The Voluntary Life

An episode about finding and clarifying the purpose of your business. Why does your business exist? Topics covered include: The limits of "Mission Statements" The benefits of a really short elevator pitch for your business' purpose: encapsulating it all in just 3 words It can often take a long time to move from intuitive to fully conscious business purpose. Don't worry, you can get going and discover it on the way Three things to think about to clarify your purpose: What will inspire you? What will inspire others? What do you have the capability to deliver? Show Notes: Episode 107 (Part 1 of What Kind of Business Should I Start?) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki Making It All Work by David Allen

An episode about the financial risks and rewards of entrepreneurship and what they mean for your motivation in starting a business. Here's some harsh data about the financial risks and rewards: More than half of startups cease trading within the first five years. Entrepreneurs on average earn significantly less income over 10 years than they would have earned in paid employment. There are debates about the numbers but one study (Hamilton) suggests a 35% earnings differential. Entrepreneurs on average don't earn a better return on their investment by founding startups than they would have by investing in publicly traded stocks (in fact they earn less from a risk return perspective). Nevertheless, the majority of affluent people are self-made entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs make-up less than 20% of the workforce in America, but account for 66% of the millionaires. Of the millionaire entrepreneurs, 80% of them are self-made: they are first generation wealth holders (Stanley). What are we to make of such statistics? I argue that the high financial risk (and potentially high reward) make it even more important to do entrepreneurship for intrinsic motivations: Purpose: building a business because you want to make a dent on the universe and you believe that what you are doing will make peoples' lives better. Autonomy: being an entrepreneur because it gives you freedom to live and work as you want to (not as someone else thinks you should) Mastery: overcoming the challenges of learning how to build a business is rewarding in itself. The episode ends with a discussion of the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for making money itself. The intrinsic motivation to make money is for the freedom (financial freedom) that it gives you. Show Notes: "Start Up Failure Rates: The Definitive Numbers" By Scott Shane "What Do Small Businesses Do?" Erik Hurst and Benjamin Wild Pugsley "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns of Self-Employment" by Barton H. Hamilton, 2000 "The Returns to Entrepreneurial Investment: A Private Equity Premium Puzzle?" By Tobias J. Moskowitz and Annette Vissing Jørgense The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley

This episode is about things to consider when choosing co-founders to go into business with. Topics covered include: Do you need co-founders? The advantages of choosing co-founders who are different to yourself (in background, skills, personality, and business networks) The importance of shared core values and purpose for co-founders Research by Noam Wasserman shows that teams made from former co-workers are the most stable. Teams made from former strangers are the second most stable of the three groups Wasserman analysed. Teams made from friends and family are the least stable. Show Notes: The Founder's Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

This episode is about three approaches to delegating work within your business. No business can grow unless the founder is able to delegate work to a wider team of people. It's essential that tasks are properly delegated and that the business owner doesn't abdicate responsibility. However, there are three very different ways to delegate: The Operations Manual Approach is where detailed standards and procedures are defined for how all tasks are to be undertaken. Work is typically undertaken by relatively inexperienced employees, who learn to follow detailed specifications. The Results Only Work Environment is where employees are given clear targets or results to meet and it is up to them how they do so. They create their own work procedures and have maximum freedom on issues like whether to work at home. The Outsourcing Approach is where work is delegated to independent contractors or virtual assistants. Fixed costs are kept low by avoiding hiring employees as much as possible. Work is typically outsourced on a specific fee-for-project basis. The episode explores the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches. Show Notes: Anything You Want by Derek Sivers The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber Maverick by Ricardo Semler Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne

If you want to become an entrepreneur but are not sure what kind of business you would like to start, what framework can you use to help you decide? There are two things to consider that will provide you with a strong advantage: 1. Starting a business to create a solution that you will be a customer for This is sometimes called "eating your own dog-food". To be successful, all businesses have to deliver value to customers: they have to make something that people want. If you use the product or service that your company makes, it helps you understand whether it is providing value. 2. Starting a business in an industry that you understand Industry experience provides valuable knowledge about the opportunities and constraints that your business will face. Some examples of industry knowledge are: knowing where your potential customers shop understanding why they buy knowing how potential distributors or affiliates work understanding what the major concerns of key contacts for your business are If you don't make something that you yourself would be a customer for and you don't have a good understanding of the industry, you are flying blind. Try to develop a business where you have at least one of these two advantages. Also, try to increase your awareness of the aspect that is missing.

