This summary and review of the book, Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love, was prepared by Angela Marie Westmoreland while an Accounting student in the College of Business at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Executive Summary
Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields is a book about rejecting the mainstream’s view of how the word success should be defined. Taking charge of financial well being by creating a business entity which you truly love is Jonathan’s main point. He uses his personal experience as an entrepreneur to give the reader advice on how to create their own business without breaking that person’s bank account.
To give some insight to how the author came up with his radical way of perceiving the technological world in which we live, I shall give you (the reader) some background information about him. Jonathan Fields, a former SEC attorney, whose job pushed his body to the point where he was physically ill. This illness was brought upon Jonathan after losing a million dollar deal for his client. A trip to the emergency room made him contemplate whether there has to be something in this world that would make me money without the “hyper focused” day in, day out, same job, and different day aspect of life. After trial and error, he now owns chain of well-respected yoga centers; the most infamous being Sonic Yoga NYC, which spans from the east coast (Manhattan, NY) to California.
With the knowledge of business start up he began to expand his reach by talking and writing about his endeavors. Career Renegade is broken into four parts and, includes twenty one chapters. Along with his life story being incorporated into the career planning guidance portion, he uses other people’s life stories, as a sort of precedence, to elaborate the points he is trying to make.
Part one is Jonathan’s attempt to find out what the reader desires to do with his or her life versus the other option of just coping and dealing with their unhappiness. Part two focuses on refining that passion. Starting with determining if there is a market that will pay for that product or service. Part two ends with ways to exploit gaps in education, community and information. Part three focuses on building an online authority that is authentic and respected though blogging, social-media hubs, and marketing the newly found idea. Part four sums up how to pull it all off by overcoming the fear of failure and without your family thinking that you have went over the deep end.
Overall, this book was a very enjoyable read. Jonathan Fields has really put massive amounts of time and effort into his novel; the research alone must have taken at the least one year or so. The websites he suggest the reader to go to are up-to-date and relevant to business planning he describes. Although, I am unsure that this information will stay current in the coming year and, I am not sure if this is a book that I would recommend to college students due to the fact that college student are the fourth poorest category of people in the United States. To think that the average college student has the time and money to start their own business is rather inconceivable, but who knows I may be wrong. If there are people who could pull of such a tremendous feat then more power to them.
The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from Career Renegade
1. Wealth is not the best thing that owning a business brings into a person’s life; it’s being able to choose the people you surround yourself with, and enjoying the organizational culture that comes with the particular people chosen. In Jonathan words, “Translation, it’s about the Benjamins, not the benjamins.”
2. A way to become a successful entrepreneur is to find a vastly focused market niche then exploit the customer satisfaction gaps that exist within that particular market. A person can begin to do this by selecting a loved activity and researching the market to see if there demand for a precise product (or service) inside of this industry.
3. Product differentiation, demand, and price affect whether or not it will be worthwhile. Entrepreneurs should take into account all three of these factors when choosing their product or service, and use such websites as Popurls.com to solve such problems as what potential customers hunger for.
4. Information gaps are a great way to make revenue off a subject that is dear to your heart; people who love an activity usually uncover wisdom as time goes by through partaking in that field. Through a combination of participation, conversation, and study, they often discover bits of information that others in the community would find extremely valuable, especially those who are newer to the activity (p 53).
5. Professionally teaching this knowledge to others is one form of transforming information gaps into money. The three step process that correlates with this type of endeavor includes: The first phase incorporates creating course objectives, outlines, and individual lesson plans (short easy-to-digest bits of advice is the best way to do this); Deciding which content is best delivered in which format is the second stage (e.g. podcasts, books, audio/video, etc); The final step is producing the material (Microsoft Word, Google Documents, and Video Cameras can be used in this process).
6. Regardless of the activity chosen to create your own business around a property attorney should be hired to insure that the product is not owned by anyone else, and if it isn’t then the proper measures are taken to copyright, patent, or trademark that selected product or service.
7. A market where people are already advertising on a consistent long-term basis is proof of demand within that market. Therefore, the lack of such advertisers points in the direction which states there is a lack of a viable market (p 130 & 131).
