Sure, many sites grow much bigger, and much faster, but I think the value of slow, steady, growth like this is often overlooked, and is at the core of Being Yourself for a Living. Here’s how its done:

Stay true to yourself

This sounds incredibly trite and cheesy, but its really true. Its easy to get distracted by the latest trends, and spiral into writing useless “top 10″ posts about how to create the coolest Twitter background, but you have to follow your passions, interest, and experiences. The things that are really hot at any given point do have plenty of importance, but nothing is more important to focus upon than the unique perspective that you can provide. Fortunately, there’s only one you, complete with things that have happened to you, things you think about, and things you can’t help but do. While you are unique, you’re probably just unique enough that there are plenty of people who are interested in the same things that you are, and are interested in what you have to say.

Be patient, be committed

I was talking to an elderly man in my neighborhood the other day. He has been living in Lincoln Park, Chicago since he bought his house more than 50 years ago. A lot has changed in the neighborhood since then, and – as you can imagine – his house is worth much more than when he purchased it (even when adjusted for inflation).

It’s stories like these that have caused many people to seek real estate as an investment – often to their own financial peril. “God only made so much dirt, and there will always be more people,” they say. The problem is, the time to lay claim to your piece of dirt has mostly passed, and the way we interact with information has altered the way we interact with “dirt.” But information – and experiences – are not like dirt. There are always more.

What is 10 years, really, in the grand scheme of your life? If it takes you 10 years to build something great, there’s plenty more life to live; and if you’ve stayed true to yourself, you’ve had a lot of fun building it. Many entrepreneurs dream of starting a company, giving up most of it in exchange for funding, building said company, and cashing out 3 years later for millions. There is so much fervor around the success stories that have worked this way, sometimes its hard to recognize whether that is, in fact, what you really want from your career and life.

I once wanted this, too; but I can say with certainty today that I no longer do. I don’t love money enough, I’m not interested enough in such bragging rights, to muster enough motivation to put up with what a personal drain I imagine that to be. I don’t know if those are the things that motivate such founders, but I’ve definitely met some for whom money and acheivement are their driving forces. Why would you work so hard on something if you didn’t love it? If you loved it so much, why would you sell it? After 6 years of tinkering around, I’m finally making a very modest living off of the Kadavy, Inc. family. Most of this happened in the last year (I hope to share more about that in future posts). I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 4.

When you’re true to your curiousities, and accept that something will take a long time, you can more easily enjoy the whole process. By using only the resources you have at hand, whatever it is you build is yours the whole way.

Write with SEO in mind

Most posts on kadavy.net have come from answering this question: what do I know that I could teach someone else, and how would they search for it? When I had a lump in my mouth, and agonized over just what it might be, once I finally knew what the issue was, I set out to help inform other people who might be searching for the same thing. Instead of writing about mucoceles (whatever those are), I wrote about mucoceles using the language someone would use to search for them. This experience has paid for its own medical bills and then some. By using SEO best practices, you can make sure the people who are looking for what you have to share – actually find it.

Find an audience

Whatever websites there are that you like to read, those are probably the ones where you can find your audience. The first breakout post for kadavy.net was Eight Life Hacks for Health, Wealth, & Happiness. It was during the budding days of “Lifehacks,” and Lifehacker, naturally was a good place for such content. I thought of the post while in the shower, wrote it and published once I got out of the shower, and sent it in a quick e-mail to Lifehacker, who then published it on their site. I’ve had good luck being covered by Lifehacker a number of times over the years, and lately I’ve had good luck with the (amazing) community on Hacker News. You have to find out where your audience reads, and get in front of their eyeballs – usually, this will take some effort on your part (like sending an e-mail). Guest posts are another great way to reach an audience, though I’ve never actually done one.

