Categories: Articles

Choosing A Different Kind Of Life

What do you think people like Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss or Tom Peters do each and every day?

Do they go to work like you and I do? Do they have an office? A formal schedule? It’s something that fascinates me. You can get a glimpse into their lifestyles by watching and listening to podcasts and the like. Did you know that Malcolm Gladwell doesn’t have a doorbell? Did you know that the bestselling author of books like The Tipping Point and Blink prefers to write in a cafe in New York City or at the public library? Gladwell’s story was told in a fascinating piece on 60 Minutes, and it was a side of him that I had not yet seen. I love seeing and understanding the work/life of people whom I admire and follow. On my podcast, Six Pixels of Separation, I try to angle a lot of the conversation in that direction. I like the mechanics of how people do the work that they do. You can’t not wonder what the person who wrote The 4-Hour Workweek does during the day, can you? I had not seen the following video before (it originally aired in April 2012). It’s a show called, A Day In The Life, and it is produced by Morgan Spurlock as a Hulu original show. In the second season, they featured Tim Ferris. He’s young (36 years old) and has three bestselling books (The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Chef). If that weren’t enough, he is also an angel investor and advisor for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Uber and many others. If you’re not impressed by that, Tim also holds a Guinness Book of World Records record in tango dancing and won a Chinese kickboxing championship. As imagined, his day (as produced as this was television) is really unique… maybe even shocking for some. It’s hard to know what is work, what is play and what is planning. It’s also fascinating that we live in a day and age when individuals can (and are) truly designing the most fascinating (and, dare I say it, squiggly) careers.

I was mesmerized by this show… and I think you will be too.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.