The Voluntary Life

An interview with Judd Weiss, entrepreneur and author of the Hustlebear.com blog. Judd has been an entrepreneur since he was 14. He became a millionaire by the age of 24 and has launched successful businesses in diverse industries including selling watches online, commercial real estate brokerage and parking. Judd talks about some of the principles behind successful entrepreneurship. Topics include: How accepting that you start out both ignorant and incompetent can help you succeed Why success normally comes just after the point when most people quit Why you don't have to be interested in the product you are selling What a young startup entrepreneur can use to differentiate themselves from much older and better connected competitors The impact that pursuing entrepreneurial success can have on your personal relationships

Financial Freedom is an achievable goal. But what exactly is it and how does making financial freedom your goal differ from more traditional financial goals? A common approach to personal finance goes something like this: MAINSTREAM ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT PERSONAL FINANCE the goal of personal finance strategies is material wealth and comfort; the method is getting a secure job; the measure of how well you are doing is your salary; debt should be used, with caution, to obtain consumption items (mortgage for a house, loans for a new car etc.); provision for the future should be made through a pension. A approach aimed at financial freedom is completely different in every way: ASSUMPTIONS WITH FINANCIAL FREEDOM AS YOUR AIM the goal of personal finance strategies is financial freedom (the level of wealth is optional); the method is entrepreneurship; the measure of how well you are doing is how long before you have to work again, where passive income - expenses > 0 debt should not be used for consumption items, but might optionally be used with caution to further entrepreneurship and value generation; provision for the future is made through creating passive income streams. Thoughts on how to adopt financial freedom as your goal are provided in the podcast. The views expressed are only my opinion about this subject and I am not any kind of financial advisor.

You can still have a lot of freedom if you are working for somebody else. Here are some suggestions of what you can do to transform your job and liberate yourself. The youtube documentary about a Brazilian company that is mentioned in the episode is called "The Caring Capitalist".

This episode is a discussion with startup entrepreneurs including the founders of choreplan.com and knowitapp.com. We talk about the ideas in two great books on entrepreneurship: The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki and Reworkby Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

A podcast for those considering starting a business. The episode starts with a look at the value of entrepreneurship as a path to obtaining freedom in your own life and some background to my own experience with entrepreneurship. Two key questions are addressed: how do you choose which project to pursue as a new entrepreneurial venture? Also, how do you overcome the fear of getting started?

Part 3 in a series on about the potential for voluntary, free market solutions to urban planning problems. In this episode we discuss the potential for more voluntary kinds of urban communities, urbanisation in the developing world and the future of cities. The discussion is based around ideas presented in the book The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society edited by David T Beito, Peter Gordon and Alexander Tabarrok. Special guests in this episode are Peter Gordon (co-editor of The Voluntary City) and Adam, Stephen and Emily, who are the authors of the blog Market Urbanism.

Part 2 of a series about the potential for voluntary, free market solutions to urban planning problems. In this episode we discuss the potential for voluntary land use planning. The discussion is based around ideas presented in the book The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society edited by David T Beito, Peter Gordon and Alexander Tabarrok. Special guests in this episode are Peter Gordon (co-editor of The Voluntary City) and Adam, Stephen and Emily, who are the authors of the blog Market Urbanism.

This is the first of a series about the potential for voluntary, free market solutions to urban planning problems. This discussion is based around the topics covered in the book The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society edited by David T Beito, Peter Gordon and Alexander Tabarrok. Special guests in this episode are Peter Gordon (co-editor of The Voluntary City) and Adam, Stephen and Emily, who are the authors of the blog Market Urbanism. In the discussion we make reference to Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and to Robert Moses, the urban planner who's destructive impact is discussed in the book The Power Broker.

A review of Robert Heinlein's libertarian science fiction novel, "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress"

A discussion of Ayn Rand's semi-autobiographical novel We the Living. Published in 1936, We the Living was the first novel to emerge in the West that described life in Russia during the communist revolution of 1917 and was written by someone who experienced it.

Part 3 in a series on unschooling. This episode is about implementing an unschooling approach. Special guests are Brett Veinotte, host of School Sucks Podcast, Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio and Debbie Harbeson, unschooling parent and author of "OK Kids, Time for Bedlam"

Part 2 in a series on Unschooling. Special guests are Brett Veinotte, host of School Sucks Podcast and Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio.

Part one of a series of podcasts on Unschooling. This episode is a discussion of one of the most influential books about unschooling: Instead of Education by John Holt. Special guests are Brett Veinotte, host of School Sucks Podcast and Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio. "Education... now seems to me perhaps the most authoritarian and dangerous of all the social inventions of mankind. It is the deepest foundation of the modern slave state, in which most people feel themselves to be nothing but producers, consumers, spectators, and 'fans,' driven more and more, in all parts of their lives, by greed, envy, and fear. My concern is not to improve 'education' but to do away with it, to end the ugly and antihuman business of people-shaping and to allow and help people to shape themselves." John Holt 1976

This episode is a discussion of personal experiences of different stages of unjobbing: barriers to doing it, planning for it, working towards it and achieving an unjobbed life. In the discussion we refer to the book "Un-Jobbing" by Michael Fogler. Other references in the discussion include the book "Vagabonding" by Rolf Potts and Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement speech.

The first of a two part series about "Unjobbing": breaking free of the rat-race to do only things that you love with your life. In this episode we explore the idea of Unjobbing set out in the book "Un-Jobbing : The Adult Liberation Handbook" by Michael Fogler. Other books referred to in the discussion include "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki.

A discussion of Ayn Rand's classic libertarian novel Atlas Shrugged.

This episode is a short discussion and recommendation of Lysander Spooner's great book "No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority". The book is a brilliant critique of the legality of any constitution and the validity of any idea of a social contract.

This episode is a discussion about two different approaches to investment. The first approach comes from Harry Browne's idea of the Permanent Portfolio, which you can find in his book Fail-Safe Investing. The second approach is focussed on investing purely in precious metals as a way to protect your wealth. Both approaches are concerned with investing for financial freedom and protecting your hard earned savings in the context of turbulent economic conditions.

Part 2 of a discussion about Ayn Rand's individualist novel, "The Fountainhead".

A discussion about Ayn Rand's individualist novel, "The Fountainhead". This is part one of a two part series.

Part two of a discussion about the ideas of personal freedom in Harry Browne's book "How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World".

Part one of a discussion about the ideas of personal freedom in Harry Browne's book "How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World".