Personal memoir of a former finance professional turning to consulting and info products

never had the time to finish my muse—the interview guide. But I was getting tons of requests to do consulting from my readers, so I started with resume editing and expanded into mock interviews— yes, not very “muse-like” but I charged high rates and could make my old salary in a fraction of the time. I did this ALL while staying completely anonymous out of necessity—because I didn’t want to get fired without an alternative income stream. Amazingly, my services took off even though I couldn’t tell anyone who I was. At the same time, I decided I would not get another job in finance, and would instead leave in June 2008. So I had a very short amount of time to make everything work. Almost every single one of my friends, roommates, and family doubted me and said it would never work. I decided they were all wrong and I would just do it anyway— worst-case scenario, I could always reduce my expenses and move to Thailand to teach English. To boost my income, I completely revamped my site to sell more of my offerings, which took me from pocket change to full-time income from part-time consulting over July-August 2008. This allowed me to travel to Hawaii and Aruba to go snorkeling, surfing, and shark-cage-diving and visit friends in other parts of the U.S. all while making an investment banker’s income from part-time work. As the recession and economy worsened, my business picked up because it was counter-cyclical— anything that helps people find jobs is in huge demand in a poor economy. I’ve since helped scores of laid-off bankers and other financiers find work elsewhere. However, I was also starting to work a lot more because I was effectively trading time for money ... so over the fall I started to work on my original product idea—my interview guide—and released it to great success later in 2008. It has gone on to free up a ton of time, double my revenues, and put the majority of my income on autopilot. If I didn’t do any further work from this point onward, I could make 2—3x my previous monthly income simply by writing once or twice a week for my site (4-5 hours) and doing limited consulting on the side (10 hours). So you could say I’ve increased my income almost 3x while reducing my hours 6x-9x and making myself completely mobile. I admit that often I do “work” more than this, but it’s all on related educational projects that I want to work on, not anything that I have to work on. And if I don’t feel like working one week, I can reduce my hours to the 5-15 hour range and spend my time on learning languages, sports, or traveling to exotic destinations. This setup allowed me to take an amazing trip to China, Singapore, Thailand, and Korea in December- January and get in some ridiculous adventures. [Il be moving to Asia in a few months and after that, traveling the world indefinitely while running my business from coffee shops. Incidentally, I met up with a lot of customers in Asia who thought this was the coolest thing ever! Your book has changed my life and infinitely improved my lifestyle, and I just wanted to thank you for everything. —B. DECHESARE WHO SAYS KIDS HOLD YOU BACK? My first action was to think “what is the worst that can happen on a scale of 1-10” if I quit my well- paid, very secure government job? The power of this thought process is incredible. I quit my job, sold my house, and went camping for three months with two kids under two and a half and a pregnant wife (mini-retirement). We (very slowly) drove the SE coast of Australia from Sydney to Adelaide. With the complete clarity of mind that comes from being in a field with your family with no immediate worries, I put into action a plan that I had been tinkering with for 12 months. I bought a wireless Internet dongle and created an info product for electrical engineers, and wrote some software to HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_014025