Build upon your successes

Not every blog post is of use to a lot of people. Unsurprisingly, not that many people are looking for the meaning behind the movie “swimming pool,” or trying to figure out how to set proper book margins. But, a surprising amount of people have lumps in their mouths, or want to transfer their itunes library. Aside from poking around on Google Keyword Tool, its hard to know if many people will really care about a given blog post; but when you do have a successful post, build upon it. Write related posts, research related keywords and incorporate them into the post, or build a whole separate site. If you have a post that goes viral, try to think about what elements made it interesting to your particular audience. I’ve found that explaining design principles by using popular examples is apparently as much fun for others to read about as it is for me to write about.

So, take it or leave it. I’m not rich. I’m not famous. But, I got 100,000 page views last month and I’m happy about it. It may have taken a long time, but I’m not stopping any time soon. Hopefully some of my advice can help you reach 1,000,000 page views.

No related posts.

Redbox wasn’t the only company to recognize and attack this waste of resources. NetFlix was clearly way ahead of me in recognizing this, founded in 1997.

This makes me think of another market opportunity I’ve seen emerge. Printing services.

Owning a printer is a complete pain in the ass, and – for most people – it’s really not worth it. Inkjet printers break constantly, and their cartridges are expensive, and dry out. Laser printers are generally too expensive. Not to mention printers are ugly and take up lots of space.

So, I gave up on owning a printer years ago. Even running my own business, I don’t do much printing. I’ve managed to get by without a printer most of the time. On occasion, I have to print something.

So, I send my prints to Kinko’s Docstore. I upload the file, pay, then go pick up the prints a few hours later. It’s much cheaper page-per-page than going to the store and printing. The other day I printed a Groupon (an act which should have been unnecessary), and it cost me 24 cents.

24 cents for a human to receive my file, print it out, along with a page with details on the print job, and stuff it into a bag. The human then diverted his attention from other customers in the store to hand me this bag. A day later, another human called me to make sure that the job had been done right.

Needless to say, FedEx (Kinko’s) didn’t make a profit off of my print job. But, I’m sure such ridiculously trivial jobs are probably more commonplace than they used to be.

I would guess more people are forgoing having home printers. They so rarely need them. More people, now jobless, are starting their own businesses. Their limited capital and time isn’t wisely spent in buying and maintaining a printer.

So, why is there no printing “vending machine.” I send my simple print job to a remote vending machine in my neighborhood (maybe at my local grocery store). It prints it, sends me an email or SMS, and I go pick it up as I run errands. A camera inside could keep records of the printouts to settle disputes over print jobs gone wrong.

It’s printer ownership as a service. The Redbox. The ZipCar. Of printing.

But, there’s assumptions. As digital media downloads will probably kill Redbox, would an eventual elimination of paper kill this machine and business? Do you have a printer? How often do you print? Would you use this?

Redbox photo from saaby

No related posts.

What it is – I DO here

That is definitely not my coffee.

First, just what it is that I do probably needs some explanation. I’m President and Owner of Kadavy, Inc., which is an S-Corporation that houses my web design consulting services, as well as media properties, such as kadavy.net, Flatmate Meetup, and my share of nom.ms. The ultimate path of this company is not to be a web design consultancy, but I do enjoy that part of the business. Over this past year, Kadavy, Inc.’s revenues have been almost entirely from the web design consultancy, but I project that to change drastically over the next few years.

I choose my web design clients very carefully. My specialty is working with startups because that’s what I get connected with most through my network – and they tend to have progressive work styles. Thus, oDesk Corporation is one of my best clients. I prefer clients who are well-versed at communicating remotely, and are good at collaborating on written thought processes through collaborative documents such as Google Documents, or text-based communication such as Instant Messenger.

I find most meetings to be unproductive. I am many times more effective when I’m able to think independently in an environment that is within my control, than when trying to labor through a thought process with other people on the fly. I find that meetings and discussions have their place when it comes to exploration, but that really making decisions happens more effectively when all of the stakeholders get a chance to process all of the influencing factors and make an informed decision – or better yet, just respect one another’s roles and powers of judgement. This is of course the exception rather than the rule, but I manage to find clients who work this way once in awhile. Those clients, I cherish.

