Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. – Mark Twain

Sing it, Mark.

It used to bug me when people called me weird. They called me that when I went to live 4,000 miles away from home, just to be closer to my favorite basketball team. They called me that when I went vegetarian, and then vegan. Nowadays I get called weird for wearing strange shoes, for asking uncomfortable questions, and for owning only what I can carry.

I used to get defensive and argue with the critics.

No no no, I’m not weird at all! Let me explain… but I don’t mind being called weird anymore. I’ve actually come to love it.

See, I’ve come to realize just how much normal sucks. I’d much rather be weird, because normal people don’t live exceptional lives; they’re not the ones living up to their potential and making an impact. They’re too busy trying not to be weird, too busy being afraid to stand out, to truly make a difference in the world.

The good kind of weird

Not all weird is good. Look up some synonyms for the word and you’ll find awful, creepy and grotesque right alongside awe-inspiring, supernatural and uncanny.

I try not to be weird just for the sake of it. That’s the bad kind of weird. Good weird serves a purpose.

Different is better when it is more effective or more fun. – Tim Ferriss

If you can do something unorthodox to improve your life (without compromising your values), then go for it. Don’t let normal people talk you down.

Normal is scary

Normal people dislike weirdness because it’s unfamiliar, and that makes it scary. But I consider normality to be the real terror.

In my manifesto I tell the story of a fictional chap named Seamus, a representative of normality. He resents getting out of bed every morning, eats crappy food, struggles through his 9-to-5 and spends every evening in front of the TV. In the United States, normal is earning less than $40,000 a year, enduring a soul-crushing job, being overweight, growing up in a broken home and having thousands of dollars in credit card debt.

That’s what passes for normal nowadays, and it scares the hell out of me. I’ll take weird over that any day.

Why I’m weird

I’m weird because I’m vegan. Normal people aren’t willing to experiment with their diet, and never give much thought to where their food comes from.

I’m weird because I talk to strangers. Normal people keep their guard up, conditioned to believe that every new person could be a thief, cheat or rapist.

I’m weird because I don’t watch television. Normal people sit watching it mindlessly, several hours at a time.

I’m weird because I love to work but don’t want a job. Normal people want a job but hate to work.

I’m weird because I exercise every day. Normal people think that’s excessive.

I’m weird because I own just 57 things. Normal people buy “storage solutions” and become slaves to their possessions.

I’m weird because I go all in to make my dreams a reality. Normal people opt to wait until they win the lotto.

Being weird in Ireland

I was going to write here about how it’s tough being weird in Ireland, and how I can’t ever see myself living long-term in this country. I was going to make a joke about inner conflict, how somewhere inside of me there’s a weird dude doing battle with a leprechaun (oh look, I made that joke anyway).

I just realized though that the map I’ve been using no longer matches the territory. It was fairly easy being weird back in New Orleans. Folks there are pretty open-minded. I was expecting more resistance in Ireland. Growing up here, I knew it to be a fairly begrudging place, where standouts are traditionally mocked and ostracised. Before moving back, I accepted that I may have to endure a few months of ridicule and isolation.

I’ve been home for two months now though, and I can’t say I’ve had many problems. I’ve made good friends easily and feel more a part of the Cork community with each passing day. Sure, Ireland has undergone a significant change in recent years, what with the recession and everything, but I believe the big difference in my experience living here now vs. back in 2007 is internal rather than external. I’ve accepted and even embraced my weirdness, and everyone around me seems to have followed suit.

Chalk one up for your beliefs shaping your reality.

That said, I still plan to travel for the next 3-5 years. Lots more world out there

to see .

You’re such a weirdo

What makes you weird? Have you been embracing that weirdness, or keeping a lid on it for fear of what other people will think? I’d encourage you to let it out.

Remember, the real thing to be afraid of is being normal like everyone else. Nobody remembers mediocrity. Weirdos change the world.

Here’s Benny demonstrating his skills in a promo video for his excellent Language Hacking Guide…

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Benny has been traveling the world for many years now, assigning himself regular 3-month language learning missions and immersing in a bunch of different cultures. He funds his adventures via sales of his guide and by giving private Skype and telephone consultations/coaching. Right now he’s living in the Philippines and finding out that the locals point with their lips.

