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from blog to business

“You can't expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday's tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.”

- Nelson Jackson

From Blog to Business...

Having a blog is one thing. You can get one up and running in a matter of minutes. That alone can be incredibly powerful. In fact, it's one of the best tools for really finding and exploring a passion. But making the transition from blog to business is an entirely different feat. And I certainly needed all the help I could get.

The right tools have made all the difference.

I get requests almost daily asking me to share the tools I use on this site. I meant for this to come at the end of our "Monetize Your Passion Online" series a month or so back, but a few things came up. Sorry for the delay, but I still wanted to be sure to share the full list - especially since many of you are at the building/creation stage of your online project as I write this.

 "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself." - Abraham Maslow I've found that passionate work comes down to one action: creating things. To building things using your talents, strengths, passions and interests,...

Career advice from Warren Buffett

“Take a job that you love. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn't that a little like saving up sex for your old age?”

- Warren Buffett [Tweet this Quote]

The Power of Continued Education

On Friday night I walked into the Omaha Marriott to check in for the weekend. The first person I said hello to was Bill Gates (yes that Bill Gates). He didn't exactly respond to me by first name, but the brief exchange (and shot of adrenaline that came with it) reminded me of the potential of the weekend ahead. When in Omaha you never know what's going to happen. That's why I go. The next day I spent over eight hours with Warren Buffett. What I learned blew my mind…

start a business for $100

"We rule out the possibility of great change, because it doesn’t seem realistic..."

- Leo Babauta

In honor of Chris Guillebeau's latest book, The $100 Startup, today I want to talk a little about Possibility and the question of "Why Not?" But to start...

The Death of the 'Risky' Startup

There was a time not long ago when turning an idea into a business required a massive investment. Less than a decade ago the cost of building a passion into a career required significant risk. It may have meant leveraging your home, your bank account and maybe even some close relationships, to drum up the seed capital and support. For many it meant hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of loans. Or even taking on investors and giving up a large slice of your dream, in exchange for the millions needed just to get it off the ground. And that's assuming the passion-based business was even possible - which 30 years ago, was likely not the case. The risks used to be enough to get almost anyone saying "there's no f*#%ing" way. They got so high as to convince the world that living someone else's dream (or no one's at all) was the way life was going to be. But that was then...

weekly-planning-workbook2017-cover"There is no excuse for not preparing for something that is inside your control."

- Anonymous

After being asked more times than I can count, today I'm sharing my Full Weekly Planning Process I've done religiously for the past 5 years. This article is meant to be a reference piece. I've also included a free Weekly Planning Worksheet download at the bottom, to make sure this stuff is super easy for you to do. Updated 2017:  We've created the wildly popular Should I Quit Test.  Be careful taking it though, your life my change real quick!  And in your honor, we've put together life-transforming courses that we are extremely proud of. For now let's get into the fun...

"I don't have enough time."

Think about that statement for a second. How often do you say it?  How many times a week or even each day? There is no bigger killer of dreams than those five words.  But have you ever noticed that the busiest and most accomplished people never seem to say them?

"Find what makes others successful. Follow closely. Watch what happens." ~Unknown Entrepreneur ***** Today's the third (and final) part to our "Building Your Thriving Online Audience" series, so we're going to talk about the things you absolutely must do if you're serious about building a following online. Because, as...

trust your crazy ideas

“It is difficult to see the picture when you are inside the frame.”

~Eugene Kleiner, Co-founder Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers

How do you know if you're meant to be an entrepreneur?

"Do I spend my life working for someone else or do I take a crack and beating the odds and hanging my own shingle?" It's an age-old question (and one of the most important when it comes to doing passionate work) and today we're going to get the answer from someone who's much more qualified than I - my good friend John Greathouse. Now that I think of it, today is also a pretty big day. Until now, I have never published a guest article on Live Your Legend. Not once in 4+ years has an article on this site been written by someone other than me. Today that's changing ever so slightly, and I'm very excited about it. From now on, over 90% of what you read at Live Your Legend will still be created by me, but in the future I will very occasionally host a guest expert, a Living Legend, who can cover a topic about 100x better than I could. After all, how ridiculous would it be to assume I could cover every topic regarding doing work we love, better than other experts out there? The truth is, in some cases (actually, a lot of them) that's just not true. Plus, a different perspective is always useful. So today I'd like to introduce a good friend and mentor, John Greathouse.

5 best books of all time to reread

"The difference between who you are now and who you are five years from now, comes down to the people you meet and the books you read."

~Anonymous [Tweet this Quote]

The Link Between Reading and Success

It's no secret that when I get into things I tend to obsess. In the past few years I've read hundreds of books. No joke - I keep track of every title during my weekly planning process. I owe much of who I am to the things I've read. Just about the only benefit of my absolutely miserable first (and only) 'job' after moving back from Spain was that I had a 45-minute train commute every morning and night. That travel time became sacred. And that was when I became absolutely obsessed with reading. So much so that I took a few speed-reading classes and I even became the head San Francisco instructor for one of them.