The Rat Race:

I’m at home. 6:30am I wake to the disgusting sound of the alarm buzzing.  I hate it so much that I can’t bear to press the snooze button.  The extra 5 minutes of broken sleep isn’t worth the dreaded sound of the alarm again. I’m still tired. I’m always tired.  I jump in the shower and try to wake up a little.  It hardly does the job.  I iron my shirt, eat some toast and take the last few sips of a bland tasting coffee.  I’m ready to go to work.  I jump in the car and pull out of the drive way.  2 minutes into my hour long journey to work I am stuck in traffic.  I’m not surprised as this is a daily event.  I listen to the same monotonous radio station.  I curse the cars around me and scowl at the road below.  And I wait.  I’m tired, i’m dressed in a suit because my company like many others deems it necessary.  I’m frustrated because I’m stuck in traffic wasting time trying to get to my job at a specific time to avoid the wrath of my boss again.  But worst of all I’m angry.  I’m angry that I am tired, frustrated and angry all because of work.  I have no control over my time, no control over my life.  I am a slave to my job, a slave to the 9 – 5, just another rat sitting angry in the rat race.

There had to be a better way, or what was the point?

The New Way To Work:

8:30am I wake to the warm sun peeling through the bi-fold windows and the breeze lightly blowing off the ocean and over my skin.  No alarm. Lovely.  I wander down stairs and take a dip in the pool.  When I’m finished I eat bacon and eggs and I sip a freshly brewed cup of coffee.   It’s a lovely way to wake up.

The New Way To Work was a choice my partner and I made to say goodbye to the rat race, without being millionaires, without being able to retire and whilst still working, making a living and achieving our goals and dreams.  We still work almost every day.  But we wake up when we have finished sleeping.  No intrusive alarms.  We no longer wear suits and corporate attire.  We work in our shorts and singlets.  We no longer sit at the base of our offices, those giant monoliths jutting into the smog filled sky, sucking down cigarettes just to avoid being in the office for a few precious minutes at every chance we get.  Instead when we need a break we jump in the pool for a refreshing dip.  We swim in the crystal blue ocean.  We sip cocktails if we so choose…  Trying that one in the corporate environment never worked out too well for me.

We work when we want, for how long we want, and where we want.  We outsource EVERYTHING we can.  We leverage people from around the world with greater skills than us.  Outsourcing buys us time.  It gives us the rite to choose.  It lets us design our life the way we want.

Our design was to travel. To spend as much time with family and friends as possible, and to live life now.  We travel to some of the most beautiful places in the world, we live cheaper than we could at home. We make more money than we did at home.  We have greater access to the skills our business needs globally.  We live where people choose to holiday.

We designed our life according to our goals and dreams.  We outsource what we can so that our time is spent doing the things that really matter to us in life.

The New Way To Work is a concept we will forever follow. Thanks to Elance we can work online from anywhere in the world and live according to our goals and dreams.

If You Want Something You Have Never Had, You Need To Do Something You Have Never Done. – Dr Shaun Marler.

The New Way To Work has really been a conscious and definite decision by us to start living the life now that people generally wait until they are too old or tired to really enjoy.  We liked the concept of enjoying mini retirements and decided to take it one step further and really live life to it’s fullest now.

We both agreed that this instant was the only moment that you can count on.  We knew that if we wanted the things we wanted in life there was no better time to get them then right now.

The silly thing is that we had known for years that we wanted to live where people travel to for vacations.  These exotic places hold some of the most beautiful scenery and people in the entire world and are some of the cheapest places in the world to live.

So we did it. We jumped online to determine how we could survive on our travels, we stumbled upon Elance and quickly learned the magic of outsourcing and we built a successful business around this.

A little under 1 year from its inception our online business built on the backs of a team of international workers found through Elance has meant that we are living the life we wanted right now. We are achieving the things we wanted in life right this moment and living life the way we choose.

As I write this we are sitting on a wide open deck under the Thai sun enjoying the magnificent views of the turquoise blue ocean below.  We are in a small island in the Andaman Sea off the coast of Thailand called Koh Phangan. We have just finished a delicious Thai lunch and have been sipping cocktails for the past 2 hours while we chat and work freely on our laptops using the free WIFI set up from the restaurant.  Our lunch and cocktails cost us less than the cost of one large meal deal at Macdonalds!

