Creating Your Eventual Millionaire Quest with Chris Guillebeau

American entrepreneur, nonfiction author, blogger and speaker – Chris Guillebeau

Chris has a brand new book called The Happiness of Pursuit – where he dives into making the JOURNEY the fun part. How the heck do you do that when business can be tough? I ask Chris to break down how Eventual Millionaires can create their own quest. In order to enjoy your journey you need to take the time to focus on making it interesting – not just being happy when you hit the goal! Learn actionable advice how in this interview.

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:

• The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau
• The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
• The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau

Go to ChrisGuillebeau.com and FindTheQuest.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript: Download

Announcer: Welcome to the Eventual Millionaire podcast - with your host, Jaime Tardy. Real talk and real advice from real millionaires, with a sharp focus on you - the Eventual Millionaire.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Tardy and I am so excited to have my good friend Chris Guillebeau on the show. He has written amazing books - "The Art of Non-Conformity", "The $100 Startup", and his brand new "The Happiness of Pursuit", which is signed, he just came to Austin. I remember years and years ago really paying attention to him and he came to Maine - he's one of the only people who ever came to Maine - and he actually helped me decide whether I was going to go to Eventual Millionaire or start a mommy blog site, so thank you, Chris, for not having me start a mommy blog. I think all of the listeners also appreciate the fact that I did not go that route. Thanks so much for coming on today.

Chris: You're so welcome. That's a great story. Thanks for having me.

Jaime: You're like "I didn't even realize I did that!"

Chris: No, I should have sent you an invoice for that long ago.

Jaime: You should have but it's too late now! It was many years ago; too bad. So right now you're on a multi-city tour. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that and why you're doing it? Because the fact that you came to Maine really touched me because everybody ignores Maine but there's a very good reason why you do it so please tell.

Chris: Maine represent! My first book, "The Art of Non-Conformity", came out a few years ago and I wanted it to be successful, I wanted it to reach people and I wanted to meet my readers, I wanted to know who was actually out there, and I knew that they weren't just living in major cities, I knew that they weren't just in New York, L.A. or wherever these great media markets are and so I decided to go out and meet them and that's why I did the first tour which was all 50 states and now I have a new book, "The Happiness of Pursuit". I'm only doing 40 cities so it seems small in some ways but it's fun - I really, really enjoy it. I really enjoy the process of talking to people, hearing their stories and chatting about what they're working on and that's kind of guided my whole project from the start until now.

Jaime: That's what I'm impressed with. When I got my book, everyone said "Book tours do squat - don't waste your time, don't waste your money," and yet you're going out and doing more and more of it.

Chris: Absolutely.

Jaime: Why?

Chris: I think you should be careful about who you listen to. Who is saying this to you? No disrespect to them! And also people are in different situations - maybe they don't want to do a tour of something. For me, it wasn't about a direct financial return, it was about long term relationships. In my case, we met in Maine like four years ago and look at you now - you're doing all of this awesome stuff and we're still connected. For some reason it made a difference and I'm so glad. So it's about a long term on investment. That's what I try to do with all of my investments - I invest in relationships because I believe they are your greatest asset. You could lose all of your products, you could lose all of your services, you could lose everything tomorrow but if you still have relationships with people that's what will make you successful and you can make something else.

Jaime: I agree with that 1,000%, although I have no idea how you handle that many relationships. You're meeting so many people all over the world - I didn't even mention that you've travelled to every single country in the entire world, right? As a side note! That's what the book is about. So how do you manage remembering all of it? Do you have a content management system or something?

