I want to touch on this subject once more – minimalism – because its troubling me, and if I’m honest with myself – its something that has troubled me for many many years.
I don’t want to bore the pants off you. After all, this blog was originally set up as a “make money online” type blog. But I did change the domain name over from Affordable SEO Tips to the current name because I wanted to discuss much more about life in general.
After all, some people dream about achieving a life style like mine and I can understand exactly why – my life is a MASSIVE improvement on what it was and has been over the past 10 years or so. I have a great life now.
No boss to answer to other than myself (I’m a hard task-master however). No precise time schedule when I have to “work”. Living in the tropics of Malaysia brings with it a sense of joy and fulfilment on a daily basis. And yes – I can sit by the outdoor pool every day of the week whilst I work online. I doubt I’d get much done and I’d sweat me knackers off, but I’m sure you understand the principle.
But there is still something that bothers me most days – this constant push for more.
The fact is, I know I can make a truck load more money than I am doing right now, but something is holding me back.
I don’t want to have to push myself to do things that I don’t want to do. If I were to go down that route, then surely I’d be sacrificing some of the quality I’ve achieved in my life, in return for quantity. That’s open to debate though. Its possible to gain more of a passive income model.
But on the other hand, if I don’t make enough money each month, then does my quality of life suffer?
Hmmm… how to determine a quality life?
Most of us think that having a very high level of income provides for quality.
Sometimes you have to question this, and I’m sure you do. In fact, more than sometimes questions have to be asked.
If you are sacrificing your time and not enjoying what you do in order to make more money, how can this be a good return on investment?
Fine – you can buy your Porsche or Ferrari, or go more holidays abroad each year, or eat out more often in expensive restaurants, or smoke fatter cigars that hail from Cuba, or drink Piper Heidseck champagne every day. But will all this bring ultimate fulfilment and will you be looking for more besides, even after you achieve all this?
Does living in a place like Monaco for example, really bring with it a sense of true well-being and sheer fulfilment?
Monaco
Where does this desire for more ever end? Will it ever end? How to end it? It seems to me its self destructive unless its harnessed tightly in some fashion.
I sure don’t have all the answers here.
The odd thing is, in the past, I would have picked up a book about “how to make more money” (doing things that are totally out-with your comfort zone and you hate) and read it cover to cover.
Now however, I suspect I’d be more settled on picking up a book on “how to live a better life with less whilst doing only the things you love doing“.
I think one way to achieve what we need most in life is to surround ourselves with like-minded people. But somehow I don’t feel a desire to go and live a minimalist lifestyle in a hippie camp or surrounded by monks.
As a final thought, I received an email today from a friend who quoted a passage from Everett Bogue’s blog.
I’ve underlined the bits that I found really appealing and broadened out the passage a little with my own input in brackets…
WHY YOUR STUFF IS HOLDING YOUR BUSINESS BACK
What are your thoughts on this post? Please do feel obliged to leave a comment 
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Hello Joseph,
great post. I know exactly what you mean. I am a translator and “internet marketer” and I must say that I earn just enough to feed my family. We live in Europe, in the Czech Republic, where the cost of living is relatively low in comparison to UK or other West European countries but still much higher than in Asia. But I love my home. We have enough money to pay our bills and other general expenses, such as food or clothes but we do not earn enough to go on holiday each year or to buy a new car every 4 or 5 years.
I know exactly how to double my income but instead of this I started studying medicine two years ago as I really want to be a doctor. It is funny as I could easily be earning 100k+ USD per year by combining translation and online income but I simply do not want to lose the lifestyle I have. I work 4 hours per day and study for 2 hours a day and spend the rest of my time with my family and children. To double my income I just need to increase my working hours from 4 to 8. But as this would have a negative impact on my family time I am not ready to do that even if we could be much better off.
I have a feeling that we all just want to be successful because everybody around us seems to be richer than we are and it is not good for our ego. I have seen a great video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKkdFSqAxV8), which describes the problem exactly and hope you will like it. It was actually made by a guy from UK
.
I think we should never exchange money for our family time. It is much better to spend more hours with our families and the people we love than to work hard to be able to pay for a two week luxury holiday every year or a fancy car.