This episode is about the pros and cons of being self-employed vs being a business owner. Both options have advantages and disadvantages, but mixing the two does not work well. In the self-employed/freelancer model, you sell your time, cover your own expenses and keep all profit. This works best when you have a valuable skill and lots of industry contacts, as you are able to undercut bigger companies on price but keep your overheads low. If it works, you get the advantage of a lot of flexibility to work or take time off. The disadvantage is that you are dependent on work for income, so there is much less financial freedom in the long term. You don't build up value in business itself (nobody wants to buy a job) and it can be hard to keep your overheads low for longer (as you may need to start investing in marketing, new equipment etc). So it's a vulnerable model over the long term. The business owner model is the idea to create a value generating machine. The focus here is on developing standards and procedures to make yourself (the founder) unnecessary to the running of the business as quickly as possible. The advantage of this model is that you create an income stream and a source of value (the business itself) that you can sell in the future, or live from as passive income. This has the potential for much greater financial freedom as well as the freedom to step away from the work in the longer term. The disadvantage is that you have more risk in the initial period, as businesses take more investment. You also get much less free time in the initial period, as the startup phase of a business is more stressful than freelance work. Either model can give you a lot of benefits, but be careful not to get stuck between these two models- you can end up with all the stress and none of the benefits. If that happens, it isn't creating a business, it's creating a job (and the worst kind of job, because you can't stop doing it). I hope this podcast will help you be conscious of which model you are adopting and to move more clearly to one or the other if you are currently stuck in-between. Show Notes: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

This episode is about how to diversify your investments for lower risk and higher return. The issues covered include: The problems with a simple "buy and hold" approach, whereby you invest all your money in your one favorite asset (be that stocks, gold or anything else). The problems with the "market timing" approach to investing and why it doesn't work. The benefits of diversifying your portfolio How to properly diversify your portfolio by using different asset classes, rather than just different securities. How to use rebalancing bands to harvest volatility, increase your return and reduce risk. You can get more information about the concept of the permanent portfolio discussed in this episode in Harry Browne's book "Fail-Safe Investing" and in many of the previous Voluntary Life podcast episodes on investing. As always regarding investment, do your own research. I am not an advisor and this isn't advice of any kind, it's just my own opinions based on my experience.

It has never been easier to live and work abroad. If you are self-employed and work online there is nothing to stop you. Why nor sublet your apartment for a few months and live abroad in a fascinating (and potentially cheap) destination? Here is a list of all the things that make long term travel super easy: Have your home post rerouted to friend (or commercial service) who scans it into a Dropbox account for you. If a friend does it, buy them a multi-page scanner for this. Get a professional agent to manage the sublet of your apartment back home AirBnB for renting longer term accommodation (especially for whole apartments) TripAdvisor for short term hotel stays Cloud services for file storage (e.g. dropbox, google drive) Clound services for backup (e.g. Crashplan or Backblaze) A small scanner app on your smartphone for scanning any paper you need to keep (receipts etc) when abroad Get your online banking set up for all the transaction types you will need to do Get your Credit/Debit cards set for use abroad A password manager (e.g. LastPass, 1Password) for your online passwords An E reader (e.g. a kindle, iPad) to enable you to read as many books as you want while you are away A lightweight laptop for your work A Smartphone with a nice camera for taking pictures and getting online An external encrypted drive for local storage/backup International plugs for all your devices

An episode about how to use goals and visions to move forward in creating the life you want. Show Notes: Previous Episode on GTD Getting Things Done by David Allen

