A freak doesn’t do things the way they are normally done. A freak follows her own passion. A freak explores and questions. A freak is self-aware. A freak stands alone in her own truth. In “Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth, Entrepreneurship for Weirdo, Mystics, and World Dominators. Chris Brogan encourages our freakiness and I love it
Freaks” encourages us to own our freakiness
Chris not only helps us appreciate and celebrate our uniqueness, he offers systems to put our special viewpoint to work in our business and life. I had an opportunity to personally connect with Chris when he interviewed me for his podcast (7/10/14 LOTS of smart people) He glows with kindness and generosity of spirit. Our conversation was like two old friends hanging out. Chris has already changed my life through an email exchange. I read his Sunday blog but had not read any of his books. “Freaks” appealed to me. I’ve always been different. I’ve always made choices that others did not. I’ve followed my passion with great enthusiasm. I thought there were not many others out there like me, until the internet came along and I began to find some like-minded freaks. (I’m 81 – born before lots of inventions – like television.) Thanks to the internet, I can now identify, follow, and develop an e-mail relationship with fellow freaks all over the world. I’ve loved my freakiness, but finding fellow freaks makes me feel less alone and more excited about my personal path.
“Freaks” inspires and motivates us to follow our unique path
“The premise of this book is simple,” writes Chris. “How can I do business my way and be successful, when the way I think and the goals I have aren’t in line with conventional thinking? … In the old days, you had to conform. Now you only need consider your choices and choose the options that feel most right to you.” Don’t we all want it that way – learning what we want to learn, sharing what we want to share, being with people who excite us and share our uniqueness?
“Freaks” helped me appreciate my weirdness
My first clue came that there were other freaks out there came 35years ago while reading The Aquarian Conspiracy by Marilyn Fergusson. I sat in own uniqueness in the Midwest and kept saying “Oh, there ARE other people thinking like I do. And look what they are doing!” It was my first conscious encounter with the activities of fellow freaks in the world and I was only reading about them. As a young woman, I was influenced by the Woman’s Movement. I moved to New York City and began developing fellow freak friends. I unconventionally followed my personal interests into holistic venues. I knew and taught several healing techniques. I worked with AIDS patients in New York City when it first appeared. I live with crystals. I’m a metaphysician. I’m drawn to Taoism. I’m a Vegan. I don’t fit in and I don’t want to. It turns out there are a lot of us at here doing our own thing.
“Freaks” celebrates the qualities that serve us
Curiosity, a strong need to do it our way, and a rebellion against conforming are all qualities that serve the uniqueness of freaks. As we insist on going our own way, we live and work more closely with our passion. That makes us very powerful.
“Freaks” offers practical business advice
It is great to have a fellow freak offer organizational and strategic business advice. You know it’s going to be unconventional and fit right in with your plans. Ideas for everything from your vision, to your tribe, to your systems are in this book. I am very drawn to Chris’s “Core Compass” plan. It helps you thoughtfully identify your core purpose and use it as a guidepost for all your decisions. One of the most difficult challenges in creating your own business or product is to identify the simple core purpose of your work, or the core talent that best serves your community. I used Chris’s Core Compass to dynamically reposition and repurpose my current work.
“Freaks” will warm your heart
Chris’s energy of kindness and a desire to support others shines through every page. For instance, he asks, “What lead-nurturing products can I generate?” Nurturing? It makes the approach to business so caring. As for looking for your community he asks, “Where are the people who want to celebrate your work with you and who pay you to improve their lives.” Celebrate my work? Love it. Let’s have a party.
“Freaks” is about family
One of the central concepts of Chris’s very successful business is the idea of Monchu – an Okinawan word that means “one family” He explains that Monchu “embodies the concept that you could help to build value for everyone around you.” How dramatically would your business change if you expanded your sense of family to everyone who crossed your path?
“Freaks” encouraged me to explore
“Fall in love with not knowing” is a chapter that celebrates and supports our inventiveness and creativity. I’m a big one for taking ideas that feel meaningful to me and writing about them in order to better understand them and figure out how to incorporate them into my life. I loved his idea that “Curiosity fuels passion. It allows you to see things from difference angles.” It’s vital that we view our choices from many viewpoints.And “Try new things. Learn new things Learn what else you don’t know. Learn tons more than the other person about what makes your senses tingle.” These are all concepts of learning and experiencing that I choose to emphasize into my life.
Woman freaks need to claim our own place
There is no age limit on freaks but there seems to be a problem with gender. Woman cannot be freaks in big business. Hey, maybe we don’t want to do business like the guys do. In our own freaky female way, we can develop our business to encourage other woman to embrace and cherish their freakiness and to teach their daughters to do the same. We’ have great power. Female freaks can and will make a huge difference in their world.
A major realization for me that was a huge take-away from reading this book concerned my target community. I discovered that my Manchu are older women freaks. That certainly puts a different slant on how I connect with them. I can stop thinking in terms of a broader demography and keep on writing to people like me, freaks who are getting older and trying to figure out how to accommodate that change and still be productive and meaningful.
Own your destiny
Chris wants us to own our own destiny. It’s more than running a business, it’s about living a life that draws from you the most you have to offer and place it in the service of others. “The best of everything in the world has come from freaks,” states Chris. To interact with Chris and other fellow freaks check out Owner Magazine and follow Chris’s Blog.
If you think you are a freak, if you KNOW you are a freak you’ll resonate with this book. “Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth, Entrepreneurship for Weirdo, Mystics, and World Dominators.may be just what you need to move our forward at this point in your life. It certainly made a welcome difference in mine