Kadavy, Inc. HQ

I work at home, by myself. I have a small one-bedroom apartment (plus sunroom) in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. I use the tiny sunroom as my bedroom. The bed barely fits in this room, and that’s fine with me. It gets a little chilly, but I have a heated mattress pad. I use what is supposed to be the bedroom as my office so I have more space for working. I used to rent an office space with some friends who have their own consulting businesses. It was valuable early on when I needed the mentoring, but the utility eventually wore off, and it got expensive.

I have an IKEA Jerker desk and Aeron chair because together, they can be adjusted to an ergonomic setup for me. My MacBook Pro sits on a laptop stand – again for ergonomics. I mouse with my left hand (more on that later), and use my Wacom Tablet with my right hand. When I’m at my home office, I hook up my laptop to a 20″ Dell Monitor. I bought the desk, chair, and monitor used on Craigslist, mostly using notifications.

I thought that working at home alone would get to me mentally, but it hasn’t yet. It makes it all the better and more motivating to get me out of the house once in awhile, and since socializing is part of my business model (more on that later), that is a good thing.

Starting the day

On a typical morning, my alarm is set on my iPhone timer for 8:18am (setting my alarm for an unusual time is more than a decade old tradition for me). I hit the snooze bar numerous times, and try to really make it out of bed before 10am. In a perfect world, I would meditate first thing in the morning and do some yoga; but I’m unfortunately not quite that disciplined. So, most days, I immediately go into my office and do some work for an hour or so.

The work I’ll do depends upon what I have going on. If I’m in the middle of a billable project, I’ll try to hit that for a bit before I check any e-mail at all. More often, I’ll process e-mail first thing. I immediately archive as many e-mails as I can, and mark as unread the ones that are actionable that it isn’t appropriate to get to at that moment. I loosely subscribe to the Inbox Zero system, and at any given moment, I’m unlikely to have more than 7 e-mails in my inbox. I use Mail.app much more than the web version of Gmail. As great as it is, I don’t get how people can live in the web version of Gmail. Mail is so much more nimble for searching and managing e-mails with keyboard shortcuts for me.

If it hasn’t been determined for me already, I’ll try to get a clear picture of what the day holds for me and write it down on an index card, or write it up in VooDooPad. I practically live in VooDooPad. I’ve heard good things about Evernote, but haven’t gotten around to checking it out because VooDooPad works so well for me. I have a separate document for every project, and every property within Kadavy, Inc. I use it for brainstorming, record keeping, and project management. I find loose text to be the most agreeable format with which to plan, and I can fortunately get away with it since I usually work pretty independently. Even when I work on collaborative documents, I write in VooDooPad first. I often do the same for e-mails. This blog post was drafted in VooDooPad.

Once I have a good idea of what the day has in store for me, I’ll start eating some breakfast. By this time, my AntiRSI has probably already kicked in. It’s a program that monitors my computer usage to remind me to take breaks. I’ve been in some employment situations where I didn’t have the opportunity to take breaks, and I paid the price with RSI bad enough that I now mouse with my left hand. That’s cleared up since I started being more disciplined with taking breaks, but I don’t want to be in that situation again. As an added benefit, the program usually reminds me to take breaks just as my temples start to tense up, and I’m not thinking as clearly anyway.

Kadavy, Inc. is what it eats

Eating right is very important to my business since I’m the only employee. It has a huge effect on my mood, my ability to focus mentally, and since the Kadavy, Inc. health insurance plan sucks, that’s extra incentive. I’ll usually have some granola, some plain yogurt (or rice drink), and some fresh fruit for breakfast. Additionally, I’ll have some whey protein shake (by far the most processed thing that I eat), some Omega-3 pills, and Dr. Weil multivitamins.

