract books written by theorists, which tend to get assigned in academic programs. Thus, these books (written by actual, successful practitioners) will be infinitely more valuable in terms of streetwise content.

Then write one blog post each week detailing exactly what you learned from that week’s book.

This kills at least ten birds with one stone:

  1. You get the education of reading practical books related to your field.
  2. You demonstrate to potential clients/employers that you understand content related to your chosen field.
  3. You demonstrate your willingness and curiosity to continue upgrading your knowledge in your chosen field.
  4. You demonstrate your researching ability.
  5. You demonstrate your writing ability.
  6. You demonstrate your critical thinking ability.
  7. You demonstrate your creativity.
  8. Through your writing, you develop and demonstrate your unique professional personality and character, setting you apart from the zillions of faceless resumes.
  9. You develop and demonstrate your social media skills.
  10. You begin developing your professional brand, not as a job-seeker in your field, but as a thought leader in your field

Cost: $12-17/year in blog hosting; $10-$20 per book, or $0 per book at the library. (As Matt Damon said in Good Will Hunting: “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.”)

Time: 1 hour to set up a WordPress blog. 10 hours per week to read two books. 4-10 hours per week to write two blog posts. Do this for 2 months initially, so you can accumulate a portfolio of 16 posts.

Step 3: Learn the Basics of Good Networking

Timeline: Still Months 1-2

Being a good networker is not an optional skill if you want to succeed in the informal job market. It is the skill. You’ll also need to be good at your craft and good at sales (we’ll work on those in a moment). But without a firm base of networking, you’ll get nowhere.

Here is a 1-hour lecture I gave on how to become a world-class networker. It’s the best breakdown of good networking I know of, and it includes two live demos of networking skills in action.

I delivered that presentation to the inaugural class of Thiel Fellows: 24 people under 20 years old, whom Peter Thiel is paying $100,000 each to “stop out” of college for two years and build businesses. Since they’re not getting traditional formal credentials, these brilliant young people are going to need to learn how to get past the screeners of opportunity informally—which is what I taught them in this hour.

If you’re more of a reader, here is a similar post on how to become a great networker. In my experience, the vast majority of people go about networking in exactly the wrong way. The video and article show you how to be one of the rare few who do it right.

Following the advice in the article, find three business owners per month you already know (either offline or online). Over the next two months, have conversations with them about what their challenges are, then do your damned best to start being of service to them. By the end of two months, you will have six new fans. And those are very good fans to have, because business owners know other business owners.

You’ve started to build what I call a “social economy”—a circle of successful business owners whom you support, and who support you. Keep building this social economy as much as possible during the time you go through these steps. It will be your secret key to success in the informal job market.

Cost: $0.

Time: 20 hours a week for the first two months. After that, fit in as much time as possible between the activities of other steps.

Step 4: Within Your Budding Social Economy, Start Working for Free

Timeline: Months 3-5

Begin to seek opportunities where you can practice your skills. Offer small, light services related to your chosen field for free to people in your network.

If you’re trying to hack credentials in design, offer free design services. If it’s copywriting or advertising you’re interested in, offer free copywriting or ad design to small businesses you patronize. (Small businesses rarely turn down free services!)

Say, “I’m training to become [X], and I’ve been meticulously studying the craft to learn how to do it well [link to your blog]. I’d like to offer you [some free services around X] as I build my practice. I don’t expect any payment at all. But down the road, if you like my work, perhaps you can refer me to other people you know who might benefit from it.”

Cost: $0.

Time: 20 hours a week spent in a combination of networking to get the gigs, and actually delivering services. Do this for 2-3 months.

Step 5: Develop Case Studies of Your Work

Timeline: Still Months 3-5

For 10 hours per week (when you are not networking or delivering services), blog about your experiences providing these services as case studies. Lessons learned, triumphs, mistakes, etc. Ask your client if you can use their name in the blog post, and show them what you’ve written before it goes up (so you don’t infringe on their privacy). Otherwise, hide and change all identifying details about the work.

Cost: $0.

Time: 10 hours per week, during the same 3-month period as in Step 4.

Step 6: Develop Relationships With Mentors

Timeline: Still Months 3-5

For the remaining 10 hours per week of this period, reach out to authors of the books you read and blogged about in Step 1, asking to interview them for your blog. The more time has passed since their last book came out, the more likely they’ll be willing to do the interview, as authors are almost always thrilled when someone shows interest in past work. (However, if they’re in the middle of writing or launching a new book, forget it! That’s like asking a pregnant woman for help when she’s about to go into labor.)

Now you are in the process of developing relationships with potential mentors in your field. This will pay off huge over the long run (for your career, personal development, and inner fulfillment).

Cost: $0.

Time: 10 hours per week, during the same 3-month period as in Steps 4-5.

Step 7: Learn Sales

Timeline: Months 6-7

Sorry, there’s no way around this. If you don’t learn sales, you will never reach the level of success you desire. Almost without exception, anyone who has achieved anything big in life was good at sales; if not literally selling products and services, then selling their ideas/vision.

Read SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham. In my opinion, this is the best book on sales ever written. The focus is on deep inquiry into the customer’s actual problems, needs, dreams and desires — through asking the right questions and listening well — rather than through sleazy pitching. If you’re only going to read one sales book in your life, that’s the one you’ll want to buy.

Once you feel you have a basic grasp of the concepts in the book, find someone in your social economy (see Step 2) who has some kind of business, whether it’s products or services. The bigger the ticket price, the better, as there is a direct correlation between the ticket price of the sale, and the integrity, empathy, listening skills, and caring you have to have as a salesperson in order to sell it.

Ask if you can sell for them, with zero base salary. Perhaps you can get a commission, or perhaps not. But at this point, you’re not doing it for immediate financial gains. You’re doing it to get experience in sales, and to put what you learned from SPIN Selling into practice. The reason you’re doing it in an already-existing business (rather than your own) is that you want to get lots and lots of experience actually selling face-to-face with pre-qualified prospects, not trying to find people to sell to! My own freelance income nearly doubled when I learned proper, effective, non-sleazy, high-integrity sales.

Cost: $16 for SPIN Selling. And you might actually make money in sales commissions.

Time: Devote 20 hours per week to a combination of studying the book and putting the techniques into practice in a friend or acquaintance’s business; devote the other 20 hours per week during this period to continuing Step 3 and building your social economy.

Step 8: Sell and Deliver Your Services Within Your Social Economy

Timeline: Months 8-9

You’ve got the basics of your craft in place (credentials be damned!), you’ve built up your social economy, and you’ve learned sales. Everything is in place for you to start earning real money in your chosen field. Now you just have to go out and do it!

Have individual meetups with 10 business owners — the ones within your social economy — over breakfast, lunch, dinner, or drinks. Tell them about the portfolio of results you’ve achieved in the last seven months, both online and offline. Have honest-to-goodness conversations about their needs (a high-integrity sales skill you learned during Step 7).

If they have a need you can address, use your SPIN Selling skills to get them excited about the idea of working with you. If they don’t have a need you can address, connect them with someone else in your social economy who you think can help them. (This is Networking 101: refer people to the best solutions for their problems.)

Tell them about the specific type of problem and/or business owner you can help, and ask for their best three ideas for meeting that kind of business owner. You’ll usually come away with several great ideas, and possibly even some referrals.

If you have been following the steps diligently, you’d have to get worse than a 1/10 closing ratio to not get a sale. If you can beat that (pathetically low) closing ratio, you’ve got a sale.

Congratulations! You’ve just hacked “job requirements” in the informal job market.

Cost: $0.

Time: 40 hours per week spent networking, conducting sales meetings, and delivering services on the sales you close.

Step 9 (Optional): Rinse and Repeat

Timeline: Months 10 and beyond…

If you continue to build on all the skills in Steps 1-8, you can carry on as a self-employed freelancer, working on your own schedule (often from a remote location), for the rest of your life. It’s not a 4-hour workweek, but it definitely allows you to “Escape 9-5” and “Live Anywhere.”

This is the lifestyle I’ve built up for myself over the last decade. As I mentioned, I took a much more meandering path than the steps above to get there, but if I was to do it all over again, that’s how I’d do it.

The steps I’ve described above take about 9 months, the time of one academic year. The cost is around $300, mostly for books (less if you go to the library). The entire cost of this program is less than the cost of 2-3 textbooks in college, and is an infinitesimal fraction of the cost of a year’s tuition at a private college. Yet I believe the results you could get from this 9 months of self-study and $300 will far surpass the career results you could achieve through a BA or MA program. With the right focus, these steps can guide you through the basics of getting started in just 9 months. Instead of birthing a baby, you are birthing a new life for yourself, of freedom, and prosperity.

Contest: Win 6 Months of Private, 1-on-1, Free Mentoring

The thing that frustrates me about all the statistics around dropouts vs. graduates, is that they always compare people who stayed in college, to people who not only dropped out of school, but who also dropped out of learning.

Take two cohorts of good, smart, motivated, ambitious 18-year-olds with similar intelligence, discipline, creativity, and work-ethic. Put one through a BA program, and one through the 9 months of self-study I’ve outlined above. I believe the cohort of self-studiers—the kind of people I spent the last two years traveling across the country to find and interview—will kick the BA group’s asses.

In the absence of means to conduct such a formalized study as above, I’d like to propose my own little informal contest.

I’m going to give one reader a chance to have my own mentorship on these steps, free of charge, for six months.

During this mentorship, you’ll have two in-depth phone conversations with me per month, along with follow up emails in between. And, if it makes sense, I’ll try to connect you with some amazing people in my network.

This contest is for any and all readers who were inspired by this article. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, if you’re a high school dropout, are in school now, or a graduate of Harvard Law School. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been unemployed for years, or are successfully employed now but wanting to switch careers.

The only rule for following this is: you must choose a field you have absolutely no work history, credential, or experience in. It must be a completely fresh field for you, starting from scratch.

If you don’t have full time to devote to this, due to school or work obligations, and can only devote your off-hours to this, no problem! I’ll take into account the whole picture of your life in choosing the winners. But no matter how much time you devote to it, the area you compete in must be completely new and fresh to you.

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Commit to yourself to follow the 9 steps above for the next 9 months
  2. Create a blog exclusively dedicated to detailing your journey of self-education along these 9 steps (as per Step 2.) It must be a new blog, not one you already own.
  3. On December 29, 2011 (three months from the date of this post), I want you to post a URL in the comments that links to a post on your blog detailing your progress. I will pick one person from these links to mentor for the remaining six months. I am looking for QUALITY of results achieved in three months, rather than speed of working through the steps. I would rather see someone get up to Steps 4 or 5 really really thoroughly in three months, than get to step 7 in a slipshod manner.

There you have it. My curriculum for excelling in the informal job market. Go out and make it happen :)

Final Thoughts

You might think that college dropouts who become successful are “outliers,” and if you look at the statistics, that is true.

But that statistic is misleading, for a simple reason pointed out to me by my mentor Victor Cheng:

Most people who drop out of school also drop out of learning.

If you drop out of learning, you’ll always be stuck in jobs that require little more than a pulse, such as mopping floors, or asking people about their desire for fries. That’s why most dropouts are in dead-end jobs.

However, there are people who drop out of formal education, while still maintaining an absolute passion and discipline for learning—informally, non-institutionally, in the real world (and without the tuition bills or student loan payments). Those are the types of people I interviewed in my book, people like Eben and Jena. They dropped out of school, but they never dropped out of learning.

I spent the past two years interviewing the world’s most successful people who have the least formal credentials for their success. I’ve interviewed almost 40 millionaire and billionaires, all self-made, and none of them finished college. In interviewing them, I was consistently struck by one thing they all had in common: a complete lack of regard for socially-sanctioned formal “requirements” for bringing success into their lives.

No wonder they have so much success!

I’ll leave you with a simple question: What barriers, check-boxes, and credentials do you believe in that are keeping you from the jobs, opportunity, and success you desire?

As you’ve seen, nearly all of these barriers can be sidestepped, ignored, or hacked. It just takes some creativity and a few months of work.

What’s holding you back?

Footnotes

  1. This approach works better in some fields than in others. I do not recommend trying to “hack” the requirement of a bar certification or a medical degree, if you want to practice law or medicine! This approach should not be used for fields that require state licensure, obviously. However, for non-licensed fields such as programming, design, PR, marketing, IT, entrepreneurship, solo-preneurship, self-employed consulting and service businesses, journalism, sales, non-profits, the arts, and for your average “I need a decent job pronto!” type job searches, these approaches are golden. Back to Text
  2. There are some debates about exact numbers and percentages. After all, it’s very hard to measure what’s going on informally behind closed doors. However, virtually all career experts I’ve seen quoted on the matter agree that vastly more jobs get filled informally than get filled by people responding to job ads. As Steven Rothberg, founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, says on the MSNBC article, “[a]bout 90 percent of job openings go unadvertised, yet about 90 percent of candidates apply only to advertised job openings.” Back to Text
  3. Online social networking can be used to enhance/facilitate networking that is also happening offline, but it will never be a replacement. You can’t status-update a handshake or a good look in the eyes, and you can’t replace a two-hour dinner conversation with a tweet. Back to Text

Posted on September 29th, 2011

Leave a Comment or Question

Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration)




354 Comments

  • Chris Hughes — September 29th, 2011, 12:36 pm

    haha I absolutely love this:
    “Create Your Own Damn Credentials; Create Your Own Damn Job”

    It’s so true. I did this with a juggling course that I now sell online and through some affiliate niche blogs that generate me income.

    I’ll definitely be using these steps for more products that I create. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  • kris — September 29th, 2011, 12:44 pm

    If I had kids I would still tell them to get both (education and skills). Neither one is the end all. Great education guarantees nothing. Neither does self education.

    In my experience a great education + rigorous self education and skill building will produce enormous synergy.

    Reply

    • Risto Uuk — September 29th, 2011, 1:54 pm

      That’s very true, but it’s not always possible. I would love to go to college to learn to become a strength & conditioning coach/personal trainer, but the school situation is ridiculous in Estonia.

      I would have to study either physical therapy or physical education. Both of them have a lot of classes that have little to do with my field. School also requires me to take tests, which require me to study facts, and I simply hate that. And I also think learning in college is extremely slow and ineffective, because you can’t design your own schedule very effectively. Besides, I just enjoy freedom to choose so much.

      If you went to college here in Estonia, you’d have a very hard time finding people that are as passionate about learning as I am.

      The thing is… I believe that life should be enjoyable. There is nothing enjoyable about seeing sad faces (very few people like to be in school; most feel they have to). There is nothing enjoyable about learning stuff that really doesn’t seem to be that relevant for what you want to accomplish. It’s also too theoretical; I also want to practice my skills, not just study some out-dated material.

      Reply

      • jeff brown — October 1st, 2011, 7:45 pm

        Risto,

        You are so right. There is a lot of wasted time in college, in individual classes and overall. There is also a lot of issues with school and college in the U.S. that are beyond reform. It’s at a point of revolution. School and college really have changed much in 200 years. But as time passes, not only is there change but sped up change. And if everyone is going to average several career changes because of the creative / destructive nature of capitalism, there needs to be change. I don’t coach or teach knowledge. What I teach is self-sustaining techniques, attitudes, and skills that enable the individual to not only learn but learn better, faster, to retain the knowledge, to be a more creative, intuitive problem solver. I teach the student how to self-teach for education today more than ever before is individual not institutional. They’ve been doing it poorly for so long that it’s catching up to schools and colleges. Change is coming, and it’s here.

        Reply

    • Andre — September 29th, 2011, 4:25 pm

      Hey Kris, having both is of course better than having either one. But you only have so many hours in life. If you want to pursue a formal education, ask yourself what else could you be doing with that time? Is getting a BS the best way to spend your time?

      Michael illustrated that with the Yellow Pages Portfolio.

      That’s the whole point of the post.

      Reply

  • Patrick Hitches — September 29th, 2011, 12:44 pm

    I am a firm believer that the traditional methods of education are getting pushed to the wayside. The power of our information age and the opportunity to tap in is completely at our disposal. Times are changing brother and the years to come will be wild to watch.

    Living the dream baby!

    Patrick Hitches

    Reply

  • Bonnie Tone — September 29th, 2011, 12:48 pm

    When I entered the workforce during the Pleistocene Era, I was told the main reason many companies wanted college graduates is because they came with a built-in network accumulated over the 4-6+ years spent @ university. If you can demonstrate that you are capable of building and influencing a similar network without such credentials, you’re probably way ahead of a recent grad who make have book learning but can’t carry on a conversation in either real or virtual time.

    Reply

    • jeff brown — October 1st, 2011, 7:48 pm

      Bonnie,

      I’ve heard of that, but I think schools and colleges in general need to speed it up, steam line it, and enable self-sustained learning via acquisition of proper attitudes, awareness, and skills. We should be training people to think creatively and intuitively, for this is the age of the creator what with 1/2 of all money made in the states coming from the creative sector. Like never before we need self-learners what with the change and complexity afoot.

      Reply

  • Branden — September 29th, 2011, 12:49 pm

    Your posts are like crack! Every single one of them is great.

    Reply

    • Mariah M — July 20th, 2012, 7:48 pm

      Well I didnt want to be rude with my language but I really was thinking this is like porn to my ears. Makes my brain squeal in delight to know that I’m not a crazy rebel just doing my own thing. Of course I don’t mind being a crazy rebel if it works…and it DOES!

      Reply

  • Alex — September 29th, 2011, 12:49 pm

    Eben Pagan is better known as David DeAngelo, and he made he’s money by selling recycled evo-psych lessons to basement nerds.

    Reply

  • Thanh Pham — September 29th, 2011, 1:04 pm

    Michael Ellsberg: this post convinced me to buy your book. There is a lot of wisdom in here and I can totally related, because I’ve been doing this for the last 5 years.

    In today’s world, access to people is crucial. For people who are looking for company to work for, I would recommend the company where you have the opportunity to work with someone you want to learn (mentor) from AND where you can expand your people network.

    I’m looking forward to reading this book. I’m a big fan of Eben and I did not know he was in a rock band! Haha.

    Reply

  • Fred — September 29th, 2011, 1:06 pm

    I didn’t even the read the entire posting, but I just ordered his book on Amazon.

    Reply

  • Jeffrey — September 29th, 2011, 1:08 pm

    I feel like I’m spreading myself thin! I just started the last $1M challenge. I’m also a mobile chiropractor making house calls (and not charging as much as I should). After reading this post, I realize I was doing it wrong on some parts, and right on others. I’ll start following the guide above, and can’t wait to see where it takes me. Thanks for the post!
    Dr J

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — September 30th, 2011, 1:03 am

      Which parts do you feel you were doing wrong? And which parts are you already doing right?

      Reply

      • Jeffrey — September 30th, 2011, 1:37 am

        I started about March 2011, so here’s what’s happened so far.
        Step 1 /right/: Defined my business. Had to write business plan to get a loan, which got turned down twice, gave up buying a practice and instead went mobile, very low overhead.
        Step 2 /right/: Started blogging once a week about topics my current clients are facing. Starting to think about writing for clients I want to have. Also set up facebook and twitter. Have not updated linkedin in 3 years.
        Step 3 /right/: Sorta. Networked with friends/family, which got me started but referals plateaued. Will use techniques from your video
        Step 4 /right/: Instead of free, accepted donations and forwarded them to charity (Japan Tsunami). This’s also how I figured out my pricing: “Donate what you think my service is worth.”
        Step 5 /wrong/: HIPAA privacy prevents me from doing testimonials. Changing names to keep them anonymous defeats the purpose. Not sure what to do here. Obtaining patient consent to testimonials haven’t held in my state. :(
        Step 6 /right/: I have a consultant, and have good relations with other chiropractors, but haven’t found another mobile chiropractor, which’s what I do.
        Step 7 /right/: Took me 2 years to get this down. I have a pretty good closing rate. I’ve started adding more value and service, and bumped up my price, but still 1/2 of where I think it should be.
        Step 8 /wrong/: Fear. Fear of rejection, fear of success. I’ve got a script and email to pitch to local business owners, but haven’t done anything. I’ve got script/email/brochures for non-profits and charities, but haven’t even contacted 1. FEAR!!! Fear of unknown. :( But one-on-one, my closing rate is good.

        I still want to take on your challenge, and expand. So I’ve chosen to get into government contracting. I think I qualify, this’s brand new to me, I’ve got no experience and know nothing. It does require some licensing/certification, but still something that anybody can do. So count me in, will set up a wordpress blog tomorrow, head to library and pick up a book, and start networking for this.

        Thanks for writing this up, and thanks for personally responding, I feel like I’m talking to my idol. I’m shaking as I type this, :) ~ Would love to get any tips/pointers especially about asking for referals, step 8, and fear. Thanks and good night!

        Reply

      • Carlos — October 1st, 2011, 12:38 pm

        Hi. First of all I would like to thank you and to thank Tim for this amazing post. I really liked it. Don´t get me wrong Tim. I´m a 4hour fan but this is the first time that I make a comment. Maybe because of the similarities between what Michael describes and what it has happened to me on the last year and a half. Too bad I already started my adventure.

        I agree with most parts of what you said but I would like to say that the rules are really different depending on the country you talk about. I have been lucky to visit the US a few times and there are always some people willing to pay for new adventures, new ideas… Very different from my country (Spain) where there is almost 0 opportunities for entrepreneurs. I believe that being part of this reality everyday, makes everything much easier.

        But if any reader, outside of the US, think that these steps can´t be applied to his or her life because they don´t have the same opportunities there, either because of their cultural or social pressure or because of the lack of income (I had 0 euros. Well I had debts so it was less than 0). I would suggest to adjust these steps before not considering at all. I wish I had read this article the last year. It would have saved me a lot of time. And tough situations.

        In my case, my background (Licensed acupuncturist, wich unfortunately is not a university degree) is different from my passions (languages, and designs)

        I started to teach Spanish to English speakers via skype and gchat almost by accident, after the Spanish economic crash (well, I can´t really tell we are out yet). Little by little I started to create my own method to teach Spanish based on the repetition of a large variety of exercises to “work out” (that´s how I like to call it) the specific parts of the language you need to practice.

        Creating a system to “train a language” instead of learning a language was a good idea but I paid the price of my naiveness. And that is why I believe this post can help a lot of people everywhere.

        Building your network and having sales skills are the most important things to start anything. You can have the greatest idea ever (of course I´m not saying that is my case) but if you don´t have a good network you will be sad, disappointed and also depressed because of the lack of results. In my case I became obsessed to teach faster and make people to learn Spanish from 6 months up to 1 month. And of course that is not healthy and it doesn´t guarantee better results.

        So I hope people with tough economic situations like Spain, Greece, or even tougher like Colombia, Ecuador… don´t give up and keep trying new ways to do things. And of course, read this priceless blog.

        Thanks Michael and of course thanks Tim.

        Reply

  • John Fawkes — September 29th, 2011, 1:20 pm

    I’m in. Brainstorming blog ideas now. I’m so %$^&ing in.

    Reply

  • mike newman — September 29th, 2011, 1:24 pm

    this is a great article!

    i’ve basically followed these steps to become a filmmaker. my big regret is not focusing enough time and energy on networking. networking is definitely one of the most important factors in becoming what you want to be in life.

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — September 30th, 2011, 12:34 am

      Yes, more and more I have come to believe that relationship-building (which I actually think is a more accurate term than “networking,” even though I do use that term in the article) is *the* place to be focusing your energy for your professional development. It’s not a nice afterthought, it is not something to do when you have some free time. It is *the* thing, if you want to get to a higher place in your career than you are now. Much more, actually, than improving your craft further.

      Reply

  • Contessa — September 29th, 2011, 1:24 pm

    Thank you for such a great article. I going to get started with the 9 steps. See you guys in a year!

    Reply

  • David Lang — September 29th, 2011, 1:28 pm

    Michael,

    Great post! Funny, I just started this process in regard to “Making” and DIY culture. I now have a regular column on Make Magazine’s blog, Zero to Maker. Can we still enter if we started the process a month ago?

    Rock on,
    David

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — September 30th, 2011, 1:01 am

      Wow, like you’ve come a very long way in a month! I’m not saying that facetiously, but with sincere congrats. But to be fair, for the contest, everyone who wants to compete needs to start from scratch. You’re already quite far into your craft, my man. Which is great. Keep going with it. Follow the steps and you will go far. And post your progress anyway, for your sake and for our inspiration.

      Reply

  • Lars Lofgren — September 29th, 2011, 1:31 pm

    Combining this methodology with Ramit Sethi’s Earn 1K course produces some unbelievable results. Which is exactly what I’ve done.

    Got my BA 10 months ago, took Earn 1K 8 months ago, blended it with many of these same strategies, and now I make several thousand dollars a month.

    This post is the real deal. Think I’ll go grab a copy of “The Education of Millionaires” right now.