We wake up whenever we wake up.  We sleep when we are tired.  We swim constantly.  We have the best views in the world, the cheapest accommodation, food and living expenses and yet so much of the best this world has to offer all for a fraction of the cost of surviving in the rat race back home.  The funny thing about this is that while we work on our laptops and sip the cocktails with these brilliant views – we are actually achieving more that we ever achieved back home.  We work less, achieve more, earn more and spend less to survive.

This is all possible because of The New Way To Work.  Places like Elance make this new way of life a reality.

It’s pretty simple – The New Way To Work provides a simple thing that everybody yearns for.  Freedom from the constraints of an antiquated view of how we should work and live.  It provides us choice to work when we want, how we want and for the reasons that matter most to us like family and friends.

“If You Want Something You Have Never Had You Need To Do Something You Have Never Done.” – Dr Shaun Marler

If someone asked you what you wanted to do the most in your life right now if you could, what would you say?

That is the question my partner and I found ourselves answering not too long ago. What if you could get the adventure you were looking for, would you take it? The simple answer is yes but most people will list all the reasons why they couldn’t. Most people would work the majority of their adult lives and then enjoy their freedom of time in retirement.

There is another way.

As a child I had a vague dream. I wanted to make a difference in the world. Having my parents and brother and sisters who contributed daily to the world in a meaningful manner, I grew up only to discover that I was pretty good at a lot of things, but not qualified for the jobs that really deserve respect (in my opinion) for service and commitment to making a difference in the lives of others.  I desperately wanted to feel like I was contributing but soon found myself succeeding beyond what I expected in the corporate world. Something I was great at but didn’t matter to my heart.

I wanted to explore the world and the human spirit in all languages and I want to make a difference in any way I can. But the reality of life is we all have to make a living and that is where I discovered that I could take back control of my life because I was motivated enough to challenge the way we work.

That is how the new way to work enabled my dreams. With the skills and knowledge I had gained from my corporate experience and the combined passion and experience of my partner we developed an online business to earn a living and rid ourselves of conventional living to go out into the world and make a difference. We have bought ourselves the freedom to pursue childhood dreams and test the boundaries of the human spirit.

Can I really be strong enough to withstand 45 degree heat and humidity in the middle of the day in Thailand in a tin shed gym with no fans, getting yelled at by my Muay thai instructor to keep going while every muscle in my body feels like giving up? Thanks to the new way to work,  I now know the answer to that question is yes.

I am still discovering all the things I am capable of and cannot tell you how enjoyable it is to have this opportunity now to do the things I want rather than wait to retirement. I think retirement forces us to change some of the goals we have for ourselves simply because our bodies could not take it. We only have one chance, this isn’t a dress rehearsal and we can’t buy back time, the time to live is now. We only have today. No Regrets!

This new way of work has enabled my partner and I to discover our true commitment to ourselves & our life. We both are passionate about trying new things, seeing new things, tasting new foods and just sitting and talking to people from all countries, speaking many languages.

By streamlining our business and embracing the concept of the new way to work, we have now just begun this journey of discovery for ourselves.

We only get one chance at this life. We only have today and we all have the power to change if we decide. We don’t have to wait till our bodies ‘retire’ to discover we can run a marathon. We can buy ourselves the time to train and practice something over and over till we perfect it, if we choose. We can liberate ourselves from the 9-5 rat race if we want to but we can no longer make excuses for not achieving what we want in life. Because the new way to work has broken down the boundaries for people to control their earning capacity, to control their resources, to control their budgets and to control the time they spend working verse living.

If you want to change the way you think, think the new way to work.

If you want to know how to change the way you currently earn a living – think the new way to work.

If you want to achieve your childhood dream or have a passionate desire to test your body over a grueling marathon or in my case, Muay Thai, think the new way to work.

I now know that a gift I do have that makes a difference in many people’s lives is experience and knowledge. I can’t perform an operation on the heart, but I can share with you many stories and perspectives I have been fortunate enough to witness on my travels thus far that just may mend another’s heart when they need it.