Michal, thanks for your comment – I’m happy to have one thus far – I suspect most folks who read my blog are so busy pushing for “more” that this post is irrelevant to their current life requirements. I may be wrong – hopefully I am…
From the video you linked to – “the sense of being a success is all relative“. That’s it! If I compare myself to most people I see here in Kuching each day, I’m far more successful in terms of “wealth creation” and lifestyle, but they generally appear to be more content with their lives than I am because they don’t constantly want for more, whereas I do, and that’s painful.
But you have to wonder why that is – these people who live in the kampongs (villages) out-with the city – they still see many financially wealthy individuals every day, but yet they don’t appear to want for the same type of wealth. They have a totally different mind-set, or at least many of them do.
I applaud you for preferring to spend time with your family Michal. But what happens when you do finally attain your PhD. The demands on your time to fulfil your new role in society will most probably be extreme and its not like you will be able to outsource your work, not unless you decided to set up your own private practice and employ fellow medical personnel.
This is one reason why I am not attracted to working for others – its somewhat unscalable. You swap your time for a limited income.
On the other hand, I sense that its often the case that those who achieve a PhD or other high level of academia – they sense they are at the top of the realm, and thus do not need to strive for continual financial growth. Regardless they may or may not have a very large financial income, they are comfortable because they see themselves as “better” than their peers. Hence ego is no longer a problem issue.
How to tame the ever incessant ego…
Hello Joseph,
when I finish medicine (4.5 more years to go out of 6) I will have plenty of opportunities. I am not sure which specialization would be the best for me but there is plenty of time for me to chose one which suits me best.
You are right about the problems with employment (trading your time for money). But my plan is to remain “master of my time”. This can be easily achieved by either choosing a specialization which is not so time consuming (such as dermatology, physical therapy, etc.) or by connecting internet business to medicine (for instance by providing folks with useful information on treatment options and other medical stuff).
Being a doctor is great for 2 reasons. The first one is the fact that you are actually helping people out of trouble, which is quite rewarding (and sometimes also frustrating). Also, medicine is one of the branches, which is not affected by political or economic fluctuations.
What I do not like about business (mainly in non-internet domains) is the fact that it is very difficult to find some real friends. When you reach a certain income level everybody wants to sell you their excellent products or services but when you are in trouble, there is noone to help you. I have many acquaintances but very few real friends. But this is a problem of modern society.
It’s great that we all have different stages in our lives. You go through live for years and years and then suddenly you decide to steer on a different course. These periods are the most exciting … and scary!
I definitely understand where you’re coming from (and Everett Bogue as well). It is possible to be motivated to do well without necessarily being motivated to have more and more possessions. I definitely think happiness and health are more important than money. Does everybody? Not so sure!
Michal, I expected you would have a “plan of attack” so you would not become sucked into work over quality time, and indeed you have!
I like the idea of the internet meets medical doctor type of thing. Like a WebMD idea. Not only are you being very helpful, but you can at the same time generate a very healthy income too.
When you reach a certain income level everybody wants to be your friend. When you don’t achieve that “certain” income level, no one really cares who you are. Uhum, you can see this happening online too. Just look at the following the “top dawgs” in the IM world have. And is it because their blog content or products are so cutting edge brilliant? Not a bit of it. I guess a large part of it comes down to the sheep-like mentality – follow the herd. But the fact of the matter is that almost all the herd will never achieve what they really want in life.
Who needs friends who can’t think for themselves, Michal. Certainly not me. They are never your true friends since they’d be better off living in a gold fish bowl
Rob, thanks for your comment!
I tell you when you realize that health is more important than money – when your health deteriorates.
I read on Ev Bogue’s blog that he never has any back up plans in life. And why not? Because if he did, he’d not be fully focused on what he was doing right now. To have a back up plan is to reduce your desire. Not to rely on a back up plan means you have to succeed or perish – one way or the other – and because the pressure on success is so great, chances are far higher you’ll actually achieve success. A burning of all bridges, if you like. So yeah – exciting and scary at the same time!
All the best, Rob!
Hey Joseph,
I tend to agree with you…chasing after material things and building up more “stuff” seems kind of silly. Living outside the US for a few years has helped me see that much more clearly and I’ve been much more focused on personal happiness instead of accumulation since I’ve been gone. It’s easy to get caught up in that in the US, I think, because EVERYONE’s doing it. (Except for the hippies, backpackers, etc.)
