Seth Godin, in his book Unleashing the Ideavirus, says:

“Well, the future—the really big money—is in owning a farm. A small one, maybe 100 acres. I intend to invest in a tractor of course, and expect that in just a few years my husband and I can cash out and buy ourselves a nice little brownstone in the city.”

Ludicrous, no? While owning a farm may bring tremendous lifestyle benefits, it hasn’t been a ticket to wealth for, say, 200 years.

Look at that last statement. It says that a particular strategy, which might have been a good way to get rich once upon a time, has not been productive for almost two centuries. Everybody now talks about the changes that are occurring in the world, and how fast and unprecedented it is. If that is true, why do we have to follow the same formula a few of the older generations have followed to get wealthy and to lead a quality lifestyle? Books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko all say that the staple advice of getting a good technical education and putting your shoulder to the industrial wheel to process things, although useful for a long time, is now becoming stale and does not guarantee a fulfilling life.

Books like Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind, The 4-hour Work-Week, Escape from Cubicle Nation and articles like The Case for Working with Your Hands and What makes Us Happy? all proclaim that there other options to do things now, in ways that are intellectually satisfying and meaningful.

“A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world. Academic credentials do not guarantee this.” – Matthew B. Crawford