Author: Karol

Stress Free Vegan Travel (or How To Stay Sane While Traveling On A Vegan Diet)

Many people have asked me how I travel on a vegan diet. Here is my answer …

I made all of this vegan food in Chiang Mai, Thailand!

How do you piss off vegans the world over and maybe piss off non-vegans as well?

By writing what I’m about to write. ;)

Traveling on a vegan diet isn’t necessarily difficult, but it is more challenging than willy-nilly eating anything and everything in sight.

My veganism is out of respect for animals. A lot of my ideas on veganism are rooted in Buddhism. I am not, however, anywhere near a Buddhist. I am simply a fan of some of the philosophy.

An Overview (Paraphrased from the book Monk Chat, published by Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai, Thailand)

Monks must abstain from killing living things. Therefore, monks are vegan. Technically. There is a loophole.

Every morning they must go on their alms round. Which is a way for laypeople (Buddhists who are not monks) to make merit (Tam Boon). As the monks make their alms round, laypeople give them food. Monks are not allowed to refuse any food, whether it has animal ingredients or not.

And that’s the loophole. If the people who are making merit offer food with animals, the monk has to accept it. :(

There are, however, 10 kinds of meat a monk may not eat under any circumstances: human, elephant, horse, dog, serpent, lion, bear, feline tigris, leopard, or yellow tiger. Do not ask me why, as I do not know.

Monks follow the idea of “eat to live, not live to eat.” Most of Western society lives to eat, hence all the obesity and heart disease. We should eat for nourishment, as fuel for our incredible bodies, as opposed to simply for enjoyment. Food is for survival.

My Interpretation

It all boils down to respect. A monk cannot disrespect the layperson by refusing their food. And so, he must eat the food, whatever it happens to be.

I take this same stance. If I order food that is supposed to be vegan and it arrives un-veganized I have only 2 options.

1) Find someone who will eat it and order new food.

or

2) Eat it myself if I can’t find someone to eat it.

Under no circumstances may I throw the food away (by sending it back). An animal has provided that food with their life and I won’t disrespect it like that.

Fortunately, I have yet to come across a situation where I have been accidentally given meat. I’m still unsure how I will react in that situation, but I have a feeling I will not have a problem finding someone to eat the food.

Yes, I have eaten dairy products since going vegan. And I have absolutely no problems calling myself a vegan. I don’t purposefully buy non-vegan food and I don’t prepare non-vegan food when I’m eating at home.

When I was in Berlin recently I ordered a cheese-less pizza. Unfortunately it arrived with cheese and enough garlic to kill a man. Not a single person at our table wanted the pizza due to the overpowering smell of garlic. I ate it. Throwing it away would be extraordinarily disrespectful. Not only to the animal who was mistreated and eventually died to provide that cheese, but to anybody who has ever gone hungry (billions of people every day).

I submit that if you’re a vegan due to compassion for animals that you should follow this same path.

Think about it, which of the following is more compassionate?

1) Eating cheese that you didn’t order. The animal you didn’t want to die for you has been given to you to eat. If you eat it, at least it didn’t die for absolutely nothing.

or

2) Throwing away the cheese you didn’t order. The animal you didn’t want to die for you has been given to you to eat. If you don’t eat it, you’re pissing on its life. It died for nothing. And it will be your fault that it died for nothing. You do not have a worthy argument otherwise. (Except lactose intolerance, which I definitely understand.)

It’s an obvious choice if you truly are compassionate.

Stress Free Living

Stress kills. Stop it. ;)

A couple of years ago a friend of mine said, “Karol, you have the most stress free life out of anybody I know.”

At the time I laughed because that wasn’t true at all. In fact, it was quite opposite.

These days, however, most of my choices boil down to whatever is least stressful and I probably do have the least stressful life of anybody I know.

It is less stressful to eat a bit of dairy I didn’t order than to whine and complain that “the stupid chef (or cashier or line cook) is a god damned idiot.” They’re not idiots. They’re human. We are amazingly imperfect creatures and we make mistakes.

Eating vegan, in and of itself, helps release lots of stress. Not only on my mind, but on my body. Animal products are incredibly difficult for our bodies to digest. Especially dairy, which is meant for calves, not grown humans. From a health standpoint dairy is just nasty, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Preaching Veganism

I don’t preach. Yes, I do want you to eat a vegan diet. Not vegetarian. Vegan. But I don’t care if you’re an omnivore. I will date you (err, if you’re female, haha), I will be friends with you, and I will probably even pay for dinner if we go out and you order a meat dish. It’s not my place to force my choices upon you.

There are many arguments against veganism and every single one is unfounded. I won’t go into any of them here. I just ask that you do a lot of research if you really want the truth. Preferably research that’s not funded by the beef or dairy industries, which will be biased.

It sucks when somebody comments on my blog, e-mails me, or discusses in person their misinformed ideas about the meat and dairy industries. But I don’t correct them. I’m not interested in arguments (Life Lesson #8). I simply ask them to research what they’re saying. And so, if you comment below with misinformed arguments you should save your time because they will not be accepted.

How To Make Vegan Travel Easy

Now that we’ve determined that if there is a mistake made you will not disrespect the animal, let’s get into the details of how to actually eat a vegan diet while traveling to unknown lands where you may not speak the language. It’s actually pretty darn easy to eat vegan anywhere in the world!

1) Eat lots of fruit.

Fruit is available and plentiful everywhere. And, of course, it’s vegan and incredibly nourishing. ;) While eating only fruit (Fruitarian) would not work well for me, I have gone a full day eating only fruit on at least 1 occasion. Not sustainable (for me) for the long haul, but one day? Sure, I can handle that.

I eat a lot of fruit anyway.

In India I ate ~20 lady finger bananas per day. These are very small bananas, maybe the equivalent of 6 or 7 regular bananas. In addition to that I ate lots of whatever other fruit was available. Fuji apples, grapes, strawberries, and papaya were plentiful. And, of course, my daily fresh coconut for 20 Rupees. :)

Fruit is an important part of our diet and most of us don’t get enough. I definitely didn’t until I started eating vegan.

I call bananas the perfect travel food. You can pick a banana out of a mud pit, open it up, and eat it. :) No need to worry about the outside getting dirty because you only want the sweet fibrous inside. In addition, no utensils necessary.

My favorite fruit in the whole world (besides the not-so-easily-available Jakfruit) is mango, but I’m not a fan of the preparation. Thankfully, in Thailand I was able to eat mango a few times per day. For 10 Baht (~30 cents) it was freshly sliced and ready to devour. And it’s available everywhere in Thailand (along with many other fruits) at the ubiquitous Thai street carts.