Speaking of which…many of the “minimalists” I’ve run into in the past are the hippy-types. It seems they don’t live a minimalist life out of principle, but rather out of necessity. Slumming it in crappy hostels, sitting around in airports for 12-15 hours waiting for my next flight because I saved $100 on a 3-hopper, etc. is just not worth it to me. I LIKE staying in nicer hotels and/or paying for convenience…it’s usually money well spent for me.
Still, I do agree with the Lifestyle Business Podcast guys and their approach. They operate extremely cheaply so that they can reinvest their profits back into their business. This gives them the cash they need to explore new opportunities that require a bit of $$ to trial and they wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise. Those guys are not minimalists out of necessity…they do it because they want to build a multi-million dollar empire. That I can get behind.
Hi Justin, yeah – no doubting it that to get away from western civilization allows you a clearer mind when it comes to spending money for spending money’s sake.
Yoook! What a horror story that is – sleeping in airports cos you can’t afford to stay in a decent hotel. I guess though that a lot of folks who choose to live that way have indeed chosen to live that way. Is it so much out of necessecity rather than choice? I’ve done a bit of that also – sleeping in airports instead of paying for a hotel – in my younger days, of course. But as you say – its just not worth the discomfort, and sometimes you even end up spending more money to get to your destination than you would have if you’d stayed in comfort. Life can be like that…
Minimalism in terms of saving to build a solid business makes entire sense, so I’m with you with regards to Ian and Dan at Tropical MBA doing just that. You can live much more cheaply in the Fils than you can in the west anyhow – or at least I presume you can – depends on what you want to do. I mean, here in Malaysia, if you are an alcoholic like I am (erm, not quite) then you can easily spend far more money here than you would do in the United Kingdom. Needless to say however that folks can (somehow) get by on a monthly wage of a couple hundred bucks, even when they have a family to feed. But heck – that’s minimalism to the extreme, it would seem to me.
Michal.
I love your comment. Actually I love the part where you say “we should never exchange money for our family time”.
I totally relate to that. I don’t mind working hard. I don’t mind 14-hour working days, as long as I can be free to decide to take a day off in the middle of the week for example, to spend it with my family or my friends.
(If I had kids I wouldn’t work 12-14 hours a day).
Cristina, perhaps its near time you had some kids, then.
If it depended on me I would have them already, LOL.
Aha! Best I don’t take this any further then. I remember some months ago when I talked about fostering kids here in Malaysia (that idea is currently put on hold), you said you’d be over here to help me. Obviously you are very much the motherly lady
:I love those kind of discussions.
But firstly, this particular passage is from Everett Bogue’s latest e-book, Minimalist Business, it was released like a month ago, I highly recommend it to all of you Internet Marketers who are your own bosses. Very powerful stuff.
The main thing for me about minimalism is: minimalism doesn’t mean spending $100 less and sleeping at the airport. For me minimalism means simplifying your life. Thoreau said: “Simplify, simplify, simplify” and that’s the key.
For example: Ev Bogue is a minimalist but it doesn’t keep him from living in a hotel. Minimalism doesn’t mean: earn little, don’t spend much, don’t work much; but it easily can.
What minimalism stands for is stripping your life from all those unimportant things that hold you back from achieving happiness. As Ev stated: lots of crap distract; crap doesn’t make you happier, it might make you less aware of your unhappiness but it won’t change the fact.
Minimalism means doing what you love doing, untethering from things that you hate but you “feel you must do.”
Etc. etc. There are as many examples as people on Earth. And those doesn’t matter.
What matters is: Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Kacper, if it were not for your email, I doubt this post would have been crafted. So thanks for shoving me in the right direction.
I think many – most people are confused by the term minimalism. And I am too.
But you’ve summed it up rather nicely – quoting your words here…
“Minimalism means doing what you love doing, untethering from things that you hate, but you feel you must do.”
So, I enjoy watching a good movie with a bottle of red wine to hand. Is that still minimalism if I don’t feel tethered in any way?
It gets a bit complicated because even though I enjoy doing these things – the movie and the wine – in some ways that’s still putting a tether on me since I have to find the money to afford it. And sometimes finding the money to afford it will mean I may have to do things I don’t enjoy.