    Reply

  • Colin — September 29th, 2011, 1:42 pm

    wow, this is exactly what I need. I’m starting my web dev / seo business right now and I’m going to use everything in this to get going.

    I’ve already started, so I’m not exactly a candidate for the contest, but who cares.

    And I’m sharing this with all my friends who are saying they need school to get somewhere.

    Thanks

    Reply

  • David — September 29th, 2011, 1:43 pm

    Interesting article. I totally agree with SPIN Selling being one of the best, if not the best sales book ever written. The article also contains some Napoleon Hill philosophy, which appeals to me. Reading Hill’s ‘Think and grow rich’ it became clear to me that school education isn’t necessarily an absolutely needed must-have in order to be successful (see Henry Ford, Thomas Edison,…). Other qualities are much more important than an MBA or so.

    Regards from Greece,
    David

    Reply

  • Jeff Brown — September 29th, 2011, 1:47 pm

    This is something that I believe in greatly. A degreed / certificated / arbitrarily authorized individual has no monopoly on achievement. Personally, I have worked as a musician, computer programmer, stand-up comic, college professor, writer and entrepreneur with no formal training in any of those endeavors. Sometimes “a way” of doing something can inhibit “your way” of doing something. Success and achievement does not have “a way” either. It is “your way” or comes about individually based in a great variety of backgrounds, perspectives, understanding, etc. A very successful marketer once said that even on any give day he doesn’t know what he’s going to do, even though he does have a daily plan. But he stays open to what is happening at the moment (thinking on one’s feet a critical success skill) to inform him what to do. We all need to be able to self-educate and self-inform, especially today. For like never before things are speeding up and the greater variety is coming and going faster than ever before. One needs to be open and flexible in their thinking, not closed and on dimensional. Amen! ;o)

    Reply

  • Steve — September 29th, 2011, 2:00 pm

    I graduated college with an associates degree & plans to continue my formal education and get my BSc, but 5 years later that has yet to occur. This has been causing me to stress out and worry excessively about the damage I may be doing to my career path the longer I wait to finish.

    Since then although I’ve earned other industry credentials and have attained a position of some authority within my company, the real money has yet to appear.

    This post has given me some great ideas for networking with professional contacts to promote my own business; something which is in fact encouraged where I work, but that I have yet to do. I still want to finish my degree, but growing my own business is what I need to do to finance that education.

    Thanks!

    Reply

  • Victoria — September 29th, 2011, 2:13 pm

    I’m using this principle in a rather unusual venue… farming! With a location independent, flexible-schedule, software job providing income on the side, I’ve spent several hundred hours this summer with mentors offering free labor on their farms in exchange for knowledge and skills.

    This winter, my husband and I will spend 3 months in Hawaii, also on a (tropical) farm, escaping the bitter midwestern winter, also for free (except airfare over – $600 for 2 tickets). Our labor in exchange for free room and board. All of this has cost me nothing but time, and has given back to my mentors free labor in exchange for knowledge and experience.

    Perhaps a different type of learning than the post, but it sure has worked fantastically well.

    Reply

  • Will Lam — September 29th, 2011, 2:25 pm

    Absolutely fantastic blog post, Michael!

    Really resonated with me. Learned a few of the principles you teach from Keith Ferrazzi’s “Never Eat Alone” – specifically the chapter “Build it before you need it”.

    I’m actually going through the process of of folding my failed startup and I’m relying on the relationships I’ve built (through my giving) and asking for help, but only showing that I’ve demonstrated some value and ability to get things done to my network in some tangible or intangible way.

    Will have to reinvent myself in the next year as I transition careers and I’ll refer to this blog post extensively :)

    Warmest,

    Will

    Reply

  • Wilma — September 29th, 2011, 2:31 pm

    I’ve been seriously considering dropping out of college. I hate it and feel the only thing I’ve learned is to listen to lectures (I haven’t bought books the past 2 semesters), write essays (my average is 3-4 hours for an A paper, this is start to finish) and take tests.

    I’ve been telling people for months now that I would drop out in a heartbeat if only I had some other “real” project to work on. This contest could not have come at a better time, as I’m currently taking the semester off before I’m supposed to transfer to a 4-year university in January.

    I’m very excited to participate in the contest! You’ll have my link to my blog in three months.

    Reply

    • Andrew — October 1st, 2011, 9:51 am

      Wilma,

      I understand feeling like school is a waste of time – it really can be. However it sounds like you may be at a junior college at the moment. In my case transferring from a community college to a 4 year school made a huge difference. In most of my classes I learn a lot and I am able to build a network while I’m learning. I think another thing that can make the “college experience” worth every penny is living in community with other people that you like. Living and going through school together with other people is a great way to grow deep friendships.

      Just some thoughts as you consider your next steps.

      Reply

  • Zachary — September 29th, 2011, 2:40 pm

    Once again. Great post and great info. Appreciate your time and insight.

    Reply

  • Jonathan Bennett — September 29th, 2011, 2:40 pm

    Whoa! Tons of great info in this post. I’m gonna checkout the new book too. Thanks!

    Reply

  • David R. — September 29th, 2011, 2:42 pm

    The December 29 link has to be posted right here or there is another thread I’m not aware of?

    Reply

  • Chase — September 29th, 2011, 2:51 pm

    Learn Everything. Be THE black hole of knowledge acquisition.

    Find your spark and pour gasoline on it.

    It’s not the credentials that matter, it’s the thirst and drive toward knowledge in all forms- academically, and in the real world- that will take you to great heights.

    The truth that I’ve come to lately, is that EVERYONE has something to teach you. And that sounds hokey but when you put that idea to action, it’s amazing.

    That weird guy who you normally don’t talk to: he knows something that you don’t. Through conversation, SEARCH for what that is.

    We get so tied up sometimes in talking and trying to assert our own perspective, we don’t LISTEN.

    If I shut up for a second, and listen to what an “oddball” has to say , not only do I increase my insight into the world and become better, but that person feels appreciated and respected as well.

    Don’t discount anyone, because everyone has something to offer.

    Reply

  • Ryan — September 29th, 2011, 2:58 pm

    Tim, I’m looking to make a donation of lighting and lighting accessories to your room to read fundraiser, can you direct me to the right contact?………I’d like to donate aprox $100k worth of product

    Reply

  • Milind Gupte — September 29th, 2011, 3:07 pm

    Substantive! Great work….

    Reply

  • LXV — September 29th, 2011, 3:19 pm

    This is exactly what I needed to read today. I’ve really let my lack of degree be an excuse for too long. Thanks for lighting a fire under my ass.

    Reply

  • Thiago Vieira — September 29th, 2011, 3:24 pm

    This text is awesome! I’m a BA Communications student and lately I’m thinking a lot about these topics. I will build a plan for my self based in these hints and hope this work well.

    A suggestion: don’t think in linear steps. I think you’ll get better results if you apply at the same time as many “steps” as you can.

    Reply

  • Jonathan Hoskins — September 29th, 2011, 3:33 pm

    Great read. I am living proof of one who dropped out of college, but did not drop out of learning. I have read many business/ finance, marketing, exercise science text books that I could get my hands on. Also, I recieved personal trainer certifications from different organizations all of which I completed studying on my own. All of the aforementioned led to the creation of a personal training program for a corporation that was not there before my arrival on the scene. For a period of time I would offer my services for free and started a networking program with those that recieved my pro bono services. Now I am the owner of a personal fitness training service business that has been going strong for the last 16 years. I say all of this not to impress, but to validate, all of the techniques in this article work!

    Reply

  • Jay Soriano — September 29th, 2011, 4:33 pm

    Is the mentoring with Tim Ferriss, Michael Ellsberg, or both?

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — September 29th, 2011, 4:38 pm

      Hi Jay,

      The mentoring is with Michael, who is killer at what he does. How he’s built his network, among other things, in the last 12 months is the best I’ve ever seen.

      Tim

      Reply

      • Hanad Ahmed — September 29th, 2011, 5:53 pm

        Yo Tim, I’m in search phase of starting a sports nutritional supplements company. I’ve come to realize that in business, most people won’t help you…they just want to sell you something. I know you started bodyquick, I was wondering if you had some advice for me in this industry.

        Thanks man, your truly an inspiring person

        Reply

      • Joshua U — October 5th, 2011, 10:56 am

        You will never get advice asking for advice. That is too general and frustrating to answer. I have only a taste of this and can imagine what Tim has to put up with.

        A better question to ask would be:
        - What’s one book you most recommend for a nutritional supplement startup?
        - How can I distinguish between people who want to help me and people who suck up for the sale?

        A fitting comment I thought for this great article covering mentorship and your social economy.

        I see this test by Michael being like Tim’s test in the 4 Hour Work Week. If you just did it, you’d probably win it. Will I do it? no… lol. I’m already enjoying myself helping guys make friends and influence people. Definitely will apply the steps though.

        Reply

  • Sean — September 29th, 2011, 5:22 pm

    Tim / Michael,

    Thanks for publishing this blog post. I enthusiastically agree with the core message of this post. I scored an internship at IBM in Auckland, New Zealand by skipping the traditional interview processes and simply having a casual coffee with key decision makers. Everybody else had rigorous screening processes applied to them. I didn’t. As it turns out I didn’t particularly like the job and it turned out that I was working at a real-life version of ‘Initech’ (for all you Office Space geeks out there). But the ideas in this blog post are true and really work.

    Great post… keep them coming.

    Tim: Thanks for writing both books. They are priceless. I’ve dropped 10kg and gone from 27.5% bf to 16% bf in approx 9 months. My dad has gone from approx 35% to about 18%. I’m sure it has increased his potential lifespan. THANK YOU.

    Reply

    • William L — October 1st, 2011, 10:25 pm

      So glad you got outta there Sean! I have pretty much the same story, but I still had to have a formal interview.

      That was seriously the most intellectually messed-up job I’ve ever had. The bureaucratic b.s that went on there drove me mad! And don’t even get me started on Lotus notes haha…

      Glad to see you’re doing well – I’ll send business your way if I can.

      Reply

  • Allen — September 29th, 2011, 5:40 pm

    I’ve never understood the argument against college. Even ignoring the numbers, everyone should go to college for as long as possible….because college is awesome.

    There is no networking like the networking that happens while you brush your teeth at the bathroom sink, at a tailgate, or while hanging out in office hours. These are the people who you will be friends with for life. Assuming you attend at least a decent college, you’ll be force fed access to brilliant people on a regular basis who are paid to talk to you and give you advice.

    Should you also spend a huge portion of your time building a business during college? Sure. I did and it failed miserably, but I wouldn’t have a successful business now had I not run a bunch of projects into the ground when my income wasn’t dependent on them.

    You don’t need to go to college to be successful, and in some ways it hinders you, but go if you can go. Everyone always quotes the 100k+ numbers for college and more for grad school. I went to a top 10 business school for about 4 grand a semester and grad school is only a couple thousand more. It’s all the beer that makes it expensive.

    Reply

  • Thomas O'Duffy — September 29th, 2011, 6:38 pm

    Many people who are recruited because of their credentials & formal education may never gain the skills and mindset that result from the “rite of passage” suggested in Michaels post. Moreover, a formal education may impede a person from developing the wherewithal to reliably teach themselves.

    The ability to teach yourself, with confidence, under your own self direction, without the formal guidance of an institution, is *hugely valuable*. This ability is literally a pillar of personal freedom…. a self directed learner who can navigate through lots of knowledge with some guidance from savvy mentors and an awareness of real world needs is well positioned for enduring success in a rapidly changing World.

    Reply

  • Sadiq — September 29th, 2011, 7:01 pm

    oooh cannot wait to try this out. ive been thinking about this sort of thing ever since i watched charlie hoehns talk on ted.com
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5qUR3tpEdA#! (recommended )

    just finishing up my second masters and preparing for a gap year off anyway so will be worth while trying this out.

    Michael/Tim do you think this sort of advice would be suitable for people in the science engineering sector as well?

    My two main interests are physics/engineering and social development.

    Ideally i’m looking to get work in a science type NGO that helps poorer countries develop their knowledge/tech base (examples include engineers without borders, or any other research firm that does some sort of international development work abroad).
    What i would love to do, is be a freelance consultant on this.

    Problem, ive got two masters specialised in physics but the marks weren’t exactly 1st class so cant get in the normal way, any suggestions?

    either way loving this article and Tim you should recommend more of this sort of thing! :)

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — October 1st, 2011, 5:15 am

      Science and engineering are two areas that tend to look very carefully at your formal credentials before letting you into the door into established organizations. And there is some good reason for that–those are two areas (as opposed to say, entrepreneurialism) where success is determined to a good degree on a specific knowledge base that you can learn in an academic context.

      Yet, the irony is, a great deal of technological innovations in particular come from people who are totally outside of the established engineering/education/technology establishments of their day. These are areas with a long, rich tradition of “tinkerers” who go on to change the world. Thomas Edison is a great example of that. Silicon Valley is full of examples of that.

      If your academic marks are not that great, then you’re going to have a hard time elbowing your way into limited spots within a highly-competitive NGO that is judging job candidates on narrow academic metrics.

      If you’re truly interested in helping people in poor countries solve technological problems – what better environment to sidestep academic credentials! I can assure you, the people in Africa who need your help do not care what grades you got on your tests, so long as you can truly help them.

      I’d need to know more about your specific circumstances, but I’d say, you can start your own damn NGO. It’s not going to be easy. But nothing truly worth doing in life is easy. Many many young people today, who have far less academic credentials than you have, are starting NGOs and nonprofits that do amazing work. And they’re not waiting for resume-screeners to give them “permission”. They’re *taking* their permission.

      I think you’d be a great candidate for the contest. Remember, I’m not expecting you (or anyone else in the contest) to be far along in the delivery of services by 3 months. You don’t need to be in Africa building bridges in December.

      Just start building up some serious *informal* credibility around your interests, by reading and writing intelligently about the topic, and showcasing to the world that you are on a very rapid path of self-education in this field and that you’re learning quickly. Show us that you’re a force to be reckoned with in this field – and people will start reckoning with you, grades be damned.

      Reply

  • Graham — September 29th, 2011, 8:30 pm

    Is it just me, or did he just pull a Napoleon Hill?

    Reply

  • john — September 29th, 2011, 8:41 pm

    Tim & Michael

    Great stuff! I got the book last night via kindle and dived right in. I am trying to figure out what I learned in college and how it applies….still pondering that…still pondering.

    Thats it! Awesome stuff!

    Reply

  • JImmy@ ADT Killeen — September 29th, 2011, 9:03 pm

    I have 92 college hrs and only an associates degree to show for it. I was going for a 2nd associates but I kinda stopped going to class after I took my field classes (criminal justice). Some classes are deemed ridiculously difficult. If you want to be a crime scene technician for example, why do you have to write a paper for every freakin class according to MLA standards and get doced if you dont do it according to your teachers preference? A teacher who doesnt even teach the field of study you are getting into…… I had a thiurst for knowledge about the criminal jsutice field and anted to enrich myself with information without having to take a hard algebra class to lower my GPA and cause undue strain on my academic strategy.
    So I stopped going to class. Financial woes was another reason. On my Resume I put A.A.S. degree in communication with “CONTINUED STUDIES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE”….and that to me is worth its weight in gold as much as an actual (and maybe worthless) A.S.S. degree in a frame.

    Reply

  • Chuck Rylant — September 29th, 2011, 9:32 pm

    Michael,

    My pre-order of your book just arrived on my Kindle. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

    Reply

  • Sean — September 29th, 2011, 10:09 pm

    Very weird, i started almost this exact process last week, except that i’m experienced in the field and have an attack plan and network built. Though the blog, and self education in further sales is in my plan as well. The working for free part is going to be in place too, but i’ve figured out a way to do the work up front for free to provide a service (website for budget-strapped mom and pop shops), and receive compensation on the backend (if successful).

    Reply

    • Heidi — October 4th, 2011, 6:37 pm

      I have something that might interest you very much. It’s an inexpensive incentive program that would help mom&pop shops retain clients, expand client base dramatically, and increase conversions (lookers to shoppers, budget-buyers to higher-ticket sales).

      Reply

  • Nick Jordan — September 29th, 2011, 10:38 pm

    A great post indeed. I did a masters in property which on completion I realised I knew 90% of the course content already…..I had major property development experience in my own rite and the course content was mostly one persons opinion on the property industry. Anyway, its ironic that your post has coincided with the day I am starting to learn forex trading. So I have set up a blog as you suggested which you can see here http://thelongandtheshort.tumblr.com/ and I am off and racing.

    Thanks for the great post and some extra motivation

    Nick Jordan

    Reply

  • Richard — September 30th, 2011, 12:04 am

    Wow! The Clinton “Reality Distortion Field” post and now this post, Michael Ellsberg is one clever mofo. Looking up ‘The Education of Millionaires’ on Kindle str8 away.

    Reply

  • Jimmy — September 30th, 2011, 12:41 am

    I’ve been waiting for post like this for a long time, thank you. I always believed that the benefits of college have been exaggerated and make sure that people around me know that education does not equate to intelligence, just an ability follow instead of lead.

    Reply

  • Etieno Etuk — September 30th, 2011, 1:01 am

    Awesome post, Michael. You’re so right…..Employers Require Skills, Not Degrees. I really appreciate you sharing the story of Eben Pagan. It goes to show that if one is really determined, he/she can find a way to make it happen.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  • S King — September 30th, 2011, 4:56 am

    In 100% agreement: hacking is the new education.

    All it means is experience trumps sedentary classroom education most of the time.

    It also makes you a much more interesting person to know.

    Reply

  • Leroy — September 30th, 2011, 5:47 am

    Tim, wonderful post. Thanks for getting back to the reason I came here in the first place. “The Four Hour Workweek” concept. I cannot understand why you choose to have the “Body” stuff here. I stopped coming because of it. I found it incredibly boring since that was not my reason for coming here in the first place. A lot to catch up on. Also thanks for being the inspiration behind my website. I’m doing pretty darn good and I don’t even market and I have hundreds of better products to add. I’m still doing “few” thousands per months in sales while holding a job. This week alone I did 1700 dollars.

    I can’t imagine what I will do when I leave my job in a few weeks to concentrate on building my brand. Thanks again man.

    Reply

  • Louise — September 30th, 2011, 6:34 am

    What a great message,thank you.
    Before my current role as the National Marketing Manager of a company turning over $1.3b I was the Marketing Manager of one of our National Sporting teams here in Australia. I would get many calls from people asking how they could get a job like mine, what was my career path? I could’nt tell them I left school at 15 and just got lucky, so I would suggest  they volunteer their services for experience. 

    I used to believe I had that job and all my others because of  luck but it wasnt luck afterall, it was opportunity and I didn’t wait for the opportunity to come looking for me, I reckon I went out and, maybe subconsciously, made my own opportunities.

    They are sometimes in the least obvious place so be sure to keep an eye out for them everywhere.

    Reply

  • Clarence — September 30th, 2011, 6:54 am

    This was an amazing article Tim!! This is why I have you on my Facebook wall!! This guy Micheal hit it on the head. I am going thru some of the things that these other college grads are going thru: working at a job that I have been doing for years that is a deadend and does not require a degree (just a pulse), putting out resume after resume after resume and getting no feedback, and watching my student loan bills go higher and higher. I am going to give this a shot. I will purchase his book and the other ones he has mentioned. By the way I am going back to school for design ( a passion of mine) and I was really inspired by the section ” create your own damn credentials!” I will.

    Reply

  • Ritu Jain — September 30th, 2011, 8:33 am

    Michael and Tim- Great post, especially since I have been working on a product to help with informal learning! One other important factor that is not covered here is the fact that the cost of ‘formal’ learning is skyrocketing. According to the Department of Ed, it increased 37% in the last decade. On the other hand, access to ‘informal’ education is getting easier thanks to the proliferation of web.

    With both of these trends, it has become even more difficult for people to justify getting formal education. The only huge drawback is that there is no easy place to accumulate all the informal learning so you can share, grown and gain credibility in a ‘skillset’.

    Would love to talk to both of you about this more offline and show you what I have been working on!

    Reply

    • Heidi — October 6th, 2011, 12:30 pm

      Ritu,
      You said >> The only huge drawback is that there is no easy place to accumulate all the informal learning so you can share, grown and gain credibility in a ‘skillset’.

      Perhaps you can just compile your results into your own personal portfolio. Keep records of measurable outcomes that you produced with your skillset/s. Tim Ferriss learned the tango — his proof of competency in that skill was his placement in the tango competition. Ditto for his Chinese boxing and his Japanese language skills. You can do the same.
      Success to you!
      Heidi

      Reply

  • Blake — September 30th, 2011, 8:39 am

    Hey,

    Great post. I love this topic and it is so important with the cost of education skyrocketing and the saturation of individuals with degrees in the job market. I think a book titled “The Four Hour Student: Hacking Education” would be a great compliment to The Education of Millionaires. Maybe after the Four Hour Chef comes out! (which I must say is not a topic I’m as excited about). What do you think Tim?

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — September 30th, 2011, 11:53 am

      Wow, “The Four-Hour Student” – THAT would be a bestseller! Seriously! Tim? I’d help you write that one, man! You’re creating a “Four-Hour” empire here, and eventually some thoughts on education should be one of the topics of your empire, especially given how many young people are fans of your work.

      @Blake: Yes, you’re absolutely right about “degree saturation.” That is a central dynamic behind my post here. A lot of our current thoughts about education, particularly those thoughts drilled into us by our parents’ generation, were formed during a time when having a BA truly set you apart.

      Now, the guy pouring you your coffee at the cafe in the morning has a BA. Having a BA allows you to join a club with millions of members all competing for the same jobs on the same narrow metrics.

      In my book, PayPal cofounder and first outside Facebook investor Peter Thiel says “It’s this weird generational thing from the baby boomers to the millennials. The baby boomers were too different [my note: i.e., "flower power," etc], at a time when that was the wrong strategy [for career success]. Now the millennials are too conformist, at a time when that’s the wrong strategy.”

      I hope my post shows a way to compete by *sidestepping* the herd, instead of by elbowing your way through it to the front. If you’re behind a thousand people all trying desperately to squeeze through the same narrow entrance to get in – take some initiative find a back entrance! That’s the basic message of the people I interview in my book.

      Reply

      • Clarence — October 5th, 2011, 11:03 pm

        Yea, It hurts to give up some much (friends, time with family, and income) to get a degree which now seems like a fancy High School diploma, to the working world, with huge debt tagged on the end.

        Reply

  • Brett V — September 30th, 2011, 9:44 am

    I’ve followed this blog since around 2007. This post and Kagan’s have been some of the most inspiring (and applicable) things I’ve seen online in quite a while. Which is why, I suppose, that this blog still blows the competition away in the business/life style genre.

    I’ve also dealt with the frustration of Bipolar II myself. It’s no fun (well at least the “downs” anyway).

    I’ll put this framework into action and see what I can do with it. I’ve always had an interest in internet marketing and web dev, so now it’s time to get a blog fired up and get things moving.

    Also, thanks to Ellsberg for sharing his wife’s site. It’s a great illustration of how you can overcome barriers in business (and life) by deeply understanding your customer’s needs.

    Reply

  • Risto Uuk — September 30th, 2011, 9:52 am

    I went to a business conference today. It was a free one that I found through Facebook.

    I’m actually looking to become a personal trainer in a commercial gym in the beginning and later build my own training studio. Of course, I also want to work self-employed a large part of the time.

    I still think that attending business conferences is a valuable thing for me to do. Unfortunately, their aren’t many events about nutrition or training coming up here frequently.

    Unfortunately, I just froze at the event. I wasn’t able to connect with anyone since I felt I didn’t have anything in common with the presenters and it was also very hard to approach other people, because I had absolutely no information about them.

    This article is definitely helpful, but I have a lot of personal thinking to do to get the solutions to my issues.

    Reply

    • David: The Wonder Technique — October 5th, 2011, 1:23 pm

      Hi Risto,
      I used to be incredibly shy at events and unable to talk to people then I found out the following:

      If I ask people to tell me about themselves with a simple question like ‘what do you do for a living?’ people start to open up. Then I ask ‘what is it you really like about that work?’ and ‘what makes you succeed at that work’ then the conversation continues.

      I have learned tons from other people just by listening to them. If I start talking about right away they tune out.

      Everyone loves to share their story. Micheal most likely got the people he interviewed just by using questions like these.

      Is that true Micheal?

      Great article Time,

      All the best,
      David

      Reply

  • Andrew — September 30th, 2011, 11:08 am

    Awesome post! Looking forward to December 29th!

    Quick question for Michael –

    I’m currently working full-time for a small telecommunications company. I’m transitioning from the marketing department to sales.

    Completely voluntary on my part and I know absolutely nothing about sales. Funny correlation upon reading this post, before reading it I had just started to thumb through SPIN selling a couple days before. Though I haven’t fully immersed myself in it yet.

    My question: I have zero history in sales, but have been working for the company for about three years on October 20th. First as an intern, then in the marketing department and now about to start in sales.