“If you want something you have never had, you have to do something you have never done” Dr Shaun Marler

]]> http://www.thenewwaytowork.info/?feed=rss2&p=24 3 http://www.thenewwaytowork.info/?p=5 http://www.thenewwaytowork.info/?p=5#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:48:37 +0000 admin http://www.thenewwaytowork.info/?p=5 Home – About Us – Articles – Multimedia (Gallery) – Contact Us

With many years experience of climbing corporate ladders and increasing our earning capacity, my partner and I were both frustrated with the confines of working in an office despite the personal success that we both achieved.

Both exhibiting entrepreneurial thinking and having an adventurous zest for life, we both knew we wanted to do it our way and prove that it can work. We had hit many brick walls in our time with people laughing at our suggestions that there is a better way of living but as with everything in life, you have to lead the way for people to open their minds.

We have taken it upon ourselves to prove that thinking outside the box really can provide the freedom to choose the path you want in life, working from anywhere and enjoying all the things you wished you could do when you are daydreaming from the office.

We wanted to cruise around Thailand on a scooter down to the pristine beaches for a swim, and then lay in a hammock in the afternoon breeze – all during business hours when we decided.

So we embarked on the quest to this freedom of choice to work the hours we wanted, anywhere in the world.

With our combined expertise from previous experiences we were easily able to start an online marketing business that soon jumped from small to big almost overnight. We knew that the work involved to maintain and increase our reach in the marketplace was beyond the manpower of two people.

We searched for many outsourcing options available online as we didn’t want the overheads of hiring and retaining staff ourselves. The goal was freedom to work anywhere and outsourcing was going to provide us the much needed help we required.

After finding Elance on the internet, it met all our requirements and soon enough we started testing the waters with a few jobs to test the quality and process behind it. We were impressed. Not only did we get choice of bidders and profile history of work examples, we also controlled our budget that from our corporate experience doesn’t always go to plan in the real world.

We needed concept designs completed quickly for a project and received these from our resource within 24 hours of approving them for our project.  It meant that while we were both fast paced workers that really only wanted to work an hour or two a day but be as productive as possible, we now had a way to make this dream a reality.

After fine tuning our own business processes and identifying the parts that we could easily outsource to make our business a well oiled machine – we began the exciting process of outsourcing.

Outsourcing provided the ability to multiply faster than ever. We were achieving previously at a pretty impressive rate due to the nature of our business but after taking the much needed step to outsourcing, we could get more done, faster. This meant we managed our resources and we were free to explore further business opportunities and networks and most of all, we no longer needed the salary from the corporate companies we once worked for and this time we had control and freedom to earn and live how we chose.

Elance also provided us with versatility of skills and resources globally. We work with many resources scattered all around the globe and this helped achieve something else for us.

Another goal we had set for ourselves was that whatever freedom of living we could afford for ourselves, we both knew it had to be for a great reason. We both wanted to contribute to the world in a positive way. We wanted to create a legacy of giving. This meant that we were now able to employ professional contractors but also students who were looking to support themselves with extra work by using the skills they had developed. Sometimes in business you are forced to hire just one resource when you might meet three or four that you wish you could work with. People with valuable skills that you want to provide opportunity to enhance their skills and confidence as professionals.

With Elance we could provide this opportunity and we could give people that were just starting off a go. With the speed of delivery of work, timezone differences meant that when we got up in the morning, the work was completed that we sent the night before and this was a very compelling reason to keep using the skills network we had now created.

Overall, this New Way To Work concept has provided the business growth that my partner and I had envisaged and set for ourselves.  Daring to try what many businesses say is ‘unconventional’ or ‘too risky’ we have proven it can and does work.  How do I know this? Because my partner and I are currently sitting in hammocks in Thailand while I write this article and we literally couldn’t be happier with the successful online business we have built and the opportunities we now have in our lives.

Time we have now bought ourselves to achieve childhood dreams anywhere in the world and contribute to the world with all the knowledge and expertise we have built for ourselves.

To anyone that will listen, my partner and I share everything we can about what we do and how we do it.  In the meantime, we will keep crossing off goals on our bucket lists.

Knowledge is power but freedom is sharing. The New Way To Work will provide the freedom to work anywhere and often I find myself talking to old colleagues from the corporate giants I have worked for and sharing this valuable information. You can have what you want in life, if you just open up your mind and use the skills that you have to become the best person you can be. You can be the CEO of your life and you can live the life you want, with THE NEW WAY TO WORK.

“If you want something you have never had, you have to do something you have never done.” Dr Shaun Marler