I guess that some displeasure in order to obtain something can mean more pleasure in the end. Otherwise, we can soon take things for granted and there’s not much pleasure to be had there.
Its tricky to fully understand the concept, and to read and take on board some of the preachings of the minimalist blogs is too extreme for most people to fully comprehend, I think. Let me know your own thoughts on this Kacper, thanks.
Hi Joe
I guess i led a fairly minimalistic life in my 20′s and early 30′s as i worked just to live and to enjoy myself at the weekends, although i was jealous of those with flash cars and nice pads
Now in my mid 40′s with a career which has come out of nowhere over the last 4 years, but which means more responsibility i kind of miss the freedom i had then.
This is why i am starting to work in IM on the side, not to be mega rich, i have no desire for the trappings that can bring. I just want enough coming in to sustain a lifestyle that i can enjoy and that gives me the freedom to work where and when i want.
Hi Jo
“If you are sacrificing your time and not enjoying what you do in order to make more money, how can this be a good return on investment?”
It is if you have defined goals and timescale.
“But will all this bring ultimate fulfilment and will you be looking for more besides, even after you achieve all this?”
No it dosnot, what it does is mean you dont worry about paying the bills (unless your a nut case and over budget)
The quote above NAILS it and a goal I worked on after 2006. I can move everything i own now in a small car and Everything I need can be checked onto any flight.
Im currently heavily invested in my business(s) but then next stage will be to hold more in cash and propety thats rented out. Not assetts such as bonds etc.
Cars/Tv’s/Hifi/ and all the otehr toys that dont make you money are just fancy liabilites.
Bear in mind I do see myself sriving my Ferrari around Monaco and leaving it in the garage of my apartment. With the Blond Russian (yep not giving up on that one either
).
But I also see myself leaving near a beach somewhere living on $3 a day. Living alone.
Happiness for me comes from freedom, no debt and having fun times. The flip side is I also like working and growing and selling business(s)
To one and all : Live long, Debt free and prosper.
cheers
Hi Justin
I like 5 star life. Its worth while. However at otehr times i travel “cattle class” on airlines with multi steps.
Why? I’d rather invest than expend. So do i fly club or buy a site from those guys at adsenseflippers.com
Looking forward to the webinar your running tonight as well !!
free training = less investment = more chance of club class
JO
Btw I only just got the notification of this blog post at 1pm 12/04 and headed over straight away. It comes of being a W(yman) or maybe the email sender is going slow O)
Trevor – a mid life crisis is better than a no life crisis. LOL! For anyone who is confused – check Trevors link just below his comment.
I wonder what took you to Russia? A lifelong dream to see the place? Or was it business orientated?
I remember a few years ago when I was living in Rugby, Warwickshire (England UK, for those who are not familiar), and I read about a guy from Northants who had gone over to Russia to set up in business. He was threatened so many times by the Russian Mafia to “move out” that eventually he gave up.
Hmmm… yeah, I can understand that – in the few months I spent in that part of the world, I could never escape from this sense of “aggressiveness”.
Nevertheless, fascinating and incredibly huge country with a whole lot to offer to the intrepid traveller (and to the guy who is attracted to wonderfully beautiful women!).
Most people in Russia lead a minimalistic life but not through choice – its due to a constant ‘sense’ of communism that to this day has not dissipated in most Russian cities. And let’s face the facts – Mr Putin has no desire to alleviate his iron grip on the country as a whole. Russia is far from being democratic. Quite frankly, I think its a disgrace that the common person in Russia is so openly ‘corrupted’ from their true wealth.
Enough about Russia though..
Its good that you are aware of what you want from your internet marketing work Trevor. I think that most people when they first come into this line of business – well, they’ve set their heights way, way too high.
Tricky business though – getting the balance just right. Where to stop when it comes to wishing for much more $ income as opposed to losing a certain level of quality of life. It very easily becomes the proverbial “vicious circle”.
Steve, oddly enough, I’ve just made a reply to Trevor about Russia and Russian women
I was involved with “one of those” for 10 years, so I have an idea about
“how it works”.
“Its a good return on investment if you’ve defined your goals and your time-scale”. Often that does not work out according to plan. But then, that’s just my own experience. And as Ev Bogue says – perhaps its wise not to have a back up plan either since that detracts from your initial planning strategy.