I checked in with Benny to see what he could teach us about building a personal brand that travels with you…

1. Benny, you’re becoming very well known now as an expert language hacker, even landing a guest post on mega-blog Zen Habits a few weeks back. Besides that post, what have been the biggest breaks that have helped you build your online audience, and how did you set yourself up for them?

Right from the start, I have constantly engaged with the online community – replying to relevant forum threads, commenting on other blogs, and – most importantly – replying to all comments on my blog. I have also done something I don’t see anywhere else in the blogging community of including a picture of myself in all posts. Rather than using stock images, I will make a silly pose or do something relevant to the topic each time. All of this meant that people could see my personality tied deeply into what I’m doing, so this isn’t just another faceless generic blog, which there are sadly many of.

Other than that I have of course focused on the best content I could. I know “content is king” is a cliché by now, but SEO strategies, WordPress plugins and the like do nothing if your site isn’t worth sharing. Facebook and stumbleupon send me the vast majority of my traffic without me pushing them that much, simply because I try to produce as unique and engaging content as I can that people genuinely want to share with their friends after reading it.

Zen Habits was actually my second ever guest post, so I’m not applying this strategy enough and will be doing more of it. But interviews like this one (written and video) on blogs from friends of mine and fellow bloggers I collaborate with have been great at getting me recognised in the online community. Meeting people in person and just hanging out as friends was essential for this. There’s no better way to get on someone’s “radar” than to invite them out for lunch!

2. Tell us about the early days of building your business. Did you have to work a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet before you started earning decent income via Fluent in 3 Months?

I have long lost count of the number of jobs I’ve had in the last eight years on the road. Perhaps 30 or 40? “Odd” doesn’t even begin to describe it: Maths teacher, photographer, engineering intern, yoga store manager, hostel receptionist – whatever I could find, I’d take it. I was always honest about staying temporarily from the start and this was quite limiting. It’s why finding online work (as a translator) was great since it gave me consistency.

My plans were never initially to monetise on Fluent in 3 months, but financial woes motivated me to make something of my site that had already grown more than I could have imagined it would, so I invested the time to create something that would supply my best advice in one place and people have been loving it! Amazingly, since I released it back in May, I have been living entirely off sales of the Language Hacking Guide!

3. You obviously travel a lot but have set up your business so you can work from anywhere. What common challenges do you run into as a location independent professional?

Surprisingly enough – accommodation is not a major challenge for me. Long before becoming a “LIP”, I was a long-term traveller and had learned tricks of the trade for finding accommodation fast after doing it dozens of times already. I usually have my own home within 24 hours of arriving in a new country. I put all my energy into that – no siteseeing etc. All I care about when I arrive is finding my new home, and buying a SIM card (3G access simplifies navigation so I can use Google Maps as I go through a new unknown city). My apartment always has wifi, so I’m good to work.

One major challenge of this lifestyle is setting up a nice social circle of reliable friends as quickly as possible. The unique nature of my own style of travelling means this cannot be with other expats – if I did that, I’d never learn the language. And to make things harder, I barely speak the language on arrival (it’s only when leaving that my level is so much better!) I’ve got lots of international tools I use like Couchsurfing to make new local friends and pick the brains of people for advice on places to live and eat, but it usually takes me several weeks before I really have a consistent social life. Several weeks is a big chunk out of a 3-month stay, and something I hope to reduce with time!

4. You put a lot of your own character and personality into your business. Why is this important?

Well, actually, I don’t like to call it a “business”. The blog and my travels are just my current lifestyle. Because of this, it’s only natural that it is full to the brim of my personality. I don’t take it that seriously, and joke around (hence the silly photos constantly in blog posts), and make sure Irish humour is coming through in my writing. Even in the sales page for my book, I decided to be more subtle rather than bombard people with endless squeezing bullet points of why they should buy it and annoy new readers with pop-up sign-up forms on random blog posts. This aggressive style would likely be a “good business decision” since I’d multiply my sales, but it’s not how I live my life.