Chris: No, I have nothing. No content management system. I don't think I always do manage it well - I think I often forget about things or I fall behind on things. There are commitments right now that I've fallen behind on or let people down on so I don't always manage it but it's important to me so I try to do the best I can. I spend a lot of time on it - I'm always working, I like to work, I like to do my stuff, I like to hear from people, I like to hear their stories. I'm a big believer that even if you can help people in a small way that still has some value, it still means something. There's a story that Gary Vaynerchuk tells - he says that before Steve Jobs? death if you wrote an e-mail to Steve Jobs you didn't expect to hear back and if Steve Jobs writes you back two years later, if he's two years late in getting back to you, and he doesn't even answer your question but he finally sends you a note that says "Thanks for writing to me," isn't that going to nurture you? So I guess small things matter and relationships matter so do the best you can - you're probably going to screw up but that has been the foundation for whatever success I have.

Jaime: I remember going to WDS and getting a card from you after, so silly things like that. I felt like we were really good friends and yet we had never hung out until last Monday. We had never hung out one on one until a short time ago and it felt like we already had. Even having you on the show, I felt like I'd already had you on the show and I haven't.

Chris: I know, I was like "We haven't actually done this!"

Jaime: Which is sad, so I'm glad we're rectifying it right now. Let's go into the book because I loved what you were talking about at the book signings where you told some stories - you talked about video games, which I'm a huge geek on - so give us your spiel on the book so that we can go and get it.

Chris: I finished this epic quest of ten and a half years of travel to every country in the world and I knew I wanted to write a book about it but I didn't just want to write a travel memoir. I didn't want it to be "Chris's random stories from around the world." That would be a bestseller for twelve people. I wanted to do something better than that - I wanted to write about quests and adventures in general. not just my quest but other people's quests, other people who set off to do something really challenging and difficult, an epic voyage or an academic pursuit, maybe producing something, something with crafting, something with knitting - all kinds of different stuff, and stuff that people can do from wherever they are. I wanted to tell stories through the lens of a narrative, and a narrative is that a quest or an adventure can bring purpose and meaning to your life. So the book has a prescriptive message, I really am putting forward this agenda and saying no matter who you are, no matter what you're into, there's an adventure waiting for you. So we talked about video games, we talked a little bit about Mario Bros at that event you were at in Austin and about how the goal of Mario Bros is the rescue the princess - the princes has been captured, you, this Italian plumber, are on a quest to go and rescue her - so I believe that, for everyone listening or watching, there is a quest for you - there's a princess that needs your help, there's a galaxy that needs you to save it. There's something out there for you - that's the message and that's what I'm trying to advocate for.

Jaime: I love that. The question I have, though, is how do you choose? A lot of people are like "Quest? Okay, awesome, I want to save the princess," because I do, I love Mario Bros, but that's easy - they tell us what the quest is and we play the game. In life it's way different - you go "What do I want to do? There are a thousand things I could pick. What if I don't like the quest I picked?" How do you deal with that?

Chris: Well I think you experiment - you try different things. That's what I did for many years and it wasn't until I was turning 30, after I'd had a lot of different experiences, I had lived overseas for five years, I had been an entrepreneur, starting different businesses, and I had done a lot of different things with varying degrees of success and not everything I liked was great or awesome - I never really built a scalable business, that's fine. After a while I starting honing in - I knew I really liked travel, I knew I liked goal setting, I'm very list-oriented, I like to write things down, that's how I'm logically ordered, and so I started writing down all of the places I'd been to and that led me to "Well what if I tried to not just go to a bunch of places but actually go to one hundred countries?" and then it became every country in the world. So you've got to ask yourself "What's my thing" and if you don't know what it is, "What am I excited about?" I hate the word passion, but what are you passionate about? And also think about what you're bothered by - what bothers you, what annoys you about the world? Because a lot of people I talk to found their quest by focusing on that, focusing on some sort of change they wanted to make - they wanted to make positive change in their lives or positive change for other people or address some kind of inequality or big issue. So you think about all of those things and then you experiment and you do different stuff. You don't always know the answer in the beginning - as you pursue these different things the experience provides confidence. So if you don't have all of the confidence or the vision in the beginning it sometimes come along the way. I didn't know I was going to go to every country in the world until I had been to 30 or 50 countries and then I was like "Okay, let's step it up."