Overall, I have pretty unusual eating habits. I discovered a few years ago that I’m better off without wheat, and that really opened up my eyes to the connection between what I eat and how I think and feel. So, I don’t eat bread, I only eat gluten-free pasta. I go easy on the meat and dairy, but have determined that it’s pretty tough to have a balanced diet without at least a little of both of those. I eat almost no processed or sugary foods. I quit drinking soda over a dozen years ago. I don’t drink coffee (I’m too sensitive to caffeine, and “just don’t want to get involved”). I don’t drink juice (too much sugar). I pretty much just drink tons of water, and quite a bit of tea. I have been on a big Chamomile tea kick because I tend to have quite a bit of energy, and it makes me more calm and focused. I’m interested to try this gyokuro tea that Jason Fried has written about because it has an amino acid that synergizes with caffeine to increase focus.

So what do I eat? I try to buy as much as I can from the Farmer’s Market that I live nearby. The food tastes amazing, you can really feel the better nutrition, and I like knowing where my food is coming from, and where my money is going. I also occassionally order nuts such as raw unsalted almonds or cashews, in bulk, from nutsonline.com. When I cook at home, I eat lots of vegetables and brown rice or quinoa. When I eat out, it’s lots of Thai, or Mexican (tacos, since they are corn, rather than flour, tortillas).

Back to work

After (or while) I’m eating breakfast, I’ll do a little more work. I’ll act on what e-mails I can, or if I’m not super busy, I’ll check out what’s up on Twitter. I really love Twitter, and when I get a chance, I actively seek out people whom I can help on there, because I certainly get lots of help from the Twitter ecosystem.

My favorite work is pouring over Analytics, analyzing CrazyEgg clicks, or running and analyzing Google Website Optimizer tests. I also love messing around in Google’s Keyword tool, where I often find keywords that I can use to improve the traffic numbers on my web properties, or to get ideas for new content that I can compete on. I have to be careful with myself on this, because it’s very easily to burn hours on this that don’t wind up being effective. I try to keep myself in check, making sure that I progress towards decisions that will make a real difference for my business.

Thanks to Jelly - I don't have much of a bald spot.

Play and exploration are a huge part of my business model. There are such huge changes afoot in the way we do everything, that you’ll surely get left behind if you are too goal-oriented and don’t exercise your creativity and invite serendipity into your business. A critical component of this exploration is socializing. On most Mondays and Wednesdays, I head to a nearby cafe called Noble Tree to casually cowork (or “mowork” as I stubbornly call it) with a group called Jelly. We have several regulars, and a pretty steady stream of newcomers. Every time I go, I have some sort of “ah-ha” moment from a conversation I have with someone there. There are a bunch of entrepreneurs that come and we really help each other out. It’s almost as if we have equity in each other’s companies simply by virtue of being in the same community. I’ve made more authentic and rewarding business relationships through Jelly and other informal social interactions than I could ever have in an office, where relationships are tainted by false incentives.

I’ve melded this socializing component with continuing education in a group called DIYMBA. We initially formed as a group to read (real) business books, and discuss them; but soon realized we shared good resources in the contacts that we had. So, once a month, we gather for brunch and have a different business person join us. It’s very casual. We pick their brains, then we discuss our challenges with our own businesses. The best part of the group is that we’ve limited the number of members, so we’re comfortable discussing stuff that we wouldn’t be as comfortable discussing if the group changed month to month.

I can’t stress enough how important social capital is to me and my business. It sounds silly to talk about it that way, as if I was saying the word “networking” (a word I can’t stand). I really get a rush out of talking to people who have made a sustainable living out of their passions, interests, and experiences – or who at least have the courage to try. I can actually feel the blood in my veins pump harder just when I think about it. I’ve seen lots of people grow and become successful in this way, and it excites me to no end to imagine how many more of my friends will have done so in 5 or 10 years. Social capital takes a long time to appreciate; but when it does, it’s explosive.