This episode is about the concept of limited liability and it's role in entrepreneurship. The purpose of the limited liability principle is not to protect the entrepreneur as director or manager of a business, it is for the protection of investors. There is a big difference between this principle and how the actual law of limited liability works in practice. The law is messy and confusing, with strange concepts such as "corporate personhood" granted by the State. I argue that the principle of limited liability for investors could be implemented through contracts and that the whole messy legal implementation that we currently have is unnecessary to achieve investor protection. I argue that it makes sense for entrepreneurs to use contractual limits of liability wherever possible and to use insurance whenever you need to reduce risk in that way. The reality for small business entrepreneurs is that you will not be able to hide behind a shield of limited liability, for example you will be expected to personally underwrite loans. These are just my opinions. As always, you need to rely on your own due diligence and get your own legal advice.

This episode discusses the question of risk in investment, speculation and entrepreneurship. When is it a good idea to take risk and when isn't it? I share my own personal opinion. Podcast Episode

An episode on how to scale and optimise your business to make more profit and enhance your competitive advantage. The issues covered include: Standardisation: making one version of what you do Proceduralisation: making one version of how you do it Optimisation: speeding up and automating your procedures Knowledge Capture: maintaining and growing your operation within the context of staff coming and going Optimising at the level of the whole business: only doing the things that it makes sense to do

This episode is about employing people as an entrepreneur. Topics covered include: The destructive legacy of the reward and punishment paradigm from school Why pay isn't as important as you think The importance purpose, mastery and autonomy in motivation The problem with relying on interviews for hiring and alternative ways of finding great people The value of freelancers or independent contractors What employing people teaches you about taking responsibility for your side of a relationship and how it deepens your respect for individuality Show Notes: Dan Pink Talk on Motivation Discipline Without Punishment by Dick Grote Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type by Isabel Briggs Myers

An episode about the problems with Intellectual Property, from the perspective of an entrepreneur. I started off thinking that IP is an integral and necessary part of entrepreneurship. I thought that it would be very important for my business. I have now come to see IP law as something that: prevents innovation, is immoral, promotes conflict, diverts resources to unproductive uses and is ultimately unnecessary for making money from ideas. Show Notes: Against Intellectual Monopoly by Boldrin and Levine Article about the Shopping Cart case Against Intellectual Property by Kinsella

Part 2 of an interview with entrepreneur Judd Weiss, talking about business relationships. In this episode Judd talks about: The pitfalls of employing people The benefits of partnering or affiliate relationships How to create awesome relationships with clients

Part 1 of an interview with entrepreneur Judd Weiss, talking about business relationships. In this episode Judd shares his thoughts and experiences about how to approach working relationships in general and the question of going into business with others. Should friends go into business together? What makes a good business partnership? Why do so many business partnerships go so badly wrong? Find out in this episode.

Part 2 in the short series of podcasts about The Voluntary Life. This episode is all about the podcast itself. The podcast comes out once per week and is a mix of solo-casts and interviews. Some topics are covered in more detail as a series, like the entrepreneurship series. The aim of the podcast is personal freedom empowerment: providing ideas for finding the maximum freedom in your own life, within an unfree world. The podcast always takes a constructive approach: the angle on any topic is- what can you do to maximise your freedom in this area of life? All the topics are about things that are actionable and personally relevant at an individual level. The podcast aims to explore the approach of living a free and voluntary life across all aspects of life (work, personal relationships, finances etc). We showcase examples of voluntary living through interviews with people who have maximised their freedom in a particular aspects of life.