Jaime: Did you ever want to quit your quest? Did you call it a quest while you were going through it? Did you ever go "Screw this! I don't want to have to do this anymore. Every country, that's a lot more than I thought, it's going to take a lot longer and I'm not having fun with this anymore.?"

Chris: Great question. There was definitely a long middle to it. There are 193 countries in the world and the first batch is all super exciting because you're going to a region you've never been to before and you're doing all new things and everything is new and then the end is also exciting because this is the culmination of everything you've worked for but the middle, the main part of it, is kind of a schlep and it's a schlep for everybody in a quest so, actually, the middle is the most important part because that's where all the challenge is and I believe challenge is the essence of adventure, the essence of the process - that's why, in Mario Bros, there are eight different worlds with four levels each and you just have to go through that - it's not supposed to be easy. I had lots of struggles, no doubt. I don't think I ever wanted to give up; I don't think I was ever like "This sucks, I'm done," because I believed in it.

Jaime: You also had a lot of people watching you, which I'm sure helps.

Chris: In the beginning, sure, so there was a public accountability aspect but I can legitimately say that the main motivation was internal - I felt that there was this challenge. I also believed that it was somewhat feasible. I knew that it was going to be really difficult but I thought "As long as I keep doing this, as long as I keep working towards it, I will actually achieve the goal or at least I will come really close," so that was critical as well. For people watching - this is why Eventual Millionaire is such a great brand, because most of the people watching or listening to this, following your work, they do have the ability to achieve that goal. It might take some time, they might get sidetracked, they might have struggles, but your project is not Eventual Richest Person in the World dot com!

Jaime: I own that domain! Just kidding.

Chris: You don't want to go to every planet in the solar system because that's not feasible so I guess choosing a goal that is really difficult, perhaps, definitely a stretch goal, but you can actually picture yourself doing is important.

Jaime: In your book you had a little thing about being realistic versus big so where is that line between "this is realistic and I could do this" and "this is really big and I'm not sure if I can?"

Chris: It has to do with your own comfort level and your experience. There's this religious phrase - where much is gained, much is required. Whether you're religious or not I've always liked that phrase. I feel in my life I'm very fortunate - I have had so many different experiences, from being overseas to learning how to start businesses. I feel like there are so many opportunities so I have to choose a big goal and I would say, for everybody participating in this, they've also got a lot of opportunities - it really is an awesome thing that we can watch podcasts or spend time thinking about what kind of work we want to do, that's great. We all have our own comfort levels but definitely choose something big - why not? Or maybe it will get bigger as you go along - because you do own EventualBillionaire.com.

Jaime: I do! I told you that, you remember. I totally do. Give me some examples - because people will be like -Great, I want to go on a quest too. I want to save the princess but I don't have a princess to save so what do I pick?" Give me some examples from the book - travelling to 193 countries is ridiculous, you don't have to pick that. Give me some examples, please.

Chris: There are plenty of ridiculous examples. There's this dude that ran 250 marathons in a single year. Pretty awesome but also pretty ridiculous.

Jaime: Yeah, ridiculous!

Chris: Nobody wants to do that!

Jaime: I'm not going to pick that one!

Chris: So I tried to highlight people who are doing different things regardless of who they are or what their abilities are. There's a woman in Oklahoma who cooked a meal from every country in the world, so she kind of adopted my quest for her own purpose. This was part of raising her daughter - her daughter had just been born and she wanted to raise her daughter with international perspective. She wasn't able to travel so once a week she cooked a different meal, researching recipes and turned it into a whole project. I think the parameters are super important - it wasn't just "I'm going to cook a bunch of different foreign food," that's just a general lifestyle thing. No, she wanted to do it as a project, no exceptions, every single country, A-Z, starting with Afghanistan, all the way to Zambia. There's a middle for that too - there are a lot of countries where the cuisine is not that different from the neighboring country, etc., but she had to figure it out. There is a young guy, his name is Scott Young, you probably know him - he had a business degree but midway through his college career he decided he really wanted to study computer science. No one ever switches from business to computer science - it's always the other way around because computer science is so much harder. So he finished up his degree but he didn't want to go back for four years so he decided to create this independent project of mastering the MIT four year computer science curriculum, which is one of the most difficult, in one year. So he created this whole lifestyle that allowed him to pursue that goal and started studying and he also had this public accountability - he would post his results so that people could see. He got all of this criticism in the beginning and at the end he was like "Well, look here, I did it." There are lots of different stories about people who have adapted this concept to their own lives.