Because of this, I feel people can read my genuine passion for what I am attempting to do: convince the world that learning a second language isn’t actually that bad. Rather than learning techniques, this comes down to mentality and open-mindedness that are of course personality traits. If someone wants a 10 step programme to speaking a language, they won’t get that off me. You have to be passionate about it – if I don’t prove that in my writing, videos and lifestyle, then anything I sell (which talks a lot about how important your attitude is as a “learning technique”) would just be a lie.

5. If you could travel back in time and give 21-year-old Benny a few quick tips about how to make a living online, what would you tell him?

I never made any money online for my first seven years on the road. One aspect of my philosophy on life is no regrets. Wishing that I had more money, or more RSS subscribers, or had released a product sooner or whatever does nothing to improve my life now. I made a lot of mistakes to get to where I am now, and that is the best way to do it. Too many people wait for their roadmap before getting busy. You need to just do it. Do it wrong, but do something. With time you’ll self-adjust until you are where you want to be.

So if I could give my 21 year old self any advice, I would sum it up in one tip: Make more mistakes.

This is important in my language-learning strategy as well as my “life strategy”. The only way you can make no progress is by doing nothing. If you want to live your dreams of working online, travelling or whatever it is, stop reading all about other people doing it, stop waiting until you have exactly the right amount of money and definitely stop waiting for “signs” from the universe. Don’t think too much about what can go wrong and just go get your hands dirty!

Wrap up

Mucho grazie to Monsieur Lewis for all the above (three languages in one sentence baby, aw yeah!). I highly recommend you check out his site for lots of great language and travel tips. One of my favorite things about Benny is his attitude towards challenges; he sees them as opportunities rather than problems. I believe that mindset is largely responsible for his success with languages and helps explain how he lives such a kick-ass lifestyle.

Get more Benny

Follow the links below to find out more about the Irish polyglot and learn a thing or two about language hacking:

• Fluent in 3 Months
• Language Hacking Guide (<– that’s an affiliate link, btw)
• Why German is Easy
• Follow Benny on Twitter
• Fan Fi3M on Facebook

More interviews

I post an interview relating to small online business every two weeks. Let me know in the comments what type of questions you’d like to have answered by future cool people. If you can recommend a good interview candidate, drop me a line here.

Past interviews:

• How to travel the world indefinitely: An interview with pro nomad Mark Webster
• How to make serious money doing what you love (and without quitting your day job): An interview with Emmett Cooke
• How to rock it as an online entrepreneur: Video interview with Corbett Barr and Everett Bogue
• “Nobody said saving the world would be easy” – An interview with Raam Dev

This is the new thing now.

I’ve rebranded ndoherty.com so it’s more in line with my mission. My aim is to get people thinking for themselves and following their dreams, rather than going with the flow and settling for the status quo. It’s all about disrupting the rabblement.

The word rabblement is obsolete now. Rabble means the same thing, I just prefer the sound of the longer version. It comes from the title of an essay by James Joyce. In 1901 he wrote The Day of the Rabblement, in which he criticized the Irish Literary Theatre for abandoning the true and the good and surrendering to the popular will. The theatre started out claiming to be “the champion of progress, and proclaimed war against commercialism and vulgarity.” But gradually they abandoned high art and settled for lowbrow crowd-pleasers. That was the safe and secure route, one less likely to draw criticism. Joyce wished for a more progressive mindset.

The rabblement is alive and well today. Not just in Ireland, but the world over. The rabblement is the status quo, the so-called normal, the safe and secure, the default lifestyle, the settling for mediocrity.

I don’t like it one bit. I want to disrupt it.

Know your enemy – Signs of the Rabblement

It’s fairly easy to know if someone has become the property of the rabblement. There are many telltale signs. Examples:

• Watching TV regularly
• Eating lots of processed food
• Not reading actual books
• Working an unfulfilling job
• Buying lots of useless crap
• Not exercising regularly
• Obsessing about celebrities
• Lack of focus
• Not offending anybody

People of the rabblement get up every morning and rush through a highly-processed fake-food breakfast, commute to work, spend eight hours half-assing a job they’d rather not do, attend pointless meetings, get interrupted every 20 minutes (by colleagues/e-mail/Facebook/text message), go home, eat a microwave dinner or some takeaway as the news tells them what’s wrong with the world, watch some crappy TV shows that don’t require actual thought processing, then go to bed. They look forward to Friday so they can find temporary refuge in alcohol or consumerism, spending all that money they earn to justify working all week. The lucky ones have a partner to share their unfulfilling life with, so at least they get some occasional sex and don’t feel as lonely as the rest.

