Wherever I go, there I work (and play)

Yeah, that’s me at age 20 or 21 living the rock and roll lifestyle. I’m not sure if anybody actually attended that show.

In my previous post I mentioned a book I’ve been reading by Tina Seelig called “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.” Tina, who has a Ph. D. in neuroscience, is the executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. She teaches courses on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Today I want to give you a little more info on that book since I really enjoyed it and took a lot of good knowledge from it. I think a lot of the topics it covers are incredibly relevant to us who are running our own freelance businesses.

The underlying theme I took from this book was the idea of challenging assumptions. Why do we do the things we do? Why not try something outside of the box? If you pay attention to successful entrepreneurs, you’ll notice a tendency to look at things from different angles and often trying different approaches to various problems. Throughout the book she gives some really creative examples of this type of approach in action.

Other notable themes: Failure is okay. Be fabulous. Be thankful. And more…I don’t want to give away the whole book because it’s definitely worth your time to read it. It’s a quick read and Tina did a great job conveying innovative ways to approach both your life and career.

As an additional teaser, here is an excellent video of Tina talking about some of the central ideas in her book:

More book reviews coming in the near future. I’ve been reading some good stuff lately!

I finished reading Crush It a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to doing a review. If you’re building a business of any sort, read Crush It! There are some great tips in this book and it was well-worth the read.

Example: I uploaded today’s video to Viddler, Vimeo, and YouTube using TubeMogul, a little trick I learned in this book.

NOTE: Sorry for the lack of true HD in today’s video. Waiting on a new cable for my Canon HV30.

How’s your whuffie? What is whuffie? Check out my review of Tara Hunt’s new book on the currency of social capital:

I’m posting this on AnywhereMan because I feel that social visibility is incredibly important for those of us who are out here on our own. By not being tied into the corporate pipeline we are missing a lot of the face-to-face social interactions that we would have in a normal workday. Through movements such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, we now have a way to increase our networking opportunities.

Tara’s book will give you a variety of methods to increase your whuffie to benefit your personal brand. Be sure to follow Tara on Twitter at www.twitter.com/missrogue.

Get the book from Amazon:
The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business