Jaime: It's funny, I switched from art to IT.

Chris: So you actually did that?

Jaime: Yes. I wish I'd known about him and done it in a year though - that would have been way cooler!

Chris: Then you would be going around telling this story.

Jaime: From medical illustration to information technology. So I love this about you just in general - gamifying things to make the journey more interesting. You told the story about this woman who wasn't just going to make some cool meals as a fun little thing but she gamified the heck out of it, which I adore because I'm a geek. It's so interesting because we were hanging out, we were in the car and he was like "I want to know all the ways in which you're disappointed in me," and we had six or something like that.

Chris: We had six before we got out of the car and it was only a ten minute drive so we didn't have a lot of time.

Jaime: I know! I'm like "I don't know, what about this? Do you like UFC? No you don't" Okay, I'm disappointed in you!" The game made the little drive so much more interesting and it's insane how something as simple as that makes your life more interesting. I think that's the whole premise of the book - it's not just about the pursuit, it's about the happiness in between, on that stupid ten minute car ride to the grocery store. Silly things like that. Do you do that often?

Chris: I do.

Jaime: Do you?

Chris: When I was going to every country in the world I had this immigration game that I would play.

Jaime: That sounds lovely - the immigration game!

Chris: I'm taxing to the gate, I'm wherever I am, Afghanistan, somewhere, who knows? Somewhere in the south Pacific. So the game is to predict exactly how much time it will take from taxing to the gate and arriving at immigration, whatever is involved with customs, finding my shuttle, my taxi or my bus, whatever is going to take me, so the starting point is touch down and the end is the arrival in the hotel room, the hostel or the guest house, wherever I'm staying, and setting up my laptop. So I always try to predict - "It's going to be 43 minutes, 90 minutes, 27 minutes - that's my personal goal." It's totally ridiculous, like you said, there's no good reason for it, but the reason it's actually valuable and not just fun is that, with the milestones associated with any good quest, there is joy in hitting those milestones. In Mario Bros that's why it's divided into so many levels and stages - it's not just one thing, I think we'd bored with that. It's like "Okay, I cleared that stage. The next one might be harder but I cleared that." I did 50 countries, I did 100 countries - I went through Sri Lanka, that was my hundredth country and it was one of my favorite places. I remember being super jetlagged and I was walking on the beach at night and I was like "Yeah! One hundred countries - I made it!" I'm just saying this to nobody and it mattered so that's why it was so good to know what to do next. As you said when we started, we have so many things we could do, we have so much freedom and freedom is awesome but freedom can also contain you because it's this mindboggling thing creating parameters around your life.

Jaime: When I was paying off $70,000 in debt I would predict how much money I was going to spend at the grocery store. I would try to keep it under a certain amount and guess and see how close I was. It's silly, but it makes your life so much more fun and almost meaningful because you're doing it for a purpose. How do you start to cultivate that, though, in your life? Because you've honed in on this, you've done this a lot. I feel like I've just started. I have my quest - Eventual Millionaire - but I haven't pulled out these little pieces and parts that I think you're doing an amazing job in so do you have any helpful tips for people to start bringing this into your life today?

Chris: That's really good - I don't think anyone's asked me that question in that regard before. It's really smart.

Jaime: One up for the interviewer!