    I truly am starting from scratch. I am even training myself on our commercial service offerings and sales techniques.

    Am I eligible for the contest?

    Thanks!

    Andrew

    Reply

  • Nathan Zaru — September 30th, 2011, 11:59 am

    We need to cultivate entrepreneurs and creators, not manufacture drones. Great post Michael. This should be required reading before college.

    Reply

  • Ramiro — September 30th, 2011, 12:26 pm

    I think Michael would not disagree nor would TIm, that a credential is a sometimes good idea. Who says that you will seek the education on your own? Yes, you could do that. But you could also budget, eat healthy, exercise everyday… yet most people don’t do it… for some people, going to college, even at a great cost may be a good idea… those that are not disciplined to seek info on their own… those that need to be compartmentalized in a building for four years in a desolate location to be able to concentrate on books. I am just trying to add a contrasting voice. The piece by Michael is EXCELLENT!!! Thanks TIM and MICHAEL!!! or should I say MICHAEL and TIM…. Anyways…

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — October 1st, 2011, 4:56 am

      I agree with you, Ramiro, that not everyone is up for following the kind of path that I outline here. Some people, if left to their own devices, will just fritter away time, watch TV, or worse, get into trouble.

      In fact, one of the greatest criticisms of my book (by people who haven’t read it yet) is: “Well, this path you outline only works for the most motivated kids. A lot of kids [i.e., subtext they usually mean here is, "MY kids"] couldn’t handle the kind of self-education you talk about. Some kids need more discipline than that.”

      Absolutely. But then, what we’re talking about in that circumstance is babysitting, not education. Yes, some kids truly do need babysitting through their twenties. Indeed, some adults *still* need babysitting!

      Those aren’t the kids I’m writing about (or for). I’m writing my book for motivated, disciplined, ambitious, serious young people. I believe too many of them are funneled into what amount to expensive babysitting programs, when they could be out in the world already, building stuff that matters.

      I have absolutely no expertise in how to turn unmotivated, unambitious, unserious kids into disciplined, motivated, ambitious kids. That’s just not my area of expertise, and there are people who know far more about that than I do.

      I do believe, however, that many kids only “appear” unmotivated and unambitious because they don’t happen to give a $%^! about *academics*, and adults are trying to stuff them into an academic box into which they won’t and don’t fit. There are countless kids who couldn’t give a crap about doing well on a test spouting back history dates, and who appear “troubled” in that context because they won’t do it. But then–if you gave them the time and tools to build some kind of online community or movement or website, or to fix or rebuild a car engine or something, they would jump to it and take it seriously.

      I think the great tragedy of our education system is that we think there is only one kind of education–academics. It’s a one-size-fits all system. Yet kids, as we know, come in many sizes, not just physically but mentally– they have different passions, different forms of brilliance, creativity and initiative. Our current system for the most part squashes and quashes all forms of passion and interest in kids that don’t fit into narrow bands of the academic subjects we think (for reasons that are not entirely clear to me) we should spend their entire youth studying.

      I find this very sad. Here’s an analogy. I’m a very passionate, motivated, and ambitious person, obviously. And for the right tasks, I have an insanely long attention span– I put in 24-hour straight writing sessions for my book, taking only water and bathroom breaks.

      But put me in a room where I have to learn and take tests on, say, medieval poetry, something I care little about, and I would in that context appear to be extremely unmotivated, unruly, fidgety, rebellious, and with a low attention span.

      Dope me up on some Adderall and Prozac! I must have ADD! I must have “oppositional defiant disorder”! I must be a “troubled kid.” It’s truly, truly important that I come to respect and appreciate the importance of memorizing and taking tests on medieval poetry.

      Uh, no. Actually, you just put me in the wrong context for my flourishing. Put me in a different context, learning something I care about, and I’ll flourish.

      I believe we as adults “manufacture” a great deal of the disfunction, disorder, unruliness, and attention and discipline problems we see in young people. Not all of these problems, but a great deal of them. We put them in circumstances so dull, boring, and irrelevant to their lives or interests, that *we* would be bored in them if *we* were put there as adults – and then we get upset at them and drug them up if they don’t behave. This is the Matrix. I’m trying to help the smartest, brightest, most motivated ones unplug from the Matrix.

      Reply

      • Ramiro — October 3rd, 2011, 11:12 am

        Hi Michael, I tend to agree, but it seems to you that every person that goes to college is because of the “babysitting” factor… I would say that we humans are inherently lazy, and in this I follow what BJ Fogg says, regarding habit creation. We are lazy so we need things to be simple. As for myself, I do seek information and education on my own, but there is a big benefit to being forced to study when you are miles and miles away from home and in a desolate area. What I would say in favor of self-education, is that education in the U.S. is very expensive. Inflation in education in the US is crazy. I was born and grew up in Argentina where there is free education through college. So you can be a lawyer with ZERO debt. Granted, there are many many holes in public education, but there is something positive about having the opportunity to study even if you are from a humble background… I kind of disagree with the fact that education in the US is a commodity and that there are few inexpensive options. I am not saying other countries don’t have many MANY problems of their own, but… anyways. Thanks for the reply and the discussion…

        PS: I know both systems, the Argentinean because I went to law school in Argentina, and the US system, because I applied to law school here in the US and I stopped before selling my soul for tens of thousands of dollars… I decided that the legal education here is so commoditized that it is ridiculous and really soul crushing… anyways, thanks for your answer!!!

        Reply

      • Ramiro — October 3rd, 2011, 11:26 am

        Also, just a side note, it’s really cool that you went to Buenos Aires and stayed around San Telmo. As youngster I used to work as a messenger on foot around the area called “Microcentro” in Buenos Aires and I used to know the area by heart, every street name, every bank. I live in Chicago since 2000 but I remember those times walking around San Telmo. It is a bohemian area, oldish looking, kind of European. It has some charm. People tend to be friendly there and maybe you got the change to attend a soccer game in La Boca. Anyways, take care and thanks

        Reply

  • Gtice — September 30th, 2011, 2:22 pm

    Here’s my shot. Will be looking forward to talking with you in December.
    Motivation to Become ?
    motivation4themasses.wordpress.com

    Reply

  • ShimmerGeek — September 30th, 2011, 4:53 pm

    Hi Michael,

    Do you have any advice for introverts when it comes to networking?

    Thank you :)

    Reply

    • Braden Talbot — October 2nd, 2011, 8:00 am

      Hey ShimmerGeek,

      As a super-introvert, maybe I can help. I usually like to keep it to a few very close friends and sit in my head a lot and think (a little too much). Having said that, maybe turn a few more high-profile, high-quality, successful people into that kind of friend. I think as introverts we tend to think it turns us to shit-ins, but we met the friends, co-workers and acquaintances we have now and introversion doesn’t mean we can’t meet more.

      I think it might mean more a matter of using a certain style or techniques to meeting and building relationships, but super-introversion shouldn’t stop us from getting out there and talking.

      Hope this little tidbit helps.

      Reply

  • Alberto Martinez — September 30th, 2011, 5:43 pm

    Great read. Without really knowing about all this and reflecting on my past I can relate and just say that all these steps are very true. I started figure skating at 19 which is “old” to start out. Without no traditional coaching, no money and a bunch of self-built opportunities I was able to bust into the scene of ice shows. It took me many years but it was a break from convention that only people who have been skating their whole lives and have been given proper coaching could accomplish a paying job to perform on the ice.

    Passion, “beginner’s mind” and some good fashion hark work put in the right places are all the credentials you need.

    Reply

  • Sean — September 30th, 2011, 6:46 pm

    Hey guys,
    as ever, this is an amazing post. For the bipolar type II’s and hypomanics reading this (Which if you read this blog avidly, you really might be. You should definitely look it up.), I would HIGHLY recommend reading the Hypomanic Edge by John Gartner. He’s a Princeton trained psychologist, and his theory is that Hypomanic flight of ideas are wonderful for creativity and drive, and profiles Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Hamilton, David O’Selznick, and Craig Ventner in the book. You should discover this strength in yourself, and consider a responsibly executed career switch to something that rewards it. Good luck!

    Reply

  • MK — September 30th, 2011, 7:36 pm

    Cool post I am planning to watch your entire video on networking it really is an essential skill and important to master.

    I do not see any harm in trying this approach full out for a 1-3 years and then reevaluate to see if a formal education path is necessary.

    Thanks again
    Mark

    Reply

  • Ben Sima — September 30th, 2011, 8:41 pm

    Sounds a lot like Charlie’s RPGrad.

    But Ellsburg’s book sounds interesting. I’ll definitely pick it up when I get the chance.

    Reply

  • Hassan Osman — September 30th, 2011, 9:32 pm

    Very, very well-written post. Thanks for sharing. I’m kind of on step 2 already, so I can’t be part of the contest, but I’ll definitely use a lot of your takeaways as a blueprint going forward!

    And thanks for the tip on SPIN Selling – just bought it from Amazon . Your book is next on the list, but I’m following Tim’s advice for now: just one non-fiction book at a time :)

    Reply

    • Michael A. Robson — October 1st, 2011, 11:41 pm

      SPIN Selling is awesome (linked to my avatar). It will totally change the way you talk to customers and prospects. Brilliant for larger orders (eg. We’re not selling knives door to door, we have to have real conversations with our prospects). I’m working in Envirotech sales in Asia, and deal with large orders with customers. I’m constantly having to come up with creative ways to save them money, and help them make more money. It’s not about pushing a product–you’re selling them on a business model! That means we’re all on the same team :)

      Actually I’ve been doing a ‘Non-Fiction’ Book site, 21tiger, for a couple years now, and curating a recommended reading list(left side). Everything is free, of course. Love this stuff. Continual self-directed education can really inspire you to do anything! And it’s gotten me back into writing again, which I absolutely love!

      Reply

  • Noela Miller — September 30th, 2011, 10:27 pm

    I love this article. You are a modern day Napoleon Hill.

    Reply

  • Ben Sima — October 1st, 2011, 12:29 am

    So, I had a thought… Ellsburg says this “hacking credentials” doesn’t work for the medical field, but Ferriss kinda exemplifies an exception to that statement.

    I think I saw in a speaking event on video Tim was asked by a crowd member, who also happened to be an MD, if he (Tim) was interested in contributing to (ie. helping oversee) a clinical trial. I mean, that sure sounds like building influence in the medical community but without any formal credential. Sounds like “hacking credentials” to me. Surely, I wouldn’t want a self-taught surgeon to operate on me, but I think that this method *could* be useful in, say, the medical research arenas.

    Reply

    • Braden Talbot — October 1st, 2011, 11:46 am

      I was thinking the same thing, Ben,

      There are ways to circumvent bureaucratic hurdles. Instead of actually going into law, learn solid economics and politics, and become a person of influence. Instead of taking a decade to become an MD, do what Tim did, or what a lot of Crossfitters do: experiment with your own body and display results.

      Reply

  • Justin Brooks — October 1st, 2011, 7:57 am

    Tim I f-ing love you & your friends, you guys continue to surprise your readers w/ content ( for free of all things ) that is meaningful, applicable & delivered in plain English( Usually, your prone to get alil nerdy sometimes ). I wish I could get my pell grant forwarded to guys like you, Ramit & Michael because I’m learning more from this and your blogs than from the 90+ cr hrs I’ve gotten so far. Keep up the great work( like I need to say that…), amazing guest post & don’t you ever stop networking, you have some of the coolest friends in existence & we get access to ‘em! Thanks man, seriously!

    Reply

  • Joey — October 1st, 2011, 9:09 am

    Started my first ever blog! Very inspiring read thank-you.

    I’m trying to start work in the financial services industry which is very hard in the current climate. I was considering saving to study for a £15,000 (~$23,500) qualification and a friend sent me this link.

    I’ve already researched my role so I’ve done step 1. And I had started step 2 by creating a reading list – although this has since changed after reading this article..

    I’m not sure if this discounts me from the challenge? (although I currently have no work history, credentials or experience in any financial role). But I think I’ll continue regardless. My moral has been running quite low (I’ve been unemployed for 6 months) so I think updating a blog will motivate me to work harder.

    Should I post the blog website now? Or leave it secret until the 29th of Dec? I wouldn’t mind following a few other people who have pledged to do this task too. I think it’ll help boost moral to see what other people are up against.

    Reply

  • Marque Pierre Sondergaard — October 1st, 2011, 9:49 am

    Well done Michael.

    I am in. All the “dropping out of school vs. dropping out of learning” reminded me of that old Mark Twain adage: “My education is too important to trust to a school.”

    Reply

  • Braden Talbot — October 1st, 2011, 10:19 am

    This gave me an idea:

    Instead of money-making as a goal in masterminds, try networking and skill-building as a goal.

    Reply

  • Pam C — October 1st, 2011, 12:06 pm

    Wow, incredible post, but to be honest I don’t think I would suggest my child not to go to college, I want her to go because I didn’t and I have one of those people who are shunned because I don’t have a degree. It’s so friggin frustrating I work in the pharma/medical device industry in the SF Bay Area (San Jose) as a quality specialist, these are skills that are mostly learned on the job, through self education, and through organizations like the American Society of Quality. So, because my lack of degree I completely rely on social relationships, these are people who know I have mad skills, I live by Linkedin because it helps me keep in touch within my network. Although even though I have these relationships, there are still road blocks like my former co-worker was building a quality team at her company and she wanted me because she knows my work ethic, but the company would not allow her to bring me in because I don’t have a degree. So, this is the lame part I am a left brain person, so most likely my degree would not have been in science but possibly in art or literature… but they still would have hired me because I had a degree…it could even be in basket weaving, and it still would be a degree. So the bottom line, is just in case, I want my daughter to have the experience of college, and build long term friendships, BUT if she finds her self coming up with a great business idea, and develops it ala Mark Zuckerburg then for sure I don’t think I would mind too much if she dropped out : ).

    Reply

    • Akare — October 17th, 2011, 8:47 am

      Same with me, I got constantly passed for promotions and special projects because of company policies. Getting A+ annual reviews did nothing, they want a degree. Because of screening, in the Communication and PR business if you are not connected (tough to connect when you are an imigrant with no previous network) it will get you nowhere. You can get a job with no degree if you are someone’s son or daughter, for all the others, you need an education and even then you might be skipped over.

      Reply

  • Michelle — October 1st, 2011, 12:33 pm

    Michael:

    I stayed up late last night because I felt so understood after reading both this article and your journey with Bipolar II. I’m in the running for the contest – I’m going to go for it.

    Thank you for this opportunity. What a breath of fresh air.

    Reply

  • Matt Bailey — October 1st, 2011, 3:16 pm

    Great post. Definitely gives me some more tools to get started. Oddly enough instead of getting a degree in order to make money I plan on making money so I can go to college and take whatever courses interest me.

    Reply

  • Jimmy — October 1st, 2011, 4:19 pm

    Wow…I can’t think of anything I would wanna learn and blog about, at least not something unique and niche enough to not already be over saturated.

    Reply

  • Graeme — October 1st, 2011, 6:32 pm

    Hi,

    Awesome post. I’d like to enter, but I wanted to check two things first:

    1. Can the new field be tangential to one we already know? I’m an expert on one of the standardized tests, but so far have mostly used that for tutoring. I want to self-publish books, to switch it from a service to a product. I have no publishing experience. Can I use that as my new field that I’m learning?

    2. I signed up for http://www.myname.com just two weeks before this, and have about five posts. Could I use that as my blog, rather than register some arbitrary domain to comply technically? I like the idea of using my real name while networking.

    Either way, I’m going ahead with my publishing plan. I’ve had some initial success selling them as a pdf through a related blog, but I suspect there’s even more potential from actually self-publishing the books, and selling them through Amazon.

    Thanks so much for your books. They’ve been an inspiration. It’s so exciting to be working on something that I can release to the world, and have it be within reach.

    Graeme

    Reply

  • Fabio Santos — October 1st, 2011, 6:35 pm

    “What’s holding you back?”
    nothing anymore Michael! your post was inspiring! Thank you! and Tim, always bringing unconventional people to blog here! ;-)
    I’ve already spent some hours googling … annnnd here is my Credential Hacking project: Documentary Filmmaker (just add as “Dreamline” as well:-)
    btw, after reading 4HWW I transformed myself into a (dropout) mobile traveler involved in x projects, yet I may have after some 80/20 analysis 20h/week for Credential Hacking.
    You can count me in!
    Fabio Santos

    Reply

  • Ryan England — October 1st, 2011, 7:22 pm

    This is fantastic. I’ve recently gotten my main income almost entirely passive (Obviously thanks to the 4HWW) and I’ve been wondering what to do with my time. This is a great motivation to fill that time with something productive.

    I’ve always had an interest in my topic, but never really took any steps towards it. This is that “shove” I needed to make this idea take off. The potential is blowing my mind right now. Thanks. ~Ryan

    Reply

  • Michael A. Robson — October 1st, 2011, 11:28 pm

    Eben Pagan…. Eben Pagan…. Where have I heard that name before….?

    Oh yeah! That’s David DeAngelo’s real name.

    I think you forgot to mention the part where he teaches guys to pickup women. That’s the ‘coaching’ part you alluded to. The guy’s superich, using NLP techniques to pickup girls. And he has been one of the best online marketers in the Pickup community for about 10 years now. I bought his first eBook for about 40 bucks years ago.

    He wrote the first eBook in about a weekend. Cha-ching.

    Reply

    • Michael A. Robson — October 1st, 2011, 11:45 pm

      By the way, I’ve linked to a SPIN SELLING review (my avatar). Just an amazing book.

      I’m working in Envirotech sales in Asia, and blogging about my favorite non-fiction books.

      Reply

    • Da Man — October 15th, 2011, 5:38 pm

      @Michael. I bought it too. It changed my life. I went from 0 game to dating awesome women. I dread to think what my life would be like if I haven’t read it.

      Reply

  • Raymond K — October 2nd, 2011, 3:54 am

    Thank you. This just changed my life. I am going for this! This just freed me from a lifetime of suffering. I stumbled upon this gem of a website just yesterday through one my many late night research efforts aimed at improving myself and my understand in general (when I should really be doing homework!). Every single article I’ve read so far has had a profound effect on me. Michael, thank you, I now realized I have bipolar II, and I’m also beginning to realize that I may not be the failure I, and so many others, have believed me to be. The conventional path is not for me, nor has it ever been. I’ve spent my entire life trying to force myself into a system that suppresses my ability and my joy. I’m a 22 years old community college student, high school drop-out, unemployed, parent of a 4-year old, tens of thousands of dollars in debt, husband to chemistry PhD student, and just overall mess. To be honest I have some doubts at to how I will be able to accomplish this. Reading of Eben Pagan and Michael Ellsberg has provided me with motivation and confidence. I’m just going to start hacking away at it the way you said. My new life goal is to successfully complete this program and win the menteeship. Look forward to hearing from me soon, and I’ll look forward to hearing from you in December. Again, my deepest thanks.

    Reply

  • Ariel Levin — October 2nd, 2011, 4:22 am

    This post caught me just in time – I’m returning to Israel after 9 years living in New Zealand and am debating between getting a job or being an entrepreneur which another recent post caters for. Thanks Michael & Tim.

    Reply

  • Archie Cunningham — October 2nd, 2011, 7:17 am

    So in short Michael, what I understand by what you said was:

    Think only of the things you can do, and act accordingly.

    Reply

  • Halley — October 2nd, 2011, 7:40 am

    “Employers Require Skills, Not Degrees” This is very true. I realized that when I was still applying for a job. You’ve got to have the skills, degrees are like add-ons to a resume because what the employer wants to see is your proficiency and of course, attitude.

    Reply

  • Fiorenza Ji — October 2nd, 2011, 8:59 am

    Dear Mr.Ferriss,
    My name is Fiorenza Ji. I’m from China. I am 17years old, and I go to a Canadian-Chinese highschool in Zhejiang Province. I would really like to interview you. I have a project about “My Dream”,and my dream is to build up a business that I can earn a lot of money for my parents and I. The problem is, I don’t know what kind of business I can do. Iwant to earn lots of money, but the same time, I will be able to rest and travel, also educate myself, just like mr Ferris. My teacher,who is a big fan of yours, suggested that I could try to contact you and ask for some advice, because I want to get a job like yours, too. Please e-mail me if you see this comment ;D It will help a lot over the rest of my life, because I really need a guide to the right way. Thank you very much!!!
    Sincerely,
    Fiorenza Ji from China

    Reply

  • Bob S — October 2nd, 2011, 9:39 am

    Tim, thanks for another great guest!
    Michael, will be posting on 12/29! Thanks for an amazing article and kick in the pants. I have been toying with an idea so now am finally going to get off my arse and try it!

    On the education aspect, I have been teaching in HS & community college last 2 yrs, just starting my 3rd. I am a practicing attorney, and taught in law school for 12 years. People constantly ask why am I teaching here, even kids. A few reasons: I moved to a rural area, with no nearby university/law schools; after years of complaining about quality of education, lack of entrepreneurial skills taught and other issues with the system, I decided to do something rather than complain.

    I have developed 2 new high school classes that focus on international business & economics and on business & entrepreneurship, that kids love. Despite having advanced degrees, I always talk to kids about other alternatives, gap years, and pursuing their dreams and especially to do an opportunity cost analysis of going to college. There are some kids that do well in college and thrive in that structure, and on the whole it is a great experience – place to grow up and learn how to learn and to network. One thing that I see that is horrible is the push by guidance counselors and even parents to push some kids to go to college who are not cut out for it, or would do better seeking alternatives. Also, the colleges desperate for tuition dollars continually lower admission standards, with a corresponding higher attrition rate. The thing that burns me is when kids that clearly are not cut out for college being pushed to go, then drop out after a year or two with $20K-$40K in debt and looking for work. They would have been far better to pursue their own education. Similar problem is with students going to top schools for education, incurring up to $150K – $200K in student loan debt, and then looking for work as a teacher earning $20K-$30K. The math just doesn’t work.

    I have had multiple careers, and aside from law and the required education, have been self-taught in all other fields. I am a big believer in this, but it requires the person to be self-disciplined and motivated.

    Sorry for rant, happy to contribute examples and ideas for 4H Education is you pursue that, or…maybe that will be my post in December. Actually, will be pursuing a new idea for SMM and SEO services and trainginig for attorneys. Hope to be working with you next year.

    Reply

  • Ian — October 2nd, 2011, 12:45 pm

    Tim,

    Thanks for posting this. Really puts college in perspective.

    Gave me a lot to think about.

    Reply

  • Rahul Ahuja — October 2nd, 2011, 12:56 pm

    Thanks for the great article Michael (and Tim)! This is definitely not the often mentioned and followed “normal way” and in fact its quite the antidote to “normal”.

    Lifestyle design on acid starts here!

    Thanks again!

    Reply

  • greg marshall — October 2nd, 2011, 2:07 pm

    This is true it really comes down to how much you believe in what you are doing and how hard you are willing to work to get the success you want. I believe a piece of paper is not always the only way to be considered an expert …experience can be too.

    Reply

  • Joel Ponce — October 2nd, 2011, 4:28 pm

    Michael,

    Just bought The Education of Millionaires and SPIN Selling! Thanks for the suggestions!

    I am currently a student and refuse to conform to what is expected. I will do something different and worthwhile! I wont be participating in the competition because i am currently working on something of my own and that automatically disqualifies me. I believe its great work and will continue to do it. That being said, i would be glad to help the participants in any way i can!

    I would also suggest that people read “Designers Don’t Read” by Austin Howe

    Joel Ponce

    P.S. Tim Ferriss – I’m currently working on my senior thesis and plan on incorporating many of your great suggestions such as: 80/20 rule (which i am obsessed with now), minimum required dose, and the basic notion of quality of life.

    Reply

  • Karmen — October 2nd, 2011, 5:46 pm

    This is one of the best post that i have ever read. Now more than ever there are tons of people with advanced degrees that are working average jobs or unemp[oyed and yet there are others who are creating what they want from scratch . The differnce is what you think and believe about yourself.

    Reply

  • Venky — October 2nd, 2011, 6:54 pm

    As much as the entrepreneur millennia ago needed the horse to plough his field of grain, high tech entrepreneurs today need MS and PhD workhorses to plough their field of superior communication satellites and low-power chips. I am glad I am not a workhorse, but in its own way it is as admirable as its master.

    Reply

  • Josh — October 2nd, 2011, 7:49 pm

    Great article.

    I have studied Eben Pagen for years, and he’s just a flat out genius. One of his first projects was “Double Your Dating”… you can Google it. What a story book success that was.

    This blog post could really help some young folks coming right out of college.

    I have been an entrepreneur since age 17, and now 32. I can say that this blog is one that I follow on a regular basis.

    Great Job Tim!

    Reply

  • Jeff Nabers — October 2nd, 2011, 8:48 pm

    Amen, Michael.

    Great post.

