Success Without A Real Job – ADJ Book Review

First Published: ADawnJournal.com August 19, 2009

What Is This Book About?

Ernie sent me this book a while ago, and I have been reading it during lunch two times a week for the last two months. I have only so many hours a day and working a corporate job and being an Internet entrepreneur at the same time makes it hard to have time for anything else. Career Success Without A Real Job talks about exactly what I am trying to achieve – to live a free life doing something I love and something I’m passionate about.

Difficulties I Have Reading Zelinski’s Book

Whenever I read Zelinski’s books, I get the feeling that he believes exactly what I believe in and we share the same perspectives on virtually anything you can possibly imagine – such as living with fewer possessions and living on your own terms. It is very hard to read and even review a book if it feels like you are the one who wrote or should have written this book – how can possibly you review your own book? I talked about this more in another post.

Real Job and Unreal Job

Ernie talks about real jobs in this book. A real job is working in a corporation or for someone else with no freedom and flexibility. An unreal job is something you truly enjoy with a lot of flexibility and freedom. Also, the author talks about unconventional business. An unconventional business is a business that does not require any employees, with minimal to no presence on your part, and very low start-up cost. I can’t think of a better example than my Internet entrepreneurship.

An Inspirational Book

Career Success Without A Real Job is mainly an inspirational book – it does not lead you to a specific roadmap for choosing your unreal job. However, it gives you enough information and resources to help you explore your best possible unreal job. The author provides many questionnaires throughout the book to help you recognize your career strengths, steps to create a dream career, questions to help you find your life’s calling, questions to test if you can be self-employed, characteristics to recognize an ideal business and much more. Also, in this book, the author provides lists mentioning 100 of the world’s coolest unreal jobs, top excuses to stay in the corporate world, advantages and disadvantages of being self-employed, lists showing why the corporate world isn’t all that as it seems, ways to sell information, and many more useful lists.

The Work Model for People Too Prosperous to Do Mornings

The above is the title of Chapter 7 that is dedicated to Internet entrepreneurship. It is no wonder that I read the above chapter before reading anything else. The author was able to give a good summary of what kind of things you can do online and what to expect. One misconception we have is that you can be rich doing Internet business overnight – and the author points out these and other misconceptions we have about Internet entrepreneurship. Chapter 7 is a very resourceful chapter and I suggest you read this chapter with the utmost attention. Here are some lists the author mentions in this chapter:

– Examples of Profitable Internet Business
– Top-Ten Ways to Make Money on the Internet
– Ten Questions to Help You Find Your Internet Niches
– Seven Main Ways to Get Traffic to Your Website

Some Important Highlights from Career Success Without A Real Job

Here are some highlights I must mention before I finish writing this review:

– Success as an entrepreneur takes time. Don’t expect to things to happen overnight.
– Achieving Career Success Without A Real Job is like climbing a mountain. There will
be risks, disappointments, and adventure.
– Ordinary individuals were able to achieve extraordinary success – and so can you.
– It’s never too late to pursue your dream career.
– The strongest single virtue for attaining success is self esteem – believing in yourself. – Believe in you, your dreams, your talent, and that it is possible for you to reach your
dreams. You will succeed.
– Don’t be afraid to spend money on your self-development and the stuff you need
along the way to reach your goals.
– Creativity is your best asset. Explore it, culture it, use it, and grow rich.
– Try to live with fewer possessions. Material possessions are an obstacle to set your
soul free and live a happy, unreal life.

My Take

This is a must-read book for everyone – even if you love your current corporate job and have no plans to quit for an unreal job. Who knows, maybe you will look at life from a different perspective after reading Career Success Without A Real Job.

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