Chris Brogan - The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth: Entrepreneurship for Weirdos, Misfits, and World Dominators

Cover illustration: chiroptera by Ernst Haeckel

Cover design: C. Wallace

Copyright 2014 by Chris Brogan. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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ISBN 978-1-118-80055-3 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-80021-8 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-80031-7 (ebk)

To Violette and Harold, who are the best freaks I know.

To anyone who's ever felt like the misfit or the weirdo:

you will inherit the earth (with some work).

The Guardians of the Galaxy is being made into a movie.

As the first edition of this book goes to press (wishful thinking implied here), Marvel is releasing probably their weirdest and most risky movie idea to date. Made from a crazy comic book that covers a bunch of misfits engaged in intergalactic warfare, the cast involves a tattooed warrior, the daughter of a supervillain, a tree-like creature that says only one word repeatedly throughout the movie, and an alien that looks every bit like a raccoon, but don't let him hear you say that. Oh, and a funny human, so that we have a point-of-view character.

What does this have to do with business? Well, first off, movies are pretty big business, right? They cost millions to make, require hundreds of approvals, and expect to draw millions of people to the theater to see them. Who in their right mind thought The Guardians of the Galaxy would be a good movie for Marvel to put up on the screen?

The freaks already have inherited the earth, my friend. Weirdos and misfits are now the world dominators. It used to be that all the crazy fringe interests of the world were absolutely underground. Now, the underground has become the core of a thriving and somewhat hard-to-track new economy. Trends have a hard time covering this stuff, unless we start squinting.

That jobless recovery? Where are all those people going? I'll tell you one group of people who aren't rushing back to their cubicles: freaks. Instead, they're becoming artisan pickle makers in Brooklyn, punk rock dog groomers in Memphis, and zombie apocalypse race organizers in Boston. More experiences like this happen all the time.

Are you using your degree as it was intended in your current job? Lots of people aren't. How is the education system keeping up with the velocity of change in what actually constitutes a real job? There are thousands of people who can now list YouTube celebrity or podcasting megastar on their tax return, thereafter reporting their seven-figure experience for the previous year. You can't get a degree in making YouTube videos (yet).

Is this book for you? Man, I really hope so. I hope this book is a battle cry, a belief that I can totally do this, and provides a sense of support, especially if you're not getting it elsewhere. Skateboarder and businessman Tony Hawk said his parents supported his choices from an early age, but that's not always the case. Some freaks have to buck a lot of family and friends to go where their heart says to go.

Well, here's your first opportunity to join that revolution yourself. Or at least to feel like you're not alone, which is a really powerful feeling if you ask me.

If you bought this book, thank you. If you took this out of the library, well, I grew up hiding in libraries and plotting world domination between the stacks. If you have in some way been forced to read this by a teacher or professor, I swear I never knew my books would be used for homework. If you get stuck, I promise I'll help ().

If you're reading this in the hopes that it'll motivate you to buy the book, ask yourself a simple question: Are you someone who really wants to blend in and be part of the background, or do you secretly have a wild side, maybe a hidden tattoo, and are awaiting the battle cry?

Calling all freaks!

Oh, and you don't have to like The Guardians of the Galaxy. We're not all into the same stuff. That would be conformity. Right?

Disruption has become the norm in business. But this doesn't always mean massive and world-changing disruption. Sometimes, it just means that the world is a bit more open to conducting business the way you'd prefer to do it these days.

I'm writing these lines in a hotel room, but I could just as easily be staying in someone else's guest room, thanks to AirBNB.

Earlier today, I had a call with a woman who heads marketing for a software company. She chose the job so she could work from home, spend more time running, and not have to spend time in a cubicle. I referred a purple-haired girl who used to work at a reputable Canadian company for a freelance gig in Dallas where the young woman will be working at the kind of company that wouldn't normally hire someone with purple hair. But these days, they will.

Why? Because the freaks are about to inherit the earth.

You picked up this book for one of a few reasons:

• You know me already and just want to see what I'm jabbering about this time.
• You want to know what a book about freaks is really about.
• You've felt like a freak (or like one that is in hiding) for much of your life and are wondering if I can offer any advice.

The premise of this book is really simple: 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?

Does that resonate with you? Then you're in the right place. Not sure? Well, perhaps you should keep reading. If you love fitting in, doing what you're told, and being just like everybody else, you're going to have a bad time (http://hbway.com/badtime).