When you arrive in a new city immediately go out and find the nearest market (or corner store or anything) that sells fruit and stock up. It’s simple, it’s cheap, it’s healthy, and it’s vegan.

Note: avocado is a fruit. Mmmm … I love avocado. Here is how to check for ripeness: do not squeeze! You will bruise the insides. Instead, push in the stem a little. If it gives it’s ripe. If it doesn’t give then wait a day or two.

2) Eat lots of beans / whole grains.

Whether you’re making your own food or eating out, beans and whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, etc.) are a perfect combination of food available in most parts of the world.

My favorite dish is a combo of black beans with either quinoa or brown rice (and avocado if I have a ripe one handy). Quinoa is much less readily available so I usually have brown rice. I eat this at least once/day and sometimes twice.

3) Eat lots of vegetables.

Due to so many vegetables needing some kind of preparation I’m not a great vegetable eater. While I eat them daily, I eat far more fruits than vegetables.

My favorite easy to prepare vegetables are tomatoes (crap, another fruit? haha) and broccoli. I eat these raw and sometimes I eat tomatoes like they’re apples. When I was younger I didn’t like tomatoes at all, but as I grew and my palate changed I grew to love them.

If you’re not a vegetable fan you might have to train your palate. Try something new every time you go to the market and you will eventually find something you like. And remember: different varieties of the same vegetable taste completely different. There are some tomatoes I’m not a huge fan of. And mushrooms have so many different flavors it’s insane. Continually test your palate!

Eating a nice salad every day is an easy way to get a lot of your vegetables in one fell swoop. I’ve been known to eat an almost 2 pound salad (lots of greens, LOTS of tomatoes) for dinner. :)

Salads are available in virtually every restaurant in the world. Eat a big enough salad and it is quite filling.

4) Eat nuts.

Nuts are also available everywhere and greats sources of many nutrients. Goa, India is known for its cashews (kaju) and you can bet I ate a LOT of them while I was there. They are my favorite nut. Unsalted, raw, of course. Nuts pack lots of much needed energy in the forms of protein and fat. You don’t want to make nuts your staple, but eat a little bit regularly. They’re also great while you’re in transit (planes, trains, and automobiles).

5) Research local restauarants.

HappyCow.net has listings for veg and veg-friendly restaurants all over the world. (Don’t waste your money on their iPhone app if you have an iPod Touch. It’s a waste.)

If there are a lot of restaurants listed on HappyCow I also post in the CouchSurfing.org Group (message board) for whatever city I’m going to be in to get favorite veg restaurant recommendations.

Restaurants where you should never have a problem finding veg food:

  • Indian – Channa Masala and lots of other stuff.
  • Thai – veg/rice/tofu.

You will find Indian and/or Thai restaurants in so many cities in the world it’s crazy. Even here in Wroc?aw, there are two Indian restaurants that I know about.

Bonus restaurant tip: If you pass by a health food type store walk in and ask about local veg-friendly restaurants. I had trouble finding a decent restaurant in Cairns, QLD, Australia and asked a girl at a health food store. She said there aren’t many options (boo Cairns!), but gave me directions to a Mexican restaurant. This Mexican restaurant actually had a vegan menu! :)

6) Allow yourself some junk food.

I promise once you start eating a whole food plant-based diet that your cravings for junk will almost completely subside. I rarely crave junk. But when I do? I go all out. I will happily eat a whole bag of chips or a veggie burger (or 3) or a pizza or a 2 liter bottle of soda. It doesn’t happen often, but when I have a really strong craving I let myself at it. Some people advocate having a “cheat day” once/week. For me that’s far too often and sometimes not often enough. It would be forced. As I sit here right now I am eating a 90% dark chocolate bar. :) I probably won’t finish it, but I won’t deny myself if I happen to want to eat every last bite.

Another thing about junk food: when you’re in new lands you will find some very interesting choices in vegan junk food! The best, by far, is in India. I’ll let you discover it for yourself. ;)

What About Soy?

You’ll notice I don’t mention soy above. I’m not a huge fan. In Thailand I ate soy regularly because it was part of a lot of local cuisine (in the form of tofu). For the most part I don’t eat soy.

That said, I’m currently in a phase of drinking one B12 fortified glass of soy milk every day. B12 is the one nutrient that I have had trouble introducing into my diet without drinking soy milk. I can handle that.

Claims that soy is unhealthy are incredibly overblown. (Again, I ask that you research it yourself. Don’t believe anything I state.)

Learn The Local Vegan Options Ahead of Time

If you can, do a little research about traditional meals that are already vegan. If you know ahead of time which meals should be vegan that will make things a lot easier on you. My best suggestion: utilize CouchSurfing again. :) Go into the Country Group (or any City Group) and ask what meals are traditionally vegan. There may be none, but it’s worth asking.

The Language Barrier

The language barrier is what can sometimes cause the aforementioned un-veganized food at restaurants.

It’s fairly easy to solve: learn how to say you don’t eat meat or milk or cheese or butter in whatever language you’ll be encountering. If you’re not willing to do that then you could always sit at home, watch TV, and do nothing. ;)

Back to keeping things less stressful: don’t worry too much about the language barrier. When you start traveling things seem to just fall into place. I could write for days about this topic (or any topic) and you’ll never learn as much as by experiencing it for yourself.

Emergency Rations

On the overnight train to Chiang Mai from Bangkok there was a menu with 8 or 9 meat options and 1 vegetarian option. I ordered the vegetarian option, but it wasn’t available. Dammit. The lady taking orders refused to accept that chicken was not a vegetarian option. I spent a good 1-2 minutes insisting she not give me chicken because it is not vegetarian. (I run into this a lot. Chickens and fish are animals people!)

I travel with some sort of emergency rations. Currently that is a Clif Bar. Important: these rations must only be used in an emergency! Like, when you haven’t eaten for 14 hours on your train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. :)

Emergency Rations For The Emergency Rations!

As you may know if you’ve gone through my whole packing list I carry a Light My Fire Spork with me everywhere. In case I need an actual quick “meal” and can’t find it this is what I do.

1) Head into any super market / convenience store.

2) Buy a can of beans (my preference is black or kidney) with an easy open top. (If not available, buy the can of beans and a can opener.)

3) Open the can a little and dump out the water. (I usually rinse the beans with clean water as well.)

4) Enjoy!

You might scoff at this, but a can of beans is a filling, healthy, nutritious meal. And it’s cheap to boot!