8. Once you have chosen your renegade path and finalized the required research the quest for authority in that industry begins. Blogging, online communities, and radio talk shows are just a few ways to promote the business; these activities should be performed by actively participating and communicating, preferably, on a daily basis.
9. Beware! The technology that will build your reputation can also demolish it. Regardless if you are communicating though a blog or social media hub there will be followers and skeptics; the best way to protect yourself is to make sure your quest for authority is based not on smoke and mirrors, but on expertise (p 212).
10. Overcoming your fear of failure will most likely be your biggest obstacle. Jonathan suggests, “Explore and quantify failure-once, explore and quantify inaction-once, and stimulate success-daily.”
Full Summary of Career Renegade
Part 1: “What Makes You Come Alive?”
Chapter 1: “You Don’t Have to Be World Class to Make a World Class Living”
This chapter is self-explanatory (as are with most of Mr. Fields writings); it’s about proving to yourself that a career as a top executive or a well rounded education for a particular profession are almost unnecessary in today’s day and age. That the Americanized version of success revolves around what he calls, “gifted athletes, movie stars, and legends in their fields, people who are world-class great.” But this chapter is not about what the majority of Americans believe success entails. In Jonathan words, it is about, “stepping outside of the box, approaching your passion differently, finding innovative ways to mine that passion for money, and working like crazy to make it happen.” Very few people can make a great deal of money running a business or even working in a profession that they love. Jonathan discusses what he went through to dropping the law profession and moving forward into the Yoga business.
Chapter 2: “What’s Your Secret Passion?”
Chapter two attempts to reveal the things in life that truly defines you as a person by answering a question such as, what would you do for free? This is the chapter where he gets you to make a list by the answers given and picking the categories that really tickle your fancy. He also discusses the effect the power of flow (“the zone”) and people have on daily operational habits.
Part 2: “What Kind of Renegade Will You Be?”
Chapter 3: “Introducing the Career Renegade Paths”
It is extremely short chapter, only about a page and a half. Mr. Fields emphasizes on not procrastinating and delaying what you would like to do with your life. It also gives an outline for the next five chapters.
Chapter 4: “Turn Your Passion Loose in Unexpected Places”
This is the chapter where he begins to use other people’s life stories as a sort of precedence, while still explaining to the reader how he has become successful from his renegade ways. Liv Hanson’s story How to Get People to Eat You Art, tells a tale like most starving artist; she could not find a job after college, moved in with her parents, then proceeded to work at her parents bakery enhancing her “hyper creative abilities” on baked goods. He also tells another story about a woman named Ann Rea which was similar in nature in the way that they were both art majors. Both have a common ground in the way they took their non-money producing career paths and flipped them upside down by selecting a market in which there was demand and differentiation. He then goes on giving the reader a few websites that will help an up and coming entrepreneur define what the public wants (popurls.com), and other nifty websites to help you find a niche.
Chapter 5: “Got Information? Sell It!”
This chapter focuses on the exploiting information gaps that exist in such any given field at any given moment. From my perspective he has three mediums to help turn the information everyone else lacks into cash. The first, e-books and other downloadable products, which need to deliver highly valued content and be easy to read. The second, audio and video content, this to meary get your voice heard on the market with such advances in this technology (e.g. YouTube.com), though it proves to be rather difficult to get someone to pay for it. Finally, we have the fastest way to transfer information to public, Web Logging. It’s free, simple to set up, and after five hundred hits per day you can start to work with advertising companies to make money off your thoughts and views of a particular subject.
Chapter 6: “Want to Teach? Expand You Reach”
This chapter focuses on making the most of the educational gaps that exist in American society. He uses a few stories to elaborate on how to accomplish this endeavor. One that caught my attention was how Brian Clark started his own blog, which taught other people to create their own blog and write stories that will catch the public eye; Brian gave it the URL of CopyBlogger.com. With the success of his website spawned Brian’s book Teaching Sells, which simply instructs his readers how to use the “blogosphere” to educate with online resources. After Mr. Fields provides his examples of how other people combined their teaching skills and the internet, he begins to instruct the reader how to begin their online teaching careers. He tells us not to jump into an investment without doing the research needed to insure that it be a sensation. There is a three-step process to get started: create the course objective and material; then pick the format in which to convey the material; finally, produce the material and you have your finished product.