Play and exploration also includes obeying my curiousity in endeavors that don’t have any clear immediate purpose. As Steve Jobs says “you can’t connect the dots moving forward,” and I heed this wisdom, because kadavy.net started on what seems like a whim, and has brought me more enjoyment and success than I anticipated. Lately, I’ve felt very compelled to create video content on my YouTube channel. In pursuit of my impulses – which has incidentally improved the quality of this content – I’ve taken improv classes, script writing classes, and acting classes. It seems like most video bloggers are more likely to spend $1000 on a great video camera, rather than on an acting class; and I think this is a mistake. I challenge myself in my video content to produce it with the simplest tools possible (iSight and iMovie). I’ll upgrade if and when someone gives a shit – which, at about 50 channel subscribers, is not currently the case. If I can’t produce content compelling enough for this to happen, then I can’t justify the upgrade.

Into the night

Some nights, I am abducted by UFOs

Whether it’s a day I go to Jelly or not, I continue to work until I go to bed. Now, I don’t mean non-stop: usually, I’ll have dinner with a friend, and we’ll discuss our work, or I’ll have a class. If I am not working or doing one of those things, I may take a break to cook, or to play my guitar (I’ve been writing some music – another exploratory endeavor); but I’ll usually continue working afterward. If I feel like I need some relaxation and am doing work that’s compatible with it, I’ll put 30 Rock or The Office on Hulu while I work. I listen to different music for different moods, but nothing beats soft lighting and Ryan Adams’s “Gold” for a late-night work session. Occasionally, I’ll read some fiction before I go to sleep, which is usually around 2 or 3am. I really prefer biographical fiction because real experiences are more interesting to me. I’ve enjoyed David Sedaris, Dave Eggers…other authors who aren’t also named David.

I do all of the work for my business. If there is something very technical – like writing a web app from scratch – that I can’t handle, I may hire someone out; but other than that I do everything. Client relations, design, coding, bookkeeping, SEO, writing, tweeting. I’ve tried outsourcing for some small tasks before, but I couldn’t justify it. If money is pouring in and I’m swamped, then I’ll definitely be hiring help. Such is not currently the case. I do hire a CPA to help with my taxes, though.

My work style goes through some intense seasonal changes. The social component of my work is stronger in the summer, and in the coldest and darkest winter months, I’ll usually get really intensely involved in learning new things. I lived in and around San Francisco for three years, and while it was a tremendous period of growth for me, I really missed the inclimate weather, which I have to thank for the majority of any technical skill or knowledge I have. Growing up, going to school, and working in the midwest before SF, I was very productive in the winters. It feels strange to admit, but there’s also something I get out of feeling like I have to survive something – like I have something to fight against. Because that’s the reality of it when you’re in the early stages of entrepreneurship. It’s as if California has too much optimism for me at this point. Not enough reality.

Along with eating well, getting exercise is also important to my work. It’s as much for my mind as it is for my body. When the weather is nice, I get a good deal of exercise from riding my bike around town. I know it’s dangerous, but transportation in America is just absurd enough to make it worth it for me; and I gravitate toward an integrated lifestyle (transportation & exercise at the same time = good). I try to get to Yoga class once a week, which does incredible things for my mood and mental clarity – I really should go more often. If I haven’t managed to do either of the aforementioned, I’ll go jogging. I set my iPhone timer for 15 minutes, use the timer to keep my heart rate in the right range, and when the timer goes off, I set it again, and start jogging back home.

Your write

Writing is my most important activity, which is ironic to me, because my whole career started with wanting to get paid to draw for a living – and I had no interest whatsoever in writing. Writing allows me to express my thoughts and ideas, yet at the same time, acts as a compass because of the rapid feedback that the internet provides. I write about a thought or solution, and if my Analytics, blog comments, and Twitter replies tell me so, I’ll consider digging deeper on that topic. It’s as much a medium of discovery and self-definition as it is of expression.