Chris: You got it, perfect. I mentioned lists earlier. I am a really big fan of just sitting down, daydreaming and putting down ideas no matter what they sound like. The whole bucket list concept is one of those things that's overdone but I think there's value it in. I call it your life list in the book and I tell people to write it down and I give examples of how to do it. I think when people write that life list they tend to write the same kind of things down all the time and similar things are fine but I'm encouraging people to go a little bit more in-depth and not just think about parasailing or whatever it is that you want to do. Let's look at your whole life, let's look at all of the different categories in your life - let's look at travel and adventure, let's also look at relationships, let's look at health and financial goals, which we talk about a lot. What are all of these different things? I like writing things down and I like being specific about them, not vague. Eventual Millionaire is perfect - it's very clear. Then I like aligning our lives around these things and working towards them. I think the main objection to this is always that setting these goals is too rigid or something but these are goals that you set for yourself, that's the key point - this is not something that people have given you, it's not something that's been imposed on you, they're not society's goals like you must have a college degree, you must have this GPA, you must have this qualification before you proceed to this mid-level job. Those are society's rules so forget about that. If you create rules for yourself, that's good. Here's a tip from Elise Blaha Cripe, a good friend of mine, I wrote about her in the book. She lives with her family in southern California and she makes all of these crazy crafting projects and she said "We are always telling people to think outside the box, especially entrepreneurs and creative types," and she said "I find more value in getting in the box and making a box for myself and saying here's what I'm going to do and here's how I'm going to do it and within that box I have these constraints that are self-applied but they're going to help me achieve my goals, they're going to help me achieve whatever it is that I want to do."

Jaime: I love that. So now I'm going to put you on the spot - I want you to help me gamify Eventual Millionaire. Everybody listening is an Eventual Millionaire, right? We all have the same quest. You can pick your own quest but, whatever, right now we're talking about this one - so how would I gamify that? How could I make this more interesting and more fun? It's very money based so it's not going to be adventurous, although it could be.

Chris: Money based is great, that's fine.

Jaime: Tell me more - what would you do?

Chris: So you've got milestones, you've got stages, you've got levels. Some people might be starting in debt just like you were years ago so one huge milestone along the way to becoming a millionaire is removing that debt and I'm all about encouraging people to get the debt out of their lives. That involves stages as well and there are different ways to tackle the debt, different strategies or whatever. I do like the snowball approach of paying off your lowest debts first because it's very motivating to be like "That's done! I've got right of that, I've got rid of that." So you're thinking about those milestones.

Jaime: I was sad when I paid off all of my debt because then I didn't have a thing to pay off anymore.

Chris: It's bittersweet because you achieved a victory. You have to go on to the next goal. You could break it down - your next goal is your first full emergency fund. We're all supposed to keep six months or something of income in reverse, not invested somewhere, just available to you, so that's a great goal. When I get to that I have some security, I feel stable, then maybe the next goal is my first investment, my first $100,000 in the bank - which is big money, that is no small thing - maybe my first asset that earns additional money, even if it's a small amount of money. I think that's huge. One of the lessons of "The $100 Startup" is when people made their first $50 online they were disproportionately excited about it - they were just thrilled about that, and I understand because I feel the same way about every single business that I've started. "Wow, someone sent me $5 on PayPal?" So maybe the first time you earn money independently - if you have a job or something, that's fine, but if you have a job on the side, that first time you get paid is a milestone. Then, if it reaches $1,000 a month or some big number, that's really fun. So you take comfort and joy in what happens along the way.

Jaime: I like it. It's so funny because as you're saying this I'm thinking why don't I have a timeline for people to go through all of the steps in their journey?

Chris: Right, so we named some of those steps. I'm sure there are plenty more.

Jaime: That's awesome. So how do we make this fun too? Don't get me wrong, this is interesting, paying off debt was kind of fun but, during it, it was a slog, so how do we make that more fun? It's challenging but how do I bring in more?

