Cubicle-dissenters and freedom-seekers, I present you with this manifesto on the liberation revolution.

This movement happening all around us is, quite literally, the story of mental bondage to freedom. People everywhere are finding liberation through ditching the work-template and living on their own terms.

If this movement interests you, we’d like you to be a part of it.

You kick so much ass, it would be a shame to see that squandered by asphyxiation, due to fluorescent lighting and pointless committee meetings.

What you’ll find in this manifesto is 5,000 free words on the characteristics of this uprising. You’ll hear the reasons of others and why they’re committed to the freedom of working for themselves and reclaiming their time.

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DOWNLOAD THE MANIFESTO HERE.

The reason for this:

People have long been ditching the employee model of life, but rarely has there been a collective banding together of individuals to support each other in this movement. This manifesto is an attempt to create a coherent, articulate representation of the reason we are unsatisfied with the work-template and seeking a new paradigm.

What’s under the hood:

• Why we’re tired of choking back vomit because we’re going another day doing a job we hate, with people we don’t connect with, working for someone we don’t respect.
• How we’re transforming our relationship with work, through breaking down social conventions and overly politicized nonsense.
• Why we think entrepreneurship is one of the highest forms of self-actualization.
• How we’re in this together.
• How to cultivate the “Free-man” (or free-woman) mindset and seven things you can do right now.
• The importance of getting to Game Over.

Are you totally down with this revolution? Is this something you’ve been waiting for?

Here’s how you can help:

1. Spread the word. Send this manifesto to your friends, family, or co-worker that’s about to commit suicide (she needs to read this). Tweet about it, stumble this page, print it out and post it on the telephone polls on your block.
2. Declare your freedom. No better way can you help strengthen this revolution than by declaring your own sovereignty. By reclaiming your own freedom, you give others the courage to do the same.

Lastly, thank you. You kick ass.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Mead
Director of Ass Kicking
Project Mojave Faculty Member

Click here to download the slides.

[A Note from Clay: This post is the first of a series of liberation stories.  The story you are about to read comes from Jane Chin, who is one of the most amazing people I've met in the last year -- and I've met a lot of cool people in the last year.  Her story is long, but worth every minute.]

The Goods On Jane

Jane Chin was born in Taiwan, spent her childhood in Saudi Arabia, and came of age in the United States. Jane trained as a scientist, earning a doctorate in biochemistry and began a series of healthcare careers from cancer research to pharmaceutical sales to field-based medical affairs.  Now as entrepreneur, Jane can fully engage in Intelligent Career Design and chart her own future. The Census Bureau may put Jane in Generation X, but Jane sees herself as a member of the "Bridge Generation", where her multi-continental, multi-cultural, and multi-career adventures has helped her form bridges between different worlds.  In 2008, Jane embarked on an experiment to spend 366 days doing what she loves, to see what success, if any, may follow. What emerged is Jane’s personal journey to reconnect with The Heart Mind and Inner World Peace. She chronicles her lessons learned in the website, WhatILoveToDo.com.  Her other websites include Microbusiness Mentor and Intelligent Career Design.

Jane’s Story

I never saw myself as an entrepreneur. At one point in my career, I said that I could never imagine NOT working for someone else.

I liked the steady paychecks, especially from a six-figure job with annual bonuses. I liked the paid vacation days and ability to call in sick when I got sick. I was field-based and operated out of a home office, which meant I had tremendous autonomy over my schedule. I had a cool sounding job title (Medical Science Liaison or MSL). Travel was part of my job and I would pay my my husband’s plane ticket so he could travel with me to places like Hawaii and New York. He could explore places like Hawaii during the day when I was in medical meetings and we’d have some personal time in the evenings. If the meetings ended on a Friday, we’d stay over the weekend and return to Los Angeles Sunday evening. In many ways, I already had the "dream job", and in fact, CNN Money ranked the medical science liaison career #1 in healthcare in 2007.

I Quit My Six Figure Job With No Business Idea or Backup Plan

I can imagine people thinking I was nuts when I quit this six-figure job in January of 2004. I had no "back-up plan". I didn’t even have a "business idea".

So I have this new project that’s really just “The Growing Life 2.0.”  It’s called Finance Your Freedom, and I’ve talked about it at length here.  I just finished hiring an assistant to help with the site (god, that sounds so “hardcore” even thought it isn’t), and I’ve partnered with a fancy top secret crazy person to help make the site not suck.