I don’t always use this as an emergency meal. Sometimes I just want to eat a can of beans and make this a nice little meal/snack. :)

Keep An Open Mind

Would you believe it if I told you that steak houses are one of the easiest restaurants to eat vegan? Think about it. Baked potatoes, beans, lots of salad options. If your friends want to go to a restaurant that is “obviously” not vegan, stop to think about it for a second. When my friends want to eat at a traditionally non-vegan restaurant I don’t usually have any problems eating a very filling meal.

A Learning Process

Eating vegan while traveling is a learning process. Before I embarked on my adventures I was as worried as anybody about being able to eat vegan. It has been a fun experience eating vegan in Australia, New Zealand, India, Thailand, Germany, and Poland.

On many occasions (usually while staying at hostels), when I’d make a meal others would comment on how amazing it looked. When you use lots of fruits/vegetables your meals look quite appetizing. ;)

If you’re worried about traveling to far off lands and keeping a vegan diet, stop worrying. Start living.

Special Note On Comments:

If you have anything negative to say, if you’re not willing to do your research (as stated above), or if you’re making stupid arguments your comment will be trashed.

Feel free to add positive thoughts or helpful points for vegan travel. Thanks!

Sweet Shit Saturday #014 (Extra! Extra! Confidence Edition)

On my struggles with the Polish language …

Hanging upside down 109m in the air. Confidence or stupidity?

Last week I posted on my Posterous (my unedited, whenever I feel like posting, random thoughts “diary”) about the 5 Levels of Fluency. As you already know if you pay attention to Benny (Happy Birthday Benny!), a lot of learning a new language is confidence and making mistakes in conversations with native speakers.

My lack of confidence in speaking Polish has always been due to the fact that I should know how to speak well (I was born here!) and I was embarrassed that, while I could easily get around in Poland, I stammered, stumbled, and misspoke. (I still stammer, stumble, and misspeak.) I wasn’t giving myself any slack for having no real practice with the language for a good 10 years. I mean, I speak with my Parents regularly, but that is not nearly enough.

And yes, I may have been born here, but my family left to Austria when I was 6 months old, and then the US when I was 1. Not much language practice there. ;)

I know quite a lot of people who have Parents who speak other languages but they don’t speak a word themselves. I should have given myself credit for at least being semi-fluent. The first 6-7 weeks were somewhat of a struggle none-the-less because I was too far into my head. That is all neither here nor there now. I’m really happy I decided to come back here and I am falling in love with this city. If it wasn’t for the fact that it has a Fall/Winter/Spring that are not up to my temperature requirements I would definitely stay longer.

More on confidence:

If you didn’t read Thursday’s article How To Be More Confident I highly suggest you read it as well as all the comments. Lots of good stuff in there. If you’re into that article, a tweet or a facebook share would rock my Saturday.

Links 2, 3, 4 … (I probably shouldn’t throw an old Rammstein reference into my article without making it known, so … made known!)

8 Ways To Be More Confident: Live The Life of Your Dreams by Lori Deschene

In keeping with the confidence theme here is some more great advice about confidence. Lori and I planned this. Kidding. I don’t know Lori. Hi Lori! I love TinyBuddha. Blog high five.

How To Stop Living For Others’ Approval by Tammy Strobel

Ja to kocham. ;)

The 20 Essential Habits of Highly Passionate People by Henri Juntilla

A great list here from Henri. I have nothing of consequence to add. :)

Start Before You’re Ready by Steven Pressfield

“By the time we’re ready, it’s too late.”

I’ve stated it before, but as far as Wednesday blog articles go, there is none better than Steven Pressfield’s. If I was only allowed to read one blog on Wednesdays it would be this one.

The Best Way To Deal With Loss by David Cain

David writes the blog Raptitude and I love it. He’s at a few thousand readers right now. In one year I suspect he’ll have exponentially more. :)

This is the story of his ruined laptop and how, in the grand scheme of things, life is amazing.

Vegan and Vegetarian: Questions and Answers by Niall Doherty

Although these are specifically Niall’s answers and mine would be different, I get enough questions on this topic to warrant sending you here to get Niall’s perspective.

On Monday I’m posting an article about Stress Free Vegan Travel. It’s an epic at ~2,500 words. It might piss you off if you’re vegan, and you probably won’t read it if you’re not. Sweet! ;)

That’s all for this week.

Questions/comments/this? You know what to do…

How To Be More Confident

Advice coming directly from someone who has struggled with confidence …

Being that you’re a human being you’ve probably noticed many things in life are like a game. The rules and score-keeping may be different but virtually every aspect of life can be broken down in this way. Especially when it comes to confidence.

Why don’t more of us use this to our advantage?

It’s especially easy while traveling because nobody knows you, but it’s also be doable if you’ve never left your home town.

What I mean is, you don’t have to be who you are in your head. You can be someone else. You can be “that guy” or “that girl.”

This is sometimes described as “fake it til you make it.”

Let’s specifically take hanging out with or meeting new people because I’ve been having a few conversations (through e-mail/IM) about this topic with you guys lately. :)

Since last week, after waiting far too long to get off my ass and meet people in Wroc?aw, I’ve been hanging out with and meeting people every day*.

*Besides two days I was mostly out of commission due to my hurt knee/foot and I only went out to dinner for a bit. Wroc?aw doesn’t shut down, but no after-parties for me.

Based on the previously mentioned e-mail/IM conversations I know many of you think I’m extremely extroverted.

That is not the case in the slightest.

I am quite possibly one of the most introverted people you will ever meet. Although, depending on if I’m using my own advice, you may never know it. ;)

Let’s take an example of back-to-back nights last week.

First night: hung out on the streets, in clubs, and wherever. Was with a group of 7 or 8 people and because of the noise I didn’t talk much. It was hard to hear anybody, and my Polish comprehension is still at the point where I have trouble with conversations unless they’re 1 on 1 or, if in a group, in a quiet(er) place.

Eventually, since my body is a machine, I outlasted a few people and our group was down to 4. Things went better then, but because I had spent so many hours not talking a whole lot I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.

Second night: hung out on the streets, in clubs, and wherever. Was with an even larger group of people. This time I didn’t want a repeat performance so I purposefully became “someone else.” A fun, outgoing, gentlemen.

Think Vince Vaughn in Swingers except without the suit. Actually … with a huge hole in the front of my shirt since I still refuse to go shopping. It was kind of on purpose to make the game more of a challenge.

“Alright bitch, you’ve got a massive hole in your shirt and pretty much everybody stares at it when they talk to you. You look poor and maybe slightly homeless. Make shit happen now!”

I’m not sure if it’s normal to want to make things more difficult for yourself, but I work well under pressure.

So what happened?