    Reply

  • Phil Drolet — October 2nd, 2011, 9:30 pm

    Thanks Michael for a great piece & thanks Tim for publishing it.

    I’m right in the middle of the journey you’ve outlined with my blog (and business-to-be) http://www.thefeelgoodlifestyle.com, and it’s very encouraging to see that I’m taking the right steps.

    To your point of “Showcase your learning”, today I’m going to publish my first video book summary, as I’ve just finished reading Enchantment by Guy Kawazaki and want to share my learnings with the world.

    All in all, I picked up a few tricks and this read definitely gives me a double dose of motivation to keep pushing ahead! Cheers from Australia!

    PS Just downloaded the audiobook for Spin Selling, looks like another powerful weapon to add to my arsenal.

    Reply

  • Djamel — October 2nd, 2011, 9:53 pm

    Awesome Article, and Awesome pic. You always seem to have really good pictures for each post. I have a question about that with regards to flickr and copyrights: Is it okay to post someones pic then link back to their profile? It seems like this would be beneficial to the photographer but also they make be angry that you used their photo… I’d love to hear your thoughts.

    Reply

  • Annika — October 2nd, 2011, 10:10 pm

    Life’s little coincidences are astounding, Michael you have just illuminated the pathway to the life I’ve been dreaming about living without really knowing how to get there. I thought I would have to go all the way to a PhD qualification to be a certified psychologist in order to help people improve their lives while at the same time having a family and travelling the world with them.
    Now I’m 19, taking a year out after an unsuccessful year at university (I was studying something ‘useful’, not interesting to me), and will definitely be posting at the end of the year about my progress in the field of psychology and NLP – this article made me realise I could be living my dream without the 7+ years of study and debt.

    Reply

    • Ivan Staroversky — October 26th, 2011, 7:11 pm

      You remind me of myself around your age. I also thought that I did not need a degree in psychology and could get away with just having a license as an NLP Practitioner or a Trainer. After years of experience I realized that there is limit to how much you can do with NLP certification.

      You have to remember that most NLP trainings today are usually a one week course. However, taking a one week course does not make one an NLP practitioner or a master practitioner or a trainer. It takes years of studying and experience to become a true practitioner.

      I had to go back to college and get my degree in psychology to develop better credibility in the field of psychology. One positive thing that came out of all of this is that when I went back to college, I actually knew why I was doing it and what I needed to know vs. what I needed to skip.

      BS in Psychology on top of my NLP licenses and other certification allowed me to better understand the mind, the brain, the body and the spirit. Today I feel like I know what I am doing rather than just repeating an NLP technique when I work with people. However, there is much more to learn.

      Reply

  • Jeff Jackson — October 2nd, 2011, 11:29 pm

    I just setup my blog- bigbabymarketing.com and made the first post. Super stoked. Totally in!

    Reply

  • Jacob D. — October 3rd, 2011, 3:23 am

    Thanks for the great post and video, Michael and Tim.

    I was wondering if one or both of you could comment on Michael’s recent article “The Top 4 Reasons Why Passive Income Is A Dangerous Fantasy”. From his Forbes blog three months ago: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2011/06/24/the-top-4-reasons-why-passive-income-is-a-dangerous-fantasy/

    It’s interesting that a guest poster here would have such a strong public stance against one of the primary tenets of the 4HWW book and blog.

    I think most of us here are looking for ways to improve our lives through financial independence and the pursuit of meaning, so a public dialogue between you two on this topic you seem to disagree on would be highly beneficial to us.

    Or at least a comment from one of you about it?

    In my case, what I want to do with my life is write short stories. It’s almost impossible to make a financial living doing only that, so even the most successful and famous short story writers today usually have another job – most often teaching at universities.

    The problem is that teaching requires so much time (especially teaching English or writing, where you have to review essays all the time), that finding time for actually writing in addition to spending time with family after hours can be really hard. Plus teachers aren’t exactly well paid. So in my case, it seemed like the best route is to pursue passive income for my finances while pursuing short-story writing as my passion. But after reading Michael’s article over at Forbes, now I’m not so sure.

    Michael, would you still discourage me from trying to develop a passive income?

    Thanks again for the great guest post (and killer blog too).

    Jacob

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — October 3rd, 2011, 1:57 pm

      Ha! This is an interesting juxtaposition. I could see how one could possibly see that article on Forbes as somehow being “against” 4HWW (even though it does not mention that book in particular.) But I know many many people who work 70HWWs (including me) and who LOVE 4HWW. How can that be? How could someone who works an 70HWW love a book with the title 4HWW, without being self-deluded?

      Because 4HWW is about *efficiency* and *effectiveness*. If you make a process more efficient (more output per unit of input), and more effective (outputs are better aligned with overall goals), you *can* choose to work less for the same amount of output. OR, you can choose to have the same amount of input (70HWW) and have WAY WAY more output, i.e., cause a way bigger mark on the world. That’s how I read 4HWW, how I relate to it.

      I know a lot of people who are up to big things in the world. Most of them cringe at the idea of “passive income” – setting up your life so as you don’t have to work (much). Most of them, including me, are *obsessed* with their work. And most of them also love 4HWW. No contradiction – Rather, they (we) are very big proponents of what might be called “active income” – making your work and your purpose align totally, day in and day out. And 4HWW offers many tools for helping in that.

      OK, onto your next question. Your question about wanting to write short stories is a very good one, and I’d like to take more time to answer that in more detail. Gotta run this moment, but I’ll be back very soon to answer that. Thank you.

      Reply

      • Jacob D. — October 17th, 2011, 7:40 am

        Hey Michael,

        Thanks for you clarifying response to my first question (on Oct. 3rd) about a perceived clash of philosophies between you and the 4HWW. Your interpretation of the 4HWW methods as tools for increased effectiveness and efficiency — whether employed for reducing working hours or increasing the effect of the same number of them — makes a lot of sense.

        But I’ve been on the edge of my seat for your response to my second question! At this point I think maybe it slipped through the cracks, so if you still don’t mind answering it I’ll paste it here:

        “In my case, what I want to do with my life is write short stories. It’s almost impossible to make a financial living doing only that, so even the most successful and famous short story writers today usually have another job – most often teaching at universities.

        The problem is that teaching requires so much time (especially teaching English or writing, where you have to review essays all the time), that finding time for actually writing in addition to spending time with family after hours can be really hard. Plus teachers aren’t exactly well paid. So in my case, it seemed like the best route is to pursue passive income for my finances while pursuing short-story writing as my passion. But after reading Michael’s article over at Forbes, now I’m not so sure.

        Michael, would you still discourage me from trying to develop a passive income?”

        Thanks again for the responses, this post, and your blog over at Forbes (for anyone who hasn’t read it, you can check out some more great stuff at http://blogs.forbes.com/michaelellsberg/).

        Jacob

        Reply

  • Michelle — October 3rd, 2011, 3:50 am

    Thanks Michael AND Tim! And, as always, prefect timing due to:
    a. I’m off to a networking function tomorrow and
    b. I am considering adapting (rather than changing) my career into next year and caught myself thinking “I don’t have the experience to do XYZ”

    Now I can get off my butt and put a few of your steps into action!

    Reply

  • Red Lebrun — October 3rd, 2011, 3:54 am

    What a mind-blowing post.
    Kudos to Tim for sharing, and Michael for writing.

    I’m not sure if I’ll be able to enter into this competition in time, due to my currently living on my parents expense in foreign country. Still, this is definitely a plan that i will follow for myself, regardless of whether or not a mentorship package is up for grabs.

    I always imagined that as a writer, the most satisfying kind of feedback you could receive would to hear that you’ve changed someone’s life. So I hope you’re getting a warm fuzzy feeling right about now, cause I’m definitely one of those people whose outlook on life-after-college has shifted by 90 degrees (anti-clockwise, just to be more rebellious).

    Reply

  • Paulina — October 3rd, 2011, 5:49 am

    I always wanted to run a business, but I didn’t believe that it’s best to be your own man. Now I do. I would like to terminate cooperation with my business partner. I would like to pay all my liabilities. After this experience, after reading a lot of new foreign books and newspapers (and blogs : ) I found a wonderful work position in new place. I would like to start over, but first I want to close down my old issues, clean up everything and be open and prepared for new. For new projects, for new workplace, for new work colleagues.
    Today is October 3rd. I have only 27 days to find 30.000 usd to pay debts off, be free, and on November 01st could start over with “clean card”.

    I am still looking for an investor for my father company. (www.veramoni.pl) He runs a clothes company. He has been selling a lot of clothes from his collections, but once customers have stopped to pay on time. “Customers” mean owners of stores, as he had only one company store, all clothes he has sold to different stores in Poland as well as in Europe. Then world crisis became and it stopped his production. He had to fired almost everyone. From 100 employees only 8 people still work in his company.
    As hard as possible we try to find a good solution for his company. We have everything what we need: production floor, qualified stuff, recognizable trademark. The only one thing we miss a lot: a helping hand that will help us to pull ourselves by our bootstrap. Just be back on our feet.
    Something I used “we”. “We” means me and my sisters. My father has a four daughters and everyone says to him “poor guy” : ) 4 girls. But we feel wonderful being together.
    Someone said that sth “There is bottom to bounce away from him”. I hope and I truly believe that very soon we will be jumping to the sky.

    Reply

  • Brad — October 3rd, 2011, 7:03 am

    Thought provoking post. I think formal education is necessary to get them on the right track. I believe it is good to give them a formal education to get young kids tolearn the right things before allowing them later on to move on to something less formal. Formal education + self education + determination to learn and succeed will most likely beat those who only choose to do either self education or pure formal education any time.

    Reply

  • Andrew — October 3rd, 2011, 8:45 am

    Great Article…lets go!

    Reply

  • gavin williams — October 3rd, 2011, 8:55 am

    Hey thats some great career advice. Thanks for a well written and very interesting article.

    Reply

  • Tim — October 3rd, 2011, 8:58 am

    Why does it have to be in something new?

    Love the post and I will put the post into action but why something new?

    Reply

    • Darryl — October 5th, 2011, 2:42 pm

      Why something new? Most likely to test Michael’s concepts from a clean slate. And his major concept is that it can be done in a year’s worth of work.

      Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — October 8th, 2011, 11:16 pm

      Hi Tim & Darryl,

      The reason the competition has to be something new is that I want you brilliant readers of Tim’s blog to prove to me that I’m right! :-) I.e., to prove to me that job requirements and credentials in new fields can be “hacked.” So, for the sake of the contest, it makes most sense to have people all starting at the same place, i.e., absolutely fresh.

      If you want to apply the steps I outline above to something you’ve already been doing for a while, fantastic! More power to you, and please don’t let me stop you – the REAL “rewards” for anyone will be the actual results you get.

      But for the sake of the contest, it wouldn’t be fair to compete in a field you already have a few years experience in, against people who are starting completely fresh in a new field.

      So, go for it – not for the contest, but for YOU!

      Reply

  • Ahmed Eid — October 3rd, 2011, 9:46 am

    Hey Michael, In the last 3 day I have read this post 3 times, finished your book, and watched the networking video. It has changed the way that I will approach relationships. I work full time as an engineer for an aerospace company, and I run a side business creating videos for nonprofit organizations. (Which is perfect for the help I can offer other people/organizations!) I just became a father so finding the time to do this has been tough, but I am persistent and burn through the midnight oil a few times a week.

    I am starting the challenge learning how to develop iPhone applications, as this is something I really want to learn and eventually make my day job, as it will allow me to be able to work from anywhere with a laptop and an internet connection and be able to work for myself.

    Here is my blog, already read 1 chapter and shared what I learned:

    http://importahmedeid.com/

    Reply

  • NR — October 3rd, 2011, 1:54 pm

    Acquisition Marketing – I’m on board. I don’t know a lick about it, but I’ve always wanted to learn. This will be a good opportunity.

    I’m going to win this, so I’m looking forward to speaking with you in a few months.

    Reply

  • Sally — October 3rd, 2011, 3:44 pm

    Tim and Michael…….Thank You so much for this post!!!! WHAT A GIFT!!!!!!

    My passion is using my art as an expression of ideas….not only for my ideas but for others’ as well……i would bloody LOVE TO BE DOING THAT!!!

    Btw I am so passionate about self growth, personal empowerment, mind body medicine, creativity, neuroplasticity, nature…….

    Thank You so much…….again!

    Reply

  • Hugh Kimura — October 3rd, 2011, 4:33 pm

    This is a great guide! I’ve always believed the same thing. Although I have a college degree, I have never been “qualified” for any of the jobs I have had.

    For me, it was all about spinning the resume to suit the job and some networking.

    Most people who went to college really have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that you can be self taught in almost any area of expertise (except for rocket surgery…you actually need a degree for that). We really need to evaluate our educational system.

    Reply

  • David — October 3rd, 2011, 4:40 pm

    Hi. all
    Unfortunately, I’ll have to be the critical voice of this post. I am very disappointed in the content. Why does this whole post sounds like a sale page for an info product which will never deliver? Sounds really shaddy. The more interesting question might be “if Michael Ellsberg is a skilled salesman, what is he selling to us right now?”

    First, the title of this post is off. The post should of titled towards job searching, or “creating jobs” instead of “getting what you want” which is misleading.

    Second, comepletely assumption that the books you will read will be by active practictioners and not theorist. There is a equal/greater chance that you will waste your time reading theorist/scam artist who simply wasn’t good a pushing their book to the masses.(bad sales pages, slogan. etc)

    Third, the example of Jena la Flamme is greatly problematic. I fail to see how it relates to this post. the simplified storytelling of (A)she was doing okay (B) read 4 hour work week (C) she’s making alot of money is quite dangerous. We can honestly assume that there was a whole lot more to it than that.

    Fourth, not compatible with the “4 hour work week” principle. Michael Ellsberg admitted to this. enough said.

    Fifth, I didn’t like the tone of “You do this for 9months and You’ll get paradise”. All that from a single blog post. Classic salesman pitch, is it not? Promising what cannot be delivered. And guess what will happen if 9 months passes and nothing happens. It is going to be the reader’s fault for not doing it correctly, or not being asserted enough, or some other obsure reason at the expense of the reader.

    Sixth, The fact that Michael Ellsberg interviewed people doesn’t have any value. Most interviews are pretty much garbage whether it is because less than stellar questions asked, flamboyant answers given, and/or terrible editing,

    Seventh, The cost for the “action plan” is greatly reduced from acutal costs. Of course, Michael Ellsberg forgot to include the cost of “breakfast, lunch, dinner, or drinks” for 10 business owners, even if you go dutch. The cost for the whole “action plan” is mostly several times more than $300.

    There are more but I’ll end it here.

    This post lowered my opinion of Michael Ellsberg. And it is sad that tim’s blog is increasingly becoming sales pitch and/or credibility boost for some salesman. probrably to fill the void as tim personally post less and less.

    All in all, this whole post could have been reduce to just embeding the video.
    Thank you for reading.

    Reply

    • Red Lebrun — October 7th, 2011, 12:36 am

      Hi David,

      Interesting points you raise here. I’m in disagreement, but I think it’s fundamentally important to acknowledge and at least try to understand opposing points of view. You said in your post that there were additional points you would not be getting into? I’d be curious to hear them as well, thanks :)

      Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — October 9th, 2011, 12:35 am

      Hi David,

      Thanks for opening up a critical dialogue here. I always welcome that.

      I’ll try to address your points one-by-one.

      –> 1. “The title of the post is off.”

      True, if “what you want” is, say, to get married and have a happy family life, then my post may not be entirely relevant. But for nearly anything in the profesional/career realm, I believe it is highly relevant to getting what you want. The two big skills for getting what you want in the professional realm are networking/connecting and sales (i.e., persuasive face-to-face communication.) Master those and you’ll get pretty much anything you want in the professional realm. I stand by the title.

      –> 2. “Comepletely assumption that the books you will read will be by active practictioners and not theorist. There is a equal/greater chance that you will waste your time reading theorist/scam artist who simply wasn’t good a pushing their book to the masses.(bad sales pages, slogan. etc)”

      That is entirely up to you. I take it the subtle connotation here is that you regard my *own* book that way. Fine. Don’t have my book be one of the books on your reading list.

      But to say that there are *no* street-smart books out there by real world practitioners is an absurdity that reflects either total lack of experience, or an extreme cynicism that must have come from getting burned multiple times by bad choices in the past.

      In my own process of “hacking” my credentials as a commercial copywriter (which, as I said in the post, took a lot longer for me than 9 months,) I read three books that changed my life. One was “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples, one was “On Advertising” by David Ogilvy, and one was “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins. (The latter two men, by the way, did not have college degrees, and thus are perfect examples of the kind of credential-hacking I write about.)

      All three men were absolute masters in their fields, at the top of their game, and shaped nearly all modern advertising/marketing. And these books are cherished and recommended by nearly all practitioners of marketing I’ve ever encountered. To dismiss them as “scam artists” is profoundly naive. If you’re in business, a lot of the techniques you’re probably using to market your business were invented by these men. And their insights are available to you for the trivial cost of a book.

      –> 3. “Third, the example of Jena la Flamme is greatly problematic. I fail to see how it relates to this post. the simplified storytelling of (A)she was doing okay (B) read 4 hour work week (C) she’s making alot of money is quite dangerous. We can honestly assume that there was a whole lot more to it than that.”

      The relation to this post is quite obvious. It’s a post about hacking credentials. Most people who have wellness centers and/or who coach on issues of nutrition have either R.D. or even M.D. credentials. Jena does not even have a B.A. She hacked her credentials – the topic of my article. Couldn’t be more straightforwardly relevant.

      Yes, you can “honestly assume that there was a whole lot more to it than that.” Her story unfolded over 10 years. I told it in 7 paragraphs. Go figure. There’s a lot more detail and nuance in 10 years than can fit in 7 paragraphs. I told her story in outline form, and the outline I presented is accurate so far as any outline can be accurate.

      –> 4. “Fourth, not compatible with the “4 hour work week” principle. Michael Ellsberg admitted to this. enough said.”

      I’m not sure where Tim Ferriss has a rule posted which says that he only allows articles on his site which give advice that can be implemented in 4 hours per week. As I stated very openly, my advice will take much more than 4 hours per week to implement. But I believe it is broadly consistent with the message of Tim’s work and his first book, as it’s all about getting results in the most efficient, effective way possible – going for the 80/20 and cutting out all the BS.

      –> 5. “Fifth, I didn’t like the tone of ‘You do this for 9months and You’ll get paradise’”

      Your words, not mine. What you’re doing here is classically called a “straw man” argument. What I did say is that I believe a concerted 9-month effort along the lines of my program will have a very solid shot at beating a 4-year BA program or a 2-year MA program, in terms of the career results and earning power it produces. I stand by that. I didn’t talk anywhere about “paradise.” As they say, don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

      –> 6. “Sixth, The fact that Michael Ellsberg interviewed people doesn’t have any value. Most interviews are pretty much garbage whether it is because less than stellar questions asked, flamboyant answers given, and/or terrible editing.”

      I spent two years networking my way to some of the world’s most successful people who don’t have college degrees, and talking with them. I don’t know of anyone who’s talked to more dropouts who went on to become successful, than I have. If you’re interested in success outside of traditional academic paths, “I wrote the book on it” – and I stand by the value of the in-field interviews I gathered.

      If these people’s insights have any value at all, then interviewing them does have value, because most of them don’t take the time to write themselves – they’re too busy in their business. You try to get your way to self-made billionaires. I got to four of them (and dozens of self-made millionaires) and shared their insights on these pages. I believe in the value of the wisdom they shared for us.

      –> 7. “Seventh, The cost for the “action plan” is greatly reduced from acutal costs. Of course, Michael Ellsberg forgot to include the cost of “breakfast, lunch, dinner, or drinks” for 10 business owners, even if you go dutch. The cost for the whole “action plan” is mostly several times more than $300.”

      Good point. One other commenter made a similar point. I forgot to include the cost of the meals. My bad. True that.

      Since this seems to be a pretty cost-conscious group, let’s scrap the meals – you don’t HAVE to do meals for sales sessions, they are just a nice touch. I’ve found coffee works fine.

      Let’s say, very conservatively, that taking someone out to coffee at a decent cafe is $15, including tip. Multiply that by 10 and that’s an additional $150 I didn’t count.

      Which brings the total cost of my plan up to $450, not $300. That’s then .45% of the cost of a $100,000 undergraduate or MA program, not .30%. If that extra .15% margin of error set you off course in your decision-making around higher education, I’m terribly sorry, and I’ll gladly refund you the money you paid to have access to my article.

      –> “This post lowered my opinion of Michael Ellsberg.”

      I tend to be quite picky about whose opinions of me I let influence me

      Reply

  • Chas — October 3rd, 2011, 7:47 pm

    Can anyone shed some light on how to go about getting help and or money for an idea for an unbelievable new type of product without the idea being stolen?? The obvious answer would involve patents but patents are easily circumvented with small tweaks…if i want advice and or help it feels shitty asking someone to sign a non-compete form….

    Reply

  • Jeff Maystruck — October 4th, 2011, 12:48 am

    Simply brilliant. I had no idea that the informal job market was that large, very sobering stat. I would say that every high school kid out there needs to read this. I love the new world of education (or Un-education) whatever you want to call it. Something needs to change and you’re on the tip of the iceberg my friend.

    Cheers,
    @jephmaystruck

    Reply

  • Kyle Reed — October 4th, 2011, 9:01 am

    thank you for sharing this with us.

    Amazing resource that is inspiring.

    Reply

  • Mark Aylward — October 4th, 2011, 9:10 am

    I couldn’t agree more on just about every point. I am a recruiter, entrepreneur and father so I’ve seen this from three very interesting angles. Nobody knows how to hire people properly, learning never stops for the successful and my kids are going to find their passion, find a mentor (or a few) and work for themselves as soon as possible. Cool post-thanks
    Mark

    Reply

  • Sam — October 4th, 2011, 10:10 am

    Amazing content. I bet I will win the contest… Thanks gentlemen!

    S.

    Reply

  • Fawn — October 4th, 2011, 12:26 pm

    My Capricorn soul yearns for this! Plus the thought of doing this makes me want to throw up a little, which can often mean it’s exactly where I need to stretch next. (C’mon, I know you’ve all felt this before.) I need to get the f out of my own way.

    Setting up my plan and my support system now.

    Thanks for the kick in the pants, Michael, and I love that the contest is for something new. See you on December 29.

    Reply

  • Matthew Weintrub — October 4th, 2011, 4:42 pm

    I accept.

    Reply

  • Heidi — October 4th, 2011, 7:01 pm

    For anyone at Step 7 – I have a business offering lifetime, wholesale vacation packages. The retail price is $11,000. I’m looking for salesmen who will receive $9,705 per sale after their third sale.

    Reply

  • Arsene Hodali — October 4th, 2011, 10:50 pm

    Great challenge.

    I just recently quit dancing (Guess who’s now officially unemployed?) because I knew down the road I’d be mad at myself for doing it when I’m not as passionate about it as I am about illustration/graphic design, computers/programming, writing, and entrepreneurship/business (“Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.” ~ Po Bronson).

    Even though I’m an avid follower of my passions, at this level I’m more comparable to a librarian who loves books instead of an author – I’ve done nothing with my passion.

    Looking at my passions and the type of people I respect and generally want to be around (designers and thinkers) Website Design seems like a perfect pursuit for me.

    THIS POST COULDN’T HAVE COME AT A BETTER TIME!

    See you on Dec 29.

    Reply

  • Jason W — October 4th, 2011, 11:26 pm

    Question:

    Is the submitted entry meant to be a description/journal of WHAT WE HAVE DONE to implement steps 1-9, or is it meant to be the actual project?

    I am looking at an information marketing direction, pitched to consumers…and I will want my website’s content to focus the topic I am presenting, not “Today I figured out how to install a customizable theme on WordPress….”

    Thanks.

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — October 8th, 2011, 11:09 pm

      Hi Jason,

      In Step 2 of the program outlined above, I suggest creating a blog to detail your reading/learning/research about your new field. The post on Dec. 29th. will be a single post (posted on the same blog that was created in Step 2), describing all you have done so far in implementing the Steps – as many of them as you have gotten to. Link to that post in the comments section here. Thanks!

      Reply

  • Nicki (FutureDerm.com Editor) — October 5th, 2011, 12:40 am

    Very interesting indeed. I’m currently an MD student and have often wondered about the true cost in devoting what are arguably one’s most highly energetic, focused years to academics and residency rather than actually putting forth this effort in industry. Though one can argue that highly specialized and skilled professionals make a fairly well-to-do living, this level of expertise must be continually demonstrated and maintained over the course of one’s twenty-to-thirty-year career, which does not usually begin until the early-to-mid-30′s. While I certainly am not knocking medicine, this article is a poignant note to pre-medical students who are in it for status or financial gain that there are much more efficient ways to do so than becoming a specialist.

