The Dip, and How to Figure Out What to Do With Your Life

Wow! Well thank god you’re not giving up the blog, a lot of people, myself included, would really miss it.
And what did happen to the poker?!

Also,

Have you thought about selling Conversion Doubler to a competitor? I’m not too familiar with the whole concept, but you could probably make a chunk of change off it if it’s much better than whats out there.

Tynan~

Why not find an advertiser/marketer for you? That would take care of your book and CD without necessarily giving them up….

I don’t know anything about it, just wondering why you don’t try it

Dan

Ha… I just wrote on my blog that I didn’t think the Dip was worth reading, but you’ve got me re-thinking that claim.

I bet you could combine a bunch of your ideas and market a wicked line of travel gear. I would wear a Tynan label.

Hmm. I’m going to try this.

Is it possible for you to support yourself financially off of Life Nomadic?

Interestingly enough, two days ago in my economics class we were studying international trading. The professor took about 5 minutes out of the lecture to tell us that we need to find the one thing that we are best at (as an honors class we are all good at a number of things) and focus only on that. Even if we are 2x better than everyone else at (a), if we are 3x better at (b) then we should let those who are not as good do (a) because we will have a greater impact for all involved if we only do (b). [Hope that makes sense.]
So I’ve been thinking about what I am best at, and your post gave me the tools to figure it out. Thanks!

Tynan, I’m a lurker reader of your site, and posted with different nicks sometimes, so I’m not exactly part of your court, but I’m one of those like minded following the blog for inspiration and encouragement.

And let me say this post is a NO-NO! (for me)

1) Read the author’s bio. He’s always been an entraprendeur and marketing man, tough a successful one.
His area of interest was already set from the beginning, and probably he had to do the pruning between similar sets of ideas.
You show a different mind, ranging from an almost 360° wide variety of interests and ideas.
This, in my opinion, should be enough to consider the author’s view of life less reliable (but still valuable!) for your particular case.

2) You scrambled hobbies, lifestyle and money-making.
Rapping is supposed to be the hobby, so it’s unlikely it will bring you the bucks for a prolonged and undefined period of time.
Whatever you think about yourself, I doubt you can become “the best” rapper for unlimited time.
You could deliver “the best” rap album or song, of course, but then you would need marketing to make it a recognized best and to get paid for your efforts.

Life Nomadic is supposed to be the lifestyle, but I don’t think it can bring the bucks.
I know about someone who does much travelling, and media companies pay him as a consultant to suggest best place in the world to shoot this or that video.
You could do the same, of course, but here again you would need to market yourself to make real money.

Here I’m assuming you still want the megabucks to pay at least the cryo.

In your life-review you cut out the things that could bring those money.
I’m with you about disliking marketing.
I’m a dude of freedom, and I hate forcing ideas into people’s mind and I think it’s the same for you.
So I can understand you want to cut out marketing.

But not Poker.
It doesn’t require marketing and you can make money from it without becoming the best.
Thw world is full of people wanting to part from their money, and I’m sure there will be plenty even in time of economic crisis.
It could become the source of income to support your lifestyle.

There is further reasoning behind this post, but I think I’ve shown my point enough.

In my opinion, of course!

:)

Great post! I also have far too much going on right now. A couple blogs, busy corporate career and teaching yoga.

I read your post and was inspired to the point of getting in my car (literally right after reading your post) and heading to the library to read The Dip (luckily, they had it!). I finished it in less than an hour. Wow, great book. I read Tribes last week (Seth’s most current book) and this is right up there with that one.

I’m gonna do my own little prioritization and let you know how that goes.

BTW….how do you define the market for “Life Nomadic”? That seems to be a big part of being the “best”….it all depends on how you define the market.

Tynan:

Generally speaking, I don’t comment on books that I have not read. However, I have read your post, so I will comment on that.

“There is no point in doing something which will define you that you can’t be the best in the world at…..No one is looking for the second best of anything.”

Huh? So for example, the author is saying if you can’t be the best soccer player in the world, you shouldn’t play soccer at all. That doesn’t make any sense. The second best player in the world gets almost all of the same good things that the best player in the world gets (fame, money, fun, etc.)

In most fields, there is room for more that one person at the top. If you are only willing to do something if you can be the best, you are setting unreasonably high expectations.

In addition, there is another problem. “Best” is a very subjective term. There is no objective way to measure “best” in most fields. So how do you know if you are the best? Usually you can’t. So discussion of the subject is pretty much a moot point.

You also write: “A dip, as shown on the cover, is the period of time where the work put in doesn’t yield the benefits you want.” I suppose the author is right about that. But I was already aware of that idea, so the author isn’t exactly breaking any new ground.

Dave Brett
Austin, TX

Dave:

the book talks bout how “the world” is completely subjective. it isn’t meant to be “the planet earth” necessarily. yes, it is possible but that is your world, but the dip teaches that “the world” is whatever you define to be. one of the examples he uses is to be the best organic goods retailer in the county or something like that.

by defining your world as something that’s attainable, not only to you keep yourself driven, but you also don’t set yourself up for failure like trying to be the very best soccer player in the world. it also keeps “the world” malleable. you’re able to redefine how wide or narrow your world-view is and reach your goal accordingly.

I liked this blog post, I’m headed over to amazon to pick up the book right now.

I guess you just have to be reasonable about the size you setup of your “world”, because it could be unreasonably small or big.

I definitely liked best in the land too, I liked that I had confidence that anything I saw on that site would most likely be the best in its category. It would be hard to continue that though since the cost of obtaining the best items and also since you’re not into accumulating as much stuff now days.

Hey Ty,
Have you ever considered entering Survivor or Amazing Race with Todd or Annie, I think most of the readers would really love to see that……

soo glad you’re keeping this blog

long time reader

Al

Tynan,

I’m not sure if this is of any use to you, but I recently read this except from Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” and immediately thought of you and your drive to be ‘the best’; it sort of coincides with the idea of “The Dip”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/nov/15/malcolm-gladwell-outliers-extract

Also, it’s possible to be excellent at many things, and working on different areas. You’ve got Brian May, Queen’s lead guitarist, as an example, with his PhD in astrophysics (I think).

Just thought i would add,
Something that is Really Important

In reply to “Lazy Jones”

Its NOT about the Money!

NOWHERE on this page does it mention anything to do with money

” Write down what you COULD be and what you WANT to be ”

This does not say What gives you most money that you want to be.
In all fairness some people might want to make a lot of money, where as some people would find there passion lies elsewhere.