Chris: I don't know if it always can be fun and that's okay. Hopefully it's always rewarding and sometimes it's fun, I guess. This is why our motivations have to be a little bit deeper - your motivation for paying off your debt is not just that it's going to be fun to do so. It's nice that it was but your motivation is that it's a huge constraint, a restriction in your life that's preventing you from doing other things and you will be independent if you achieve this goal and that, to me, is far more valuable than anything else. I would say find your motivation and focus on the outcome and you do have to make sacrifices because every quest involves sacrifice or tradeoff.

Jaime: That's what I was going to ask you about next.

Chris: No doubt. So saving money and getting out of debt involves lifestyle choices. I do think it's important to be wise - you don't have to skip your coffee because that's not going to make you a millionaire but you do have to evaluate every spending decision based on your values. Whatever you decide is important to you, that's where you spend money. If you get to a point where it isn't fun, you need to ask yourself "What do I value? I've got this long term thing, I've got this short term thing, what do I value more?" Not to always relate it to when I was going to every country in the world but when I was going to every country in the world I often thought about the long term - I thought "I'm in a slog but I believe in this. I don't want to be the guy who went to a bunch of countries, like "There's Chris Guillebeau - he went to very country in the world minus twelve!?"

Jaime: Because that's what we would have said, totally.

Chris: It would have been just terrible. So I believed in the outcome even though it wasn't fun.

Jaime: I love how you're talking about sacrifice but we also talk about the happiness factor. I get people asking me this all the time - "I'm supposed to do what I need to do now for later," but there are also the other people who say you need to enjoy it right now. Can you be happy in the sacrifice?

Chris: I hope so.

Jaime: How? Because the point of sacrifice is that you're uncomfortable and not where you want to be.

Chris: I don't know. I guess it has to be the right blend. I think successful people are future oriented, thinking about the long term of their health, finances and business, they're not just focused on the short term. I am super future-oriented and the problem is that you're not always balanced and grateful and you don't always appreciate the moment and maybe you struggle because of various insecurities or whatever, that's always been my problem, so I think you try to appreciate the day to day more. You try to be grateful about small things, not just focused on the long term but on what you have.

Jaime: Is that something you can cultivate? Because you're saying you're mostly a futurist - I love that word - so you're mostly a future thinker. I used to be super focused on the future and I'm trying to pull it back and be more now. Is it something you feel you've been able to cultivate?

Chris: It's something that I struggle with, actually. I think I could learn a lot from other people. We've talked a lot about the future, we've talked a lot about the present - we haven't really talked about the past. I don't want to generalize too much but I think thinking about the past too much is actually unhealthy because you can't change what's happened in the past - we have all made mistakes, things have gone wrong, some of them are our fault, some of them aren't. We can't really do anything about that but what we can do something about is today and tomorrow and that's what I think is important.

Jaime: I agree 1000%. When you think that your past dictates your future, that's when things get tough. What advice do you have for somebody like that? Maybe they know they're thinking about the past too much or thinking self-defeating thoughts too much - maybe they've had a business fail before and they're thinking "ho am I to start something successful?" How can you help with that?

Chris: It's tough; I struggle with it too. Our past does shape who we are but it doesn't necessarily determine our future, as you said. I do think that you should do different things and try to think about something in the future. Maybe your vision isn't super big at the moment because of what's happened to you but that's okay, that's alright. We start with where we are and we proceed and we make something that's greater than we are at the time.

Jaime: Awesome. So now I want to go the opposite way. One of the things that I see quite a bit is people with huge goals - and don't get me wrong, I think huge goals are awesome, like Eventual Millionaire, so I really appreciate huge goals but a lot of time people come to me and go "I want a business that makes $1 million by next year."

Chris: Yeah, great, let's do it! It's good work if you can get it - and some people do but I would say that's more of a fluke than a predictable plan.

Jaime: And they get disappointed - "It hasn't happened yet!" You don't even make $2,000 a month yet - we don't need to worry about $1 million yet.

Chris: Exactly. How do you want the $1 million? What's that going to do for you? Compared to where you're at now, how are you going to achieve various goals? It's not realistic, it really isn't, to expect that most people are just going to be able to start this business and have that kind of income. Our whole world is distorted by these extreme success stories.