I easily moved from group to group, speaking Polish (or English when necessary, there are lots of tourists in Wroc?aw, after all), and had an amazing time. As an aside, I can now easily achieve my self-defined Level 3 of Fluency in Polish. :)

Oh, and the hole in my shirt? If I caught someone looking at it I would acknowledge it by stating that it’s a space age ventilation system I invented for these humid nights. :)  (Wymy?li?em specjalny futurystyczny system wentylacji – who knows if that’s correct. It doesn’t matter. hehe)

How To Improve Confidence

I know I’m not the only person who struggles with confidence, and while I don’t take my own advice every time I need it, this is what has worked for me. The following is especially important in situations where you don’t know anybody else. (Which are the situations I find myself in regularly.)

1) Get Out Of Your Head

You’re overthinking everything. Nobody cares about you as much as they care about themselves. (Life Lessons #2 and #35.)

Obviously if there is something glaringly wrong with your look (err, like a massive hole in your shirt!) you might give off an unwanted first impression. But you can combat that by not being like me. Make things easier on yourself. ;)

2) Become Someone Else

I don’t mean that you should use someone else’s style of dress or speak the way they speak. While you can do that and it would probably be effective in the short run, it’s not sustainable. Be who you are, but use someone else as a basis for improvement.

It doesn’t matter specifically who, but it should be somebody that acts the way you’d like to act. Going back to my Vince Vaughn example: in Swingers his character, Trent, is maybe a bit over-the-top, but a generally fun guy. He has a lot of confidence, but not in an overtly cocky sort of way. He has fun and brings others along for the ride. In other words, he’s not an asshole and he wants everybody to have a good time. (OK, maybe he’s a bit of an asshole when he rips up that girl’s number.)

Your “someone else” doesn’t have to be famous or from a movie. These characters are easy to model if you don’t have anybody else in mind to model. Your someone else can just as easily be a friend of yours or maybe just someone you’ve witnessed from afar.

3) Place Yourself In Situations That Make You Uncomfortable

Confidence grows when you stretch yourself. One of the best ways to really stretch yourself is to do karaoke. Even if you completely bomb (<– rap lyrics show up too slowly on screen so I was always behind the beat) you will have a great time. I promise. My favorite is going up after somebody who can actually sing. ;)

Another situation that may make you uncomfortable: going out dancing even though you “can’t” dance. This is how: get on the dance floor and move. If you look at what others are doing you’ll see most of them can’t really dance either. You’ll also notice that they’re not paying any attention to you. You’ll also notice that there are people on the outskirts of the dance floor glancing at you wishing they were having as much fun as you.

I’m really tall (196 centimeters), I’m a bit awkward, and it’s impossible for me not to stand out. You at least have the luxury of blending in on whatever dance floor or social situation you put yourself in. :)

Everett wrote about uncomfortable situations in the “start taking risks” section towards the end of this article.

4) Don’t Use Alcohol As A Crutch

This is a mistake almost everybody makes when attempting to gain confidence and I’m no exception. I have used it too, but it doesn’t work.

The problem is if you use alcohol as a crutch, you will always need it as a crutch. Hence it being called a crutch. :) It’s a temporary solution and does nothing for you in situations where there may not be alcohol. Break your leg every day and you will always need a crutch to walk, right? Drinking alcohol is like breaking your confidence’s leg.

Does that mean you can never drink alcohol? No, I’m not stating that at all. Drink away! But drink when you don’t actually need it as a crutch anymore.

If you’ve struggled with confidence does this advice help? If you’ve overcome confidence issues do you have a good tip to share with the rest of us? Let us know …

How To Learn Any New City Without A Map (or How To Get Lost With Purpose)

In which I learn how to get to a cemetery and also make an old lady bleed …

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” – Cheshire Cat (via Lewis Carroll)

When you’re Living Anywhere it means you’re moving to new places on a fairly regular basis. At the very least you’re traveling to new cities regularly.

Before I get into the details here let me flat out state that this is not incredibly useful if you’re on holiday for a week. (Although it would be a fun exercise if you were on holiday as well.)

I have a simple strategy I use to learn new cities. It works fantastically well, especially in places where you can’t read or pronounce street names. :)

Getting Lost

I moved into a new place just outside of the Rynek (market square) area of Wroc?aw, Poland a week ago and wanted to get to know my new area. Three days ago I went for an open-ended (no real time limit) bike ride with purpose: to get lost and still make it to a specific place. The only map I have of Wroc?aw is from the Centrum Informacji Turystycznej (Tourist Information) and it only covers the city centre. I would be exploring further out.

I lived my first 6 months (of life as a fat baby) in a neighborhood called S?polno, and this is also where two of my Grandparents are buried. I knew the general direction of S?polno, but didn’t know how to get there or exactly how far it was. I did know the cemetary was along the Odra River since I took the public transport there before (1 hour trip from my previous residence in the Popowice neighborhood).

At 12:30pm I took off over the brick streets and sidewalks of Wroc?aw. 30 minutes later I happened upon Ogród Japo?ski (Japanese Garden).  It’s actually only a 10-15 minute bike ride from where I live, but remember … I’m getting lost. Exploring, taking turns, not remembering exactly how I’m going to get back to my starting point. :)

Behind the Japanese Garden is a big park and I like parks so I stopped to relax for ~30 minutes.

Stopping to relax is an important part of this journey. It makes it much more difficult to remember how you got to the point where you’re at. In other words, you have to actually think about where you are which will help you remember how you got there. Confusing? It’s not. ;)

I got back on my bike and started pedaling. I took a few turns, left, right, right, left … and then stumbled upon a sign for S?polno telling me to turn right again! So I did and rode along the Odra River for about 15 minutes. You can guess exactly where I ended up: the aforementioned cemetary. I hung out there for a half hour and decided to find my way back to the Rynek so I could get dinner at Vega before meeting up with friends at 5:30.

This is where it gets fun and stuff goes wrong. ;)

Instead of making my way back the way I came I took a detour. Across one bridge. Across another bridge. Across yet another bridge. To the point of not knowing which side of the Odra I should be on. I chose a direction and rode for 20-30 minutes. :)

Eventually, as I was making my way to Siberia, I asked a nice lady how to get to the Rynek. (Important point once you’re incredibly lost.) She laughed at me and said I am not anywhere near where I want to be. Then she proceeded to giving me 27 directions. “Najprostsz? droge,” she says. (The straightest road or the quickest/simplest way.)

If you need to ask for directions and you don’t speak the local language ask younger people. The younger generation is more likely to know English.

Blood! Sandals! Lessons Learned!

