Ditch the 9 to 5 and do something truly meaningful with your life.

Before you storm off and claim I am lying or that I am simply trying to sell a fool's dream I want you to just take a second to hear what I have to say.

When I first quit my job and started on a crusade to help others do the same most of those who knew me called me an idiot (if they were feeling kind). Nearly six months later though and more than a few of them have started to ask why I always seem so happy when they see me.

As of today I have to admit I only make about as much as I did before I quit, and that isn't exactly a fortune, but every week my income rises. This isn't about the money though. Hell in my first month or so I made next to nothing but I was still happier than I had been in a long time.

You see for me the money is just a way of ensuring that I get to keep doing what I love and what I love is helping to show people a real alternative to the drudgery and modern day slavery that is working for a wage.

90% of us think that that is just the way it is and that there really is no alternative. We are brought up to think that the only path to a good life is to go to school, do well enough to go to university and then to find a job. Even after we have a job we know we have to work harder and better than those around us to slowly climb the ladder.

By the time we are somewhere we feel comfortable most of us have, without even noticing, grown old and tired. Society though no longer needs to be like that. Sure we still need people to get that factory job, to be our lawyer and to serve us coffee but what we also need is more people with vision and with dreams. People willing to take a chance and to build a business all of their own.

While everyone else fights to hold onto their job in an ever more competitive market digital entrepreneurs are crying out for people to come and join them. So why is it that such a wonderful opportunity is being so badly ignored that many of us find ourselves begging our friends and relatives to ditch the desk and get online?

For me the reason I hear time and time again is disbelief and mistrust. So many people when I explain what I do look at me like I am one step from being a criminal. Like I am doing something morally wrong. It is a hard stereotype to get past. Don't get me wrong I am all too aware aware that there are a million and one scams on the net but if I am going to be honest the net is really no worse than what goes on on most high streets.

All I can really say though is do your homework. Don't give money to a Nigerian prince and make sure you get a money back guarantee. Always look for reputable sites and if in doubt Google or Youtube the company or person in question. Remember too that if your gut says t feels wrong you may just be right.

All that being said I stick to what I said in the beginning I am proud that I deliver people an education not a job. That I help them get the freedom of a self-controlled life and that I never have to put my morals to one side just to earn a living.

If you want to join the crusade and you want to be free from the 9 to 5 come and see what we can offer, after all what harm can looking do?

Wandering Misfit: Part 7 ... enter the other misfits

     I am still, to this day, not really sure what I was expecting when it came time to meet my fellow wanderers and misfits. I think somewhere I had the impression of them as people who just wanted to do something different. That maybe they would be tied together by the bond of choosing uncertainty and adventure over calm certainty.

     In some ways I was disappointed but in others I was pleasantly surprised. Nowhere to be seen, at least in that initial meeting, was the drive to see the world differently I had in some naive way hoped for. Instead what I found was a general joyous abandon. Also at this first dinner I saw some of the gluing together of people who under other circumstances would not have given each other the time of day.

     An odd bunch indeed. It is strange to recount that this was less than 5 years ago, but even so recently China was a different place, especially in a backwater like Dongying. This was before Chairman Xi came and started his war on corruption, before the real drive began to make it more difficult for foreigners to enter the country. I say that it has become more difficult because it has but perhaps suggesting that it has been made that way is wrong. Instead I should say that all of the little loopholes have been closed and all the blind eyes turned now stare unblinking.

     Going back to that I myself had at this time not come into the country on a work visa but instead a tourist one. Admittedly I never worked illegally on that visa but to be honest you aren't supposed to, and can't now, have these visas changed over in country. There was a brief stage where people would duck off to Hong Kong or even Thailand to get it changed but even that now has gone by the wayside as in a later tale I am sure I will complain bitterly about.

     I digress however. This veritable mix of humanity sitting before me were to be my new colleagues, friends and only "real" contact with the world for the foreseeable future.

      Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.

Wandering Misfit: Part 6 ...Chasing Smoke

   As I am sure most of you know sitting in a hotel in a foreign country with no-one to talk to and nowhere really to go is pretty high on the list of most lonely experiences on earth. Sitting there though I had time to reflect on the enormity of the leap I had made. Unable to sleep despite being exhausted I took a quick shower and decided to go and see what I could find in my new home.

   Slightly worried about getting lost in a new city where I knew no-one I decided to stay close by the hotel. Just across the alley was a supermarket, always a great place to get a feel for local culture. In I headed determined to find something to eat and hopefully a packet of cigarettes to boost my dwindling supply.

   It didn't take me long to realise that even the simple task of buying a packet of smokes was going to be a bit of a chore. In China you see supermarkets don't sell cigarettes the way I was used to. Instead of simply going to the counter, deciding what I wanted and paying I had to go through something of a wild goose chase. When you buy certain items in a Chinese supermarket you go to the counter and decide what you want as usual but from there it gets odd. Instead of paying and getting your stuff you are given a receipt and sent off to another desk to pay. Coming back with the receipt you have to hand that in at the first desk before you get what you paid for.

   This doesn't seem all that difficult but when your understanding of the local language doesn't even reach to numbers it presents something of a challenge. Lots of hand gestures, scowls and a personal escort later I emerged feeling slightly dazed. At this point unbeknownst to me I was observed by my new boss, a woman who I was yet to meet. Seeing me wandering around slightly lost she quickly phoned Tony and sent him out to see if I needed any help.

   In response to this summons Tony, who always seemed short on time decided the best option was to deliver me into the hands of some of the resident foreigners and let them deal with me. So grabbing a cab we headed out to yet another restaurant to meet the rest of the guys.

  Rory McDonald is an online marketer and digital entrepreneur, co-founder of the Online Business Expert and passionate blogger.  

Give a man a marshmallow....

Recently a colleague of mine asked a very interesting question:

If you were offered a 30 day money back test drive of your dream car for just $30 would you take it? 

Of course I would was the obvious answer. Telling me, unsurprisingly, that everyone she had asked had leapt at the opportunity she then asked me if I would feel the same way about an educational program.

Unsure what she meant I asked her to explain. When discussing food, fast cars or fashion almost everyone she asked had wanted to try it out but when she posed the same question about education people started to hesitate.

Why is it she asked that when given an opportunity to improve yourself and your life, do people seem to be far less excited? Consider for a moment an opportunity to change the way you think about the world and even better an opportunity to step away from your 9-5 and start running your own life on your own schedule.

If you were given the opportunity to test for 30 days, with the money back guarantee still in place, a system that has the ability to free you from your desk why would any sane person hesitate? It seems the answer lies in the fact that all too many of us want instant gratification.

We all know about retail therapy having that shiny new car in your drive or pretty new dress in your closet makes you feel good. That rush though is short lived. The chance to work your way into a position where you can feel that glow for the rest of your life just doesn't have the same immediacy.

If however you can avoid the desperate need for that passing pleasure in the now, you can set yourself up to have as much of it as you want in the future. Remembering a famous Psych test done on adults and kids alike, involving marshmallows, I had to agree with her.

People were left in a room with a plate of marshmallows and were told that the researcher would be right back and they'd bring more marshmallows the subjects were asked not to touch the plate. Somewhat amazingly many of the subjects just couldn't help themselves they had to get their sugar fix right now even if it meant less pleasure in the long run.

That is why we are looking for the ones with self control, the people who can see past the little pile of marshmallows to the life supply of sugary treats on the other side. So I want to ask you again. Would you be prepared to spend $30 on a 30 day money back opportunity to change your life?