How To Work From Anywhere In The World, Part 2

“Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.” – Samuel Johnson (quoted in Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson, July 20, 1763)

If you have the kind of job that allows you to do most of it from home, it’s not that difficult to convince your boss to let you spend some extra time every year doing it from somewhere else. The tougher part will be convincing yourself to do as good or a better job when you’re relaxed and happy in paradise.

What do you do if you aren’t in such a position? Is it possible to replant your job if you are not a seller/marketer or product/idea developer?

Yes, but it will take more work.

If you are a profit-center manager, you can relocate your business — sometimes — by picking up your entire department and moving it with you. That may turn out to be a tall order. First, you have to convince your boss that the business will benefit from such a move. Then, you’ll have to convince your good employees to go with you. And finally, you’ll have to make it work.

It’s tough but not impossible. I’ve seen it done many times. SH, a customer service manager who worked for me years ago, moved her division when she moved her home. She promised us the same performance she had been giving us before at the same prices. We liked the idea of having fewer employees and allowed her to do it on a provisional basis. It worked out perfectly.

JC, a fulfillment manager, took about 15 employees with him when he moved from Boca Raton to Miami and converted his operation from a centralized one to a free-lance, piecemeal one. The results were great: better service and lower costs. The “glicken”: the people who worked for him made more money.

TS took his lettershop operation to his corner of paradise, bringing practically nothing but his credibility as a get-it-done guy. He rented new machines and hired new employees. Before we knew it, he was doing more of our work, and more quickly, than he had ever done before. Today, he has a substantial business that supports him very well.

The bottom line is this: If you are self-employed or if you are a fast-track employee (seller/marketer, idea/product developer or profit-center manager), you should be able to find a way to spend at least some time every year working from paradise.

It’s not something you need to do and certainly not something you need to do right away. I worked for 30 years before I tried it. But it is something you may want to think about.

[Ed. Note.  Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]