I've Tried That - We lose money so you don't have to!

Psst. C’mere.

No, not you.

Yeah, you. If you who know that there are no quick and easy answers, you might be a career renegade.

If you know that big rewards take hard work, you might be a career renegade.

If you have ever been doing something that you really love and thought, “Damn, it would be cool to get paid for this,” you might be a career renegade.

What’s a career renegade? No, it’s not you going Chuck Norris on your boss. It’s you turning what you love into a significant source of income. Career Renegade, by Jonathan Fields, will help you do it.

Why Should I Read Career Renegade?

I don’t know. Maybe you shouldn’t. I don’t know you from Adam. But I do know that if it appealed to me, it will appeal to a lot of other people, too.

I was intrigued by the very first paragraph:

Much to the contrary of what we’ve been told for the better part of our lives, we do not exist for the sole purpose of paying our bills, grooming our kids to be able to do the same, and maybe, someday, retiring to finally enjoy life, should we ever reach that point.

I was hooked by the second:

We are here to let our lights shine as brightly as possible, to drink in the joy of friendship and family, to server and better the greater community, and to tap into and inspire passion in everything we do. We are here to come alive. In doing so, we serve as an example to others that a life beyond muddling by is not only possible, but mandatory.

If this guy could show me a practical application of that philosophy, I was willing to do whatever he suggested. Toward that end, here is what Fields insists is possible, and also the main point of the book:

You don’t have to be world-class great to make a great living doing what you love if you are willing to step outside the box, approach your passion differently, find innovative ways to mine that passion for money, and work like crazy to make it happen.

What Is a Career Renegade?

It’s a person who opts out of the rut in favor of monetizing what she really loves to do. A career renegade finds something he is passionate about and figures out how to make it profitable using one or more of the renegade paths:

• Redeploying your passion in a hungrier market
• Refocusing and mining the most lucrative micro-markets
• Exploiting gaps in the information needed to excel at an activity
• Exploiting gaps in education
• Exploiting gaps in gear or merchandise
• Exploiting gaps in community
• Exploiting gaps in the way a pursuit is provided

The book devotes a chapter to each of these paths, describing them in detail and giving you the nitty-gritty steps you need to get started down the path to career awesomeness.

What’s Inside?

Click this link (it opens in a new window) and take a look at the Table of Contents by clicking the “Look Inside” image at Amazon. It will give you a good idea of what the book will teach you.

But the Table of Contents doesn’t show you the inspirational details—the examples of real people who have done what the author is teaching (including the author himself). There are stories about women who love art and figured out ways to make it pay big. Stories about online successes, including people you might have heard of like Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com and Gina Trapani of Lifehacker.com.

How Do You Monetize Your Passion?

If you care enough about something to spend hours reading about it or doing it, you subscribe to magazines about it, or buy stuff for it, chances are good that many other people do, too.

In other words, there is a market around that interest. All you have to do is figure out a way to serve that market. Here’s how the book will help you do that:

1. Market research
   Chapter 11 is a comprehensive guide on how to conduct online keyword and market research. It is worth the price for this section alone. It introduced me to research tools I’ve never heard of—tools that will help you see what people are talking about and how they’re searching for information.
2. Information sales
   Almost everyone is an expert at something. And if you’re not, you can become an expert and then sell the knowledge. The book shows you how to go about doing that as well as how to market the expertise you might already have.
3. Got an invention idea?
   The book gives you very basic, practical advice about how you might pursue that idea, up to and including getting a prototype built and/or licensing your idea.
4. Marketing on a budget
   No matter how great your ideas, they’ll flop if you can’t get them in front of the buyers you want to target. The book shows you how to do that without breaking the bank.

Also check out the Career Renegade blog at Amazon. See profiles of career renegades, read the author’s answers to questions, get a podcast for regular inspiration, and more.

Is the Career Renegade Path For You?

Maybe. But at $11 or less, it won’t cost you much to find out. Get the book, read it, take the plunge. Life is too short to 9-to-5 it away.