Location Independent Living

Can you build a career and still follow the principles of the 4 Hour Workweek?

It was a pleasant surprise to see our blog linked to by Location Independent Living After culling the list of feeds she monitors the author, Lea Woodward, noted that “you need to be more selective and follow only the blogs which help you move from A to B in each area that you’d like to make a change…focus on the quality that’s out there and not the quantity.” We were a part of that short list which in the Professional Career & Business section included only three blogs. Kind words indeed! To be grouped with Presentation Zen, a site and author I admire was a real honour.

I very much enjoyed reading their blog and I had already read the bible of Location Independent Living - Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Work Week. This left me wondering, how can I justify my enjoyment of these works and concepts given the direction of this blog which is about building your career. Career and the 4 Hour Work Week make strange bedfellows.

At its core though the career of the person who runs their own business magnifies all the things that I enjoy writing about. All the skills and ideas that help you build your career and help you be recognized by your employer in the corporate world are even more important if you are a self-employed entrepreneur. While in a large company you might be able to hide some of your flaws as one of a large group of employees, when you are on your own you immediately stand out. If you cannot earn the respect of your clients, if you cannot market yourself, and if you cannot build relationships, as a self-employed person you will fail.

I respect the independent entrepreneur so much because he or she has nobody else to turn to and no safety net. They are putting themselves out there to either sink or swim and must hold themselves to the highest standard. Those who espouse location free living are doing this in spades. Some entrepreneurs risk it all to pursue their dreams. The location free entrepreneur has often already given it all up - sold everything and hit the road in search of a dream. There is no fallback.

But back to career and the corporate world. Put the mindset of the self-employed entrepreneur to work in your career. If your desire is to climb the ladder and challenge yourself to be the best that you can be, you need to see yourself as an independent entrepreneur. Your career is the business you are building and the company that you work for is your sole client. If a self-employed person were building a business on the back of only one client they would go to any lengths to impress that client. They would be sure that their relationships with all the people they work with at that client’s place of business were strong, and growing. They would seek out new business and find ways to show that they can take on even greater challenges.

Tomorrow, go to work and begin building your business - yourself.

Thanks to David Reid for the photo via Flickr. Check out his photostream.

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