Almost immediately upon departing for this “najprostsz? droge” I came upon a middle-aged lady in the middle of the bike lane and I rang my bell to let her know I was going to pass. I always ring my bell about 30 feet behind people because everybody gets freaked out by bike bells. This lady was no exception. She made a b-line for the bushes lining the bike lane and took the worst spill I’d seen since this.

I helped her up, which wasn’t easy considering she decided to get her legs tangled in her bike frame. As she stood up we noticed the blood leaking from her foot. It wasn’t too bad, but there was a lot of blood and her left sandal had a new paint job. The dirty white wasn’t fitting anyway. :)

Lessons learned:

1) Don’t wear sandals on a bike.

2) Don’t ride your bike in the middle of the lane. Stay on the right or left and people can pass you without problems!

As I’m writing this I am cooped up in my apartment due to my own bike spill yesterday. :) Karma!

Success!

30 minutes later, after taking a few more detours, I made it to Vega and had some fantastic vegan go??bki.

Along the way I got to see lots of scenery I would not have seen otherwise. And now when I go north of Wroclaw I can make it back with less problems (and hopefully less blood). Next mission: get lost in the south. ;)

How To Get Lost

By now you’re probably thinking “gee Karol, I’d also like to make old ladies bleed! How do I get in on this action?!”

Simple:

Leave your home on foot or bike (not public transportation) and take a leisurely stroll for an undetermined length of time in any direction. Go down small side streets. Stumble into markets. Say “hello” to random people.

The important thing is not to have a time limit. I actually had somewhat of a time limit in the story above since I was going to meet friends. It took me 4 hours to go round trip to a place that’s about 20 minutes away on bike so I did give myself lots of leeway. ;)

Your turn: what’s your single best tip for learning a new city?

Sweet Shit Saturday #013 (Stats! Numbers! Wheee! Edition)

Last month was a big one for this blog. Here is some info about that plus “super mega” stuff you should check out …

I’m a big fan of tracking important stats (sales, ecourse subscribers, stuff that matters). I’ve mentioned before, but by tracking stats you find out where to focus your time because you know which of your efforts are paying off. When you can focus your efforts on only things that work guess what happens? You save time and work a little less. ;) With things like Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer tracking stats is not only easy, but free!

And with that …

June was a record month by every imaginable metric! It’s my first month of more than 100k pageviews (I don’t include StumbleUpon traffic in this number), which is more than double May’s pageviews. Much more importantly, the total RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com readership doubled as well. I put more focus on gaining Freedom Fighters than RSS, but each went up by 4 figures. Woohoo!

The reason for this massive increase is simple: I launched How To Live Anywhere and with it came lots of new traffic (hi!).

While I did orchestrate a small launch, it wasn’t that much work. I realized on the Saturday before launch that sending more e-mails to people who don’t know me would be a waste of time. Annoying people who do know me with launch e-mails would be a waste of time as well. I let things happen as they would and the results were fantastic.

Thank you for making the 12th month of this blog amazing. :)

Affiliates!

Affiliates did a fantastic job selling How To Live Anywhere last month.

Here are the top 5 (in terms of how much $ they made) for June:

  1. $1,514.40
  2. $1,488.65
  3. $511.45
  4. $379.50
  5. $379.50

All told there were 14 affiliates who made at least 1 sale and affiliate revenue was about 70% of total revenue.

Thank you if you linked to HTLA last month. You rock!

Super Mega Tangents

Everybody in Poland uses the words super and mega. e.g. “Mega zajebiste!”

Benny tells me it’s rooted in Latin. But I don’t know Latin. I know Polish and my English is at a 4th grade level according to my perfect marks in 4th grade English when I was in 4th grade. If you read it 4 times it makes sense.

(EDIT: My bad, I don’t listen well. Benny told me “super” was rooted in Latin, but “mega” is Greek. It’s all in the comments below if you care. ;) )

How about I take a tangent from the tangent so I can get to the links? Super mega idea Karol!

Tangent that has exactly nothing to do with the above but everything to do with my life: If you’re ever in Berlin go to Dolores Burrito on Rosa Luxemburg Str and get the Dolores Vegan. Holy wow, it may be the best burrito this side of Freebirds (Austin, TX).

Bonus tangent: If you’re ever in Berlin you probably don’t need to get the standard fare AB zone U / S-bahn tickets for 2.30 EUR. For just 1.30 EUR you can get a Short Trip ticket that allows up to 3 transfers on one trip within AB zone. I didn’t discover this until 12 hours before leaving Berlin. :)

Triple bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus tangent: Before heading to the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) in Berlin make sure you actually figure out how to get there first. Because, you know, that helps. And it saves you an expensive Taxi ride to make your train back to Poland. ;) (The Taxi cost almost as much as the train from Berlin > Wroclaw. haha!)

Now for some sweet link lurve:

How DJ Sean Gallagher Went From Broke To Surfing Mexico Thanks To His “How To DJ” Online Business by Yaro Starak

I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories. :) (This is a downloadable MP3.)

My 2 Bucks on Pricing by Chris Ashworth

This article could also be called “How To Make As Much In 3 Days As I Used To Make In 1 Month.” Love it. This is a must-read article if you ever plan on releasing a product of your own. And especially if you plan to make your prices low. The psychology behind pricing is fascinating and there are multiple reasons why I priced How To Live Anywhere at $110 as least one of which is touched upon in this article. :)

Small Volume High Price vs Large Volume Low Price by Brian Evans

If we’re going to talk about pricing, let’s talk about pricing! Brian provides really great insights into pricing. If you’re at all interested in marketing you really should be reading Brian’s blog.

Take Action by Kyle Durand

I’ve said it a million times, and I’ve linked to at least a few articles on this topic. I will keep linking to them. Taking focused action is important. So important that if you write an article about it I’ll probably link to you as well. :)

Validation Is Overrated by Seth Godin

Alright, I know it’s trendy to link to Seth Godin. But he is impossible not to link to. His work is good day in and day out. This article, in particular, stood out for me. Validation has gotten a lot of people into a lot of messes. Student loan debt. Banking debt. Credit card debt. And other debts. The root cause for all of them is seeking validation. Although Mr. Godin didn’t touch on any of those points, they’re still valid. ;) (Do I even need to point out what I did there? Wait, I just did. Dammit!)

I assume I’m below average by Derek Sivers

I don’t do this nearly often enough. It’s not that I think I’m great. I’m just a regular dude. It’s that I’m not afraid to give myself credit if I’m good at something. I like this approach to self improvement as long as it’s not taken from a negative stance. e.g. “I suck at this!” If we all took this advice the world would be a better place. :)

The Karol Gajda Weight Loss Method (Results Guaranteed) by Karol Gajda

This got a lot of @ replies on Twitter when I posted it a few days ago so I’m sharing it here with you as well. :)

That’s it for this week. Let’s hang soon, OK? How about Monday? Mega zajebiste, it’s a date!

