Archive for the ‘What I'm Thinking About’ Category

WE Is The New Me!

Today is my 10 month NO MONEY-VERSARY!

Wow, it feels like just the other day that I embarked on this rather exciting, and somewhat crazy little experiment. (“somewhat?” my cheeky side-kick sniggers in the background… thanks for the support Anita!)
You’ve heard people talk about “life changing experiences”… well this has definitely been one. This journey has been filled with highs and lows, but way more highs than lows.

I would like to thank EVERYBODY who has supported me. I won’t be doing so individually because it would take too much time…but you know who you are. The truth is it is only possible to live without spending money if you’re supported by other people. If nothing else, living this way has taught me about the power of relationships… and I am blessed with truly awesome relationships. If wealth was measured in friendships… the no money guy would be the richest guy in the world!

When I started, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I applied the “jump off the cliff and grow wings” philosophy. I knew that if I waited until I had the perfect plan, I may never have begun. In hindsight, that may not have been the ideal way to go about it. In my first year A LOT has not gone according to plan. There are things that I definitely would have done differently, some that I would not have done at all and many that I wish I had done. In light of that, I am committed to making year 2 even better!

The first regret is that this journey has hardly been documented at all. I have not done the best job with my blog and my use of video (especially in the beginning) was limited. I always saw this as an online, open source, creative commons type collaboration – this has not materialised.

Having not documented the journey as much as I would have liked, I feel that I have not been able to make what’s possible without spending money more inclusive. What I mean by that is, I don’t how many people have actually seen the ‘how and the why of it’ and experimented with it themselves. If I just go for 5 years without spending money and nothing changes, what would be the point?

And lastly, and this is the one that stings the most, I have given very little money away in the last 10 months. One of my main motivators for beginning this project was to make a lot of money to give away. My target for the 5 years is in fact an ambitious R555 555 555.55! I still get a little fright every time I write it or say it out loud!

SO… what have I Iearned? Well, I can now see very clearly that I could never have done those things on my own. There are just some things that I am not good at. If there was a team of people, all sharing their skills, talents, ideas, resources and networks, the last 10 months would have had a much greater impact. The focus was on one guy living without spending money, when it should have been on the people who make that possible.

So WE is the new me!

In the next 2 months I am committed to building a team that is inspired to take this project to the next level. I have a vision that is too big for me to manifest alone. I can see now that my biggest strength is in connecting with people…let’s see how good I am at it. My commitment to this vision is to attract the right people to create it with me. If you are reading this you may be one of them… are you?

So if you have skills, ideas, resources and experience that would help us make a lot of money to give away, and to tell an amazing story – I would love to hear from you.
Yes, I said “WE”…I already have a few people who have said YES to this… but now we need a lot more. What do YOU say?

Please join in this discussion in my Facebook group if you are keen:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=12834&uid=136255177672

Thanks again and much love
Adin & Team

GO TEAM!!!!!

This Is Me Blogging About Blogging

The other day I blogged about my promise to blog everyday, here is the post: Joe’s Gonna Help Me Keep Goals In 2010

You may think that blogging everyday is an easy thing to promise, but let me assure you, for me it’s huge.  In fact, it is such a big thing for me that I broke my promise on day 2 already. Nice going Adin!

Many people give up on a goal altogether when they don’t stick to it perfectly, but I’m not going to do that. I know how important blogging is to the success of my mission so I am persevering, no matter what!

It’s weird, isn’t it? Living for 5 years without spending money doesn’t scare me but blogging does! I’m not sure what’s so scary about blogging but it just is. Maybe scary is too strong a word. Maybe it is just that blogging (or writing in general) doesn’t come naturally to me, well not yet any way. I’m hoping that as I do it more regularly it will get easier.

I guess some things comes naturally to people, and some things don’t. Maybe writing will never come easy to but I am sure I can better, with practice. I flippen hope so, let’s see what happens :-)

I am much more comfortable talking than writing. I’m hoping when my Flip video camera arrives my blogging experience will change drastically. I reckon I will find it much easier to capture memorable moments as they happen on camera and just upload the videos.  I’ve done a few videos with my blackberry and with other people’s cameras and I found it quite easy to do. With a little editing practice too I am sure I can put out some pretty cool videos in the not too distant future.

I would like to say thanks to my friend Steve Jones who bought me the Flip camera. Steve has been telling me for a while to do videos and I promise to do his gift justice. Oh, he also takes the 4th spot on My Right Arm for his contribution to my experiment…thanks Steve.

Still don’t know what My Right Arm is…well I better get onto blogging about that shouldn’t I? In the meantime, check out this video.