Even if I am designing something, I can hardly bring myself to do so without writing a great deal about the project first. I need to know the business objectives, brainstorm approaches, collect competitive data, before I design anything. I do this for internal Kadavy, Inc. projects as much as I do for client work.

I also write just to organize my own thoughts and feelings. The medium that I use depends greatly on the nature of the writing. Cursive writing in a Moleskine for more personal writing – or for critical thinking away from the computer, VooDooPad for more business-oriented writing, VooDooPad again for spewing random thoughts that aren’t likely to see the light of day. I also have a whiteboard I made out of tileboard in my office for when my thoughts call for sketching to accompany my writing. I find that using larger muscles in my body to write and draw alters the way I think about an approach.

So, that is the way I work, which could probably also be entitled “the way I live,” but as you can see, there isn’t a huge difference. Somehow this reached over 3,000 words, so if you read all the way to here, you get a cookie.

Photo of Kadavy, Inc. at a cafe is from a Chicago Tribune article on Foursquare, as syndicated by Lakeland, FL’s Ledger.

Photo of Kadavy, Inc. being abducted by a UFO is by Ryan Halvorsen.

No related posts.

• Six select members, all of us entrepreneurs in Chicago.
• We read books on our own – based on the challenges we each face as business owners. Sometimes they are from the Personal MBA list, sometimes not.
• We meet for brunch one Saturday a month at a swanky place in The Loop, and invite a business leader from a particular field of expertise to join us each time and talk about their experiences.
• We keep each other updated on what we’re reading, and how it’s helping us with our businesses.

Sorry to say, but you’re not invited. There’s a ton of people we wish we could include in the group – but won’t. Here’s why we’re keeping the group small:

• Having a safe place to share confidential information about our businesses enhances the learning experience. This is really a big one.
• The waitstaff already hates us for putting down 6 credit cards at each brunch. Six is enough.
• In today’s world of bloated invite lists, “maybe” RSVP’s, and no-shows, it’s nice to know who is going to be there each time. We have stronger relationships within the group this way.

That said, I encourage you to start your own DIY MBA group, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you if you do. If you do, we would be very interested to hear how you run your group. Further down the road we can share resources and ideas, and maybe even find a way to join forces.

Some books/resources I/we have found useful:

• Harvard Business Essentials books. Right now I’m reading Finance For Managers
• The Ten-Day MBA
• Business Models Made Easy. What does that phrase that gets thrown around The Valley so much really mean?
• Harvard Business Review. Way more substance than those mags that are more fashion than they are business.
• John Bain & Company Interview Preparation. “Crack the Case” quizzes that show you how a top consulting firm thinks.
• SCORE Free Small Business Counselors in your area.

No related posts.

1. 

