The Uncommon Life

Roughly three times per week I share concise advice alongside a colorful, thought-provoking image or as I call it, “paradigm bending pop-art.” Below are some of those posts (all titles are links) I have shared in the past few weeks that may help you lead an uncommon life… Read More →

Common: Blaming poor results on a lack of innate talent. Uncommon: Talent is overrated. It’s actually quite a useless metric to measure or predict much of anything. There, I said it. It seems that people who are unhappy with what … Read More →

We live in a global village—a place whereby people can connect, share, and influence each other in ways never thought possible. And it’s those who most effectively engage with one another who will enjoy the personal and professional benefits… Read More →

Most things studied in college are quickly forgotten. Traditional education places an extremely high level of importance on detail, but this train of thought can be a hindrance, at times resulting in increased stress and workload. Why? An extreme focus on detail limits one’s ability to grasp the larger picture, which is critical to knowing what details to focus on. When you’re very close to every concept, everything appears important. Read More →

Truthfully, I don’t believe I could have earned the grades I did following conventional college advice. In fact, I believe that doing less, studying less (see tips 1, 2, and 3 in Part 1) and applying these 10 tips, contributed most to the outcome (it certainly wasn’t a natural gift for academics). And perhaps even more satisfying is knowing that these lessons can be applied in the professional world very well. Read More →

This week marks an important milestone in my life. I am no longer a full time student of conventional education. Elation abounds. It’s back to business full time.

Anyone who knows me or reads my blog will know that I often wrestle with the concept and quality (return on time and money) of conventional education. Looking back, however, I did learn some key things – it just so happened that the majority of my most valuable “education” took place outside of the traditional curriculum. Read More →

There are a lot of people who fantasize about traveling the world and working from anywhere on their own schedule. Few people actually do it. Natalie Sisson is one of these adventurous, risk-taking souls. But, according to her, she wasn’t always this way. The following is an interview with Natalie. Read More →

It’s incredible how many opportunities there are to increase our productivity once we demand it of ourselves. And with the right strategies, doing more does not always need to be a compromise between work and fun. Read More →

We are often led to believe that knowledge creates a better life. This is not entirely so. If knowledge were all it took, there would be many more happy, wealthy people. The reality is: Knowledge is only as valuable as the degree to which it is applied. Read More →

When asked the question, “Where do you go when you really need to get something done?” people do not respond in ways businesses expect. For a boss or company owner, the ideal answer would likely be “work.” But it seldom is… Read More →

When it comes to producing quality, creative, and inspired work, I consistently hear complaints so when expat-entrepreneur and friend, Darren Olstad, mentioned an unusual life-experiment he was about to undertake, it immediately caught my attention. What would happen if you left your usual work environment behind and moved into a hotel? Darren sought to answer this question by booking himself into a hotel for 60 days straight. Read More →

Identify the tasks that compose your day, tally the total hours, and imagine sending an invoice to yourself. What is the grand total ($$)? What is the hourly rate? These are indispensable questions. When we place a value on our time, we become aware of how we spend it–what we’re doing and how we do it. Most people complain about never having enough hours in the day, but squander their minutes on more futile activities than they realize because they have not candidly appraised their personal time. The way we use our time is directly related to how we value it. Read More →