    Reply

  • Simon — October 5th, 2011, 3:16 am

    This is totaly awesome! I’m going to give it a try. Follow me on my way to a better man here!

    Reply

  • Dilanka Wettewa — October 5th, 2011, 10:51 am

    Overall this is a fantastic post — but this is actually TERRIBLE ADVICE for the average student.

    100% of the T.F 20 kids are in the top 1% as far as self motivation/intelligence etc. (If you read the bio(s)– you’ll notice that multiple people were matriculated at top ivy league schools before their 15th birthday!).

    Peter is essentially crowd-sourcing entrepreneurship in a very smart way. Get a bunch of highly intelligent, highly passionate kids (none of which have gotten into the “corporate” job ladder yet), throw a very small amount of money at them (let’s be honest 100K is a GREAT deal considering what these kids are working on — literally the next generation of technology).

    You’ll be surprised how effectively things work when you leverage peer pressure in a good way.

    My Point: This case is a huge outlier and most people will fail miserably if they decide to follow this advice.

    Michael seems to agree: “…Those aren’t the kids I’m writing about (or for). I’m writing my book for motivated, disciplined, ambitious, serious young people. I believe too many of them are funneled into what amount to expensive babysitting programs, when they could be out in the world already, building stuff that matters. …”

    Reply

  • Ksenia Oustiougova — October 5th, 2011, 1:00 pm

    Fantastic – thanks for writing this up. My first test with this model was http://www.lilipip.com – I made a bunch of mistakes, learned, and now on to a new venture – http://www.plumagram.com – articles like these keep me going – especially in the dark moments of doubt. Thanks so much!!!

    Reply

  • David: The Wonder Technique — October 5th, 2011, 1:32 pm

    Hi Tim, Michael, Everyone,
    I am a keen believer that if you have passion for what your work is all about and the drive to leap out of bed each day to do your work you will succeed.

    If the work requires formal education get it and keep getting more. If you work does not need formal education you still need to educate yourself daily. The more you invest in you the more you have to offer others.

    A couple of key notes I learned time and time again that create life success:

    Under promise and over deliver

    Do for other people that you would love them to do for you

    Take the time to breath and relax each day

    Take the time to learn and apply a new idea each day

    These ideas I have learned from Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale and my Dad

    Best of Success to everyone on your journey

    David

    Reply

  • Mike Burngasser — October 5th, 2011, 3:43 pm

    Only those who have endured 4 years of schooling and $100,000+ in debt can truly understand how meaningless it all is.

    A Few Quick Stories:

    —-

    “4 Years of Flight Training in 14 Days”

    After coming out of 4 Years at one of the world’s top Aviation Programs, I head off to SIMCOM in Sunny Orlando, Florida for a Type Rating in the Citation II Business Jet.

    Day 1 – I walk in the door cocky and ready to kick ass. After 15 minutes, it’s clear I have no idea what is going on. With 2 Airline Pilot parents and 4 Years of Aviation Training, I have no F***ing Idea what the instructor is talking about.

    Open Mouth. Insert Firehose.

    Day 5 – First Day “Flying” a $20 Million Dollar Box on Stilts (The Citation II Simulator). We practice starting engines. It’s a 10 step process that requires looking at precisely the right instruments at exactly the right times. Don’t mess this up or you’ll cook a $500,000 engine.

    Day 8 – Instrument Approaches. 5x Faster than I’ve ever seen. Afterwards I sit in a parking lot staring into space for 45 straight minutes while my brain reboots. This is the single most technically difficult skill I’ve ever attempted. A 6-Month training period distilled down to 8 days.

    Day 14 – Test Day. Engines are failing on Short Final 100′ off the ground. Fire bottle lights are coming on during climbout. Alarm bells are ringing literally the entire flight. I’m sure at one point every single system had failed. Me and Dave Whitehead (sim partner) looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator. Stone Cold. The flight was like watching Chuck Yeager fly the space shuttle. The instructor got so comfortable that he put his feet up and started reading a chapter book.

    I learned more in 14 days than I had in the previous 4 years combined!

    —-

    “Forcing Multi-Millionaire Stephen Pierce to Give you a Job”

    Sophomore year of my “student debt tour” at Kent State University. I picked up this little known book titled “The Four Hour” something or other…

    …It gave me the strange need to start a business.

    The itch didn’t go away. 3 Years later I was still struggling away at the money-making game.

    At some point in the shuffle, I went to a Stephen Pierce “Make Real Money on the Internet (MRMI)” seminar.

    For those of you who don’t know, Stephen Pierce has devoted a good portion of his waking life to Internet Marketing, built HUNDREDS of online income streams, and made himself a multi-millionaire 50 or 100 times over.

    He’s also a rock of monk-like discipline.

    Up at 5am. Workout till 6am. Run one Business until 10am. $50,000+ revenue per-weekend seminar until 5pm. Run online coaching until 9pm.

    He sleeps 4 hours per night and is completely ok with that.

    By the third day, I realized I needed what’s in Stephen’s brain. And I didn’t have $20,000 per day for coaching.

    So I did the next best thing. I walked up to him and said

    “You have people working at the front desk. I will work the front desk free at every seminar. Where is your next seminar?”

    There was no question in my voice. Stephen seemed a bit confused and then said, “Charlotte, North Carolina” (we were in Cleveland).

    “I’ll see you there.”

    This was my all-in move. I was either going to win big time or die trying. And I wasn’t about to ask permission.

    The first seminar I drove to. 9 Hours of driving in the middle of the night.

    Having around $150 in my bank account, the only option was living in my car and taking “Mexican Showers” in the hotel lobby bathroom before changing into a suit and acting like I didn’t just sleep in a Honda Civic.

    (Don’t feel too bad, Stephen’s staff found out I was living in my car and comped me a hotel room. Score!)

    The next 3 months working Internet Marketing seminars was like getting hit with Defibrillator Paddles over and over.

    Those seminars were more of an Internet Marketing education in 12 weeks than I had in the prior 12 years.

    —-

    “The VERY Informal Job Market”

    Following the Stephen Pierce adventure, I underwent 6 months of flying a King Air F90 (8 Passenger Turbo-Prop) then got back into Internet Marketing.

    This time specializing in SEO – that’s “Search Engine Optimization” for those who are still searching on AOL and running 2.5″ floppy disk drives.

    My nights were spent reading BacklinksForum threads on my iPhone for 3-4 hours in bed. Something about the Google game was captivating beyond belief.

    Can you really fool Google? Can you really get that much traffic?

    After a few months, I wrote a (now outdated) eBook “Google Domination Method”. At 177 Pages, it’s most likely larger than everything else I’ve ever written in my entire life combined.

    SpaceBalls Quote: “OK, The Short Short Short Version!”

    2 Months later, after being contacted out of the blue by Adam Feinberg, I was offered a job as an SEO analyst with his company.

    There is no “JD Power and Associates” for SEO, but if there was, Maryland Web Builders would probably get an award for “Most Aggressive SEO Company.”

    Fast Forward 6 Months

    One of my personal sites, a “fun side venture” is now ranked #1 for the 2 Largest Weight Loss words in the world.

    One of my sites is pushing annualized $70,000 per year on auto-pilot.

    Another, one I started 3 weeks ago, is around $30,000 per year. Also passive income. That’s growing at around $20,000 per year every month. And I’ve tapped about 5% of the marketing opportunity.

    Judged by talking to hundreds of other SEO’s on a daily basis, I now consider myself in the top 2% of SEO’s in the world. The information I have learned in the last 6 months is not available in any SEO eBook or Print Book worldwide. And trust me, I’ve read them all.

    —-

    Guys and Gals – Trust me when I say this. Traditional Education will make you just that…Traditional.

    Tim Ferriss said something a month or so back in his private Q&A for Four Hour Body Forum readers:

    “If you want to succeed, you need to specialize. Pick one thing and stick with it until you’re the best.”

    That same comment has been resonated by Billionaire Felix Dennis (Owner of Maxim Magazine), among many others.

    If you want to succeed, you have to FOCUS and SPECIALIZE.

    Let nothing distract you.

    Remember: No matter what the sirens are singing, stay the course.

    Reply

  • David — October 5th, 2011, 4:00 pm

    Hi, Michael

    I’m sorry to say that I cannot agree with your post. First of all, you forgot to add the cost of breakfast, lunch, dinner or drinks with other 10 business owners in Step 8, This alone could skyrocket your estimates at least to $600. double your original estimated cost. We can all agree that these action plan will inccur many miscellaneous cost that would triple your original estimates.

    I never thought that “College equals Security for Life” to be true. However, I also have to question your post that “9 step action plan plus only $300 dollars”(which already proven to be non-realistic) equal “better than college degree and deliver what a college degree didn’t”. In fact, it is very dangerous. This post might be “proper, effective, non-sleazy, high-integrity sales”, but aren’t you selling the same impossble dream like all those late night infomericals?

    Reply

  • Chris Weish — October 5th, 2011, 5:35 pm

    I’ll get your book, the story you tell about life is exactly what I wanted to hear when I was still in school.

    It’s regretable that some of us are smart enough to be extremely bored by formal schooling but not smart enough to realise that we can do without it.

    Hopefully your message will find it’s way to many young and ambitious people.

    Reply

  • Ryan — October 5th, 2011, 6:41 pm

    Thanks for the post Michael! (and Tim, too)

    I’m a junior computer engineering student, and I’m completely apathetic towards completing my degree.

    I just returned from a three semester break of school, during which I started doing freelance web development and used techniques learned online to jump from a $12/hr student webmaster job to $50/hr rates (increasing soon because of school).

    The engineering degree is a great screening tool for potential hires (work ethic, etc), but I’m lightyears ahead of everyone I know at school in social economy and job skills. If I want to make straight A’s, I would need to spend less time doing things that are actually moving me in the direction I want to go and more time doing homework, labs, and projects at the snail’s pace of traditional instituions.

    Working 15 hours a week at $75/hr, I would make $90k over the next ~1.5 years. With college, I’ll be losing >$10k a year in tuition in addition to the time I could spend educating myself and working on my own stuff. I have a full time job (engineering) and I’m working at least 60 hours a month to support the bad habit, college.

    —————————-

    After your post (and Steve Jobbs death), I’m going to make a change. Jobbs said, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

    It’s time for a change.

    I’ll be diving into mechanical engineering plus drafting/CAD.

    The link on my name will send you to the blog where I will document my learning, as well as the link below. I’m going to keep it fairly detailed, so it may help others in the future.

    http://elenmech.wordpress.com/

    Reply

  • Ryan — October 5th, 2011, 8:16 pm

    Thanks for the post Michael! (and Tim, too)

    I’m a junior computer engineering student, and I’m completely apathetic towards completing my degree.

    I just returned from a three semester break of school, during which I started doing freelance web development and used techniques learned online to jump from a $12/hr student webmaster job to $50/hr rates (increasing soon because of school).

    The engineering degree is a great screening tool for potential hires (work ethic, etc), but I’m lightyears ahead of everyone I know at school in social economy and job skills. If I want to make straight A’s, I would need to spend less time doing things that are actually moving me in the direction I want to go and more time doing homework, labs, and projects at the snail’s pace of traditional instituions.

    Working 15 hours a week at $75/hr, I would make $90k over the next ~1.5 years. With college, I’ll be losing >$10k a year in tuition in addition to the time I could spend educating myself and working on my own stuff. I have a full time job (engineering) and I’m working at least 60 hours a month to support the bad habit, college.

    —————————-

    After your post (and Steve Jobbs death), I’m going to make a change. Jobbs said, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

    It’s time for a change.

    I’ll be diving into mechanical engineering plus drafting/CAD.

    The link on my name will send you to the blog where I will document my learning. I’m going to keep it fairly detailed, so it may help others in the future.

    Reply

  • Nancy U — October 5th, 2011, 8:17 pm

    Prizes? I don’t need no stinking prizes!

    Both Noah (“How to Create a Million Dollar Business in a Weekend”) and Michael (“8 Steps to Getting What You Want…Without Credentials”) presented practical, actionable ideas that I am incorporating into my life. I don’t need more prizes. I collected my prizes today when I opened my RSS reader and read both amazing articles.

    Thank you.
    (that doesn’t necessarily mean that ya’ll won’t have to worry about this white haired unemployed gal who’s old enough to be your Grannie on December 29th!)

    Reply

  • David Mann — October 5th, 2011, 9:58 pm

    To answer the last question in the Final Thoughts – “What’s holding you back?”

    ME! That is the most frustrating answer in the world, but it honestly is the only thing hold me back.

    And as for your contest, Tim, challenge accepted!

    Reply

  • ann — October 8th, 2011, 6:58 am

    Do you require us to use WordPress.com for our blogging? Can we use Blogger?

    Reply

  • Jeremy Darko — October 8th, 2011, 12:59 pm

    This is a great post. Very, very detailed & concise. I believe that my main problem is networking. I am very creative, determined & persistent & yet I always fail at maintaining relationships. Over time, I have learned to dismiss it, but I also have learned that networking is a vital skill not only for sales but for building a rep. I wholeheartedly agree that college is not where it’s at (for everyone) in particular for me. It just seemed too boring. Over the course of reading this blog and deciding to initiate my own endeavors I have learned that the easy way is not always most efficient. Are there any suggestions that you could give to someone who spends time primarily on the computer for vital networking vis-a-vis & applying that to the above aforementioned. Thanks, Tim & thanks Michael

    Reply

  • CJ — October 8th, 2011, 2:09 pm

    Hey David, I guess this is not for you. I hope you rethink your position of pesimism.

    For others out there reread his post and pay attention because you will have to dodge many of these motivational vampires in one form or another disguised as well meaning advice.

    Some of the advice has value and the rest is negativism disguised as realistic “real world advice”. Just note it and move on. File it under potential challenges. The truth is complicated and never straight foward.

    So some red flags to avoid all or nothing viewpoints given with no real substance.

    Michael thank you for this post and Tim thank you for creating this platform.

    There is nothing magical about this approach. It is merely using the tools of today and rethinking strategies to get results.

    To succeed you have to fail but I prefer the positive word “learn” so then I never really fail I just learn and then rethink.

    Attaining knowledge and applying creativity and rethinking.

    The hardest part for me is to filter out all the negativity and keeping focused and keeping in the zone.

    People who take failure or “opportunities to learn” poorly and become cynical and negative have a tendency to pull others down with them.

    Misery loves company.

    It gets tricky trying to filter out this garbage. You will find people that are well accomplished and skilled in one or several areas let this confidence go to their head and then they become overconfident in dishing out advice on things they don’t know enough about. (AKA KnowItAll).

    People listen to these accomplished people because of their stature and don’t question the advice and even pass it on to others and it spreads like a virus because others who have ‘failed” love to have an easy escape route to validate themselves as merely victims of bad advice.

    I’ve heard well accomplished people say SEO is just a con game, or none of that stuff works even though it does and easily scientifically proven.

    BEWARE! Alot of bad advice comes from very intelligent people not to say you can’t learn anything from them. You can even learn what not to do as well.

    I think what ads credibility to Tim and the people he brings here is they are hackers. They are constantly experimenting and testing and seeking results.

    To do that I think you have to throw out your ego, the security of all preconceived notions and follow the data.

    BEWARE! watch out for those you do the reverse of the above. They have an agenda and/or a philosophical stance that they rigidly believe AND the research they do or gathering of data is to support what they already believe to be true which is junk science.

    Challenge your own thoughts and beliefs. Question them constantly. Who was the philosopher who believed in attaining knowledge through discourse rather the aggressive and antagonistic debate of the rhetorical speakers who defend their theories to the death with whatever trick they can use or illogical personal attacks.

    I think in studying history you can see the challenges of the great thinkers in the cultures and societies they lived in.

    When I hear criticisms against Tim’s 4HWW I think about what it must of felt like for whats his name that said the world was round.

    So one thing I am working on is staying motivated, finding ways to
    re-energize myself and staying in the zone.

    Without that you will certainly not progress. It is the biggest killer of all dreams and ambitions..

    I work in Mental Health and I see the destruction of lives and potential and torture people suffer based on thought patterns, attitudes, hopelessness, poor self esteem. I have been a victim of these thought patterns myself as many many of have been whether we admit it or not.

    So for these 2 reasons I know I have to keep my faith, confidence and humility strong and have plans in place to deal with major setbacks or even avoiding them if possible.

    I believe we have much more control over our thoughts/ and our emotions than most believe.

    You can choose where you live, who you associate with, what you read, what you watch or listen to, what you eat, smell, taste, what you wear, what you say. what you think about, what you talk about etc….

    I am far in being a master on this myself but I am learning.

    The main thing is to be aware and mindful of where your mind and emotions are going and find ways to control it. Experiment.

    Hey Tim how about the next book “Mind Hacking” :)

    Meditation, Self Hypnosis, Visualization, Day Dreaming, Lucid Dreaming.

    Self Crisis Management, Avoiding triggers to defeatism, Laugh Therapy

    There are many great sources out there on this Topic such as

    “Positive Psychology”

    Alltop.com has a section under work-life for Positive Psychology Blogs

    Thanks again Tim & Michael

    Reply

  • Faye — October 9th, 2011, 2:43 pm

    Hi Michael. First lot of books just arrived. Got a direction. I’ve been chatting with some business owners this weekend who thought the idea was sound. I just need to double check this is open to citizens of UK? It doesn’t matter too much if not, I’ll do it anyway. Not really had the courage before, but looking forward to making some positive professional developments. Thanks, Faye

    Reply

  • Brad — October 9th, 2011, 4:23 pm

    The biggest hindrance I see in applying these 8 steps in 9 months is that I can’t imagine getting up to speed in anything in 9 months! Any field I would want to get into would require a great deal of learning. That is what it means to me to be “into” a field. Perhaps you can have natural talent in writing copy or interior design, for example, but to me these types of fields are exceptions, or at least the rarity among the crop.

    Then again, I do suppose you could get “intern type” work in just about anything after 9 months of self-learning — except for medicine maybe. But to challenge the notion, do you really think it would be possible to hack….theme park design? What kind of “light” services would you start offering to your social circle?

    Reply

  • Tony — October 9th, 2011, 9:23 pm

    Really awesome post… I look forward to partaking in the challenge. Quick question Michael- I want to explore entrepreneurship, specifically running an internet start up… I don’t have any experience with that, but DO have some internet marketing experience. Do I still qualify?

    Reply

  • Bob webb — October 10th, 2011, 5:28 am

    I run a small business (40 employees) and need more information on what appear to me to be conflicting perspectives. On the one hand, you avoid all meetings and conversations, requesting your team to email you. On the other hand, you stated that direct conversation is the best way to solve a problem (with which I agree). None of us like wasted time with meetings or conversations but we do want input and buy-in to decisions. Can you please expand on this? Thanks.

    Reply

  • Brandon — October 10th, 2011, 9:14 am

    Hey Michael, have you ever thought about how this process, or the concepts involved in the process, could be applied to other fields? Like, say, politics and international diplomacy? I see an incredible correlation between what is happening with counterinsurgency efforts overseas, and with the breakdown of the formal education system domestically. Increasingly, I feel people are starting to realize it’s about engaging other people that can bring about change, not just the “official” people designated to the posts at the top of the formal hierarchy. For example, we’ve learned that the most effective way for U.S. forces to engage the people of Afghanistan is to skip over the “central” government in Kabul and go directly to local village elders, asking them what they need and what we can do immediately for them. This seems very similar to your suggested practice of forgetting about consulting with the “central” educational institutions for your education and going directly to local business leaders and figuring out what you can do for them immediately. What do you think about this comparison?

    Reply

  • Herberto — October 10th, 2011, 1:07 pm

    Belo post.

    Thank you!

    Reply

  • Marcus Rideout — October 10th, 2011, 2:12 pm

    I’m so on board. Started my blog. Can’t wait to share it with you on Dec 29, Michael!

    Reply

  • Craig Smith — October 11th, 2011, 9:51 am

    As always your posts are inspirational. This one especially so.
    It is good to know that I am not the only one out there thinking in non-traditional methods of generating income. And real live examples help a bunch!

    Reply

  • Jack — October 11th, 2011, 3:50 pm

    What an immense article.

    I haven’t finished reading it yet. But boy is my brain rewiring in so may different ways. I’m totally surprised that more than 80% of jobs are informally placed. It doesn’t leave much for the rest of the 20% of job seekers.
    Yet, when looking back most of the people I know where referred one way or another to their current jobs. Rarely they did get it off a job board. Unless it’s a 7/11 kind of job.

    Reply

  • FD — October 11th, 2011, 9:02 pm

    Tim,

    Searched for this topic on blog and website but couldn’t find reference. Please forgive me if I missed a post that deals with this subject. The slow-carb diet has worked well for me. I’ve lost close to 20 pounds with only one real drawback: since starting the diet, I’ve lived with a bitter taste in my mouth and bad breath. I’ve read that this has to do with ketones, but I’ve also read that the legumes that are a regular part of my meals are supposed to solve the ketone problem. Any suggestions on what I’m doing wrong or how to adjust my diet to deal with this? Thank you.

    Best,

    FD

    Reply

  • JT — October 12th, 2011, 2:49 am

    Michael, it’s 3 AM and I’m still up enjoying your book. Is there anyway we can read Rock Star Envy online? I’m dying to find out more about this ecofeminism you speak of :)

    Seriously though, great book. I’ve found it very motivating so far.

    Reply

  • Daniel Out — October 12th, 2011, 3:48 am

    Hello Michael and Tim,

    My short story: I have been working for others for 12+ years and 7+ years for my present employer, and now I just do not feel respected anymore. So I will do anything necessary to leave. The pay is very good and conditions are ok, but this is not the point.

    October 7th – decided to leave the company, not yet did it :(

    October 14th – by chance, bought Tim’s book “4 hours…”

    October 15th – started reading it

    October 17th – read Noah’s ideas on this Blog

    October 18-19th – contacted 13 possible partners (from my LinkedIn network) to team-up for an on-line business – I missed on Noah’s prize, but I will have my 1 Mil Business soon.

    October 19th – decided to sell my house and free myself from the pressure of the mortgage witch is keeping me in the “rat race”

    October 20th- read this: I decided to go into programming and first stage is for web design as I totally disregarded this till now and I feel like I lost 100 years. But soon it will be all fixed. (I have to ask somebody to teach me how to design my Worldpress blog – so I qualify as starting from scratch.

    I will go head-by-head with my new business and with my new credentials earning (programming will also help develop my business).

    Michael – count me in for December
    Tim – thank you for you being financially free and sharing this with us all
    Noah – great orange on your shirt, great method of business testing. Revolutionary.

    God give me the strength.

    Reply

    • Daniel Out — October 12th, 2011, 3:53 am

      I was so excited that I missed on the dates.

      It is 7 instead of 14
      8 instead of 15
      and so on until today: 12 instead of 20th of October.

      I just realized: Today is October 12th, the Birthday of my youngest daughter.
      This is my present for her.

      Reply

  • Suzi — October 12th, 2011, 8:01 pm

    Loved this post, I am switching careers and this came at the right time. I’m going to buy SPIN Selling. Thank you for the thoughtful post.

    Reply

  • Jeremy G — October 13th, 2011, 6:26 am

    I really love this post! Its amazing that in the last couple of months material such as this continues to find a way in my life when I need it most! I am a veteran who has gone back to school under the G.I bill. I have been given the liberty to educate myself while having the free time to explore other ventures. I now find myself more passionate about the side project I have started, and use my education as a self-goal that enriches my life but I could care less about what job prospects I get from it.

    As mentioned above I recently started something I am very passionate about, first with a blog and now supported with a collection of shirts. I want to move this whole brand in a direction of charitable giving, so these steps mentioned in your blog are going to be of great value! I love your book, and love the blog just as much!! …..THANK YOU for so openly sharing your wisdom!!

    – I Heart Travel-

    Reply

  • Martin — October 13th, 2011, 6:34 am

    Great article.

    I have thought about this quite a bit over the years, but not done the extensive research that you have.

    I have spent many years basically doing a version of, ‘do you want fries with that?’ all the while, a part of me burned, knowing I could be doing something more with my life.

    Those are some interesting percentages that you threw out there. I have not thought of it that way, in the 80/20 etc. I completely resonate with the idea of what someone could do in a year vs someone going for a degree. I have for a long time carried the notion that it is the only way to an above average type of success, as I see our conventional means as being really limited, and you verified that even more.

    Thanks for laying out the steps you would take, had you not taken the meandering 10 year course, focusing your wisdom from 10 years into a theoretical 1 year time line. Great suggestions.

    I loved when you mentioned that I am assuming you are unemployed now, as I am. and I am determined to make something better for myself than the trail I have behind me, and ideally, a 4 hour work week type of thing would be excellent, or something I wouldn’t mind doing for 80 hours even if I wasn’t compensated.

    You give a lot of real tangible hope to people with this article, with concrete suggestions that someone could implement right away.

    I am in the defining phase, of what exactly I want to do, which I am not uncovering really easily.