The first in a series of podcasts introducing The Voluntary Life, both as a concept and as a podcast. This episode explains the concept of living a 'voluntary life', which is a life lived according to the principle of free choice. The extent to which we have the freedom to make our own choices about our lives (and to respect the free choices of others) is the extent to which we are leading the voluntary life. This concept applies across aspects of life, as diverse as freedom at work, financial freedom, freedom in personal relationships and psychological freedom. The following principles underpin the concept of living a voluntary life: Voluntary living is the highest expression of individuation possible. The deepest experience of being alive comes from our ability to express our personality and individuality in our free choices. The more free you are, the more alive you are. Voluntary living is the only truly moral way to live. A voluntary life is one lived in accordance with the Non-Agression Principle, which is the fundamental moral framework from which all valid morality is derived. Voluntary interaction is responsible for all the greatest achievements of humanity. Peaceful co-operation of individuals through trade and entrepreneurship has given us all the enlightenment, technological progress, economic development and civilisation (in the best sense of the word) that we now enjoy. The voluntary life must start from the individual and his or her own choices. You have to be the change you want to see in the world. This is why the show is called "the voluntary life" and not "the voluntary society".

A podcast about how to overcome indecision, paralysis and procrastination about entrepreneurship and JFDI (Just F-ing Do It). There are some objective hinderances to creating and running a business, especially if you have other major commitments in your life that you need to focus on first. However, often the battle is really an internal psychological one. How do you get into the mindset of being able to JFDI? This episode contains some suggestions about giving yourself permission: Permission to fail Permission to be imperfect Permission to piss people off Permission to succeed

A message of optimism. Happy New Year! Show Notes: The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley Article on the recent massive decline in poverty

Some thoughts on what it is that frightens people about the free market, based on my own experience. The fear of the market is often expressed in very abstract arguments about whether free markets would really work (if we had them) and what their relationship is to poverty etc. However, at an individual level, I believe people fear markets because of how vulnerable you can feel when taking part in voluntary exchange: Trade on the free market involves selling to others. This opens you up to the potential for rejection and failure, which can be scary. The division of labour involves choosing to specialise in some skill or area of work that might one day become obsolete, which can feel vulnerable. It also involves taking responsibility for specific outcomes- the buck stops with you- which challenges any defences against the fear of responsibility. Respect for private property rights involves looking after your stuff and respecting other people's stuff. This opens you up to the potential for feelings of humiliation if you don't understand how or why others have made a success of selling when you have not yet been able to. It's understandable to fear the free market. It can be scary to launch yourself into entrepreneurship, as well as being wonderful. However, some people project their personal fears of the market into abstract theories: they blame the market itself for the world's ills. That approach will prevent you from overcoming your fears and limit your potential.

This episode is an interview with Edwin, an expat entrepreneur in Chile. Edwin talks about his experience on an entrepreneurship visa in Chile and shares his thoughts about the pros and cons of Chile as a place to live and to create a startup in. He discusses other things to consider regarding coming to Chile as an entrepreneur, including his views on the Start-up Chile grant, some comparisons of cost of living and considerations on quality of life in Chile as an expat. You can contact Edwin at [email protected].

An interview with Eduardo Marty, who founded Junior Achievement in Argentina and in many other Latin American countries. Junior Achievement is a charity that teaches entrepreneurship to children and young adults. Eduardo has also held academic posts as professor at the University Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, and the University of Buenos Aires. He is one of the few academics who is truly passionate about the need for young people to learn the practical skills of entrepreneurship. As he says in the interview; "the problem with intellectuals is that they are always running out of money". In this entertaining interview, he discusses his experiences and his adventures in a life dedicated to helping kids realise their entrepreneurial potential, including a narrow escape from being imprisoned in Cuba when he tried to establish Junior Achievement there.

This episode is about gaining freedom from intellectual heroes. I share some thoughts about how to extract the best ideas from thinkers that you admire, without relying on someone else to think for you. I talk about some ways I have found for gaining intellectual independence, including: Taking apart the "package deal" of a set of new ideas to use the ones that work and discard the ones that don't. Learning to trust your own judgement: if an idea doesn't make sense to you, it's probably because the idea is incoherent. Starting from the assumption that "everything is a remix", even if an idea appears to be very original or is presented as very new. Ultimately, intellectual independence is about giving up the emotional search for leaders. It is a part of growing up and being an adult to stop looking for intellectual heroes and to treat every thinker as someone who puts their pants on one leg at a time, just like you and me. A really important aspect of intellectual freedom is to give up deference to our heroes- to take what we can from their ideas and own those ideas for ourselves, so that we truly think for ourselves. That's what free people do: they think for themselves.

