I've known Robert Evans for over a decade. He's been a professional wrestler since he was 17, which is pretty remarkable to begin with. I still remember going to his first show. Hours of footage from his career can be found on Youtube.

I'll get to the importance of his career choice in a bit, but first, let's look at the big picture:

Seth Godin's new book, Linchpin, talks about the importance of being indispensable in your work life. Everyone should be asking themselves what they provide that no one else can. I was not indispensable in my last job and was fired as a result. It was a powerful wake up call to say the least, but I'd be crazy to try and argue my termination as unjustified. 

With outsourcing just a phone call away, and a hungry developing world full of people who can put together spreadsheets, send emails and handle customer calls for a fraction of your salary, coupled with our less-than-stellar economic climate right now, your job is most certainly NOT safe. So become indispensable....

When I started my business, I had no idea what search engine optimization was, much less a desire to learn it. Less than a year later, I offer SEO consulting to businesses across the country. Elance.com has me in the top 5% of all SEO experts on their site (70k + SEO providers offering the same services, seriously). I learned this skill from doing something different. It's just one more way to market myself.


Robert Evans is indispensable. By being unreasonable and doing something he loves (wrestling), doing it well, and sticking with it long enough, he has a unique skill set you can't learn in school, including, but not limited to:

-More public speaking experience than anyone I know, certainly anyone my age. And he's damn good at it. And I'm not talking about reading through PowerPoint slides to a half-awake audience in a Ramada conference room, I'm talking about evoking raw emotion from rabid crowds of hundreds of people hanging on his every word. He's been doing it for years. He is an expert at public speaking. That's useful.

-Acting/public performance. Much like public speaking, he's been involved in countless video and live productions related to his craft.

-Teaching. Robert could open a wrestling academy and teach everything he knows about the wrestling business. While this is a niche service, there are plenty of people looking to break into the business at any given time who will pay good money on an ongoing basis for advice.

These skills are all a bi-product of being unreasonable. You don't get any of them by following the rules and listening to other people and sitting in meetings and asking permission to do anything not in the job description. I've seen first-hand plenty of people not understanding what he does:

"So, you like, wanna be Hulk Hogan or something?"

What's funny is that these questions usually come from people who are miserable in their jobs and doing nothing to escape. They are being reasonable. And somehow the guy doing what he loves for no one but himself is doing something weird. That same guy also has hundreds of people chanting his name on Saturdays. I've heard it. It's loud.

You don't get that rush at an office. Ever. 

Point being: If you hate your job, you really do have options. Start something on the side, no matter how small and inane it might seem at first. Seriously, if you REALLY like drinking exotic new beers from around the world, set up a free blog and review a new one every other day. But that means actually doing it. 


No more watching obscure NCAA bowl games and March Madness and other throw-away, garbage, forget-the-workweek activities with the hubby and your equally miserable friends hiding their disappointment in career choice behind a new coffee table from fucking Crate and Barrel. No more bitching about not have enough time. You have time. And no, you really don't need to watch the Chuck season premiere, that show sucks anyway.


The best part: You'll learn a ton of new skills without even trying. You might start producing video reviews of new, exotic beers for your blog and after some trial and error, you are suddenly a video production expert. There's a market for that. I certainly don't know how to do that. And even better, it's a skill you can do from anywhere that has internet access. Like poolside with your family on your own time. Incredible.

Be unreasonable. Do something no one understands, stick with it, and you will have more to offer than you could possibly hope to by following the rules and waiting for something good to happen. It won't. Can you argue with that? 

Oh, and if your parents have a problem with this unconventional way of thinking, kindly explain to them that it's not 1980 and being a cute young professional with a college degree from a state school in something vague like 'Management" means much less than it used to and you value your own sanity enough to go about making sure you control your own life.
 
 
Below is the only documented example of a sale occurring directly because of Twitter in the history of the internet.  

Susie was kind enough to write a blog about my product:

http://susiedrinksdallas.com/post/269731576/the-hangover-cure

A few days later, the following Twitter conversation occurred:
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To break it down frame by frame for non Tweeters:


1.  Susie (@drinkdallas) laments about not having any THC with her in Vegas.  Just a random, unpaid shout out from a real person.  Great. We love real testimonials.

2.  Kylepeco, who follows Susie on Twitter, sees her tweet and inquires further about our product.

3.  We shoot Kyle the above link to Susie's flattering blog about THC's effectiveness.

4.  SALE HAPPENS.  And yes, we hand delivered his order the very next day.

Point being: None of this would have happened without a product worth blogging about to begin with.  No matter how many Twitter followers you have. It's not that easy.