I’m not exaggerating with the above description. Many people live like that. Many more live some variation, going through thoughtless motions, forever unconscious.

And it’s easy to see why. We’re bombarded by advertising all the time. We’re told we won’t be happy unless we buy more stuff. We’re told that our passions won’t make us any money, that eventually we have to grow up and get a real job. We’re told that Guinness is good for you and that food should come wrapped in plastic. We’re told not to take risks, not to stand out, not to make a scene, not to be remarkable. Keep your head down and don’t piss off the boss. Failure is bad, don’t even try. We’re told to dress like this and think like that. Date that person your parents like, drive that car your friends covet, buy the biggest house you can afford.

Like I said, I don’t like it one bit.

Disrupting the Rabblement is for all those people who have been doing what was expected of them and following all the rules, only to find that type of life extremely unfulfilling. It’s also for people who have already broken free and are aiming to make a positive difference in the world. It’s for anybody who wants to think for themselves, follow their dreams and help others do the same.

It’s not for everybody. Some people don’t want to wake up and take control of their lives, too much responsibility. No worries. There are plenty of other websites out there for them.

My story

In case you’re new here, I should tell you a little about me:

My name is Niall Doherty. I’m not an expert on anything. I don’t have all the answers. I’m often mistaken.

I was born and raised near Waterford City in Ireland. I was extremely shy all the way into adulthood, but I was able to overcome that by taking a leap. In 2007, after a lot of effort, I landed an American work visa and went to live in New Orleans for three years. I picked that city because my favorite basketball team played there. I wanted nothing more than to watch and write about them, and I was able to live that dream.

Then I moved on from sports and became interested in personal development. I experimented with a vegetarian diet and ended up vegan. I joined Toastmasters and won a contest. I started this website. I realized that good enough wasn’t good enough so I quit my 9-to-5 job, left New Orleans and moved back to Ireland. I’m now getting settled here for a few months, starting my own business and hoping to make a positive difference before moving to Spain in May.

I expect to spend no more than 6 months in any one place for the next 3-4 years, as I travel the world and try to make a living by following my passions. I’ll be sharing my journey on this blog in the hope that I can help others live their dreams.

If you abhor the rabblement like I do, please get in touch. Us rousers need each other

My three-year stint in the United States has come to an end. I’ll be back in Ireland by the time you read this post. I’m staying for a few months, getting my business up and running, then moving to Spain before May 1, 2011.

But I have some big things I want to accomplish while I’m here. I don’t like seeing my country make depressing headlines around the world, and I’d like to be part of the solution.

What’s wrong with Ireland?

The other day I asked my Irish friends on Facebook this simple question: In three words or less, what’s wrong with Ireland?

The vast majority of the answers were as I expected: The government, Fianna Fail, the EU bank, greed, etc. etc.

Note the pattern with answers like these: they all come from a victim mentality.

Our leaders failed us, and now we’re fucked. It’s not our fault we’re in this mess. There’s nothing we can do to fix it. Hopefully those gobshites in power get their act together before the country implodes completely.

I have a theory about the victim mentality in Ireland. I never really noticed it growing up here. But that’s the funny thing about going away for a while; you start to see things differently, alternative viewpoints, different ways of thinking.

And I’m not alone here. The vast majority of Irish emigrants I’ve met express similar sentiments: Ireland can be an overwhelmingly negative and begrudging place. (It’s fine if you disagree with that, but if you’ve never spent significant time living abroad, realize that you have a narrow frame of reference.)

But where does this come from? My theory is that it comes from the 800 years of oppression by the English. For generation after generation, the Irish people literally were not allowed be too happy, too successful, too progressive. That oppression seems to have seeped into the collective consciousness of the country.

We shake our heads at people who dare to stand up and fight for what they believe in, wishing they’d shut up and stop making such a scene. We may have forgotten that it was just such heretical behavior that ended up freeing Ireland from British rule.