(if you are reading this as a note on Facebook, you can watch the video on YouTube, here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FqqVfAmLPQ or on Facebook, here is the link http://www.facebook.com/adinvanryneveld?v=app_2392950137&ref=name#/video/video.php?v=261670015714

I am feeling better already, sharing feels good,  thanks for listening :-) LOL, sounds like I am in a support group or something – “Hi my name is Adin and I suck at blogging!”

Cool, I got this one in before midnight so it counts, I BLOGGED TODAY!!!!!

I guess, you’ll hear from me sooner rather than later.

Much love

Adin

P.S.

Steve Jones is the creator of A Simple Guide to Making a Difference and a real good guy!

Check out his blog for more info http://asimpleguidemdcom.wordpress.com/

or add him on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=stephen+jones&init=quick#/stephentj?ref=search&sid=647030714.2018590139..1

I Love It When People Tell Me I Won’t Reach My Goal!

On Friday I went to the 27Dinner with Telana and Mongezi.  I love telling people about about my crazy ideas and I was really looking forward to seeing how the geeks would respond. I got one response in particular that I did not expect!

The gentleman featured in the video below was fine with me living without money for 5 years…but when he heard about my other goal he was rather skeptical to say the least! If you don’t know what I am talking about let me refresh your memory.

Living without money doesn’t mean I can’t earn money, it just means I can’t use any of it for my own needs…I have to give it away. In fact, my idea to live without money evolved out of my idea to give as much money away as possible. A few months ago, friend suggested to me over coffee that I should make my goal measurable – so I came up with a number…a really really BIG number!

R555 555 555.55

That’s right! Five hundred and fifty five million, five hundred and fifty five thousand, five hundred and fifty five rand and fifty five cents!

When I told the guy in this video that I was going to give so much money away…he didn’t quite believe me. Now that is quite understandable, I don’t expect many people to believe me (sometimes I even doubt myself…not often but it doesn’t happen often…LOL). What did surprise me though, was the degree of his disbelief and the lengths he threatened to go to if (and when) I do succeed. Intrigued…

Watch:

(if you are reading this on Facebook, try watching on youtube rather)

I hope you enjoyed this video…there will be more to come. Thanks Telana for playing camera person!

I Am So Tired Of My PC Not Working!!!!!

I know, I  know, I have been really slack on the bloggin…I’m sorry! But seriously…my laptop has made it pretty hard to do anything!

Thank God for my Crackberry, without it I would have been so totally disconnected I think I might have died…

 

So, I have decided to say good bye to Windows (and viruses and all that kak) forever and take a brave leap into the world of open source. I may be one of the few non-geeks to go this route but I am tired of not being able to do stuff!

 

I just sent a request to my friend Ian Gilfillan on the Talent Exchange after reading his offerimg (see end of post) I am so excited…it just feels right! I will keep you updated on my transformation!

Also, I will give you all the skinny on my Joburg  trip as soon as I have the time on a machine that works!

First step Linux Ubuntu, next step Macbook Pro! 

Much love

Adin

 

Rid your machines of spyware and unlicensed software – install Ubuntu Linux

 

Did you know 1 in 3 of all PC’s in South Africa contain spyware. It’s usually Windows machines, mostly unlicensed.

I will install the latest release of Ubuntu Linux, 8.10, released in October, on your machine if you bring it to me.

Ubuntu Linux is a modern, secure operating system, perfect for the home office. – It’s Free software. Free to share, to make changes, to peek under the hood. And instead of fattening an American bank balance Free software helps developers around the world improve their skills

- Read Microsoft Office files with Open Office

- Powerful, secure, web surfing and email software built in

- Huge array of children’s educational games

- Lots of help and resources available online

- The basics are so similar to Windows you probably won’t notice the difference, but behind the scenes is a robust Linux engine.

- If you’re still running Windows 98, did you know that it’s unsupported by Microsoft, and wide open to spyware? Besides spyware, did you know that 25% of all computers are part of a botnet (ie taken over by remote attackers and used to send spam, or perform other illegal activities). Windows 98 is especially vulnerable. Windows XP support is also being scaled back by Microsoft.

- Runs well on older machines that can’t handle an upgrade to a bloated new Windows version

- Free software, initiated by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, and now the most popular desktop Linux distribution worldwide.

- No need to pay a large American company for a buggy, proprietary version of everything.

- Can be installed on the same machine as Windows if you’re worried about trying something new, or still need Windows for some reason. Alternatively, supply me with a CD (or buy one for T2) and I will burn you a copy for you to install yourself

- it’s really easy! If you’re unsure, email me for more info about the system.

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