Questions/comments/wanna have a zombie staring contest? You know what to do …

How To Drastically Improve Your Life … In Less Than 12 Months

Exactly one year ago today I made a step towards drastically improving my life. Here is what I did and how you can do it as well …

“Just about a year ago, I set out on the road. Seeking my fame and fortune, looking for a pot of gold.” – John Fogerty

Exactly one year ago today I made a step towards drastically improving my life. Unlike Mr. Fogerty (the best song writer of our time), however, I didn’t set out for fame or fortune or a pot of gold.

What I did set out to do was change my world and inspire you to change your world.

How I did that is simply stated:

I started this blog.

The first article ever published here at RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com is called “An Unlikely First Post: Notes From How To Build A High Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself.” These were my notes from a presentation by Tim Ferriss.

If you read the article you’ll see that I followed quite a bit of the advice … lots of it subconsciously since I haven’t actually read that article or watched the presentation in a year.

The most important piece of advice in the presentation is actually a quote from Tucker Max: “Important thing is not being a good writer, but having a voice.”

Voice and Promises

When I first started my voice was still in its infancy and the words weren’t coming out quite like they should have been. But I made two promises.

First promise: I would focus on a set schedule and stick to it.

That schedule has changed a couple of times, but I did stick to it and this is article #112. (Currently the schedule is Monday, Thursday, Saturday.) Whether an article was perfect or not was not as important as simply shipping. Practicing, getting my words out, and improving.

Second promise: I promised myself that I wouldn’t give in to convention and I would just be myself.

What you get here is essentially what you would get from me in person. In a way, this blog gives me a little more freedom with my persona, because sometimes I hold back in person (out of respect for others).

Being A Polarizing Figure

Some people get upset with what I write. Some people get upset with who I am. Some people don’t like me.

You don’t see any of that because as much as I hate censorship I don’t tolerate personal attacks. When someone is negative or attacks me it’s much more fun to delete it than get into an argument. :) (Life Lesson #8: Arguments are pointless.)

To be honest, I’m still on a quest to be more polarizing, but I’ve done an OK job so far.

I’m not afraid to be the same person in public and in private even though I very well know that it affects me negatively as far as certain contacts and business prospects. Social climbing isn’t worth it to me if I have to be fake. You will find very few bloggers (with non-personal blogs) who are truly open. That’s neither good nor bad (well, it’s good for the aforementioned social climbing), but I can’t do that.

Now I’m going off on a tangent. :) (You know how I love those.)

Opening Up My World

The first time my life drastically changed was when I joined CouchSurfing. It was a revelation. “Wow, I can literally go anywhere in the world and hang out with awesome people.”

With blogging it’s similar, but different. It’s a more natural progression of friendship with you and other bloggers. E-mail/skype/in-person meet ups. There is a natural arc to relationships built through this blog.

Similarly to CouchSurfing, blogging has opened up the world to me. I’ve met other bloggers in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Germany. I’ve met readers all over the place as well.

5 Ways Blogging Has Changed My Life

I’ve read a lot of blog posts about blogging changing people’s lives. I actually got an e-mail a few days ago from a reader who asked me how it has changed mine.

1) I’ve made great friendships with quite a few awesome people.

I’m not well known in the blogging world by any means. That’s much less important to me than actually connecting with the people who do know me.

2) Blogging has given me an outlet for my writing.

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I never knew I would absolutely love it. There are not many pursuits I’ve undertaken that have been so fulfilling as writing for you.

3) I’ve connected with like-minded people.

This is different than friendships, but just as important. I’ve received so many amazing e-mails that break down to: “Wow, you are exactly like me” and reading that never gets old. :) It’s very rare for me to meet people similar to me in every day life, but blogging has made it happen more than I could imagine.

4) I’ve been incredibly inspired by you.

I have a label in Gmail called Awesome E-mails. A lot of times I forget to mark e-mails as Awesome and I only started the label on January 22, 2010, but even so there are currently 47 e-mails under that label. This label consists of positive, inspiring e-mails from you.

5) I’ve discovered my future without even knowing I was looking for it.

I’ve tried to deny it many times over the past few months, but this blog is my future. There is not as much money in blogging and releasing products through a blog as through doing affiliate marketing, but it is much more fulfilling. As you already know money, in and of itself, is not what makes me happy.

5 Reasons You Should Start Blogging Today

I’m going to preface these reasons with the following: you should start a blog in a niche that you love and that you can see yourself writing about for the next 10 years.

1) You will meet awesome people. There is no denying that. It takes time, but it will happen.

2) Fun opportunities are everywhere for bloggers. Depending on what your goals are you can make sweet contacts, get a new job (assuming you want a job), earn your own income through your blog, and sometimes even get free stuff (if that’s what you’re after; I’m not). I could go on for a few hours on the opportunities available to you. Suffice it to say there are many.

3) You don’t have to be a great writer (as stated above). What you need is a unique voice. That may take time to develop so starting today will give you an edge.

4) You don’t need any technical knowledge. Get a Web host, install WordPress, and start writing. Follow Darren Rowse’s 31 Days To Building A Better Blog (free article series) for guidance.

5) You will begin building a legacy. If you die tomorrow what gift are you leaving the world? A piece of you via your blog is a great gift to leave behind.

Closing It Out

If there was a more epic expression for thank you I would use that, but there isn’t one. Thank you.

How To Avoid Disappointment

I used to feel disappointed regularly. Here is how I stopped …

A lot of our disappointments and frustrations are a result of outside forces. We make plans to meet up with a friend and the friend flakes. We buy a plane ticket and the flight is delayed. We drive across town, run into traffic, and arrive late to a meeting. We order food without cheese and get cheese anyway. (That’s actually a whole philosophical discussion for another day, hehe.)

Personally, I expect a lot out of myself. And I used to expect a lot out of other people.

In other words, I hold myself to a very high standard and I used to hold others to that same very high standard.

When I say I’m gonna do something, I do it. When I make a promise, I keep it. (Barring unforeseen circumstances, of course.)

Holding other people to a high standard has resulted in lots of feelings of disappointment.

Can you relate? Has there ever been a time when somebody has disappointed you?

Over the past couple of years I’ve been able to conquer those feelings of disappointment very simply. I stopped holding others to my high standards.

It’s not my place to hold others to a high standard, or any standard for that matter.

We should hold ourselves to a high standard, but the responsibility for holding anybody to any standard ends right there.