I can relate to the idea of living near a beach on $3 a day; more than I can relate to living in a place like Monaco. Living alone sounds good. A cat or a dog is good company mind you, along with a regular supply of moonshine from the locals
Steve, I don’t know why it is that you received notice of this post going live as late as you did. Never mind – I’m currently watching Diamonds are Forever (Sean Connery) so it doesn’t really matter, does it
And the bottle of red wine is to hand too. Jacobs’ Creek, which costs around 4 times as much here in Malaysia as it does in the UK.
Hi Joe
Yeah my trips to Russia are for work reasons but i do really enjoy my trips there as they are not just to Moscow. I’ve been to many cities there in the last 18 months and have another trip to Russia coming up in May but this ones gonna be a long one as its to the deep east to the city of Irkutsk.
Before that i’m off to the Ukraine to see my beautiful blond girlfriend
Golly gosh Trevor – you’ve a gf who hails from Ukraine? Well, good for you! Hope things go well for you both!
Irkutsk seems like a very interesting place. Not so far from Mongolia. You best be careful Trevor – you may get lost, never to be seen ever again, other than by the bears and the birds that frequent that part of the world
Trevor, I just read your most recent blog post and I really enjoyed it!
Here’s hoping you write more posts about your life and your travels. This sort of blog can become very popular, needless to say.
Anyways, I see you have a number of your fans who have already commented on your post, but I thought I may add my own voice just to mix things up a little
@trevor – does she have a Ferrari as well ?
LOL
Oh, you’re the saintly chap who keeps re-tweeting my tweets. Cloud Ventures Group, huh?
Your post reminds me of a story I heard sometime ago: it goes something like this.
A rich business tycoon retires to the beaches of Mexico after many years of fighting his way to the top. Every morning he sits on the beach and enjoys himself while watching a fisherman bring in his catch from his small fishing boat. The fisherman then sells his catch to fishmonger and retires to his beach side shack and spends the rest of the day with his family. One day the business tycoon approaches the fisherman and ask, “why don’t you expand your operation”. The fisher many ask, “why?” the the tycoon says, “you could bring in twice the amount of fish and expand your business even more.” The fisher man then ask, “then what?”
Then tycoon replies” well, you could build up your business up into a large franchise or even a corporation.” The fisher man ask. then what?” The businessman replies,” then you can sell it and be rich beyond your wildest imagination.” The fisher man looks at him very interested and ask, “then what?”. They tycoon replies, “the you could retire on a beach just like this one!” The fisherman then turns around and walk away.
LOL – Kristin, I’ve read that before some place and its always a story I’ll remember because it is very appropriate and I can relate it to the Malay fishermen, since they appear to have an idyllic life whilst they also depend on very little income indeed. Makes me wonder when I see these people – am I actually getting this right, or am I way off the mark? When you venture through these sort of little fishing villages that dot the coast around here, the kids all seem so content and everyone is very laid back. No one seems to worry about anything. Money? Who cares about money. Even if they make no income for a couple of months, they can still live off the land and bbq the fish they catch.
Thanks for sharing that, Kristin!
Good story Kristin. I had heard it already but it’s always nice to remember it.
I had to mull over what you said because that’s a very interesting problem, indeed.
Well, as I see it (and you’ve to remember that I’m a 20-year-old who still lives off his parents — even though I started to make money a while ago but it would be stupid for me to pay it out due to stupid Clickbank payout policy and Polish tax law) — but back to the topic: as I see it is firstly you need to think what you really need in your life in order to be happy. You need to think over each and every thing you have and thing you do. I know it might sound very…time-consuming and/or pointless and/or like you wanted to over-control your life, but what I found when tried this technique was that a lot of things I did either didn’t make me happy or the “amount of happiness” (as funny as it may sound) wasn’t really worth the effort.
Ev Bogue has a whole passage in his Minimalist Business (I really encourage you to check it out) about calculating TMI (targeted monthly income) just to be aware how much money you need to make.
Back to Minimalist Basics: What I think minimalism stands for is living a life of awareness — you need to be aware what you need in order to be happy and settle for that only, not for less; strip the non-essentials.
You talked a lot about having a goal of “just making more and more money” (and that you started to loath it.) Well, when you are aware what you need you won’t need *more money* for you’ll feel great with what you have, when you reach your TMI.
