Curiosity
Never return the way you arrived. It’s something I started when I lived in London. I love walking, especially when I’m in a new city, so when I worked in Soho I spent many nights walking around, never heading back from a place the same way I got there. I’m convinced I saw and experienced more because of this. I got to know all the little alleys and short cuts that every city has, if you only look.
I’m curious by nature – I reckon we all are – but for some reason adult life gets in the way. We stop looking around like we used to. We stop listening for new music (they don’t make music like they used to), we stop trying new things (when I was younger we did this), and we reckon we don’t understand this new social media stuff (the kids these days are always just taking pictures of themselves).
You’ll see that all of these things are simply not true, if you start to get curious about them. There’s loads of great new music out there and great new ways of doing things. Yes, the “kids” are just taking pictures, but those pictures are of all sorts of amazing things and they are being shared on the new cave wall.
It is true that things are speeding up. What was true yesterday will probably be a different truth tomorrow. The good news for Generalists is that by remaining curious, we can spot what the gatekeepers haven’t seen yet. This is an opportunity. In fact it’s not just an opportunity, it’s now an imperative. The old ways of doing things aren’t going to cut it anymore – the way you get an education, the way you earn your living, even the number of ways you earn your living.
Brian Grazer wrote a book, you should read it, it’s called, “A Curious Mind” . You’ll recognise a bunch of Brian’s work – he’s a big time movie and television producer. He puts his success down to curiosity and to a practice he calls “The Curiosity Conversation”. He even lays out how you can develop this skill in his book.
Brian has used these conversations to meet some of the most interesting and influential people in the world – rock-stars, politicians, artists and entrepreneurs. It’s these conversations that actually got him started in his business. It’s a really interesting exercise, and one I’ve tried to follow myself. As an introvert at heart, I have personally found his method quite difficult. It’s one thing to walk home using a different path, but having a conversation with someone I barely know is a totally different type of challenge. Still, I’m going to keep working at it, trying to get better, trying to get smarter. Why don’t you read “A Curious Mind” and try with me?
One of the things I’ve been curious about for sometime is affiliate links. This is a way you can make a commission on an online sale. You’ll notice there’s a link on here to the book “A Curious Mind”. When you click on this, it will take you through to the Amazon store. If you then buy the book, I’ll get a small commission on the sale. It’s really easy to set yourself up as an affiliate with Amazon, they explain it all on their page. There are loads of other affiliate programmes out there too, so get curious and search them out.
Remember me mentioning one of the ways the world is changing is the way you’ll earn your money? There are people out there making a good income from affiliate marketing. It’s not just from books either. Almost anything you can think of has an affiliate programme. Imagine you have a blog about, I don’t know, let’s say running for mums or, as Americans say, moms. Chances are in your blog you will recommend products and services to your (hopefully large) email subscriber list – running books, training programmes, shoe specials, the list goes on. If these links are all set up in affiliate programmes, you’ll eventually start making a couple of dollars.
Now this probably isn’t going to make you “The Running Mom Millionaire”, but hopefully you can see how it could become a nice little side business. This is the kind of string us Generalists can add to our bow as we head in to what James Altucher calls the “Choose Yourself Economy”. Note another link. Altucher’s book speaks to the very heart of what we’re going to be talking about on this site. You should read it.
I hope I’ve peeked your curiosity a little. I’d love to hear what you’re thinking, so leave a comment. Also if you like this or find it of use, please help a fellow Generalist and share the hell out of it.
Cheers @generalistalan
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