Here is what I’ve found: many people don’t hold themselves to a high standard and, therefore, go back on their word or don’t fulfill obligations they say they’ll fulfill.

If you try to hold someone like this to a high standard the result will usually be disappointment.

Now when someone tells me they’re going to do something I accept that and believe it. If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t bother me because I didn’t formulate a standard for them to live up to.

If they do, on the other hand, follow through, I have a better sense of  “oh, cool, this person holds themselves to a high standard. I’m going to enjoy working with / being friends with / hanging out with this person a lot.”

Here is where it gets tricky: if you have someone in your life who is consistently not following through, I would classify them as a toxic person. We really do become who we associate with and as you know, you should not associate with toxic people.

There’s an old saying, and I don’t know where I first heard it, but it goes something like this: “If you want to make a lot of money, take the average incomes of your five closest friends. That number is what you can expect as your income.” While I don’t necessarily believe in that particular statement it makes sense in a lot of other areas in life.

If you have people in your life who constantly go back on their words, it will become so normal to you that it will begin to creep into your own personality.

I know this is true because the reason I was once a greedy and unhappy person was because those are the types of people I associated myself with.

How do you avoid disappointment?

1) Don’t allow your happiness/fulfillment to come from outside forces that you have no control over.

If you can’t control a situation you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. It’s like playing the lottery with your happiness.

2) Associate with kick ass people.

Awesome people hold themselves to a high standard and won’t disappoint.

###

Special comment love request.

Do: write happy thoughts. :) For example, situations where everything worked out like you wanted. Or worked out unexpectedly but happily.

Don’t: write about people, things, or situations that have disappointed you.

Sweet Shit Saturday #012 (Live From Germany Edition)

Live from Berlin! A little bit about the future of Ridiculously Extraordinary + lots of sweet links …

Greetings from Germany! Err, I mean … Guten tag! I’m in Berlin hanging with Benny!

As you know if you read Thursday’s article, I conducted a survey to figure out exactly what you want out of me. Some of the answers I was expecting, some I’m happily surprised with, and some I’m completely befuddled by. ;)

What I know for sure is that you want a guide to teach you how to get your first affiliate product sale and another guide to teach you how to get your first infoproduct sale. Message received and I’m getting the wheels in motion for a very small group of initial participants in Zero To First Affiliate Sale. That won’t be public on this blog, so don’t worry about being inundated with another launch right now. :)

And … I’m thrilled that so many of you want me to release a fleshed out version of Mind Control Method! Based on your response, and my own excitement about the product, you can expect it on October 28, 2010. (There is a reason it’s specifically that date. Can you guess what that is?)

I’ve had this product in mind since I wrote that Mind Control article and I know it will help a lot of people. But I didn’t actually think anybody else would be interested in it (woohoo! for that). To help me create an awesome Mind Control Method product go to www.MindControlMethod.org and register (you’ll also get early bird pricing, of course).

Since I’m hanging with Benny I feel like I should dedicate this Saturday to language learning. But I don’t read any language learning blogs except Benny’s so we’re gonna stick with non-language extraordinary link love …

Minimalism, Online Business, Nomadism, Men by Brook Delorme

Even though she kinda disses me (and others) in this article it brings up a good point. One that was raised with me in an e-mail conversation with someone else last week so obviously lots of us are thinking about it. Why are there not more women writing about minimalism, business, and travel? Not separately, but all 3 subjects.

If you are the female version of me or any of the other people Brook linked to please do us all a favor and get in touch. Even if you haven’t started blogging yet.

The Diddy Guide to Constant Creativity and Relentless Marketing by Greg Rollett

Diddy himself tweeted this article, it’s that good. :) This is Greg’s guest post on ThinkTraffic.net. Greg rules, Corbett from ThinkTraffic rules. Diddy rules (from a business standpoint). Check them out.

The Essential Qualities of a Traveling Companion by Ivan Campuzano

I have an article about Roadtripping In A Campervan in the pipeline and the most important part of a roadtrip is choosing the right companion(s). I much prefer solo travel, but when I do travel with others it’s usually a phenomenal experience because of the qualities Ivan lists here.

How I Gained 9,000 Subscribers In 9 Months by Glen Allsopp

Glen had a previous blog called PluginID that he grew to 6,500 subscribers before selling. His new blog surpassed that subscriber count in record time. Could you do the same thing? I don’t know. But this is worth a read if you’re a blogger.

How To Have High Value Relaxation by Laura Roeder

Just a day after I posted my How To Relax article Laura came at us with this awesome video! It was complete coincidence, but I guess a little more proof that we really do need to set aside time to relax.

That’s all for this week! I’m gonna go eat some awesome food and turn this town upside down.

Questions/comments/wanna eat at Yellow Sunshine with me? You know what to do …

How To Use A Free Survey To Get Infoproduct And Article Ideas

How to get ideas by conducting a simple survey using the free Google Docs Form feature …

I’m trying something different today. I usually leave the how-to technical boring stuff to other people. Writing about this kind of thing usually doesn’t interest me.

But this week I conducted my first survey here at Ridiculously Extraordinary and the results have been a little bit mind-blowing. One of the suggestions I got (more than once) was to include more step-by-step hand-holding technical type information on this blog. If today goes well I will consider doing this more often.

If you got the survey it’s because you’re in a not-so-secret club. ;)

There is a lot of online survey software out there.

The most popular seems to be SurveyMonkey.com. Which, for the version I’d want to use, is $20/month. And even that only allows 1,000 responses/month. Seriously? Come on.

Free Surveys With Google Docs!

Which is where Google Docs saves the day!

I’ll be honest with you, I have a love/hate relationship with Google Docs. What I hate is the formatting gets really jacked up if you save a document and then open it in OpenOffice or Word. What I love is almost everything else. :)

I especially love the Forms feature.

There are a myriad uses for Google Docs Forms, but today we’re going to focus on surveys.

Surveying your audience is a great way to figure out what they want from you. Say you’re stuck on what kind of product to create. Run a survey! Maybe you’re out of blog post ideas? Run a survey! Looking for feedback about your site/products? Run a suvey!

Using Surveys For Infoproduct Creation Ideas

Back in the days when Google Adwords wasn’t such a beast we used to use surveys to figure out what kind of niche products to create.

The idea was simple: run a Google Adwords campaign on some topic, say dog training. The landing page would be a 1 question survey: “What is your biggest problem with training your dog?” (and variations on that theme)

It would cost maybe a few hundred dollars in Google Adwords spending to get a ton of awesome questions.