Shoot me, but I don’t really think that minimalism stands for having as little as possible; it stands for having just enough — enough to make you happy.
The problem with minimalism is the confusion: because most people don’t ever calculate their TMI and they didn’t take the effort to determine what they do need to be happy, they confuse “settling for just enough” with “stupid hippies who sleep at airports.” While it is really not the case.
Kacper, I’m going minimalist with my reply right now since its getting late and my mind is switching to “less than trotting” pace. I’ll get back to you in a few hours time with a less minimalist reply
Kacper, its not an “interesting” problem for me. It causes me to quarrel with myself, much like you would if you had a split personality issue
One month I’m all about minimalism, then the next I’m all about making as much money as possible – within reason, of course.
Yeah, I hear what you are saying about the possessions you have in your life – if owning them is not ENOUGH to make you feel content, then its best to go without. And that depends on what you want from life. If you want to be shackel free, as Ev Bogue says, then you CANNOT have many material possessions or else it becomes very stressful each time you move. Been there, done that, so many times!
Here’s one dilemma about calculating and sticking to a targeted monthly income.
Let’s say you only need a thousand bucks each month to live “comfortably”.
But let’s say that sometimes you get a sense that you want to feel what its like to live “on the other side”.
But because you never make enough to live on the other side, you’ll never know how it feels and thus you’ll always have the desire to get there – even if only to experience it for a while.
If you don’t ever get “there” then you may never be happy. But even if you do get “there”, chances are reasonable that after a while, you’ll still not be happy because either you continually want for more, of you get fed up of continually wanting for more so you’d prefer to have “less”.
Seems to me that to be happy with having “less” you have to surround yourself with folks who are content with “less”, or else you’ll constantly be battling to obtain what everyone else has within the material world.
Interestingly enough, late last night I watched the new Titanic series (I’m not sure if its a movie or a series, but this one is in 4 parts). Its much more true-to-life than the Leonardo Di Caprio epic movie was, I think. But it was fascinating to see just how much the upper classes looked down upon the middle and lower classes, and the lower and middle classes often despised the upper classes. And I think this whole contemptuous debacle was brought about by the fact that they were all having to live together on a boat, so they were always comparing one against the other and very many of them were constantly competing to be better than the other – mainly in terms of material wealth, but also in terms of “good upbringing”.
Now, this was back in 1912, so the Great American Dream was well under way. And it seemed that the Americans were less snobby than the British. The British had wealth handed down to them on a silver platter – Lord and Lady such and such, whilst the Americans had achieved their wealth either by luck or by sheer hard work.
I don’t know where this is all going but it touches on that video that Michal provided the link to in his comment – where inequality slowly but surely became a bigger and bigger problem issue. And a sense of inequality soon encourages a desperation for more.
I best stop there because who knows what the next tangent will be
Yep thats me Jo
Cloud Ventures Group is the main “business” althought the blog doesnot reflect that yet 
Always happy spread the word on the Archibold brand
Steve
So does this signify something along the lines of head in da clouds
Oh, so you are going to be bloggin it to the bank also Steve? Interesting times ahead then!
Maybe or head up bottom !
Cloud being a term that became popilar as an alterntive to web and used in the contect of Cloud Computing etc.
Living on the Cloud was an idea as well but thats what angels do (i think) and im not an angel (sadly)…
Blogging .. Hum i think it will never be the main part of what i do but i get the balue in using it as away to communicate (educate??) and it will help build the Brand, I hope.
The first thing is to get the site redesigned and a lot more proffesional but just like the house builder my own home gets the leat attention!!
And no link building at all
Steve
Head up bottom more likely and I know that experience well too – albeit head up my own bottom, of course
There was me thinking you were somewhat angelic Steve. How disappointing to find out otherwise.
No link building to your blog. Now that’s what makes you a real man!
Hope that goes well – its a good idea having a central hub to keep the wheel steady.
Good news on the head location!!
Well i should clarify it does have 2K backlinks. but they weren’t built as such. a few might have come from some blog commenting
And its has bugger all content and doesnot rank for much at all.
Steve
Steve, LOL!
The blog – sounds like its been in cloud cuckoo land for a bit – 2k backlinks that mysteriously appeared