This episode is an interview with Joel Bowman, the managing editor of The Daily Reckoning e-newsletter email and former managing editor of the Rude Awakening. After completing his degree in media communications and journalism in his home country of Australia, Joel moved to Baltimore to join the Agora Financial team. His keen interest in travel and macroeconomics first took him to New York where he regularly reported from Wall Street, and he now writes from and lives all over the world. Joel currently lives in Buenos Aires. In the interview he gives his perspective on life as an expat in the city and provides an overview of what has been happening to the economy in Argentina recently. Apologies for the technical problems with the recording: the audio cuts out very briefly intermittently throughout the interview, but it is still possible to understand the interview.

This episode covers a lot of questions I faced getting started in investing as a private investor and my own experience in tackling these questions: Why invest (i.e. why not just leave your money in a bank)? Who is going to manage your investments, an external manager or yourself? Are you going to be an active investor (e.g. analysing individual securities for value and trading more often) or a passive investor (e.g. using index funds and trading less often)? Which asset classes are you going to invest in (e.g. stocks, bonds, precious metals, cash)? How will you allocate and balance assets in your portfolio? Which individual securities are you going to select within each asset class (e.g if you decide to buy bonds, which individual bonds will you choose)? When should you start investing, within the context of your overall personal financial planning? When should you buy or sell individual assets? Will you try to time the market or will you automatically rebalance a portfolio based on an asset allocation strategy? Where should you invest? Should you have geographic diversification and if so, what kind? You can also get more information about the concept of the permanent portfolio discussed in this episode in Harry Browne's book "Fail-Safe Investing" and in many of the previous Voluntary Life podcast episodes on investing. As always regarding investment, do your own research. I am not an advisor and this isn't advice of any kind, it's just my own opinions based on my experience.

This episode is about saving money and it's relationship with freedom. Many people are trapped in a "wage slavery" lifestyle, living from month to month. Although their income rises during their career, their expenses scale correspondingly (or even lead ahead, creating debt). There are two approaches to developing the savings that allow get you out of this trap: One route is to increase earnings without increasing expenses, creating savings. The difficulty with this approach is that the higher the income, the bigger the tendency or temptation to spend more on a more comfortable lifestyle. The other approach is to decrease expenses without decreasing earnings, by focussing on minimising living expenses as much as possible. The challenge with this approach is to do so without losing income (for example, moving to a low cost location might not make it possible to keep a well paid job). Jake talks about his experience focussing on the first approach and discusses some of the benefits in terms of freedom that saving provides: Developing an emergency fund of approximately 3 months expenses reduces a huge amount of stress associated with living month to month and enables you to cope with unexpected expenses or irregular cashflow. Developing savings to cover 1 year of expenses opens up a huge degree of freedom, for example to start your own business, to leave a job if you don't like it or even to change your life in other ways such as by emigrating to another country. This podcast and blog summary contains only personal opinions, it does not constitute financial advice and I am not a financial advisor.

This episode is about the freedom that comes from getting out of debt. We live in a time when being in debt is the norm in our society. The basis of the debt culture lies in government policies (such as inflating the money supply and artificially lowering interest rates) that actively incentivise individuals to get into debt. These government policies filter through into opportunities for debt everywhere that are encouraged by mainstream culture. For example: student loans for college, credit for consumer goods, the mainstream ideal of home ownership and the mortgage debt that goes with it. Debt becomes a way of life for most people, which can lead to rationalising it and being over-optimistic about it's impact. Ultimately debt always reduces your financial freedom. It is always restricting the freedom of action of your future self. Jake talks about his experience of being in debt and getting out of debt. The podcast goes on to focus on the benefits of being debt free: The main benefit is in increasing your freedom of action when you are out of debt When debt is cleared it removes a constant source of worry Deciding on how to use your money can be a pleasure again and an aspect of freedom Removing debt is an aspect of self-care: it is financial self-care This podcast and blog summary contains only my personal opinions, it does not constitute financial advice and I am not a financial advisor.