(So if you’re interested in my new non-sucking project, go nab an RSS subscription to it before they’re all gone). Or subscribe to the Finance Your Freedom newsletter here:

Anyway, I’ve received over a hundred emails of encouragement (thank you!), but a few people have been suspicious.  I appreciate those emails too.  Here’s my response.

But don’t get too worked up about FYF.  I’m not worked up.  I’m just this guy whose stumbled upon a bunch of ideas and tactics and stuff that’s helped me and some friends to quit our day jobs.  (This stuff might work for you too).

(By the way, as a result of my freedom I’ve been able to move to California for a bit to spend time with my grandfather who’s experiencing the early stages of Alzheimer’s.  Which has been really nice.  I love lifestyle design).

One last thing: sometime really soon (within the next 5 days) your Growing Life subscription will convert to a Finance Your Freedom subscription.

(What comes next for The Growing Life’s domain name isn’t certain right now . . . maybe I’ll delete all my articles and replace them with gross looking ads for casinos and Viagra and then hire a bunch of people to click on them; just kidding).

For articles that suck less than the leading competitor, subscribe to Finance Your Freedom.

 
photo by new wave rh
[Note: The Growing Life will become Finance Your Freedom.  Please go there for the full version of the article, or to leave a comment (I'd love to hear your thoughts on this piece)].

I should start out by telling you that . . .

I’m Trying to Practice My Ranting Skillz

I suck at ranting. I enjoy reading rants, but I’ve never been very good at writing them. But apparently the rant genre is a sub-genre of the blog genre, and I need to master this shit if I ever want to displace Dooce on technorati.

Cool… I’ll Start With My Rant Right Now

Almost any resource can be a currency governed my economic forces—and the laws of supply and demand. (I probably read that in a fancy book somewhere. Please punch me in the face if I ever write another high falutin’ sentence like that again).

Anyway, money is a currency or whatever. Yeah, we know that.

But so is ego: it is traded, bartered for, bought, sold, etc. I see people participating in the ego economy all the time: new business owners waste thousands of dollars on putting big pictures of themselves on billboards. Social media people and others in the web 2.0 space sacrifice entire days of vacation and family time so they can be mini-internet famous for 1,000 people and make an extra $100/month. And people get into debt buying shit they don’t need trying to impress others or get laid.

So before the internet, money was (often) the primary means by which people participated in the ego economy; the money economy fed into the ego economy. Maybe it’s still this way.

But social media, the internet, and web 2.0 have given people a whole new venue for being vein and wasting their resources in exchange for ego gratification. Now you can broadcast a vlog to 500 people, become a power user on StumbleUpon, or Reddit, or Digg, and start a blog and try to get 1000s of subscribers. You can start and lead your own forum or newsgroup. You can be the leader of your own fiefdom of 400.

[Click here to read the rest of this article]

This isn’t a real blog post, but if I were you I’d want me to tell you about the following two things:

Thing #1: Noami and Havi’s Self Promotion for Wimps

I’m kicking myself for not telling you about this sooner.

So my awesome-as-hell friend Naomi and her partner in crime Havi are offering this six-week class called “Self-Promotion For Wimps.”

Note: THIS IS NOT A NONSESE INTERNET-MAKETING BULLSHIT HYPE CLASS. This is a thoughtful program designed to help you start making changes in your life.

Anyway, if you’ve though a lot about starting a business but can’t find the guts to do it then I think you should check it out pronto. Especially given that especially given that the first session was YESTERDAY (Wednesday, September 10^th).

But don’t worry at all. They’re recording all the sessions (so you can still get in on the first) and I just checked with Naomi and you can still get in on all of the last 5 sessions and miss nothing (because the first class was recorded).

Anyway, Naomi sent me this coupon code and apparently you’ll get like $30 off if you type CLAY into a box during the order process. I’m feeling all flattered and stuff because this is the first time someone’s named a coupon code after me.

Thing #2: The Best SEO Course on the Planet is Now Free

There’s this company called StomperNET that makes what is – in my opinion – the most thorough, effective, well-researched, and amazing SEO course available on the internet today. And I’ve tried a few.

Anyway, they’re giving away the latest version of their $500 DVD SEO course for free. Because they’re crazy like that (actually, they have good reasons that won’t harm you).

Anyway, if you’ve ever thought about doing anything on the internet that might, perhaps, maybe promote your business or make you money someday, then I’d check out this course. Because search engine optimization (SEO) is the absolute foundation of internet marketing.

(By the way, Andy and Brad at StomperNET are offering a lot more than the course for free, but if I gave you the whole scoop it would sound so ridiculous that I’d sound completely full of shit and lose credibility).