I quit

9Jul2009 Filed under: 4 Hour Work Day, Have a better day, How to be a happy scanner, How to be happy, Make more money, Play all day, What shall I do with my life? Author: John

It’s funny that my first reaction this morning after last night’s talk by San Sharma at Scanners Night on Social Media is to quit 2 social networking sites.

What I’ve realised is that if I want to play all day and get paid, it’s essential I surround myself with people of similar values - people who are creative, playful, entrepreneurial and are forging their own maverick lifestyle.

San last night said in his quick review of social networking sites, “LinkedIn is like facebook for er…” and I chipped in “boring people”.

LinkedIn is a very standard business networking site. It’s full of straight up business people, consultants and so on. Nothing wrong with that (I was one until a few years ago), it’s just not the people I really enjoy hanging out with.

Ecademy is similar but more annoying. I’ve had enough of pointless connection requests from random people around the world I have no interest in talking to. So I’ve quit my membership of that too.

You might think it harmless to just remain a member in case something useful might come your way but even this very light commitment still uses some attention at the back of my mind - and attention is the most precious resource I have. Now, I no longer need to pretend to myself that one day I’m going to go to another of ecademy’s networking events.

My profiles are still up on both sites but I’ve cancelled paid membership and switched off all pointless notifications. Maybe one day I’ll delete my profile but for now it increases the chance of people finding me when I have such a common name. (Actually I’ve just discovered my name has made it onto the front page of google so maybe I don’t need the profiles!)

Success is as much about what you quit as what you commit to. The brave decisions in life are not between the bad and the good but between the good enough and the excellent. So I’m focussing on the networks and events that are an excellent fit for me and put me in closer contact with the people I love to hang out with - places like Scanners Night and Twitter.

What will you quit?

Share and Enjoy:

NEXT POST: The rush to the edges
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “I quit”

Philip
July 9th, 2009 at 12:09 pm

True.

I can’t believe knowem.com - its good to protect your ‘online identity’ and all that, but to join 120 networking sites: it just seems like madness!
Marmalade Moon | Kate England
July 9th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Congratulations, John!

Lately I keep hearing from friends and acquaintances about how relieved they are to quit their forums, Twitter, Facebook or gaming accounts. Finding that what once was a fun social network has turned into a depressing environment or an obligation that drains time and energy.

I’ve been experimenting with Twitter and my Facebook page, trying to create a positive experience without adding to information overload. It’s not easy!

On Twitter I started out following colleagues and others in my niche, today I am finding myself enjoying creative and inspiring people in any field. I also try to avoid “broadcasters”, both because I don’t want my Twitter stream to turn into an RSS feed, and because it’s stressful for me to see loads of links to “501 Ways to Eliminate Distractions” or “101 Ideas to Get More Freelance Work and Generate New Client Leads” at a time when I am simply looking for a short break. Making these adjustments seems to be working for me, at least for now.
Janine
July 10th, 2009 at 9:07 am

Love it John! Edit, edit, edit and be authentic. Simple! Now all I have to do is practise what I preach!
Matt Payne (aka Caveman Camper)
July 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

I’m quitting something more radical than a social networking site, I’m quitting my job as a school teacher to embrace the more creative and exciting entrepreneurial world. Only 2 more weeks of school to go before I launch off the saftey of the diving board and make a big splash into the world of playing and getting paid for it. (Thanks John for your initial inspiration for me in this with the coaching sessions a few months ago!) Matt
John
July 10th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

Well done Matt! Let me know how you get on. Perhaps you should write a blog on your transition…
Joan Jontilano
July 11th, 2009 at 7:38 am

I read your post via retweet by @joblessmuse. ‘boring people’. That’s funny. Maybe that’s why I cringe when the linkedin e-mail hits my inbox. Even my profile on there is boring, because I felt like I had to conform to what everyone else was used to seeing on there. Twitter is much more fun. Good post.
John
July 11th, 2009 at 9:51 am

Yes good point Joan - my profile is really boring on LinkedIn. As I’m leaving it there as a kind of static signpost, I updated my description and couldn’t find an option for what I do that was even remotely near to the truth. “Writing and editing” was about the best. There’s no drop-down for “Creative Maverick”!
Pete Linforth
July 26th, 2009 at 5:54 pm

Only just got onto LinkedIn - seems OK’ish but what you find is all it does is link you up with everyone at work you already know and a few people from the past… so I’ll stay onboard and see where it goes…

Oh and of course you do get loads of job offers, recently I got offered a real plumb job earning in the region of £10,000 per day… bulls**t did I…. perhaps no one wants someone that spends all their spare time playing guitar, doing art and share dealing…. who cares… I dont….

I had a facebook account for a while but got fed up with all those stupid application things, stupid quizzes - what type of chocolate bar are you? WTF - I’m no kind of chocolate bar that’s just stupid… So I canned my account there and have not looked back since.

that eaccademy thing is just a site for no hopers who believe they can earn a fortune selling the same ideas to each other in some new format that isnt new at all. A load of NLP’ers who think they have the secret magic formula to success… when you realise if that were the case they wouldnt need to crave the attention from joining such daft networks… something like that anyway…

share the love….

Pete

about this blog

Screw work, let's play! Join my mission to play all day and get paid - to do whatever creative, fun stuff we feel like doing and make a good living out of it.

Is it possible that this will lead to far greater success, wealth, and happiness than following your current career plan? Join me, John Williams, on the one year Creative Maverick experiment and find out.