The glorious life of nonconformity from college startups
Society as a whole has a bad habit of frowning on those who lead lives of nonconformity. In school creativity is often punished, alternative fashion is usually scoffed at, and not following the herd is often times just labeled wrongly. In reality, though, these critics are really just jealous (cliche, kind of, i know) but those who stray off the beaten path really are the leaders (and failures) in today’s society.
Pertaining to College Startup readers, the internet and online business is this ‘unconventional evil’ that is subject to cries of illegitimacy. These thoughts stem mainly from the easyness that lies in starting a web business. A domain costs $10, hosting can be had for pocket change, and sufficient design is shifting toward a commodity with blogs. What other business has such low barriers of entry that create the illusion that ‘Anybody can do it’?
None.
But these same low barriers of entry hinder most people from succeeding since if you just walk away from the business, you lose a night’s bar tab. Big deal.
While these thoughts are kind of rambling, I’m trying to get to the point that a life of nonconformity in a business and career sense is easy to get started with, but hard to maintain and stick with. If you do get serious, a life of nonconformity is a serious possibility if you’re interested.
Nonconformity living in action
For example, this post (and it’s obvious keyword of nonconformity) was partially inspired by Chris Guillebeau who runs his own successful and relatively young blog The Art of Nonconformity. From his constant travel and successful online monetization practices, Chris is living the life doing what he wants, when he wants. He’s essentially making as much money as he wants to by working when he wants, and the strength of his brand is unreal allowing him to do so. The best part about Chris is that his site is so young (Feb 2008), which shows how it’s possible to leapfrog the competition and grow your business at a ridiculously fast rate with some real dedication.
I highly recommend reading a good portion of his site – especially his manifestos which are both inspiring and offer practical online business tips – to get a good iea of how nonconventional living from online business is possible and thriving.
Other Nonconformist internet entrepreneurs
There are tons of great online entrepreneurs out there, but they’ve been around for quite some time (funny how 3-5 years seems like a long time now for the internet). Amongst these are John Chow (his youtube video sums it up), Problogger, and college startup’s own Ryan Caldwell to name just a few.
Point in fact is that as Chris Guillebeau shows us at the Art of Nonconformity, it’s not too late to start an “unconventional” online business to support a fulfilling life spent living most of the time rather than working. Work to live, don’t live to work.
Share your thoughts!!!