We also seem to quite enjoy telling our friends and family not to get their hopes up.

Don’t dream too big, don’t try too hard. The lower your expectations, the less disappointed you’ll be when things inevitably go arseways.

And we worry so much about what others think of us, even if those others are people we don’t like or respect. We sacrifice our deepest beliefs and give up on our biggest dreams because we’d rather not have them talking about us down at the pub on a Friday night.

(Side note: if you this post doesn’t prompt you to be part of the solution, please do me at least one small favor: When you see someone who is trying to make a positive difference, don’t belittle or ridicule them. Just get out of their way.)

Personal responsibility

I’ve written before about Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern, but I’m going to go over it again here, because it’s important.

The diagram looks like this:

It seems most Irish people focus the bulk of their attention beyond their circle of influence. We spend time and energy discussing the economy, the government, the weather, professional sports, world politics, last night’s telly, the latest celebrity scandal, and on and on. Such discussions have their place. I’m not saying we should never discuss these things. But these issues are beyond our control. Spending all that time and energy thinking about them, talking about them, worrying about them, it results in very little, if any, positive difference in the world.

What does make a positive difference is when we shift the majority of our attention to issues within our circle of influence. Your own personal development is within that circle. Community betterment is within that circle. Honing your professional skills and serving your customers and clients better is within that circle. Reducing your impact on the environment is within that circle. Living a healthy lifestyle is within that circle. Being a great parent, brother, sister, friend; all within that circle.

The really nice thing about focusing primarily on your circle of influence, is that the circle grows over time. You might not have much say in what your local government does now, but get busy becoming an important business leader or respected environmentalist and suddenly your voice carries more weight.

In Ireland, I see a lot of people complaining about the current state of affairs. Granted, the country isn’t looking too hot right now. But hopefully you realize that talking about it and worrying about it doesn’t change much. It’s a waste of energy.

The way out is to ask yourself one question: “What can I do to make things better?”

We’re talking about personal responsibility. You don’t have to take on something big and scary; just start small.

• What can you do to make your own life better? It could be as simple as making a positive change in your diet and exercise habits.
• What can you do to make your family life better? It could be as simple as taking time each day to really listen to someone close to you.
• What can you do to make your community better? It could be as simple as picking up other people’s rubbish as you’re walking down the road, or offering your professional skills pro bono for the good of the neighborhood.

This might all sound like small stuff, like it won’t make much difference. But believe me, it does. A country is a collection of individuals. If each individual gets better, the country gets better. It’s that simple.

Yes, the banks and the government failed us. Yes, certain people and parties should be held accountable. Yes, we should not soon forget these failures (or we’ll end up making the same mistakes again). But the best thing we can do for our country doesn’t involve pointing fingers and assigning blame. It involves each individual taking personal responsibility and doing what they can to make things better.

If you’re with me at all on this, please get in touch. As I said, I’m not staying in Ireland for long (the vagabond lifestyle awaits), but I hope to make a significant positive difference while I’m here. I’ll need your support to do the best I can.

And I realize I have a lot to learn. I don’t have all the answers, far from it. So if you disagree with anything above or believe I’m missing something important, please let me know in the comments. Mature, open-minded discussion is another way for us all to get better.

Mise le meas.

The things you own, end up owning you.

That quote is from Fight Club, one of my all-time favorite movies. It sums up a lesson I first learned about six years ago, when I was stuck working in a department store in Ireland, having dropped out of college and dreaming of one day living and working in the United States.

Problem was, I kept making excuses as to why I couldn’t just drop everything and move to the U.S. Most of those excuses centered around material things. I owned over a hundred movies on DVD at the time. I also had a big widescreen TV, a Playstation 2, an Xbox and a nice desktop PC hooked up to a serious sound system. I knew I couldn’t bring all those possessions with me to America. What would I do with them?

For a while, I did nothing. I just stayed where I was, with all those nice things, holding me hostage.

Breaking loose

I’m not sure what triggered the change in me, but at some point I got fed up and decided to break loose from the shackles. I gave away pretty much all of those possessions and took off on my U.S. adventure. I thought I’d miss everything I’d given up, but instead I experienced an overwhelming sense of freedom. Nothing was weighing me down anymore, except the suitcase full of clothes I brought with me.