    It’s amazing how years of not setting goals etc. has a sort of dulling effect in that region of your intellect.

    Thanks for the inspiring and thought provoking article.

    Martin

    Reply

  • April Vokey — October 13th, 2011, 4:05 pm

    Hello Mr. Ferriss and apologies for having to resort to internet contact.
    I have read your book 3 times (before and after the improved edition; very smart by the way) and it is wonderful. It has answered 99.99% of my questions and now I’m stuck.
    I am curious what route someone should take in the event that they’ve built their entire career around themselves as a personality?

    Please don’t get me wrong… I work very little and when I do work, it’s doing something I love (I’m a fly-fishing personality, columnist, TV host, and BC fishing guide).
    The problem is that the email volume is outlandish and, as you know, everyone wants something (most of them, for nothing)…

    I work closely with Patagonia and have fished with Yvon enough to know the strengths and weaknesses of the fishing world that I need to capitalize on (the man doesn’t even have an email address!) This gives me more time to do conservation work, etc.
    I have staff that answer most emails, and have even looked into getting a manager. The catch is that most managers are clueless when it comes to fly-fishing and the areas of the sport that can make or break a career (conservation, politics, etc.)
    So… long story short, how does one sincerely apply all of the concepts, when the business is built 100% around themselves?
    Sincerely,
    April Vokey

    Reply

  • Chelsea — October 13th, 2011, 5:52 pm

    Michael, your words, ideas and book couldn’t have landed in my life at a better time. I find myself re-reading parts of your book and running hungrily towards posts like this one to continue the discussion. Looking forward to Dec. 29th…are you only picking one??? :-)

    Reply

  • Taylor — October 13th, 2011, 10:38 pm

    Absolutely fantastic article. Loving the ‘Hacking’ style of things. I literally took a few pages of notes while reading this because it’s exactly along the lines of a new product I’m looking at making for the job hunt today. Great work

    Reply

  • Joshua — October 14th, 2011, 12:22 pm

    I started my blog !!!

    Its a blog about taking care of your body and looking after yourself.

    @everyone: Check it out and let me know what you think (via the contact page). I’ve only got the one post up…but it’s a great post!

    http://www.thesimplehealthblog.com

    @Michael: I’ve started networking. I’m really enjoying it. I’ve signed up to about three breakfast meetings at insane o’clock in the morning. There are a few groups that meet monthly…and thats about it. You recommended about 20 hours a week. How do you network for 20 hours a week??? Any suggestions?
    (Great post by the way!).

    @Tim: I love your blog!

    Reply

  • Joshua — October 14th, 2011, 12:24 pm

    I started my blog !!!

    Its a blog about taking care of your body and looking after yourself.

    @everyone: Check it out and let me know what you think (via the contact page). I’ve only got the one post up…but it’s a great post!

    http://www.thesimplehealthblog.com

    @Michael: I’ve started networking. It’s really fun! I’ve signed up to about three breakfast meetings at insane o’clock in the morning. There are a few groups that meet monthly…and that’s about it. You recommended 20 hours a week. How do you network for 20 hours a week??? Any suggestions???
    (Great post by the way!).

    @Tim: I love your blog!

    Reply

    • Yanka — October 20th, 2011, 6:18 am

      Joshua,

      20 hours of networking is pretty simple. You probably are already doing it at the moment and not realizing you do. Living in NYC, I network everywhere I go. Whether you are at the supermarket, on a train, or at an event, you can network! Anywhere and everywhere is my motto. As mentioned in the video, as long as you have a “giving” attitude towards people you meet you can pretty much attract positive energy everywhere you go. You never know who is who…

      Reply

  • Braden Talbot — October 14th, 2011, 7:16 pm

    Well I finally picked something—something quite difficult if I’m looking for work within the next year. I’m going with programming (and computer science). I bought http://www.codenoobs.com and have started learning C++, a difficult programming language.

    It seems like I’ve taken a swipe at most of the other things or even went deep into them (music, marketing, writing) but I am excited about this.

    Did anyone else pick programming?

    Reply

  • Fab — October 15th, 2011, 1:10 am

    Hi Michael,

    great article!! Congratulations!!

    I’ve jus put your book on my Must Reading Watchlist and I’ll buy it a.s.a.p. !!

    Anyway, it has been published another book ( already read ) which deals with this matter:

    http://personalmba.com/manifesto/

    But your book sounds more practical because you offer real life examples!!

    “An ounce of practice is far more important than tons of theory” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

    All the best!!

    Fab, greetings from Italy.

    PS All in all, in western countries, most university education is just a business to make money and not to make the real interests of the students!!

    What a waste of money and time…!!

    But people still have a choice, so in the end:

    Todo Depende….!!

    Reply

  • Fab — October 15th, 2011, 1:24 am

    A couple of useful websites for anyone who wants to be self-employed:

    http://www.1000ventures.com/

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/

    Ciao!

    Fab

    Reply

  • Matt Kinsella — October 15th, 2011, 7:12 am

    WOW! So much great info here, I will definitely be back to recap because there is so much to take in. A lot of what you have written here is what I am half way through at the moment with my blog http://mattkinsella.com/blog-2

    I did not have the luxury of a college education mostly down to the fact I was in a homeless hostel from age 17 to 19 but I still managed to turn my life around and become a successful entrepreneur and in the process worked for top medical companies, Goldman Sachs and Citibank. Doing it all with no valid credentials has proved to me that attitude, work ethic and enthusiasm will always take you far.

    Reply

  • Runner — October 15th, 2011, 6:53 pm

    The author makes a major judgement error here – he assumes individuals not attending university, etc. are automatically motivated to generate Money and be Successful:

    Think back to when you were 17. If you hadn’t gone on to higher education, do you really think your main focus would have been to become successful (likely less than 2% of people)?

    Going to college, etc. is not all about making “money”. It’s about shaping you and providing focus during formative years – a time when you could easily go down the wrong path (it become LESS Likely with further education, not impossible)

    To the Kids reading – get your education first, worry about the money second.
    As my parents always said “money will come and go, but no one can ever take your education away”

    …..BTW, thought the article was great – just thought the education bashing was abit biased and one sided :P

    Reply

  • Andy — October 17th, 2011, 8:55 am

    Hey there!
    Has anyone already bought the book and can tell me if it’s worth reading after this post? I.e., has the book merely empirical content (yx did this in that way), or are there additional topics covered for which there has been no space here (like “Using SPIN Selling in this or that specific situation”)?

    Reply

  • Taylor McArthur — October 17th, 2011, 1:53 pm

    This post has sooo much great information. I found it very interesting and I definitely agree that the traditional way of educating is quickly becoming useless. I am a current college student and I learn far more outside of the classroom without any professors help then I ever do in class. With the internet and all of the other tools we now have to access information and connect with others, sitting in class almost always feels like a waste of time. I am almost done with my bachelors degree now so I am going to finish it up, but I didn’t have a scholarship I might have thought twice about going to school right away.

    Reply

  • Sarah Osman — October 18th, 2011, 10:47 pm

    Somewhere between occupying wall street and volunteering at Clinton Global Initiative (my only foray into the formal job market since graduating with a BA last May) I realized that what I had learned in the last four years about what would happen at the end of those four years was inherently backwards. Maybe it was being surrounded by extremely qualified people either chanting at the fact that there are no jobs or swimming laps with the bottom feeders in a ultra bureaucratic setting ranging from fifth-time volunteers to world leaders, celebrities, and CEO’s (meanwhile I’m having my foot stepped on by others trying to shake hands).

    What I know is true is that there is conflicting information for youth today. We are told that we can change the world, that our skills, knowledge, and dedication have value in the job market. Yet I find myself competing for jobs I could get with a GED. This is the myth of formal education, that we must perpetually keep attaining these check marks in order to get to the next check mark, never mind the fact that we can get where we want, right now. If we just believe in the fact that we have that power, and seek out, as you suggested, tailored knowledge to our chosen path instead of skimming increasingly exclusionary job ads. More and more graduates are already realizing that the formal route is not as easy as we have been fooled. They are joining orgs like Americorps, and new programs like Venture for America, all to gain that experiential knowledge that we are somewhat deprived of in the formal education setting. Yet these programs are also touted as ultra competitive and are turning into another form of a checkmark. Another delay into the fabled real-world.

    This is why we need to abolish the fear mongering of career centers telling us our resumes should be formatted this way and continuing the myth of career fairs. (Okay, I may be exaggerating) but for real, I’m forwarding this blog to “self-employed” graduate I know. And I’m taking myself up to this challenge. Nothing’s going to get built without first laying out the foundation. (Once I start botching idioms, I know it’s time for me to wrap it up).

    Thank you, times infinity, plus one, for this post. You and Tim both are much needed voices on encouraging self progress, and therefore world progress!

    Reply

  • Andrew — October 18th, 2011, 11:54 pm

    Time to “rinse and repeat.”

    This model REALLY works! It’s a lot of work but it’s a heck of a lot more fun than the “traditional model.” I started doing freelance design work at age 22 and have used networking to land bigger and bigger clients. Now I have too many clients to handle and I am starting to expand my business. I found a field that I liked, studied my brains out and then went out of my way to impress the big dogs. It was tough but worth the struggle, and the benefits continue to multiply!

    I’m inspired to use your process to continue to expand my knowledge and network. It really helps to see the steps laid out so simply. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

    Reply

  • Joe Bennett — October 19th, 2011, 2:18 am

    I am trying to figure out how to get my kids to get both a formal education and an informal one at the same time. I’m trying to think in terms of “Both/and” not “Either/or”. I can say that my bias is definitely toward formal education, but I can see the enormous benefits to unconventional learning.

    Reply

  • Chris Fryer — October 19th, 2011, 9:31 pm

    I have never read a post in my life that has filled me with so much joy/excitement/happiness. Thank you.

    Reply

  • Sam — October 20th, 2011, 4:34 am

    Hi,

    Great posting. Thank you!
    It actually lead me to start a blog. Unfortunately, I probably can not enter the contest since I plan to write in german. Also, it is hard to say if I really start “now”. The most important thing is however, that this post is part of a series of literature which made me realize I have one more skill I never really thought of.
    I startet rather early to be interested in learning techniques of various kinds. I allways saw it as a tool to get other things. So I got without much struggle a diploma in a natural science, (nearly) highscore in the TOEFL test, became a black belt in a martial arts, learned advanced juggling, playing guitar..etc (some of this actually only for the fun of the learning progress). Since I am heading towards my Phd at the moment, there is no urge to sidestep the usual jobmarket. But it would still be awesome to become an expert in learning, since that is actually what is most fun for me. I just never saw it as an actual skill.
    Still very nice of you to start the contest and good luck to all participants.
    At some point I will probably translate my blog into english. So maybe at this point I will have sidestepped this contest and come to a guest posting to one of the blogs of you guys ;)

    greetings

    Reply

    • Oswald — January 21st, 2012, 8:21 am

      Hi there everyone!

      It’s really a great blog and I’ve read a lot of interesting and inspiring stories but I do have one question for all of you guys.Maybe not one but a few and maybe your answer will help to let of people also,me included.

      The thing I’m strugling with is routine work doing for myself not for somebody else. I don’t have trouble at all to get up and go to work at 7 o’clock or whatever time needed to perform tasks/job related work for other people but when it comes down to do the things I need to do for myself I am strugling. What I mean is if for instance I need to do push ups or some kind of diet that needs to be done for a long period of time , I found out that after a week or two I get distracted by some kind of BS and eventually I fail at my individual task involving only my personal growth.

      In my personal opinion for me and for all other people wanting to become a successful in any kind of field it is essential to keep doing what is needed when the initial enthusiasm fades away. So I would really appreciate if somebody who struggled with something like this could share their story and how they overcame it. I think my question is related to the general idea of doing the steps Michael shared with us and not stopping in the middle of the process.

      Wish you not to let your hands down achieving your dreams!

      Oswald

      Reply

  • Yanka — October 20th, 2011, 5:55 am

    I loved this article. Although I just read it and may be a bit late to enter the contest. However, I will start implementing all the steps mentioned into my life and my new business. The video was great and made a lot of great points. Sometimes we forget that giving is so powerful. I’m glad you reminded us of that simple rule of life.
    The url link I posted is to a fitness company I am currently building for my boyfriend’s business. I start cosmetology (hair) school in March 2012 and have been considering starting my own blog site where I can share my progress and knowledge in the beauty industry. Your suggestions strengthened my belief in myself and my ideas. Thank you so much for sharing.

    Reply

  • Joshua — October 20th, 2011, 3:55 pm

    @Yanka,

    Thank you for your response :)

    I always talk to people about my new project when I’m out and about (I don’t even count that, thats just me being me).

    I guess my question should have been: What are the best places to meet business owners for 20 hours a week?

    I have found a networking group for just about every day of the week. Almost everyone is a business owner at those meeting. Certainly enough people to meet for the next two months. Most meetings last about 2 hours each (so thats 10 hours).

    I have also searched the local library for “buiness-y” talks and found a couple that would probably attract business owners (lets say an extra 3 hours a week at best).

    I have signed up to all the local tax education meetings (WHICH IS A FANTASTIC WAY TO MEET OTHER BUSINESS OWNERS, for anyone else on the challenge). Thats about another 2 hours a week (because they tend to be monthly rather than weekly).

    …and I still havn’t hit the 20 hour mark!!!

    In his video, Michael mentioned hanging out in places where business owners congregate. I was hoping he could give us a heads up on some of the best places for this (given his experience). Networking groups are great, but they are also quite expensive (and if you go to one very day it adds up).

    Any suggestions are welcome :)

    Reply

  • Joe — October 21st, 2011, 2:35 pm

    Ellsburg is on the money. A couple months of reading the top books in a field may give you most of the foundation you need in a lot of fields. The tendency to read too much, actually, bogs down people like me who like to read a lot and absorb information. But I’m developing a skill I call “Book Hacking” which is largely just speed reading and speed researching techniques but it is part of a larger skill I call “Knowledge Hacking.” A good student in general, I think, makes a topic, or subject, or material, his/her own. You personalize it and consume it in the way that makes the most sense to you and you get out of it what you want. For many professions, this kind of learning can be done outside of academia, but you have to add back in the social elements that academia provides. Great post!

    Reply

  • Tom — October 22nd, 2011, 12:23 am

    Michael,

    Thank you so much for this great opportunity! Your book The Education of Millionaires and this challenge have convinced me to learn about the business of copywriting, which I will document my new blog http://www.jumpstartcopy.com

    I was inspired to create my own business from this challenge, so win or lose, I thank you for the motivation to create something on my own.

    Thank You!

    Reply

  • Fab — October 22nd, 2011, 2:35 am

    @Sam

    In Italy there is a famous “Learning Coach” whose name is Daniele Mattoni.

    Here is his website:

    http://www.learningcoach.it/

    You could get in touch with him via email to get some useful cues.

    He knows English very well.

    To translate Italian into German or English, you may use:

    http://translate.google.com/

    All the best!

    Fab

    PS his book “Eight Steps for Learning to Learn” is a Masterpiece!

    Reply

  • Lalitha Brahma — October 23rd, 2011, 11:43 am

    Tim, Thanks for this great article.
    I just read it and am sure by this time there will be a Winner for the contest.
    When a person loses a job and transitions to an Entrepreneur, he is faced with two major challenges
    1. Lack of self esteem/confidence/proper direction and getting stuck.
    2. Money to invest/OR not sure if the it is worth investing in unknown territory
    In this article, you have provided various low cost/free options to transition to an Entrepreneur, by making a commitment to learn skills as a trainee and become revenue a generator.

    Reply

  • jo blog — October 23rd, 2011, 1:48 pm

    The Irish Presidential election is about to be won by an non party outsider called Sean Gallagher

    “His three favourite tomes on the bookshelf at home are Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, Success Principles by Jack Canfield and The 4-hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.”

    http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/through-the-eyes-of-a-dragon-2072647.html

    He mentions “Workweek” all the time. Google his name and the book.

    Reply

  • Tom — October 23rd, 2011, 9:43 pm

    Great article as it finally encouraged me to start my own blog and enter the competition. Reading The Education of Millionaires and watching the videos on networking got me so excited that I have decided to give copywriting a go in my free time outside of my regular job.

    Win or lose thank you for inspiring me to go out and create something on my own.

    P.S.
    (I apologize for posting the URL in the comments before. It may sound contrived but I was literally so excited to post I did not check the comment rules.)

    Reply

  • ideas machine — October 24th, 2011, 8:48 am

    My problem is that i want to be well followed but remain anonymous

    Reply

  • Johannes M. — October 24th, 2011, 1:35 pm

    Hey Michael and Tim,

    you really rock! Thank you so much for this post. I think it’s one of the very most inspriring posts I’ve EVER read! I LOVE to read stories like that. They really push the people who read it further in life. Now it’s time for action!

    I’ve never set up a blog. I’ve never started an Internet business. But I am so absolutely in! Just waiting for my “epiphany in the shower” tomorrow.

    Can’t wait to start, nervous like a child…

    Reply

  • Alexandru — October 24th, 2011, 1:45 pm

    My problem, as an educated person, who has been through a lot of serious education, and has been forced to be great at everything is that I struggle to find a career path. I feel like I can’t find my way, and no one wants to be a mentor in Hollywood unless you’re related to them or they can sleep with you for breakfast.

    Reply

    • Joe — October 25th, 2011, 9:58 pm

      Hey Alexandru, I just wanted to say that I think this is a common problem. Some people have too MANY interests. Others can’t start, others can’t finish. Others have a few specific interests, but can’t prioritize. Still others are always let down with the final product when they finish something. There are a number of good resources to turn to, but I’ll keep it simple. Here is one: I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was by Barbara Sher. I found this very useful in clarifying, specifying, analyzing, and motivating. Best of luck!

      Reply

  • Fredrik Gyllensten — October 25th, 2011, 9:32 pm

    Absolutely awesome post, thank you! I will buy the book.

    Reply

  • Peter — October 25th, 2011, 11:49 pm

    Michael,

    At first I felt convinced by what you write. On a second thought I see a problem with the approach. As I understand you would suggest that the most important means of learning from the elected mentor would be to help him with what you are good at. Then, to use a geometric analogy, wouldn’t you try to learn about something that is parallel to the mentor’s know-how by doing something that is orthogonal to it? How does this go together? Or do I miss something?

    Anyway, very good writing! Thanks!
    Peter

    Reply

  • Thierry — October 26th, 2011, 10:27 am

    Great post Tim! In fact, I followed your advice and started a blog in order to network more.

    Thanks again.

    Reply

  • Phil Goetz — October 26th, 2011, 10:45 pm

    Good advice, with a comment and a caveat:

    - What college is worth, compared to starting a career right away, has been studied a lot by economists. It’s called “return to schooling” or “return to education”, like “return on investment”. Unfortunately you can’t google for it, because you’ll get a bunch of pages about going back to school. So you can read about it in Arrow, Bowles, & Durlauf, “Meritocracy and economic inequality”. One year of college increases your salary by about 5%. If you have to take out a $40,000 loan and forego $60,000 in wages for that year, AND the stock market returns 7% over inflation in the long term, then you’d be better off economically putting the money in the bank and collecting the interest. (Returns for college vary by the student’s race and sex, but they vary more by their major and the rank of the college.)

    Some things that change this calculation, though:

    - Student loans are often at low interest.

    - You learn things at college. More than you can on any job. Maybe you won’t learn as /useful/ things, but you’ll learn /more/ things. If you’re into math or biology or chemistry or medicine or some other fact-filled field, school is the way to learn it – not on the job.

    - Returns on going to an elite university are another matter altogether. America is run by people who went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and a few other places. If you go to those places, it will open doors for you for the rest of your life. And if you don’t, certain doors will always be shut to you.

    Basically, in America, community colleges can be worth it, and elite colleges can definitely be worth it. The colleges in the middle are questionable.

    (If you want to be a research scientist, you must begin by going to one of the top 15 institutions in your field of study /as an undergraduate/. This has been true since about 1975, based on a study I did of all American Nobel-winning physicists.)

    Reply

  • Jeff Mac — October 27th, 2011, 11:28 am

    Thank you for a wonderful post Michael! Perfect timing.

    I’ve recently resigned from my corporate job and put off further graduate education and now my family and friends think I am crazy!!

    I will definitely be following the steps you outlined and picking up your book + SPIN Selling.

    Thanks for the motivation!!!

    Reply

  • Yadgyu — October 29th, 2011, 5:55 am

    Honestly, most people that drop out of school are just plain lazy. I don’t think it wise to encourage people to “hack” the job market when they are even too lazy to get an education.

    No one has to or even should spend $100,000 on a college education. If a person wants to learn real skills in a field, he can go to a technical school, community college, or training program to learn. This exposes a person to valuable skills and people without going into huge amounts of debt.

    Articles like this make it seem as if someone can just contact people on Facebook or Twitter and end up making a boatload of money in a few years. Get out of here! A person could have a degree and a job in the time that it takes to play games with trial-and-error games like the ones described here. Poor things.

    Reply

  • Mike — October 30th, 2011, 1:33 am

    Shoot, just read this now. Only 2 months left, will it be too late? (no matter, I’m still going to go through the steps regardless)

    Thanks for the post to both Michael and Tim.

    Reply

  • Mark — October 30th, 2011, 2:15 pm

    I read this post 3 weeks ago,

    3 weeks later I already have 2 paying clients and a third interested!

    So, all in all we can safely say this is a great article and could well be the kick in the a** many people like me needed!

    Reply

    • Annika — November 2nd, 2011, 2:57 am

      Wow, Mark, that’s amazing!! What field are you in? What did you do that changed everything? I wish I could say something similar, I’ve been going for the same amount of time and am lucky if I get 10 views a day on my blog showcasing my growing expertise.. I guess it does take time for some more than others, so I’m staying patient!

      Reply

  • Joseph — October 31st, 2011, 2:18 pm

    Hey Tim,

    I wish I had read this post much earlier to get in on the contest. I appreciate the advice though and can say that this is the best thing I have read since your book.

    I am currently finishing my undergrad degree in computers even though I have no plan to actually go and work somewhere with that degree. I have been teaching myself different programming languages for the past 4 years like php, javascript etc and have stayed in school because everyone tells me to. I started doing programming for people a couple of years ago for $50 here and there building up my portfolio and now I charge around $300 per hour for my services. Funny thing is I still have a hard time when I think of quitting school and continuing with my informal education (which is the only education I have ever enjoyed).

    Anyway in a nutshell I just wanted to say thanks for the advice and hopefully I can find some courage to do what I want and not what everyone else expects.

    Reply

  • Sergei — November 1st, 2011, 5:26 am

    Dear Michael,

    I want so say Thank You from the bottom of my heart for writing this article. I am confident that you made some great change in the world and because of you people start doing what they are passionate about in financially rewarding ways. You motivated me and gave a meaning to the things I do in life.

    I am currently studying an Undergraduate degree in Engineering at a British University. I am from Germany myself, and was (like other people above) not quite sure if I could participate because of the language/location thing. But I guess, like many times in life, if the desire is big enough, you can achieve anything. So I started a blog about my learning experiences in the field of hypnosis:

    http://assertivehypnosis.com/

    Why Hypnosis when I study Engineering? Because I am in my third year of the Engineering degree, and the more time has passed the more I couldn’t find any sense in studying those things, because they don’t make an impact in the world. I don’t know if you have mentioned it before, but one huge point on the negative side of a University education is that people are “produced” to fit certain criteria, and not a single person is prepared to make a real change in this world . And in Hypnosis, a field that I have been interested in for almost my entire life and never even tried to learn it, I actually SEE how I can make a difference in the world. I see a meaning in helping people to overcome their difficulties in life.

    Nonetheless, I am not planning to quit University for now as I’m almost finished anyway. I’ll let it run on the side to have an “option” in life, so I can still go back to working in oil industry should I ever feel like doing so.

    But in the meantime I will combine your thoughts with Tim’s thoughts and have in mind to produce a “muse” with my newly gained knowledge as soon as possible

    Thanks again for this highly motivating article.

    Reply

  • Michelle Lopez — November 2nd, 2011, 1:32 am

    Well, I probably can’t add anything that hasn’t already been stated in the article or the comments… but this new way of getting educated serves as a great “revision” of an outdated, stuffy approach to learning. Glad this is finally happening.

    I went to college for one reason, and for one reason only — to study English. I loved it, and I wanted to dive right into it. The core requirements were the only thing that really annoyed me about school (as well as the requirement to be physical present!). And truly, I am now using ZERO of those “core classes” knowledge in my daily life now.

    Did anything I learn in college end up applying to my actual work? Not really — unless you count the deepening of my critical thinking, reading, and analytical skills. Did college open a huge door for me that wouldn’t have been opened had I not had a BA? Probably. For the record: it took me 8 years to finish my undergrad degree, as I was working full-time while in school. :-) At that more relaxed pace, I was able to get a lot more out of my classes. (Never understood the insanity of taking 4-5+ classes per semester. How do you really learn anything in that type of environment??)

