“Don’t think you’re on the right road just because it’s a well-beaten path.” ~Author Unknown
The garden outside of Jose Sancho’s home in Escazu, Costa Rica, is filled with sculptures he carefully chiseled, most of which depict women and nature. He claims that he’s never taken a sculpture class; he taught himself. Yet his sculptures grace the lawn of the Art Museum of the Americas (part of the OAS) in Washington, DC, they’ve been auctioned off at Christie’s–the famous auction house in New York–, and his work has been commissioned by people and organizations from all over the world.
Jose Sancho started out as an economist. Then, at the age of 40, he had an epiphany: he was born to be a sculptor. Once he realized this, much to the shock and astonishment of those who knew him, he dropped everything to pursue his passion. Today he’s in his seventies and he’s never looked back. (The image at the top of this post depicts Jose at work; I found the image here. As an aside, I grew up in Costa Rica and my mother is friends with Jose and she has a beautiful, black marble sculpture of a penguin and his chick, created by Jose, in her living room, which is titled “Paternity”).
In Jose’s own words:
“I was born to be a carpenter, but the tools of the trade did not fall readily from the sky; it emerged from the struggle between a vocation imposed by an alienating culture, and the demands of a latent inclination that constantly fought to express itself. From that struggle came the redeeming action which shook my world to its roots. I had already lived through four decades of frustrating obligations for which I was not destined . . . sculpture opened up new horizons . . . ” (From the book, “Jose Sancho, 1975 – 1997″).
People have been abandoning their conventional lives for centuries, in the hopes of pursuing their true life calling and living a life of freedom and nonconformity. In the past couple of years, unconventional living has practically become a movement.
Below you’ll find a list of sites and blogs that cater to those who long to become who they were meant to be, create their dream business, travel the world, and live the life they’ve always dreamed of. For those of you dreaming of escape, I hope these sites help you to begin drafting your escape plan.
Jonathan Fields – Career Renegade
Jonathan Fields is a popular blogger who blogs over at “Awake at the Wheel” and who constantly asks people the following question: “What if you could make a living doing what you love?”
He started out in life as a lawyer, first at the S.E.C. and then at a prestigious, mega-sized New York law firm. Then he realized that life as a lawyer was sucking out his soul, as well as destroying his health, and he made a radical change and became a $12-an-hour fitness trainer. He then went on to bigger things within the health industry, as well as embarking on other successful ventures, and he recently published a book aptly titled “Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love”
When Jonathan left his law firm job he had three goals:
- To make a great living.
- To love what he did.
- To be around the people he loved.
Visit Jonathan’s site if these words ring true for you:
- Corporate treadmill.
- Office politics and endless posturing.
- Your mind, body and spirit are slowly being sucked dry.
- Personal fulfillment has taken a backseat to making money.
Here’s a quote from the book “Career Renegade”:
“The simple truth is you can turn nearly any passion into a big, fat heap of money. However, it often requires mining aspects of those passions you never knew existed or bringing them to life in markets and ways that defy the mainstream.”
Jonathan doesn’t believe in the conventional wisdom that says that if you do what you love the money will follow. He explains that this applies only if your passion happens to lie in a field with a clear path to great income, such as the law, plastic surgery, and so on. But if you love teaching, playing video games, painting, knitting, playing music, and so on, it’s doubtful that you’ll be able to make a great living simply by doing what you love.
This doesn’t mean that you give up on the idea of making a living by pursuing what truly makes you come alive, it simply means that you have to find an unconventional, renegade path to both passion and prosperity. That is, you have to find a different way of doing what you love that will allow you to generate enough income to live comfortably.
“Career Renegade” is packed with hundreds of strategies, case studies, links and resources that will help you to do just that. Not only does the book help you to develop the proper mindset for becoming a career renegade, it gives you a step-by-step approach to actually make things happen. You can download the book’s introduction, for free, here.
(Image of Jonathan Fields taken from here.)
Escape From Cubicle Nation – From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur
Pamela Slim, the voice behind the blog “Escape From Cubicle Nation”, has the following to say about entrepreneurship:
“Entrepreneurship at its heart is aligning your purpose for being on earth with a business idea so compelling that you simply must do it, despite the fears that hold you back.”
When she left the corporate world she started a company which she named “Ganas”–which in Spanish means having an intense desire to do something, inner motivation, exuberance, and drive–since that’s what she feels every day as she approaches her work and what she wants her clients to feel as well.
Think the “safe” thing to do is to stay at your corporate job, even if you hate it? Think again. Slim starts off her book, Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur
Pamela explains that by being clear on what your ideal life looks like you can craft an entrepreneurial vision that will help you pursue your goals. She cites the “sweet spot” described by Jim Collins, which is the place in which the following three sets of skills overlap:
- What people will pay you to do
- That for which you have great passion
- That which you are “genetically encoded” to do
In “Escape From Cubicle Nation” (the book), Pamela covers it all: coming up with a good business idea, recruiting help and support, defining your brand, getting your finances in order, creating a business plan, and actually starting a business. Click here to download the introduction to Pamela’s book for free.
(I found the image of Pamela Slim here.)
Four More Blogs for Nonconformists
Here are four more blogs that will help you down the path toward unconventional living:
- After the overwhelming success of his book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
, Tim Ferriss started a blog in which he shares more tips for living a life filled with Tango dancing, travel, snorkeling in Panama, eating sushi in San Francisco, and so on.
- In his blog, “The Art of Nonconformity”, Chris Guillebeau writes about personal development and life design, entrepreneurship and unconventional work, and international travel (by the end of 2012 he plans to have visited every country in the world). His life philosophy is basically that you should live life according to your own terms, and that you can help yourself and help others at the same time.
- The blog “Location Independent” was created by Lea and Jonathan Woodward. They explain that being location independent–working and living from any part of the world they choose–is a concept, a lifestyle and a mindset.
- Jonathan Mead from “Illuminated Mind” is intent on finding a way to be paid to exist. So far he seems to be doing pretty well.He encourages everyone to join “The Liberation Revolution”.
What If Your Dream Is Simply to Travel?
The travel blog “Brave New Traveler” has a great list of “12 Personal Travel Websites That Will Make You Quit Your Day Job”. One example is “Down the Road”:
“We are Tim and Cindie Travis, an ordinary American couple who decided to live out our dreams. We saved our money, quit our jobs, sold our possessions, and set off to travel around the world by bicycle. We left our home in Arizona, USA on March 31, 2002 and have been on the road ever since. Our plan is to continue to bicycle tour and travel for the next several years.”
Conclusion
This post started with the tale of Jose Sancho, who at the age of 40 realized that he was not meant to be an economist, but was instead born to be a sculptor. I’m going to wrap things up with Gauguin.
Eugene-Henri-Paul Gauguin, renown today for his colorful paintings depicting an idyllic island paradise, was a middle-aged Paris stockbroker who suddenly realized his life’s passion was painting. He turned his back on his old life and fled to Tahiti. Gauguin is now considered the most important post-Impressionist painter who ever lived. (Of course, I’m not advocating that you abandon your family as Gauguin did, all of the examples in this post are family-inclusive.)
So, where are you fleeing to? 
Editor’s Note: This post contains affiliate links.
Related Posts:
- Creating in the Dark – Your Sacred Dance
- Decide What You Want
- Six Steps to Creating the Life You Really Want
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