Then the airline went and lost that suitcase full of clothes, but I wasn’t bothered much. I’d already separated myself from my material belongings. They no longer defined me.

Beauty in decay

I got another lesson in materialism when I moved to New Orleans in 2007. Even though I had already come to realize that material things were overrated, I still leaned towards the new and the shiny whenever I needed to acquire something. But a few months living in the Crescent City changed that.

If you ever visit New Orleans, you’ll quickly find that most of the establishments here look a little shady and run down, the bars in particular. If I saw bars like that in Ireland, I’d steer well clear. But I came to learn that in New Orleans, you really can’t judge a book by its cover. A bar might look like a hell hole from the outside, but then you reluctantly follow a wise friend inside to find the place full of high-character people having the best of times.

After a while I found myself seeking out the dive bars and repeatedly shunning style in favor of substance.

When it came time to buy myself a wagon, I got a good deal on a well-used Jeep that oozed character. I called him Doug. The air conditioning didn’t always work and there were a hundred pins holding the upholstery together. A few months after buying, a taxi slammed into the side of Doug; nothing but superficial damage. I was delighted. Battle scars = more character.

A buddy of mine summed up that attitude quite well, noting that I’d come to appreciate “the beauty in decay,” as most New Orleanians do.

Irish recession

The recession in Ireland is real: Lots of job losses, cut-backs, broken dreams. But I see it being great for the country in the long run. Ireland had become much too materialistic for my liking. People had become overly concerned with big houses, fancy cars, the newest mobile phones and the like. You had to have two mortgages and go out on the town at least twice a week. Every child was getting fourteen different presents for Christmas, without truly appreciating any of them. People were admired more for what they had instead of who they were. TG4 was probably one step away from launching My Super Sweet Sé Déag.

A lot of that hasn’t really changed, but it’s starting to. People have no other choice now but to cut the fluff and get back to what’s really important.

Owning nice things

This post isn’t meant as a rant against owning nice things. Materialism is defined as “preoccupation with or emphasis on material objects, comforts, and considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values.” So owning nice things isn’t the problem. Identifying with them is. I’m reminded of Fight Club again:

You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.

By all means, buy nice things, but buy them for their practicality more than anything. Art and decoration is fine, but let it be an expression of you; not an attempt to impress someone or make people jealous. Buy yourself that $3000 couch, but not when you can get a $500 couch that looks just as good, is just as comfortable and will last just as long.

How to be less materialistic

You start by making a firm decision. Be sure you actually want to be less materialistic first, then try a few things from this list:

• Separate needs from wants. It’s perfectly fine to want stuff and to get what you want, but you should never confuse your wants with your needs.
• Spend stretches of time without your material goods. See if you can give up TV for a week, or see how you’d cope without your car for a couple of days.
• Never buy when you can borrow, and help other people out by sharing your own stuff. You’ll save money, reduce clutter and build trusting relationships.
• Acknowledge the emotions that certain possessions stir up in you, and ask yourself why. Try to identify what parts of your character are lacking and how you might be using possessions to compensate.
• Similarly, try to identify what possessions your friends might have that make you jealous. Ask why, explore that part of you, and try to improve on it.
• Consider how you’d feel if you lost certain possessions. Would you be able to handle it? Could you do without that computer, that TV, those new clothes? What would you do without those things? If your answers scare or depress you, you know where you need to grow.
• Be grateful for the things you already have, and express that gratitude regularly. A good way to do this is to write out three things you’re grateful for each day.
• Go on cleaning/clearing binges to declutter your house. Zen Habits has a great article on how to do this effectively.
• Request that people forgo giving you regular birthday/Christmas gifts and instead make donations to trusted charities.
• Expand your social circle and try new things – learn to value experiences, relationships and memories over possessions.

Find your comfort zone

The most important thing is to find your own comfort zone with your possessions and your relationship to them. It should be a personal journey, different for everyone. Just be careful not to use material goods to compensate for character defects. Remember the words of
Evan Esar:

Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose.

Some day you might wake to find you have lost everything. Hopefully you’ll still know who
you are.