    I plan to pursue a graduate degree at some point in my life, purely for fun, and probably not for many years. The challenge will be deciding on what degree to pursue, as I have many, many interests. Until then, life and business will continue providing me with awesome, hands-on schooling and constant learning.

    Reply

  • sarah — November 2nd, 2011, 11:31 am

    Hello Michael(and Tim): It will be superb to get to learn from Michael in person! One question is, my target clients are chinese, so basically my blog is mainly in Chinese. Will that be ok for me to join this contest? writing my self-education blog?

    Reply

  • jean — November 3rd, 2011, 7:02 am

    hey, it’s an article with the “wahouuu !!” effect !
    just someone who is really passionnate can write an artlicle like this :)
    THANK YOU…

    Jean
    France

    Reply

  • Joseph — November 3rd, 2011, 7:14 am

    Just bought spin selling Tim. Thanks guys again for the great article.

    Reply

  • Mark Cann — November 5th, 2011, 8:47 am

    Hi Michael,

    First of all great to see all of the comments, and a few of them from people I know too :-)

    Getting involved in the fourhourworkweek community and also reading Ebens DYD newsletter of those top 10 reasons why it didn’t work out with my first girlfriend and dipping my head as I realise 8 of those I was doing wrong are all what Steve Jobs would of said is “connecting the dots”.

    I started my company 18 months ago and have met some amazing people and challenged myself both personally and professionally. The one thing I would add to what you’ve written about is that as an early stage business finding people who you can work with who specialise in each of these, for example sales is my specialism, however now as a business owner I get involved in blogging, speaking, and now I want to improve my copy writing skills.

    I always take time out to read blogs on a Saturday and have to say that was well worth the 1hr or so it took to read through. Hopefully I will be visiting NYC next year and would love to meet you and buy you a beer!

    Reply

  • Kristof — November 7th, 2011, 12:29 pm

    I’m in, I chose coaching, but I have some other projects in my mind for a long time, probably will make blog posts about those too, we will see.

    I’m from Hungary, and I can’t name any popular coaches, the area is not too popular here, and not many people hire a personal coach or trainer, we will see how this works out.

    My blog:
    justacoach.blogspot.com

    Good luck to all of you with your projects!

    Reply

  • John Sherry — November 8th, 2011, 4:19 pm

    I still believe it’s who you know (or connect to), what you persuade you can do, and how determined and enthusiastic you are. Jobs based on skills are part of history. CV stands for Confident Voice on 21st Century Earth.

    Reply

  • Jeremy — November 8th, 2011, 9:52 pm

    @Tim

    Fantastic post. Like in all the other things you do Tim, you give us rich bouillon when most give us watered down soup. Kudos.

    What importance do you put on remembering and using people’s names?
    (Dale Carnegie preached this as a big one.. though you are even more influential now!)

    Reply

  • Kristof — November 9th, 2011, 2:21 pm

    I began to wonder why I wrote my blog in english when I’m hungarian, hmpf, then it popped: I need to make two blogs, a hungarian and english version. F’ it, who knows when someone from a foreign country hires me! lol

    Reply

  • Stephanie — November 10th, 2011, 7:01 am

    Great post TIm, I’m a big fan. This website writes about similar things for anyone that’s interested, http://figsandgold.com

    Reply

  • Chris — November 10th, 2011, 1:31 pm

    Your posts all sound pretty good and I think they will give hope to many people. But please don’t forget, that it sometimes is more about being at the right place at the right time.
    Regards,
    Chris

    Reply

  • Kristof — November 11th, 2011, 4:23 pm

    I wrote a long post today, I think it turned out pretty well. Please check it if you would, and leave a comment, thanks!

    http://justacoach.blogspot.com/2011/11/drawing-and-writing.html

    Reply

  • Jacob — November 14th, 2011, 10:44 pm

    Thanks for making this post! Very helpful. I can’t wait to make my own blog and start publishing my journey!

    Reply

  • Suzanne — November 15th, 2011, 12:17 pm

    I love step #5. Case studies show how a client morphed from when you started working together to the current time period. They are a great way to show the linear transformation and what is possible!

    Reply

  • jenny — November 19th, 2011, 11:28 am

    Hi Tim and Michael and Everyone,

    I am a sahm. My husband and I are both college dropouts (20 yrs ago), and ever since, he supports us with his own self-built businesses.

    Being a business owner, my husband knows the value of real world experience, skill, work ethic, common sense, etc. and finding people with those qualities is worth almost anything to him. He couldn’t give a hill of beans if they have a degree.

    Because he’s taught himself everything he knows, he can confidently teach them. Then they are equipped for growth, and it’s all very positive and motivating.

    I happened to spend the summer 2011 learning WordPress, and, before I found any of this, I started a blog about self education because I want to learn independently in my area of interest (architectural
    drafting/drawing/illustration/writing???) while I’m at home so someday (empty nest), I won’t be starting from scratch.

    It just made sense to me that there had to be a way to at least get general education courses done, practice independently, create a portfolio, gain experience, get to know people in the field, etc. before ever setting foot in a school, or even getting formally hired.

    While searching for news and info for post topics, I found Michael’s blog on Forbes, which led me to this post. I’d love to dive right in, but I’m not at all in a position to spend full time on it.

    But it is time for serious exploration of how personal responsibility and unique talents and passions can replace or minimize the need for formal education. College is a good thing, and there is a need and place for it. But not nearly as often, as long, or as extensively as it has gotten. It is becoming a novelty, so people are forced to dig beyond the degree anyway, to see what backs it up.

    I will still be using Michael’s steps, just not for the competition.

    I just wanted to leave a note to shout my hurrah for all of you, and let you know I’m out here learning how to self educate too, and hopefully together we can increase awareness about it, and help make it a more openly available life option.

    I felt crazy when I started researching it, like I was naive. Now I don’t feel that way.

    Go get ‘em guys.

    And PUBLISH IT. LET PEOPLE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND HOW – even if you don’t win the contest. There are a lot of people who want to do this, but don’t know they can, or feel very intimidated by it.

    Thanks to all of you, Jenny

    Reply

  • sean koon — December 4th, 2011, 6:28 pm

    This article is fantastic. I’ll have to confess I did the long expensive education thing. It was invaluable to me, but more for the intangibles. It allowed a “shy guy” to develop hundreds of friendships with wonderful people. It’s opened doors to experiences I can’t fathom being open to me without that training.
    However I loved the article because I believe in understanding clearly what we are investing in each moment. And what we are learning. Most college grads can’t remember the names of all the classes, much less the content! Learning what WE need to know to accomplish OUR mission is our own responsibility that we can’t pass off to any schoolteacher.

    Reply

  • Ricardo Basmagi — December 11th, 2011, 10:21 pm

    I have been a huge believer that doing good deeds for others will always be returned to us sooner or later, but that usually those deeds won’t be returned to us directly by those we have services, but rather from something or someone else down the line. Thank you for all your wisdom and for reiterating that belief! I just began reading Tim’s 4HWW and I’m extremely motivated and inspired. Tim and Michael, you guys are terrific!

    -Ricardo

    Reply

  • Leonardo — December 15th, 2011, 7:44 pm

    I am very truly deeply disappointed that I can’t find Michael Ellsberg’s book “The Education of Millionaires” on iBooks. I’d like very much to buy and read it, but I disrespect authors that don’t consider customer preference. A quality book from a respected author should be available everywhere books are sold.

    Reply

  • Peter — December 18th, 2011, 6:51 am

    Tim

    I watched the video of your talk with Mr. Rose, the fellow who started OINK. I immediately downloaded OINK on my IPhone. What I found is that it does not work, there seems to be a bug that shuts it down as soon as you open it up. Tim, its not a good idea for you to focus on products that don’t work.

    Reply

  • Matthew Weintrub — December 22nd, 2011, 11:54 pm

    Michael, I have to turn in my progress report early. Enjoy! http://yilovewomen.com/2011/8-steps-to-hack-life-2/

    Reply

  • Joshua — December 28th, 2011, 2:48 am

    Hello everyone,

    Here is my blog…http://simplejosh.com/

    That was a really interesting challenge. Thank Tim Ferriss and Michael Ellsberg.

    I hope you enjoy!

    Feed back is always welcome.

    Reply

  • Matt — December 28th, 2011, 2:18 pm

    I’m stumped as far as deciding what I want to do.

    I love design. I love web dev. I love photography. I love nutrition. I’m probably most skilled in design and photography.

    I’m equally passionate for each.

    What should I do? All of it?

    Reply

    • Jason — December 28th, 2011, 10:46 pm

      Since you ask, go for design. Look for where passion, skillset and market need intersect. Photography doesn’t have much market unless you are the top 0.1% of your field. Web dev is leaving these shores, look at eLance rates that’s your competition. Nutrition depends on how well developed of a network you have, and my guess is you don’t have a holistic health fanbase already built up. But good designers are going to be in demand for a long time.

      Reply

      • Matt — January 25th, 2012, 2:02 pm

        Jason,

        Thanks for the response. I’m just now seeing this. I think you are right about design. Design can carry over into the other areas.

        Reply

  • Wonder — December 28th, 2011, 4:04 pm

    Hey Micheal,

    Thanks for the great post and video not to mention the book. I’m 19 and have found all your guidance and advice to be most valuable. Thank you so very much for sharing this knowledge with us. Below is a link to what I’ve done with it so far:

    http://industrialartsblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/create-your-own-career-hacking-informal.html

    Thanks again and happy holidays :)

    Reply

  • Kathy Wilson — December 28th, 2011, 4:38 pm

    Hi Guys
    My post seems to have disappeared so am reposting. Apologies if there is a double up.
    Our timezone means it is the 29th today so figure now is as good a time as any.
    Happy New Year to everyone. 2012 feels like it is going to be fun!
    http://makemydiamonddayshappen.wordpress.com

    Reply

  • Indrek — December 28th, 2011, 7:13 pm

    If it weren’t for this challenge, I’d probably still be a-procrastinating, so thank you…

    http://theoryofsymmetry.me/2011/12/a-long-journey-still/

    Reply

  • Tom — December 28th, 2011, 10:36 pm

    A huge thank you to both Michael Ellsberg and Tim Ferriss as the challenge has been absolutely fascinating.

    I choose to immerse myself in copywriting and made it up to step 2 by displaying everything I learned so far at http://www.jumpstartcopy.com/

    Again I had a great time with the challenge so far, and I hope you all enjoy the website.

    Reply

  • John Garvens — December 28th, 2011, 10:46 pm

    Michael,

    Thank you so much! You post (and book) resonated with me in a way that few books have done. You said what I’ve thought for YEARS!

    That said, I took your challenge. And whether or not I “win” the contest, I won in my own mind because I overcame my self-imposed limitations and now have a job that I absolutely love. And it feels great!

    Again, thank you for the post and the book. They changed the way that I look at formal credentials and life.

    Wishing you the best,
    John

    P.S. I’m already looking forward to your next book.

    Reply

  • Tim — December 29th, 2011, 2:33 am

    Hi guys,

    http://timjwebster.com

    After being an artist and a jack of all trades throughout my 20s, my chosen field is entrepreneurism and marketing. Part of that (and for some more immediate and much needed income) has been to learn SEO and become more technical (ie. i know more html/css than before).

    My goals over the next 12 months are to develop location independent income (I’m from Australia currently living in Brazil) and move to the US to collaborate with a startup entrepreneur. Creative marketing is what I’ll bring to the table.

    The blog is aimed at creative types – people like artists or other young entrepreneurs who need to get their message out. Hopefully I can help them out.

    Read more about what I’ve doing the past 3 months over at the blog.

    Cheers

    Reply

  • post2ndry — December 29th, 2011, 5:41 am

    Thanks for providing the framework. Here’s my progress so far: http://wp.me/p1Ymla-4Y .

    Reply

  • Stephen — December 29th, 2011, 7:26 am

    Thank you Michael for this inspiring challenge. Please check out my progress on my blog:

    http://educationofalifetime.com/

    -Stephen

    Reply

  • Nick Messore — December 29th, 2011, 8:20 am

    Hey Michael – This is the website I committed to for the “contest,” in reference to the blog post posted above.

    It might look familiar, I submitted to you’re blog post “Established Author Seeks Rockstar PR Apprentice.”

    http://www.nickmessore.com

    Thanks again to Michael and Tim ;oP

    Reply

  • Garri — December 29th, 2011, 8:41 am

    Hey Michael and Tim,

    Thanks for lighting a fire under me. Here’s my entry – I’ve been working on Marketing/Copywriting and its been fun. Here’s my “where I’m at” post. Win or lose – my life is very different today than it was 3 months ago – Thanks!

    http://garrijung.com/2011a-sense-of-where-im-at

    Garri

    Reply

  • Jason — December 29th, 2011, 8:42 am

    Loved the blog post and the great information you gave out Michael. Inspired me to devour the book and while I have been wanting to step out for awhile this was the kick in the pants I needed to set a date to get something done. The “gameplan” as I like to call it will make a difference in people’s lives I’m convinced.

    My site: http://www.jasonmccain.com

    My services are Personal Branding and Social Media Marketing. Combined with career coaching and some life skills I already know or want to pursue out experts in. See “My Story” at the site to see how I got here and learn how I eschewed starting the MBA program I was enrolled in to find something better this past fall.

    Here is a breakout on where I stand with the steps:

    Step One: Personal Branding and Social Media Marketing.

    Step Two: Just got the blog up on Dec 28th and will be populating with the first ten posts in Jan.

    Step Three: Started networking and have found eight people to offer free services to. Have already approached five of them and have started working for three of them. One of my first contacts have invited me to his mastermind group on 12 Jan where I will be able to greatly extend my network.

    Step Four: I have started working for the three people I have approached who were interested. I will approach the remaining three on my list and develop others through my initial contacts.

    Step Five: I will develop these three into case studies in Jan/Feb., and will continue to pursue others in the future.

    Step Six: I have identified one local mentor and two virtual mentors. I meet with the local mentor on Jan 2.

    Step Seven: I got the recommended book (SPIN Selling) and have been learning about direct sales from the people recommended in “The Education of Millionaires”. You should see some of that flavor in my current web content.

    Step Eight: I am targeting March for this step.

    Step Nine: I can’t wait to see where I am headed.

    While I don’t have all of my progress showing on my site, particularly the blog posts, I have a plan and a good start with a lot of content (which admittedly needs to be cleaned up and made more consistent). I am out there though and really excited about the future.

    Thanks for the opportunity to compete in another 4HWW contest.

    Jason

    Reply

  • Xiaoming — December 29th, 2011, 9:07 am

    Hi Tim and Michael,

    I am working on a project to further cultural relations and understanding btw. 2 groups of people.

    http://allofasuddenpartjew.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/project-allofasuddenpartjew-2011-recap/

    Thanks for the opportunity!
    Regards
    Xiaoming

    Reply

  • Michael Ellsberg — December 29th, 2011, 11:14 am

    Hey everyone, can’t wait to read all the blog posts / contest entries you all are posting today! I’ll be reading all the entries this week and the beginning of next, and will announce a winner in this comments section (and directly to the winner) the first week of the new year.

    Have a GREAT New Years and I’ll catch you right around the corner of 2012!

    Thanks for participating everyone- and whether you win or not, I hope you got a LOT out of the last few months of study/learning you did in your new field!

    Reply

    • Espree — December 29th, 2011, 3:08 pm

      It has been really awesome having the blog essentially hold me accountable. Never looked at a blog with that perspective in mind before. Thanks again for putting this challenge together.

      Reply

  • Jeffrey Macapinlac — December 29th, 2011, 11:51 am

    Thank you Michael, Tim and everyone for sharing your thoughts, insights and progress! I wish you all the best as we enter into 2012!

    http://www.motivational-multimedia.com/Message_to_Michael_Ellsberg.html

    Reply

  • Mike Newman — December 29th, 2011, 12:57 pm

    Here’s a post from my blog:
    http://wannabesocialentrepreneur.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/lessons-life-learning/

    The blog is a chronicle of my efforts to become a social entrepreneur.

    Reply

  • Diarmuid — December 29th, 2011, 1:17 pm

    Hey Michael,

    Here is my competition entry

    http://diarmuidkidney.com/hey-michael-mentor-me/

    I had a lot of fun doing it, and i learned a lot.

    Reply

  • Tom — December 29th, 2011, 1:21 pm

    Hey everyone,

    It has truly been a transformational 3 months for me. I always thought I was going to do I-banking but it never felt right. Michael, your book and this blog post were definitely key in making me realize what I want to pursue, and that’s start-ups.

    You can track my progress here: http://www.outsidethebox.thomaschen.net/
    and I’ve just started on step 4.

    Thanks again Michael and Tim and Happy Holidays!

    Reply

  • Eric Bauer — December 29th, 2011, 2:33 pm

    Mr. Ellsberg (and everyone else),

    Below are links to a website and blog I’ve created to chronicle my path towards my long term career goal of becoming a successful Venture Capitalist.

    Website: http://vectoringtoventure.weebly.com/

    My Plan: http://vectoringtoventure.weebly.com/the-plan.html

    Blog with applied learning and status updates: http://vectoringtoventure.weebly.com/blog.html

    By all accounts, getting into VC won’t be easy, but I honestly couldn’t think of a job I would love more.

    Happy New Year!
    Eric

    Reply

  • William Strachan — December 29th, 2011, 3:11 pm

    Hi Michael,

    Please accept my entry to your contest:

    http://chasingphredom.tumblr.com/

    Thank you for the opportunity to put this together!

    *Best Practices for Viewing My Blog:

    1) The most recent post is a video introduction. Watch that first.
    2) Go to the oldest post (my first) and start from there.

    Reply

  • Adam — December 29th, 2011, 4:11 pm

    Here is my blog. Been running into some flaky people with my photography, but have done 1 project. Met one business owner but things didn’t work out. I also got a job that required 60+ hours of work which I still do now. I’m taking a personal training course Jan. 20th. Cheers man

    Reply

  • Andrew — December 29th, 2011, 5:12 pm

    Hi Michael,

    Thanks for hosting such an awesome challenge. Since immersing myself in design, this is what my timeline has looked like:

    Month 1: Read design books/blogs ravenously and established logo design business Osprey Creative (http://osprey-creative.com), started charging $5 per logo and met many awesome clients

    Month 2: Landed a design internship at social media marketing agency working with blue-chip clients such as Electronic Arts, CBS, and Hasbro while continuing to freelance on the side, expanding into web and interactive design (http://ayyhwang.com/)

    Month 3: Averaged $600/week from freelance clients alone and offered another design internship in the heart of Silicon Valley at a renowned interaction design firm.

    Most of my blog posts can be found at http://osprey-creative.com/blog while more recent ones can be found at http://ayyhwang.com/blog/, here’s one of my favorites:

    http://ayyhwang.com/blog/2011/12/08/the-commercialization-of-design-why-you-shouldnt-be-able-to-buy-1-get-1-free/

    I’m 18 years old so this has all been done while studying as a freshman at Carleton College in Minnesota, and having your mentorship would be fantastic, Michael — I’ve decided to commit myself to design full-time and aspire to become a product designer at a Silicon Valley startup and eventually start one myself.

    Reply

  • Michael Ellsberg — December 29th, 2011, 5:17 pm

    BTW, if you post your entry today but it doesn’t get up right away due to comment moderation, no problem, I’ll be reading the entries for the next week. You can also email me your entry through my website. Just make sure to post/email your entry today! All best, *Michael

    Reply

  • Sergei — December 29th, 2011, 6:27 pm

    Dear Michael,

    This is my status update to your challenge:

    http://assertivehypnosis.com/2011/12/3-month-progress-report

    I have been working hard during the last 3 months although at some points University was in the way. As I am seeing how much I am changing people and the world with my work I am considering to quit University. One case study was an Indian guy I went out with here in Scotland who was totally anxious about talking to girls. I managed to help him getting rid of his limiting beliefs and he started communicating with girls easily. I was really happy when I saw that.

    I also started networking, and I got in touch with two business owners of which one will teach me (online) marketing and the other one will teach me sales. Both will start teaching me from January onwards. I started to make myself a name by word of mouth, especially through the guy whom I’ve helped above. I’ve also helped other guys but the above story is the most noteworthy!

    Thanks very much for your article on Tim’s blog and also Thanks for writing an amazing book (again)!

    All the best to you and everyone who gained something through your challenge!

    Reply

  • Jason — December 29th, 2011, 6:37 pm

    I started a blog/site about becoming truly financially free, through developing passive income sources. I call it “Living a free life.”

    Living a free life: http://www.livingafreelife.com

    Blog detailing my progress the past 90 days: http://www.creatingafreelife.com

    Reply

  • Michelle Bacani-Lim — December 29th, 2011, 6:46 pm

    Awesome article! My Blog is at:
    http://mikigracecoaching.wordpress.com/
    which was inspired by this blog.
    All the best to everyone involved in the contest for mentorship!
    Michelle

    Reply

  • Jeremy Lakebrink — December 29th, 2011, 7:52 pm

    Michael,

    Here is my blog:
    8stepblogger.wordpress.com

    Thank you so much Michael and Tim for this opportunity.

    I’m excited to continue working on this.

    Jeremy

    Reply

  • LXV — December 29th, 2011, 8:08 pm

    Three months later and here I am. This article said a lot of things I already knew intuitively, but the guidelines provided an invaluable amount of structure and mapping that I really needed. I’m fairly impressed with the difference even in my attitude towards what the future holds.

    This has been really important for me since I want to go into game design. Passion and self-motivation is so important in this field even if you just want to be a worker bee in the industry. (And obviously if I frequent 4HWW I’m not content to be a mere worker bee.)

    So here’s my latest post with a little self-analysis of how I did holding myself accountable. Already, this has been a watershed moment for me. Thank you very much Tim and Michael for sharing this information.

    http://painteddoggames.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/hacking-myself/

    Reply

  • Vladimir — December 29th, 2011, 8:25 pm

    Hi Micheal and everyone who is reading this so they can see the competition.
    http://vladimirfefer.com/2011/12/michael-ellsberg-challenge-update/
    That is the link to the posting that records my progress.
    It is currently 9:23pm Central time. Good luck to everyone.

    Reply

  • Peter Williams — December 29th, 2011, 8:40 pm

    Here is my entry. Thanks for posting the Challenge I really enjoyed it. I chose to focus on learning and how to help individuals and organizations become better at learning.

    http://www.chasinganewdream.com/2011/12/m-e-challenge-update/

    I tried posting yesterday and my comment may just be lost in moderation, but I figured I would rather be safe than sorry.

    Reply

  • Michael Lyons — December 29th, 2011, 9:48 pm

    Hey Michael,

    Thank you for taking the time to put this
    contest together – I know I’ve learned a lot
    over the past few months.

    Link:http://newbluemarketing.com/ellsberg/ ?

    Take it easy,
    Mike Lyons

    P.S.
    Tim, keep up the epic posts man.
    Greatly appreciated.

    Reply

  • Pablo Sanchez — December 29th, 2011, 10:33 pm

    Here’s my official challenge entry:

    http://www.pablosanchez.com/challenge/

    And a supplemental video as part of this challenge

    http://youtu.be/7s2YszUmlmU

    Thanks Michael!

    Pablo Sanchez

    Reply

  • Erica — December 29th, 2011, 11:38 pm

    Hi Michael and fellow posters! Here’s my link to the update to this post. Thank you all for this opportunity! http://lavishlynatural.com/who-am-i-and-what-do-i-want

    Reply

    • Michael Ellsberg — March 6th, 2012, 10:18 pm

      I’ve been reading, reading, reading, and reading some more, on your amazing contest entries… there were way more posts than I thought so I’ve been taking some time with them, thank you for your patience and enthusiasm. You all are some amazing people! I’m blown away. I’m getting very close to deciding on a winner. I’ll announce the winner on Friday.

      Reply

  • Rachman Blake — December 30th, 2011, 2:03 am

    Hi Michael -

    Your post inspired me to start Lucid Lifestyle, http://lucidlifestyle.com a network for lifestyle designers, who help others live a life of their design.

    I wrote a short post about my experience over the past few weeks, and wanted to thank you for sharing your advice!

    http://lucidlifestyle.com/2011/12/30/using-michael-ellsbergs-8-steps-to-getting-what-you-want-without-formal-credentials/

    Thanks again,

    Rachman

    Reply

  • Erica — December 30th, 2011, 9:23 am

    Hi Michael and Tim. I posted this last night but my link is still awaiting moderation. Posting again because I don’t want to be left out of the party!

    http://lavishlynatural.com/who-am-i-and-what-do-i-want

    Erica

    Reply

  • Nick Messore — December 30th, 2011, 8:27 pm

    Yea, same problem as above. My post was awaiting moderation, then it appears was never approved..

    http://www.nickmessore.com

    -Nick

    Reply

  • Daniel Out — December 31st, 2011, 8:09 am

    I have written a long story before, but it didn’t get posted :( .