This episode is a about the significant milestones along the way towards achieving financial freedom. In my opinion, reaching each of these milestones brings you closer to being financially free and it is useful to take a step back and consider what the steps along the way of your journey will be. Some milestones to consider are suggested: Financial independence or "paying your own way", whereby you are sustaining yourself from your job or work income on a month to month basis. You are not living off parents, not living from significant subsidies from your family, not accumulating student debt and not accumulating credit card debt. It's important to note role how going to college significantly delays reaching this milestone and how many people do not achieve this milestone until they are in their 30s or later. Achieving positive net worth, whereby your assets are greater than your liabilities. This is often what people mean when they talk about "getting out of debt" (although that is not exactly the same). It is important to be aware that consumer credit and mortgate debt can significantly hinder or delay you reaching this goal. Making your first investment, for example by purchasing an income producing asset like shares or bonds. The key distinction is that this is not just money you haven't used yet which you are putting aside until you spend it, it is money you do not intend to ever spend. You are putting this money to work for you creating income. Although a lot of people consider purchasing a house with a mortgage as their first big investment, a property for your own use is really a consumption item. Net worth surpasses annual expenses- in other words, your savings (assets) could keep you going for 1 year if you needed to. This means you have a significant safety buffer, but if you did have to use your savings it would mean that you consume your capital and you would be back to square 1. Annual passive investment income becomes larger than your annual expenses: this is real financial freedom, as you can now live off your passive income. For this to be sustainable it needs to take into account the effect of inflation, taxes etc. However, once you can sustainably live from your passive income, you are financially free. This podcast and blog summary contains only my personal opinions, it does not constitute financial advice and I am not a financial advisor.

This episode is about the entrepreneurial mindset. What kind of thinking do you need to be an entrepreneur? More importantly, how will doing entrepreneurship change the way that you think? Jake talks about some key aspects of the entrepreneurial mentality including: cultivating optimism and perseverance using the trial and error method acceptance of failure and the possibility of failure a deep rooted focus on sales a results-oriented outlook thrift and developing a reluctance to spend time or money without demonstrated good value being market oriented and having a tendency to look for voluntary solutions in all of life

This episode is about the issue of shared ownership in business. It covers key questions that anyone considering going into business with others will face, including: Should you go into business with others or be a sole owner-entrepreneur? If you do go into business with others, how will you split ownership? How will you ensure that the owners are all incentivised to add value to the business? In other words, how will you avoid the free-rider problem? How are you going to make decisions together efficiently and avoid deadlock? What will you do if the owners no longer want to work together, or one of them wants out? Jake provides his own experience in facing these questions and summarises some of the options available to consider. It's up to you to decide what the best choices are for your own business. This podcast will help you make these decisions.

This episode is an interview with Craig Rowland, who is the co-author of a new book called The Permanent Portfolio: Harry Browne's Long-Term Investment Strategy. In the episode we discuss the Permanent Portfolio strategy and many of the insights from Craig's new book. We talk about the way in which the Permanent Portfolio approach differs from other investment strategies including: The choice of being an independent investor as opposed to entrusting your money to someone else Achieving diversification in investing, as opposed to the Warren Buffet quote of "putting all your eggs in one basket and watching the basket very closely". Using an asset allocation strategy based on identifying how assets react to each of the possible economic conditions, as opposed to asset allocation based on correlation studies. The problems with trying to time the market in investing The benefits of a passive investing approach that rebalances according to a strategy of maintaining diversification. We also talk about some particular practical issues relating to the portfolio including Creating your own portfolio versus using the Permanent Portfolio fund (and differences in the fund's approach to the classic PP strategy) The growth of passive indexing strategies in stocks and how this aspect of the Permanent Portfolio approach is now more mainstream Craig's thoughts on how best to own gold bullion and the tradeoff between convenience and safety. How the permanent portfolio can help independent investors in the current context of artificially low interest rates and Quantitative Easing. You can also get more information about the concept of the permanent portfolio in Harry Browne's book "Fail-Safe Investing" and in many of the previous Voluntary Life podcast episodes on investing. Neither Craig nor Jake are financial advisors or dealers of any kind and this podcast only expresses our opinions.