Chapter 7: “Exploit the Need for Stuff”
Very often, that thing we most love to do also requires a certain amount of stuff (p94). Djs need mixers, party promoters need flyers, etc. Regardless of the path chosen, a prototype is the first step to manufacturing or license a product. Jonathan suggests the reader to consult with an intellectual property attorney to insure that the product chosen to put on the market doesn’t belong to anyone else. After all of the facts have been brought into light, a prototype will need to be produced. Jonathan suggests to Google prototyper find one, and get whomever chosen to sign a nondisclosure agreement so that they will not reveal your product to anyone else. Finally, the choice of whether to manufacture or license the information comes into play. Manufacturing allows the entrepreneur to keep all of the control, but brings all of the hardships of being with the company on a daily basis to ensure the company will run smoothly. While licensing allows other to accept the responsibility of running their version of your company, but this may be a burden to the creator of the company in the way that with the lack of control in place it may hurt the company’s reputation as a whole.
Chapter 8: “Exploit the Need for Community”
The focus of this chapter is about finding an online community that you (as a person) can relate too in every way, shape and, form. We often draw as much enjoyment from our involvement in that community as we do from our participation in the core activity, because, by nature, we thrive around like-minded people (p 103). The point that Jonathan is trying to convey is once we have found the community we love the most we can begin to harness that love and make money off of it. We can do this by blogging and online forums. To make income off of that endeavor in the activity that is shared by you and thousands of others active participation is needed and necessary, this can done by attending conventions, conferences, organizational meetings, and much more.
Chapter 9: “Make it Easier for People to Do What You Love”
Making it easier to the public to access information such as music and videos can both make and break an industry. Finding an innovative way to transfer information can create income. Jonathan uses Apple’s iPod as an example, before its introduction to the market there were random websites that provided users with downloadable music with risk of viruses and the hassle of finding the music desired. With the implementation of iPod and iTunes the way the music was conveyed to the public changed the entire industry and a new one was created producing millions of dollars in revenue.
Chapter 10: “Planning and Protecting Your Vision”
Deciding what business format is right for your company is an immense task to undertake. Jonathan considers this chapter to be a fine line from giving legal advice versus business planning assistance (p 114). He suggests to the reader to visit www.incorporate.com to aid in the decision making process that centers around whether to incorporate, become a legal liability company, etc.. This website helps to get started, pick a structure, and make a business plan around the chosen structure. He again in this chapter urges the reader to speak with an intellectual property attorney; topping that, he suggest us to visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s website to research trademarks and copyrights.
Chapter 11: “Is the Word Ready for You?”
Ensuring that there is a market that’s wealthy enough to provide the company with enough cash flows to keep the company from going into bankruptcy is critical to the career planning process; this is where market research comes into play. This chapter gives guidance ranging from entire market research to particular products/services. A method used for long term market research is keyword search analysis; two websites that aid in this process are GoogleTrends and SeoBook.com. Basically, they can give quantified information regarding how many times per day that word has been searched for in a day. ClickBank and Craigslist.com give information regarding specific products or services; ClickBank gives statistical information and Craigslist.com gives a general analysis of local interest.
Part 3: “How to Master Your Passion and Build a Worldwide Following”
Chapter 12: “Are You Ready for the Renegade World?”
Acquiring the mastery that will allow you to turn passion into a reality through renegade opportunities is the focus of this chapter (p 152). Utilizing such resources as Youtube, Blogs, Podcasts, books, DVD’s, online courses, conferences, and organizational meetings will help to gain the knowledge needed to become an expert in your desired field. When analyzing these sources the objective is to learn how to properly participate in any of the stated above examples.
Chapter 13: “Launching You Quest for Authority”
There are many ways to prove expertise within a profession/field, but one of the best is blogging. It’s cheap, relatively low maintenance, and easy to get started. Jonathan states, “Your blog is the corner stone of your campaign to establish widespread authority on any topic.” Create a blog on a topic that you are passionate about, write intelligently, and be respectful toward fellow bloggers the more you comment on their post increases the likely hood that they will acknowledge yours.