   Whoever has the larger hand is the boss!
   Obey the org chart: It’s fashionable to have a “lateral organization” and to throw around seemingly progressive statements like “titles are meaningless.” This may work well in an extremely small organization (like 3 people who have known each other for years). Beyond that, this concept is bullshit. Sure, everyone involved should have input into principles that guide an organization. That’s input, not control. When everyone’s roles are clear, egos aren’t damaged when ideas aren’t adopted, and decisions get made faster. And most decisions, if made “incorrectly,” aren’t going to bring an organization down. Sometimes making a decision is more important than making the “right” decision. When a person in a given role is given true ownership of those decisions, things move faster, and people can feel fulfilled in their jobs. This isn’t to say that Managers should have final say on every little decision. More on that later.
2. Concentrate on objectives, not on opinions: I remember 37 signals saying something along these lines, but I won’t bother to dig it up. Phrases like I think…, we should…, we have to… are extremely dangerous because they usually begin a largely inaccurate statement. Something like I believe [action] will [benefit to particular goal] because [something at least resembling a fact] will do much better. If the issue at hand isn’t under your ownership, leave it at that.
3. Trust in expertise: This goes along with obeying the org chart; but this part is for managing down. Imagine the following scenario: your report has come up with solution A for your organization, which is worth $300 to your organization, you spend $100 of the organization’s resources in a debate with your report trying to get your solution B, which is worth $350 to the organization, to be implemented instead. Even though your solution may be better, you could have just gone with solution A, and moved on to something else; but instead you expended $50 worth of extraneous resources, ruined a learning opportunity for your report, and reduced your report’s morale. If you really feel that your report’s work is inferior, have enough respect to replace them. Otherwise, let them grow. 
4. Care about your employee’s priorities: Being careful not to be intrusive, think about what’s going on in your employee’s life and career. What is important to them? If there are elephants in the room, introduce them. Foster an environment where potential exits – such as going back to school, or moving on to another organization – can be discussed openly, without fear of retribution. Sometimes managers are clueless when it comes to the level of potential that exists for their reports, outside of the organization. This is dangerous because it results in surprising exits, and resentment (lost goodwill) on the part of the exiter. You’ll save yourself from surprises, and build goodwill for your organization.
5. Develop a system of criticism for ideas: Yes, everyone should be invited to provide ideas for the organization; but nobody should be expected to implement an idea without a clear vision of the idea’s goals, measures of success, and rationale behind the implementation that is believed to be the best method of achieving those goals. Naturally, when an idea is submitted for consideration, there should be a template for the submitter to use to put their own idea through the appropriate thought process.

I guess these could be heeded with the caveat that I have little actual management experience; but sometimes the freshest ideas come from the most ignorant. Enjoy.

Photo from star5112

No related posts.

I have a habit of teaching myself things. Yes, I did get a Bachelor’s in Graphic Design, but that didn’t teach me how to use the software, program for the web, and many other things that I know how to do today. If it taught me anything, it taught me how to think, and gave me an opportunity to learn how to think for myself. I even supplemented my education by locking myself in my apartment for the final semester of my education, and checking out every typography book I could find. I learned through that experience that a good portion of the faculty at my University didn’t know a fraction of what they claimed to about the subject. I wouldn’t trade the experience of organized higher education, but it’s not one that I’m eager to repeat.

So why don’t I go to business school? 1) I feel like the teacher-to-student format of most schools is outdated. And I’m not alone on this. 2) I don’t see much value in titles, or words that summarize the complexity of an individual’s experiences in an easily-digestible format (i.e. “I went to Harvard Business School”) 3) I don’t want to pay the actual dollar costs, and opportunity costs, just to be able to say those words (not that I believe I could get into HBS). Going to business school just isn’t my style.

I could just read a bunch of books. Josh Kaufman had put together a nice list of 77 books you can read to get a “Personal MBA.” It’s a nice list. But simply reading all of those books isn’t quite right because 1) It would take me ages to motivate myself through all of it 2) I would be learning in a vacuum, no insight from other minds, and 3) I would miss out on the most valuable aspect of getting an MBA – the people whom you meet.

So what am I to do? I want to get a group of people together to read the books on this list (and/or some that aren’t on this list), and 1) motivate each other to actually read the books 2) discuss the books, so that we aren’t learning in a vacuum, and 3) teach each other through sharing our related experiences in our actual business lives.

I’d probably organize it through Meetup or a Ning page. If there’s enough people, there could be different “tracks,” like the “Design & Production” track – smaller groups of people who read a specific set of books together. The individuals in the groups could present and summarize the books to one another, or present to groups who are in other tracks.

Actual business students and professionals in related fields could come to speak, or participate in discussions. Events and “meetups” would take place in Chicago, but there could be discussion and interaction on the web, as well.

This can be whatever the founding members make it to be, but ultimately, it should be a nimble, efficient, and scalable peer-learning experience. Are you in? Do you have ideas or thoughts? Comment now! And pass this on to others whom this may interest. Wherever they may be.

No related posts.