This episode discusses ways in which you can overcome the limitations of the country in which you happen to have been born and, as much as possible, live with the whole of planet earth as your homeland. The topics covered include: Travelling and seeing the world, to help you make conscious choices about where you want to spend your life Taking the opportunity to live abroad for extended periods of time so that you can experience life in different parts of the world Learning another language and giving yourself different tools to think with Internationalising some of your assets, as geo-political diversification in case of catastrophic events such as a war. If you have the opportunity, taking advantage of the chance to obtain dual nationality to further extend your flexibility in terms of where you can work or live.

This episode is about the most advanced democracy on earth. It is about the most effective system we have for letting everyone have their say, working together to change society in a non-violent way.... Oh and it's probably not what you think. Show Notes: Ludwig Von Mises' "The Anti-capitalistic Mentality" Churchill's quote on democracy Karl Popper's views on democracy can be found in The Open Society and Its Enemies

This episode is about where you choose to live and the impact that this choice can have on your level of freedom. Many people who have written about personal and political liberty have suggested a link between where you choose to live and how free you are. In the podcast we explore 3 different ideas about this choice: The ideas in "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau: finding freedom by living self-sufficiently alone in a rural setting The idea of 'Galts Gulch' in "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand: finding freedom by living in a small community of like-minded people (again in a rural setting with an emphasis on self-sufficiency) The idea that 'City Air Makes You Free' (expressed by writers such as Jane Jacobs): finding freedom in the division of labour and diversity that cities provide. Arguably, the benefits of self-sufficiency have been overestimated in books like Walden and Atlas Shrugged, whereas the benefits of interdependence in cities have been under-appreciated by previous writers on liberty. It is suggested that Galt's Gulch wouldn't actually work in real life because it would lack the division of labour of a big city that is necessary to support the kind of advanced and specialised roles of it's inhabitants. In contrast, living in a city can provide many opportunities for greater work and personal freedom because of the benefits of the division of labour in cities. Show Notes Origin of the phrase City Air Makes You Free The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs Previous episode of The Voluntary Life about Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

This episode is a review of the book "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" by Tim Ferriss. It is a skype conversation with a group of friends. The ideas that we discuss include: taking mini-retirements and getting out of a one-track career mentality extended travelling testing new entrepreneurial ideas with sales pages on the web before starting outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant Tim Ferriss' personality and how it influences the style and content of the book

This episode is about how you as an individual can help alleviate poverty in a non-political, principled way. It's an economic view of how you can reduce poverty through economic development and the wealth that it generates. Jake presents ideas of the economist Ludwig Von Mises about how you can create economic progress and development, focussing on three key activities: creating technical innovation, which helps to make everything cheaper for everyone within the economy being an entrepreneur, which creates new value and wealth in the economy being a saver and investor, which provides resources for the future economic development (either of your own business or that of others) The podcast discusses how each of these activities help reduce your own poverty and that of the world as a whole. Show Notes Ludwig Von Mises The Anti-capitalistic Mentality Stephan Kinsella Against Intellectual Property

This episode is an interview with Kristov, an application security specialist, about what kind of measures individuals can take to ensure a level of security and privacy for their computers and their online life. In the interview, we cover security and privacy for a range of topics including: email use web browsing malware and viruses password managers data storage use of torrents VOIP and chat application security for entrepreneurs

The second part of the interview from the Becoming Who You Are Podcast. We talk about a whole range of topics including: The fear of criticism that can come up when putting creative work out there The challenges of being yourself at work The future of The Voluntary Life podcast The difference between abstract business planning and being conscious of what's really happening in your business now The balance between having dreams and staying in touch with reality Getting support from the people in your life Doing what you love

This episode is an interview with Marc de Mesel, who was previously on the show talking about investing in Europe. Marc runs a blog on investing in Europe in dutch and also an investing blog in english. In this episode, Marc talks about the hidden tax that is inflation. We discuss the difference between official inflation figures and the real loss of purchasing power that ordinary people experience. We also talk about ways in which an individual investor or saver can cope with inflation, including the advantages and limitations of precious metals as an inflation hedge. The discussion is opinion only and should not be considered any kind of financial advice. For more information about the concept of the permanent portfolio mentioned in the discussion, see Harry Browne's book "Fail-Safe Investing". You can also hear more about the Permanent Portfolio concept in this previous episode.