    Amazing how many people need Michael’s help and are willing to do the effort to succeed.

    Here is my entry again, so you don’t miss me
    http://millionusd.wordpress.com/

    All the best and Happy New Year to all the ambitious people around the world.

    Reply

  • Jackie — January 2nd, 2012, 7:03 pm

    Hey all!

    I’ve posted this several times, but I don’t see it in the comments, so I think it’s been lost in moderation-land. Anyway, loved reading everyone’s stuff, here’s my entry!

    http://www.jacquelineburton.com/

    Jackie

    Reply

  • Jackie — January 2nd, 2012, 7:06 pm

    Hey Micheal,

    Just wanted to send a note saying that I tried to post several times before now, starting with the 29th, and have had trouble each time. This is the first time that I’ve seen it posted as “awaiting moderation”, so I think I’m finally in the mix! I also submitted my blog through your website on the 29th, please don’t tell me that I am too late :) I had an amazing time working on this project, thanks for the inspiration! It’s all I’ve been talking about for the past few months, and I’m hoping to report good news back to my friends and family!

    Jackie

    Reply

  • Ko Lai — January 3rd, 2012, 8:10 pm

    Hi all,

    I have just come across this and although too late to enter I still think the whole thing is great and endeavour to do the 9 months.

    I hit my first stage at Step 1 ‘Figure out a field you’d like to build a career in. You don’t need to have great (or any) formal credentials’.

    So step one is based on a one month time frame. I have interests outside of my regular job and they include things such as watching motion graphics (dunno why but I love some of these)/3D animation and modelling, watching martial arts related stuff, watching car racing stuff, and psychology .

    These have all captured my interest over the last 1 month so I know very very very little about them. I would love to make them my passions and combine them so I could earn a living in fields that interest me.

    So I sit here and think ‘Wow what a messed up bunch of interests, how on the earth could I make something useful out of this.’

    All of which leads me to be struggling to choose a new field of learning.But what really stumps me is as I am so so new to all of these fields I’m not sure I could have any worthy skills within the initial month.

    Take the 3D graphics for example. I imagine it’d take some serious time to become proficient in this area. I know the resources are there for me but to be at the stage where I could market/sell my skills between months 3-5 seems steep.

    But take something like’ I enjoy watching car racing’, off the top of my head I cant imagine how to make this into a ‘hacked formal credential’

    I guess it boils down to, how good could one become at a completely new skill in a month, especially when you will be competing against seasoned veterans of your field (whether it be music, art, photography, writing etc.)

    The other crunch I am struggling with is how to make/combine these interest into one universal thing that will actually be of value to someone?

    Am I being too narrow viewed and not approaching this with enough scope ?

    My view/mind is ready for exapansion.

    Reply

    • Joshua — January 6th, 2012, 1:47 pm

      “…no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is preoccupied with many things…” -Seneca

      I feel your pain.

      I love everything about the human body, but at the same time I want to delve into product design and work on creative collaborations with people that interest me. I love meeting new people and learning how do what they do.

      I managed to tie all my interests together by focusing on product design as the driving pursuit but also using my understanding of the human body to help people and build a social economy.

      I guess you could do the same.

      Pick one interest as your primary focus ( as in something you would consider dedicating the next ten years of your life towards) but continue to use your other interests to build your social economy.

      Reply

      • Joshua — January 7th, 2012, 4:48 pm

        In the last two days I managed to network my way into the creative backdoors of india’s fashion industry. As a consequence I have completely repositioned myself as a “creative consultant”.

        Its amazing! It ties all of my interests together.

        You read about how I redefined my role and jumped from step three to step six.

        http://simplejosh.com/pages/about

        Thank you Ko Lai for your post, if I didn’t respond to it I don’t think any of that would have happened. The whole “re-positioning myself” and fashion design project spawned from a random conversation where I alluded to you and how you were struggling with too many interests on your plate. It’s crazy how these things work out!

        Reply

    • Pablo Sanchez — January 6th, 2012, 3:34 pm

      Hey Ko Lai,

      Find out which ones of your interest has the most potential to translate into a service that has commercial value that other businesses need and are willing to pay for.

      From your list above, motion graphics and 3d animation has that potential. You can combine this with your interest in psychology which you can use when creating compelling story lines or in writing copy that can move your audience.

      Having several passions can have its advantages. You don’t have to make money from all of them or try to combine them all. Just choose the ones that fit best into each other like the two above and use the others as a means to connect to a specific community.

      Your love for martial arts and car racing for example is a great way to bond with people of common interest which can be your foot in the door for offering your service.

      You get to meet people through this context that you wouldn’t have otherwise and they get to know you as a person first unlike the context of a networking event where we mostly get the impression of being sold to.

      Your concern about the learning curve is true as far as getting yourself to be on top of your game, this requires some dedicated time and patience. However there is also a need for lower end stuff as you are move along your learning path. For example, some businesses may only need simple title intro’s as bumpers for their videos, you may be able to do these kind of stuff on your first month of learning, even sooner.

      As far as competing against seasoned professionals. Don’t go where the competition is steep. For example, I have two friends who just started photography. They are decent at their craft but in our circle of friends we have a lot of veteran and seasoned photographers who have years and awards under their belt. However, these two were able to carve their own niches.

      The first went for children’s photography and offered it first just to her circle of friends who have kids. I’m amazed at how well she is doing in her first 2 months of business just by tapping into her network and word of mouth. Plus, the other photographers we know don’t want to touch that stuff so she also gets referrals from pro’s who are not interested in photographing kids.

      The second one tapped on a dance community and has become the official photographer for major dance events. In both cases, they just started out but didn’t go to the typical channels of competing against other pro’s. They went where there was virtually no competition, which was their networks in other fields and other interests.

      This is where your interests in other subjects can be an advantage as a means of bonding and connecting to others.

      Also, Your initial lack of skill can be offset by how you treat your first few clients (or before they become clients). If they know you personally through other channels outside your craft and find you to be an outstanding and trust worthy person. And you make them feel that they will be well taken cared of, that you care about their success and that they can trust you to do what is best for their business. You can carve yourself a niche where you set yourself apart and don’t have to worry about the competition.

      Pablo

      Reply

      • Ko Lai — January 12th, 2012, 10:05 am

        Wow…thanks Pablo.

        Thanks for the lengthy response. It has shifted my thinking and allowed me to expand my thoughts in terms of the way I look at things.

        I thuink I’ll be re-reading the post a few times and absorbing it over and over.

        Once again thanks !!!

        Reply

    • Pablo Sanchez — January 14th, 2012, 5:00 pm

      You are welcome Ko Lai, best of luck to you! ~Pablo

      Reply

  • Kathy Wilson — January 4th, 2012, 12:46 am

    Hi all
    Hope this isn’t cheating but my article came out today on one of the most read blogs in Australia. I have been blown away by the response, more than 80 people have signed up for the experiment in less than 4 hours. Amazing!

    http://www.mamamia.com.au/health-wellbeing/meditate-on-this/

    Reply

  • Moon Jun — January 7th, 2012, 7:05 am

    Amazing article, time. Just one question: If you can go back in time, will you actually go to college again?

    Reply

  • Michael Ellsberg — January 11th, 2012, 10:46 am

    Hey everyone, thank you for all the amazing entries! I’m blown away. I’m still reading them in detail – I want to be thorough and give all of your entries the attention they deserve (no quick “committee” here). Sit tight, I’m on it! And thank you all for participating!

    Reply

  • Tanko — January 14th, 2012, 3:35 pm

    Hello Mike,
    What an inspiring post.It is amazing the meaning of true knowledge isn’t common knowledge.Education is education regardless of the pattern acquired.

    It will interest readers to watch the drama series Harry’s Law season one episode 8 featuring a boy who hacked the credentials of a doctor in a ghetto neighbourhood-he was actually the savoir of the community when it came to cheap healthcare and emergencies.He learned the skills via reading and online courses.The law caught up with him when he was found to save a gang member and the police chargd him for practising medicine without a licence.

    Though licensed professions cannot be hacked and should not be encouraged in any way, but such dramas emphasize the point you can achieve education and success alternately.Another interesting one is The Suits series -very interesting too,where brilliant Mike is hired by an associate in a law firm at Wall street.

    This post has enlightened many and hope the strategies will be applied positively and ethically for personal and societal advancement.

    If anyone or their loved one/friends has problems with infertility without success so far, they can contact me

    Knowledge is power Only if applied constructively.

    Good luck to all.

    Reply

  • Eliza Cristian — January 16th, 2012, 10:24 am

    Excellent article! I wish I could have participated to the contest, but at least now I have a more clear vision of what I have to do further. Thanks!

    Reply

  • Jackie — January 22nd, 2012, 12:01 pm

    Hi again everyone!

    Just wanted to say how awesome it’s been reading all of your blogs! I think we are all in great company in this contest and want to wish everyone good luck.

    Not sure if anyone’s been checking out my Health Coaching blog, but things are going great, here’s my latest entry on simple ways to integrate Ayurvedic techniques into your daily routine: http://bit.ly/wsD6ah

    Be well!

    Jackie

    Reply

  • Erica — January 24th, 2012, 8:01 am

    Jackie, thanks for this great article and techniques! I’ve been “experimenting” with a couple of Ayurvedic herbs for hair growth (mainly amla) but know very little about this ancient form of healing. I did have hot water with lemon this morning because of you!

    Erica

    Reply

    • Jackie — February 12th, 2012, 10:59 am

      OH awesome Erica! Are you still experimenting with Ayurveda? I’m a novice myself, but I have been sticking with the skin brushing/sesame oil regimen pretty well, and sipping hot water throughout the day. It’s all so relaxing, glad you are trying this stuff too :)

      Reply

  • Jason McCain — January 24th, 2012, 11:12 pm

    I have also visited many of the sites and site back in amazement at how much value this post by Michael has created in people’s lives. Now, that value is going to be multiplied many times over as we all go out and start our personal journeys. Well, I know a winner hasn’t been announced on here so I hope I am still in the running. I have been adding some great content to my site. I have been focused on Personal Branding this month here is a taste http://jasonmccain.com/?p=99.

    Reply

  • Tom — January 29th, 2012, 7:06 pm

    So Tim, with what you have learned up to this point in life and if you could do it all over again, are you saying your college degree in East Asian Studies and Neuroscience and your mentors Pulitzer Prize winner John McPhee and Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe didn’t help shape what you are today? Your resume you have posted on your sight surely boasts of your academia and accomplishments.

    I would have to disagree with you in that, you may or may not be where you are today if it weren’t for the Ivy League schooling, but more importantly, those top two mentors as aforementioned that helped shape your writing and philosophical way of thinking in life.

    The important part for you and your blog followers to remember is, in life, many times, it’s not what you know, but who you know.

    A huge part of being an entrepreneur is NETWORKING and if you look at the top one percent of successful people, yes they first and foremost had a deep desire to make a difference in the world. But, with making that difference, they realized they needed to surround themselves around smarter people then them, which you did. They obviously needed some type of education as a ENTRY POINT, depending on what their craft, product, or servcie entailed.

    So, whether education gave you the jump start or if you would have still had those opportunities without Princeton, nobody will know because you did go to college and you did a huge thing in business entrepreneurship…..called LEVERAGE your KSA’s (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) to your advantage.

    With that, nobody can knock you for your “hustle” and self promoting you have done….but, I would have to still say and think, you wouldn’t be as far as you are today without your aforemetioned education or those mentors that shaped you…..plus, you learned a little about the tech world like many of the Silicon Valley types out there today.

    Now, your friend Micahel Ellsburg, he too may or may not be where he is today without his Journalism Degree and making connections with various networking he has done.

    Of course, you can debate, with the various entrepreneurial success stories from Eben and Jena you mention, but I have noticed a common theme with your success stories….they all have some type of technology variable to them.

    What I am getting at is, if you were to share a story about a guy who really was lacking the academic credentials, started a business from nothing, and worked his ass off and HUSTLED his way to becoming a self-made millionaire or multi-millionaire, I would say you were on to something here…..you should have used your old story and invterview on Daymond John below:

    http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/04/07/fubu-daymond-john/

    Even Daymond John, if he was honest, would have to admit without LL Cool J promoting his gear (clothing) in Rap Videos and being in right place at the right time, no matter how smart or educated one is, there has to be a big break, networking, or some type of connection….it’s like what I have taught in business coursework with marketing.

    If the consumer doesn’t NEED your product or service or WANT your product or service, then the bottom line is there won’t be a bottom line.

    Enjoyed your article, but still believe the Daymond John’s, the tech savvy entrepreneur, etc….are few and far between and folks without a good education will 99 percent of the time not succeed without it……that leaves I guess the 1-percent that are the top entrepreneurs, free thinkers, the outliers, etc….that everyone wants to try to be like, but most of the time never will.

    Peace !!!!

    and East Asian Studiesor

    Reply

  • Mario — February 3rd, 2012, 1:28 am

    Hi Mike

    Thanks for the article, its realy inspiring.
    I just finished reading right now and im starting to apply these steps straight away.

    Well lets talk after 9 months when im well stablished.
    Thanks one more time and count me in!!

    Mario!!

    Reply

  • William Strachan — March 5th, 2012, 2:12 pm

    Has there been a conclusion to this contest?

    Reply

  • Jackie — March 7th, 2012, 11:03 am

    Hi again everyone!

    Michael, for what it’s worth: I’m still whole-heartedly into this contest! I’ve been continuing to post on my blog since October, but haven’t done so as frequently, because now I’m actually in business! I’m excited to report that almost 20% of my income this month has come from my Health Coaching business, and I have some amazing networking opportunities coming up in the next few weeks. This is becoming the most amazing journey of my life! Also, I wanted to mention that I’ve been accepted to several grad schools, including University of Southern California, which is ranked #7 in the country for my program! It’s a huge honor, but I have to admit that going back to school is not where my passion lies anymore. Anyway, just wanted to put it out there, that I still believe that I’m the perfect candidate for your methods!

    Here’s my (brand spankin’ new) Facebook biz page for anyone who’s interested:

    http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jacqueline-Burton-Holistic-Health-Coach/232980736786244

    And my official Health Coaching website:

    http://jackie-burton.healthcoach.integrativenutrition.com/

    As always, good luck to everyone!!

    Jackie :)

    Reply

  • Jackie — March 7th, 2012, 5:30 pm

    New blog post on detox and food pairing for optimal health and hotness :) http://bit.ly/zoVZx1

    Reply

  • Xiaoming — March 15th, 2012, 8:36 pm

    Hi Guys,

    At this point, I think it is pretty obvious this was a marketing tactic between good friends Michael and Tim, they have been friends since 2000, for Michael’s book.

    I think the best thing to do at this point is to follow Michael’s plan, work hard, network, and do the best you can and surpass Michael Ellsburg.

    As Tim Ferriss stated, Living well is the best revenge.

    X

    Reply

    • Joshua — March 16th, 2012, 2:07 am

      Its obviously a marketing tactic, but I thought that was transparent from the onset. The point is that it was a brilliant marketing tactic.

      Reply

  • Jackie — March 16th, 2012, 6:06 am

    Agreed, Joshua!

    That’s actually one of the things I admire most about Tim (and Michael, although I’m less familiar with him since he’s been “famous” for a shorter period of time)- they are pretty good about being transparent about letting you know what they are getting out of the situation. And in this case, a bunch of us also greatly benefitted- by getting the motivation to start up our blogs and businesses. I’ve loved and benefitted from anything I’ve ever read or watched from Tim or Michael- I say it’s win-win.

    Reply

  • Michael Ellsberg — March 25th, 2012, 5:36 pm

    Lesson #1: Do not underestimate the passion of Tim Ferriss’s audience!

    Holy moly! On the day the contest ended, December 29th, I received over 60 submissions, in both the comments here, and emailed to me through my site.

    I suppose I could have outsourced the reading of these blogs people created, to an assistant. But I figured, if you took the time to take this contest seriously, I wanted to take your submissions seriously. So I personally read every word of every post of every blog submitted.

    Like those restaurants say, “We handcraft our menu items so please allow for extra time”- I handcrafted my decisions after lots and lots and lots of reading. I apologize to those of you who had to wait a while for my response. If I do a contest in the future, I’ll figure some way out of getting you the personalized attention you deserve without taking so darn long and keeping you on the edge of your seats for so long!

    At any rate, thank you for your patience, and thank you all for your amazing participation, I was blown away. And, we have a winner…

    http://www.ellsberg.com/mentorship-contest

    Reply

  • K.McPhee — March 26th, 2012, 11:58 am

    Excellent post! I was raised to learn by reading, researching, TRYING, gaining experience and making mistakes. My parents never pushed me in academics, but they always were encouraging my ability to learn and find answers on my own. This has given me excellent problem solving skills that I never would have learned in a classroom. My mother taught me to read at age 2, and I have been a voracious reader since. I am a firm believer in self-education. The information is out there. Drive, passion, patience, and a little bit of hustle go a long way. I know PhD’s who are less educated than my father who is a respected expert in many areas and never graduated college (he is completely self-taught).

    I thoroughly enjoyed this post and will be subscribing to your blog.

    Reply

  • license to sell wine — April 19th, 2012, 11:06 am

    Ok so I am thinking about removing my website from Tumbler and get it to a WordPress site. I believe this is a wordpress site right? If it is, may I ask where you got the theme? Thanks a bunch!

    Reply

  • Joe A. — May 12th, 2012, 4:44 am

    Marketing idea:

    If you’re looking to get into marketing or PR, do the above steps with Kickstarter projects, for free.

    Find those projects you love, that you would fund, ask to help them get the word out about what they’re doing or get funded. (You could also improve their copy if you’re a writer, or improve their video if you’re an editor)

    In return, if their project gets funded and you and can prove you brought something to the table, ask them to write a recommendation for you on LinkedIn (or for a blog post above)

    Projects only last a few weeks, not much risk to you. Not much risk to them b/c you’re free. Once you’ve had some success with a few projects and numbers or portfolio of what you’ve done for them, start doing paid work.

    Does anyone think this idea is worth a damn?

    Reply

    • Paulo — June 6th, 2012, 3:11 pm

      I’d say: go for it, man!

      Just come up with a way to track the contributions coming from you. I have some ideas, if you don’t know how to do that.

      Reply

  • Yadgyu — May 20th, 2012, 6:59 pm

    Now that we know who the winner of the contest is, tell us about financial success.

    Many of you guys here have followed the program and have “hacked” your way into a new career. But are any of you guys making good money from your new career?

    Has anybody been able to quit their old job and focus solely on their new hacked career?

    Has anybody become rich or even doubled their income from their new hacked career?

    I know many people like to think of success in intangible terms and gain value from learning new things, meeting new people, travelling, gaining new experiences. But I would like to hear about financial success. It is important to me because gaining financial success is the ultimate justification for going into a career field.

    Any stories?

    Reply

  • Jaime — May 23rd, 2012, 5:37 am

    This is what my boyfriend did. When he was a kid in the late 80s and 90s, he started playing video games and wanted to be a game designer. His dad was a programmer and he would get his dad’s books and teach himself programming languages.

    So growing up that’s what he was learning when he wasn’t going to public school and not hanging out with friends. Since his dad was always busy he didn’t help my boyfriend. He didn’t even help him with his first job.

    Eventually my bf got his first job at 18 as a Jr. programmer in the late 90s, all on his own. His first professional job. He’s gone to college on and off when he could while working as a programmer.

    To this day my bf is still a programmer. It can be done. He also learned how to interview well and write a good resume, and that’s how he lands his jobs. He’s never had the luxury of knowing someone at a company before working there.

    He’s thinking of going back to college to get his bachelor’s degree, maybe.

    Honestly, I kind of think that college is overrated. Its an outdated model. The teachers lecture the class and everyone leaves after. There are no great debates, no great poet societies. The first 2 years are pretty much a repetition of high school with general ed. classes. Each year tuition and book fees hike up.

    I have about only a couple of classes to take to finish my Associate in General Studies but I want to be an artist and I’m not interested in going to college when I could put up my products online through an e-commerce website like big cartel or shopify. I already bought my own domain name. Right now I’m going through the process of sorting which artwork I want to sell and how to market it.

    The only classes I’m interested are entrepreneurship classes which I can take at my community college for my art business. The only reason I would be interested in going for a bachelor’s is for my parents. But honestly you can’t live life for your parents. I love them very much but I respectfully disagree with them in this case.

    Don’t get me wrong, they’re wonderful people and they’ve done a lot for me and I appreciate everything they’ve done for me but I can’t live my life for them. I don’t enjoy classroom learning and this last year I’ve only taken online classes from my community college. I find them less irritating. I feel they waste my time less. :D

    Reply

  • Zheng — July 15th, 2012, 2:40 am

    Credentials will become less important and colleges know it that is why many resort to some direct selling techniques to woo students from degree to terminal degree programs like some state run antipodean unis that commanded instalments for their programs with no sight of completion. Fortunately, I think that the Net is a great equaliser for our thirst for knowledge and will render like some software tycoon said, universities will be put out of business. I think the days where institutions charged a premium for their services would be over. Already, there are some that are giving discounts as more are willing to learn over the Net for free rather than paying for it. A degree does not guarantee a job and a DBA may render some unemployable.

    Reply

  • Scott Tucker — July 18th, 2012, 3:57 am

    Howdy! This post could not be written any better!

    Reading through this post reminds me of my good old
    room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this article to him.
    Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  • Mariah M — July 20th, 2012, 7:52 pm

    Crowdfunding makes this whole way of life a heck of a lot more feasible! I’m getting the book but mostly because I like to read about things I’m currently doing. Makes me feel less kooky.

    Reply

  • Max Faqtore — July 26th, 2012, 1:46 pm

    This is all too much. I’d rather be on the government dole. It’s soooooo… much easier! Besides, what are you working for? Money. And money is the root of all evil. You can’t take it with you. Live off the system! Better yet, move back in with your parents and live off them AND the system!!

    Reply

  • Jason — July 27th, 2012, 7:53 am

    @Max the “love of money” is the root of all evil. Rock on!

    Reply

  • Emmanuel — January 8th, 2013, 3:44 am

    This was awesome

    Reply

  • Robert Burrows — January 18th, 2013, 6:59 pm

    $100k suits and a typo in their mission statement, for shame!

    Reply

  • Shawn — February 4th, 2013, 1:28 pm

    I did the Masters thing when I was 30 and it got me a few steps up the IT ladder, now its time to do something I enjoy. this article gives me some great info on how to achieve this without more formal study, great content

    Shawn

    Reply

    • Andy — February 21st, 2013, 3:45 pm

      Yes it’s a great article but honestly… I don’t think everyone can do it. I mean get “what you want” without formal education… Most of us is unable because of FEAR. Very basic thing.

      This article is an eye opener for sure, for most of us. But… so what…? 90% will read it and after 15 minutes will be back in their routine.

      I have no formal education, no masters or even bachelors. I tried very hard to make it, three times… three different courses :) I spent 3 years of my life trying to get that “paper”.

      Finally I realized that this isn’t right for me and decided to make some business instead.

      Thanks to all gods out there, it was the best move I have ever made.

      I guess what I’m saying is that this path isn’t and can’t be for everyone… and it shouldn’t be! Yeah everything sounds cool and nice but it calls for thick skin because in reality, this is all about selling very unique product… YOU.

      Regarding money…

      Money is the root of all the beautiful things out there! (and bad things as well… nothing is perfect).

      I love money, it makes world easier place to live. If someone don’t like money or think that it’s root of all evil, well then my advice is get your ass up from the sofa and go and try to survive in wilderness for just 24 hours… because that’s how world looks like without monetary system.

      And just skills can help one make money (obviously not degree by itself!- we don’t like sloppy thinking right?), however, where one is going to get those skills is a different story.

      Reply

  • James Flowers — March 22nd, 2013, 2:24 pm

    This is an absolutely amazing blog post. Well researched, and well written.

    Thanks.

    Reply

  • Alex — April 28th, 2013, 10:09 am

    Did anyone actually end up doing this?

    Reply

  • Cooper Corley — May 7th, 2013, 12:14 am

    Hello,

    This article has spoken to me on many levels I did not get a formal education but I have educated myself over the years I’m 32 years old and right now unemployed I’ve done everything from Fudging the truth on resumes and outright lying but recently I’ve been reading a lot about subjects and I’ve met a few people that and have encouraged me to start writing and I didn’t know how to contact you and see about a mentorship.
    I look forward to hearing from.
    you thank you

    Reply

  • Jimmy — June 11th, 2013, 3:47 pm

    I personally believe that perceived credibility is always more important in real life than diplomas and titles. However, I have to admit that this article opened my eyes even wider. Absolutely great job! Thanks for nourishing my brain with some great stuff before heading to bed. I’m definitely getting your book Michael.

    Reply

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