Chapter 14: “Getting Social Online”
Jonathan pronounces, “There are two different types of social-media hubs (SMBs), those that emphasize conversation, connecting, and networking (Facebook.com) and those based around content promotion (Digg.com).” When dealing with social-media conversation-driven hubs, the primary rule is to contribute and participate (p 189). While social-media content-promotion hubs should be dealt with in a widespread manner; posting an article on just one of these platforms will not yield a great result and will not be promoted on a mass scale. This is due to ever changing technology and public interest.
Chapter 15: “Building on Blogging and Social Media”
Blogging and social-media hubs form the core of your online authority- and relationship- building campaign, but this chapter focuses on other tools that will help to put you at the forefront in your area of passion (p 196). He suggests promoting via online radio talk shows and, becoming very familiar with YouTube and iTUnes; it’s just another way to put your name out in the market. Then he proceeds into what he call “Old School Meets New School,” which is the fact that technology has changed they way people publicize their work. It is now easier and less expensive than before by being able to give your message straight to the public and weeding out the “gatekeepers” (big time publishers and the companies they are affiliated).
Chapter 16: “Marketing that Won’t Break the Bank”
Jonathan states, “The prime function of marketing is simply to let people know that we’re here, show them how we can solve a problem, and give them a way to buy.” Relying on the word of mouth is by far the quickest way to spread information; I guess that is why the author stresses the blogging and SMBs should be utilized in every way, shape, and form. Getting acquainted with communication and persuasion is important when attempting to pitch a product; books will help a person become an expert at it.
Part 4: “Let the Revolution Begin”
Chapter 17: “Cultivate the Renegade Mindset”
Failure is the key to success. Jonathan elaborates on his failure throughout his quest to reinvent himself, and gives the reader his life lessons learned in this chapter. He would like you not spend all of your time obsessing over failure and would rather you to spend your time focusing on success. From his failures he came up with three concepts: Explore and quantify failure-once; Explore and quantify inaction-once; and Stimulate success daily. This concept evaluates the pros and cons (more so the cons) of the limited irreversible effects of failure and the drawbacks of inaction.
Chapter 18: “How to Be a Renegade without Ending Up Divorced and Penniless”
What Jonathan describes as your “inner circle,” are the people who will be with you and unconditionally love you until the very end. These are the people to be kept closest to you at all times. From experience Jonathan knows that once the renegade path it set explaining the idea to friends and family may prove to be rather difficult without them believing that insanity has struck you like a bolt of lightening. He suggests seek counseling for two reasons: First it will prove to loved ones that you truly care; and Second if you have experienced much stress from a previous unsatisfactory job, it may help your mindset in general. After sanity has been proven, preparing the pitch is called into order. The reason for this is to prove to the inner circle that the idea might actually work.
Chapter 19: “Don’t Do it Alone”
The “upper circle” is the people who have already established themselves with in the industry that sparks passion. They are valuable in the quest to love what you do in the way that they have “been there done that.” This is a teaching skill that you can utilize if they allow. He suggests to begin with close friends then move out to acquaintances. Then start with the professional introduction, “Hello my name is ________ and I would like a career in _______.” As the associate latter is being climbed, the higher ups will have less time to spend on you. Don’t let this discourage you. Jonathan states, “Pursue knowledge and involvement, not fame.”
Chapter 20: “Hold On to You to Your Life Preserver Until You Can Swim”
This chapter elaborates on how people differ in the ways they approach projects/investments. Some take the giant leap of faith without much regret of how the effects affect their life; these are the type of people who if they fail get up and try again. Others have to make a gradual change in their lifestyle; making one small investment after another. If the project they have invested much of their time into is or seems to be leading down the road of success then they will eventually drop the disliked occupation and make the secondary the primary.
Chapter 21: “Be Your Own Guru”
If looking for a top notch mentor to guide you through the business making process is not working out then stop looking and become that business “guru” yourself. Jonathan declares, “No one else can live my fears, dreams, loves, relationships, desires, intellect, challenges, life, and lifestyle. No one else can enjoy or suffer the outcome of my decisions or actions. No one else is better equipped to know but me. No one else can take action but me.” He came up with this thought after a long venture to finding that right person to look up to and receive advice. It seems that conventional wisdom was not the answer to Jonathan’s problems and this should be taken into consideration when attempting to live your life as you desire.