This is a repost of the latest Becoming Who You Are Podcast, where I was interviewed by the lovely host of BWYA, my partner Hannah. In Part 1 we talk about how The Voluntary Life began and about feeling free to be yourself in your friendships.

This is a short spontaneous speech by Jake taken from the Porc Therapy appearance in the previous show (see episode 66). It is about alternatives to political activism for getting more freedom in your life. I hope you enjoy it!

This is a repost of an episode of Porc Therapy hosted by Stephanie Murphy that Hannah and I appeared on. "My friends Jake from The Voluntary Life and Hannah from Becoming Who You Are join me today for this fun podcast-only show where our discussion centers around living free – now! We begin with a PorcFest 2012 wrap up, then talk about connecting over shared values, immigration issues, the Free State Project, civil disobedience and political activism (and our disagreements with both), Jake's amazing impassioned speech on living free!, intentional communities, permanent tourism and heading south to find freedom, living on a boat, someone who made his own island out of soda bottles, division of labor/going "off the grid," and Leonid Rogozov's famous self-appendectomy."

This episode is a review of "The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand. It is a group discussion and the guests include Stephanie Murphy from Porc Therapy and other friends. Here are some of the things we cover in the discussion: The book's gutsy title and the controversy surrounding it. The pros and cons of Ayn Rand's morality and her own moralising. Aspects of the book we found unconvincing, such as her dismissal of voluntaryism and her idea that no conflict of interest is possible between rational people. Rand's convincing takedown of ethical lifeboat scenarios. The fact that Ayn Rand is ignored in universities. The impact that some of Ayn Rand's contradictions (on intellectual property and on non-aggression) have had on the objectivist movement's development, especially it's pro-war stance on foreign policy. Her deconstruction of other moral theories that were around during her time. Plus, we have a lot of fun talking about her strange views on tapdancing and morality!

This episode is a continuation of the discussion I had with Brett Veinotte about how entrepreneurship is not taught at school and why. It was recorded live for the School Sucks Podcast at Porcfest. We talk about why it is that teachers are usually the last people who you would expect to learn entrepreneurship from and what you can do to learn it yourself. Sorry about the audio quality, it is a little choppy but still listenable.

This episode is part of a discussion that I had with Brett Veinotte from School Sucks Podcast at Porcfest. Brett and I talked about how entrepreneurship is totally alien to compulsory schooling. School prepares you for a life of working for someone else, whereas goals like working for yourself, growing a business and obtaining financial freedom are never discussed. We discuss things that you can do to overcome the conformity that school sets you up for, such as starting a business as young as possible (even whilst at school) and working to become financially independent of your parents as soon as possible.

This episode is an interview that Jake did on the Porc Therapy Podcast, recorded live at Porcfest 2012. In the interview, Jake talks about some of the things you can do to live more freely whatever society or economy you find yourself in, such as investing in friendships and living abroad.

This episode is an interview that Jake did on the Free Talk Live radio show. Jake talks about entrepreneurship as the best way to achieve more freedom in your life and to make the world a better place.

Matt and Molly have been unschooling their two children for a year. In this episode, they talk about their family's experiences during their first year of living as if school didn't exist.

An interview with George, who emigrated from Greece to resettle in the UK. George provides many suggestions that will be relevant for anyone considering emigration, even if you are not in the EU. If you do live in the EU, it is very much worth considering the opportunities of doing what George has done and relocating to a place that might better suit your needs.