Jaime: I put a lot of those out there - "These are amazing people!", but those are outliers. That's why it's Eventual Millionaire.

Chris: Those stories are good but I think it's also important to highlight stories of other kinds of success. It is super important and super empowering to make your first $50 online, as I said. For me, the first time, I remember I was selling things online at the age of 20, which is 16 years ago, and I got like $19 an hour for doing that and I was like "Holy shit, this is so much money!" and I would have done it for $5 an hour because it was something I had created for myself. I remember I sold coffee and things and I remember the time I placed an order for $700 worth of coffee and that was the largest charge I'd ever had on my credit card which had a $2,000 limit. It was so much fun. So don't worry about having to start up the next Facebook for $1 billion or the $1 million passive income stream or whatever - that's just ridiculous, I think, it really is. It's nice work if you can get it but everyone, I believe, can take steps to establish freedom and independence for themselves including self-employment revenue streams. We talk about that all the time; it's totally possible.

Jaime: That's a huge point - how do you want your million? That's why I gave up the goal of $1 million. It wasn't about that, it was about my life. Then, when you bring it back around, it makes sense, but some people still have to go through that and it's tough. I get e-mails and I have to say "I can't solve your problem! I wish I could but I can't."

Chris: It's like in PayPal you could have $1 million right now but they have a spending cap on it so I can't.

Jaime: I get asked for money a lot too. The interesting thing, though, is that your book has a lot more information on exactly what to do on quests. We didn't go into it as much as we possibly could have so everybody should definitely pick it up. I'm going to ask the same last question that I always ask - I'm excited to ask you; it had better be good!

Chris: I'm sorry, I can't hear you. You're breaking up - I gotta go!

Jaime: You're awesome, Chris! What's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of $1 million?

Chris: Awesome. So whether they want to work for themselves, whether they want to have success in a traditional career, whatever their preferred pathway is to becoming an eventual millionaire, I want them to think about all of the things that they're good at and interested in and skilled in through the lens of how these things are valuable or helpful to other people. That's what I want them to do because they're probably going to have a lot of stuff that they like to do but then there's this whole other thing about what people are willing to pay for, how they're willing to value those services, products or knowledge. That, to me, is the whole sixth sense of the $100 startup model - all of these people pursuing different quests and they needed money to pursue their quests and they often found a way, these conversions, between the stuff that they like to do and the stuff that people value. It's not a super simple thing but I really believe it is the answer to establishing whatever self-employment thing or additional income you want to have. So find the conversions between what you love and what people are willing to pay for.

Jaime: I love it. So everybody who's listening that has not quit their day job yet needs to get "The $100 Startup", we're going to push them towards that one. Everyone else get this book - it's like 101 and 201. For people who aren't enjoying their life and aren't able to create that freedom, it's much harder to do quests when they tell you that you have to be somewhere from 9-5. I can't even imagine. Unless it's not a monetary quest. It makes a big difference if freedom is your quest. If you just want to make food for your family that's totally different but all of you guys are eventual millionaires so you want freedom and money and everything else - a huge quest with happiness involved. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Where can we find all of your books, Chris?

Chris: Thank you so much, Jaime. It's a huge honor. They can go to their local bookstore, if anybody still goes to bookstores. They can find them on Amazon and they can find me at ChrisGuillebeau.com or FindTheQuest.com.

Jaime: We're going to link up to everything. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I really, really appreciate it.

Chris: Thank you. It was a huge honor.

Announcer: Thanks for listening. You can find out more great information like this on EventualMillionaire.com.

Tags: Business Building, business planning, business startup, Chris Guillebeau, Decision Making, Goal Planning, Goal Setting, millionaire interview, Mindset, Startup, Visioning

Categories: All, Best Life, Business, Business Model, Debt Freedom, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Millionaire Interviews, Relationships, Starting A Business, Visioning

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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