Personal Insights
Why I think:
· With business conditions today, what the author wrote is true – because:
Due to this book being published in 2009, it is up to date with all of the current technology. I have been to a number of the websites (e.g. Google Trends, LinkIn, and SeoBook) and they are (by appearance) exactly how he describes them in the novel. He even goes as far as to advice the reader to sustain an active evaluation with such websites due to the reason that websites come and go; basically, they can be compared to the modeling business “one season you are in and the next you are out.” Unlike the technological aspects of his book, his basic business guidelines are the constants that are conducted in product selection. The fact that product differentiation, demand, and price make or break the service/manufacturing process has been taught to management science majors since their freshman courses. Indeed, this book will most likely be considered out of date by next year, but although Jonathan doesn’t flat out admit it, he hints around to its removal from being a current (up-to-date) resource.
· If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:
1. Unlike Jonathan I would have focused more on the way I created my business rather than using other people’s life stories. It confuses the reader, by reading more like a book based on law rather than career planning.
2. Eliminated the subchapters in order to decrease the complexity of how the book is initially set up. This would ultimately increase the quality of how the book reads making the chapters distinctly flow.
3. If I were to use other people’s life stories as a sort of precedence, I would have focused on a much bigger range of professions. His focus was centered on Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences as well as Science and Technology, which makes it very difficult for a person being an Accounting major to relate to.
· Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:
1. Creating my own business may take a great deal of my time, but the process of creating one that I would love to run on a daily basis is not as complicated as I perceived it to be.
2. My previous thinking, regarding business start up, was it takes a great deal of start up money and paid professionals (e.g. lawyers and accountants) to begin the course of action. Now I realize how the internet can provide me with connections, customers, research, free software, and a seemingly endless list of assets that will help to point me in the right direction and start my business.
3. Before I read Career Renegade the thought of owning my own clothing line was farfetched, erratic, and something I should do in my old age (when I had the time). With the help of Jonathan’s inspiration, I feel as if I could begin my quest directly after I attain my Bachelors of Science in Accounting.
· I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:
1. Creating a professional online authority that is more optimistic rather than pessimistic.
2. Sensor what I say online so as to not insult anyone with my thoughts on the subject matter.
3. Making sure that I post high quality material and well-written information on the blogs and online communities needed by accountants to stay up to date with the ever changing economy. In order, to keep my reputation in an acceptable state and keep myself from being blacklisted from the events.
· Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:
There are many reviews of Career Renegade the ones highlighted in the book were magazines such as Vogue and Self, but to relate to the use of technology (as suggested by Jonathan) I will give some insight as to what the online community has to say about Jonathan’s advice.
Dustin Wax (of LifeHack.org) states, “Jonathan Fields’ Career Renegade is well-written, thoughtful, and ultimately good, solid advice. Parts of it, the parts dealing with launching and running your own business, read like a saner, more profound Tim Ferriss, but there’s enough new stuff here, especially around social networking, to offer even die-hard 4-Hour Work Week devotees something to chew on.”
Lynn Truong (of WiseBread.com) said, “Career Renegade struck a deep chord with me, because well, I am a career renegade, even though I didn’t know the term until this book came along.” She continues by adding, “Wise Bread was founded by career renegades, all three of us have a story about discovering a passion and leaving conventional wisdom behind in the dust. It’s never going to be easy, no matter which road you take.”
As you can see the online community highly respects Jonathan for his work as an author. Through trial, error, and life experiences he has accomplished what only a hand full of people have only tried.
Bibliography
Fields, J. (2009). Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love. (Vol. 1, Ed.). New York, New York: Broadway Books.
Truong, L.. (2009, Jan. 15 ). In Book Review: Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields. Retrieved May. 1, 2009, from http://www.wisebread.com/book-review-career-renegade-by-jonathan-fields.
Wax, D.. (2009, Jan. 16 ). In Build Your Renegade Career! A Review of Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields. (chap. Money) Retrieved May. 1, 2009, from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/build-your-renegade-career-a-review-of-career-renegade-by-jonathan-fields.html.
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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of Career Renegade,” please email angela.westmoreland@selu.edu.
David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/.
Originally published:
Summary and Review of Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields
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