Then we’d compile all the relevant questions, get the answers, and BOOM, instant infoproduct. :)

You can use this exact same strategy now, but a better bet would be to use Facebook Ads, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter, Plenty of Fish ads,  or any other ad system that doesn’t hate 1 page landing pages and is still comparatively low cost.

Step By Step Survey Creation

I’ve been wanting to run a survey here for a very long time, but it wasn’t until Day 26 of the EBK that I got the kick in the pants I needed to actually do it.

So on Monday I ran a survey about the future of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com, including future premium products and future free articles.

This is how I did it.

Step 1) Go to Google Docs: http://www.google.com/docs

Step 2) Click on Create New > Form:

Step 3) Give the Form a name:

Step 4) Create the first question:

Step 5) Now, assuming you selected a multiple choice, checkboxes, or choose from a list question type offer up some choices:

As you can see this part offers you a few extra options. Click “add Other” to give people the option to suggest their own answer instead of using one of your stock answers. Then check “Make this a required question” if you want to force people to answer this question. (The survey won’t submit if the question isn’t answered.)

Click Done when you’ve finished with your options.

Step 6) If you want to do more than a 1 question survey click Add Item:

Then select what type of question. All very simple.

Step 7) Repeat Step 4 – 6 until you’re done with all your questions. The shorter the survey the more people will finish it. The longer the survey the more detail you can get out of each person. How you decide to tackle it is completely up to you.

Step 8 – Optional) Select a new Theme to give your form some kind of design other than plain white.

The default theme is plain, but Google has a few dozen theme designs for you to choose from if you’d like.

Step 9) Click on More Actions > Embed:

Step 10) Copy your Embed code and past it into a new WordPress blog post.

That’s it!

The Finished Product

Now just send your visitors to that blog post like this:

http://www.RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com/survey-time/

That is the survey I sent out earlier this week. If you want to help me shape the future of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com please fill it out. It’s completely anonymous.

11 Excuses Stopping You From Starting A Business

If you’ve been thinking about starting a business and have been giving yourself excuses let me help you …

In the 10 years I’ve been an entrepreneur I’ve heard a lot of excuses from very intelligent people as to why they haven’t started a business. While I could probably write a book filled with those excuses, let’s tackle some of the most common.

1) “I don’t have enough money.”

This could be a good excuse. If you’re trying to start a restaurant chain. Otherwise, I’m assuming you’re reading this because you want to start something mostly web-based. Which means you don’t need much money. If you can’t scrounge up a few hundred dollars to start a business then you really don’t want to start a business. Hell, Kevin Rose started Digg.com for something like $2,000! (The domain itself was $1,200.)

For more check out:

– The Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Small Online Business

– How I Created My First 6 Figure Business For $119.40

2) “I’m in too much debt.”

I’ll come right out and say it. This is the only legitimate excuse I can think of. Whenever somebody e-mails me to say they’re in a ton of debt but want to start a business my response is: “Get out of debt first.”

There is simply too much stress with debt. Add that to the stress of starting a business venture and you have a recipe for disaster.

Caveat: If you started a blog about how you’re getting out of debt that could grow into a very nice business. See GetRichSlowly.org, ManVsDebt.com, and TheSimpleDollar.com.

3) “I don’t have the right connections.”

You don’t need any. Seriously. And once you actually start your business you will naturally make connections. The truth is, starting a small web-based business is usually a solo venture. That’s not to say meeting people won’t help. It will. Tremendously. What I mean is, if you can’t make things happen yourself, then by involving other people you’ll just waste everyone’s time.

4) “I don’t have enough time.”

There is not a single excuse that gets me more fired up than this one. Because you do have time if you want it. How much free time do you think you’d have with baby triplets and a full time job? Not much, right? Yet Charley is still making things happen. No time is no excuse. Make time. I won’t tell you how, you know where you’re wasting time.

5) “I’m not sure what to do.”

This makes sense. Starting a business can be a daunting task. But again, not if you’re starting a small online based business. Here’s the secret: do something. Action begets action. Get your idea out there, get feedback, tweak, get more feedback, and keep it up! Yes, it’s true you might fail furiously, but hopefully you’ll fail fast and move on.

But this brings me to another excuse: 5b) “What do I do first?”

And the answer is the same: something, anything. Buy a domain, get web hosting, and install WordPress. Or map out the specs for the application you want created and submit it to eLance.com and Guru.com to get quotes. Do something that moves you closer to shipping.

6) “Most businesses fail, why should I bother?”

It’s true most business fail, because the owners close them. As to why you should bother, well … to be honest, if this is your reason for not starting a business you’re probably better off not starting a business. A much better way to think is to find success stories and base your own business around those successes instead of failures.

Reading autobiographies of successful entrepreneurs (and successful people in general) will help you with this. You’ll see that most people had many failures or very moderate successes before being considered truly successful.

7) “My family/spouse/friends/dog don’t support me.”

There can be two different interpretations of no support. If your family/friends/etc don’t help or encourage your business (mine never did) then that’s easy to overcome. It’s your business, support yourself.

If, on the other hand, they tell you that you’ll fail and you have no business starting a business then you need to remove them from your life. Toxic people will never support you and you shouldn’t expect them to. Additionally, keeping them around will just make your chances of success that much less likely. Remember: avoid the unhappy and unlucky.

8) “I don’t have enough education”

This excuse is usually rooted in not having an MBA or business degree of some sort. The majority of successful business owners I know either didn’t get a University degree at all or got a degree in something other than Business. As Aristotle said: “What we have to learn, we learn by doing.”

Do or don’t, the choice is yours.

9) “I don’t come from a business family.”

I’ve actually heard this one more than I can count and I don’t fully understand it. Was Michael Jordan’s father the best basketball player of his time? No, he never even made it to the NBA (and I don’t even know if the late Mr Jordan Senior played basketball at all).

The point is, you don’t need “entrepreneurship in your genes” to start a business. There isn’t a single entrepreneur in my family. Not a single one anywhere.

Might it help if you have a close family member who can show you the ropes? Yes. But it’s not necessary for someone to show you the ropes. Show yourself the ropes and you’ll understand them better.

10) “There is too much competition.”

Good! That means there is a hungry market. Much better to go into a market with competition and lots of customers than a market with no competition and no customers. With the former you can prosper, with the latter you will starve.

11) “I’m afraid”

There it is. And congratulations for admitting it. Fear is what every excuse boils down to. And you know what? You have a right to be afraid. If you don’t approach things right you can lose your ass. You can fail. You can spend hours, days, weeks, months, years building a business that could come crashing down one day. It has happened before.

But what if none of that happens? What if you don’t lose your ass? What if you succeed beyond your wildest imagination?

You’ll never know unless …