Pop. Up Business School The Right Way to Start a Business. I just returned from a fantastic week at the annual Chautauqua event in Ecuador. This was my second Chautauqua and just like last year, it exceeded all expectations. Its amazing what can happen when you put a bunch of interesting, intelligent people in a gorgeous 1. At this years event, an attendee named Alan gave an impromptu presentation about why and how you should start a business and since it fit perfectly with the weeks other discussions about financial independence and happiness, I knew I had to get him on the podcast. Since leaving my job in August, Ive realized how important it is to have something meaningful to work on to fill the void after leaving your career so I think creating your own business is something everyone should consider. Crush It Gary Vaynerchuk Pdf File' title='Crush It Gary Vaynerchuk Pdf File' />On todays episode of the Financial Independence Podcast, hear why you should start your own business and learn the best way to do it Leggere una delle abitudini segrete delle persone di successo. Se vuoi raggiungere i tuoi obiettivi, impara a leggere di pi. Crush It Gary Vaynerchuk Pdf File' title='Crush It Gary Vaynerchuk Pdf File' />A side business can not only help ease the transition to early retirement, it can reduce the pressure on your portfolio after you quit and it can even help you reach FI sooner so listen to todays episode to find out the right way to get started Mad Fientist Hey, welcome, everybody, to the Financial Independence Podcast, the podcast thats all about financial independence and early retirement. On todays show, Im excited to introduce Alan from Popup. Business. School. I actually had the pleasure of meeting Alan just a couple of weeks ago in Ecuador, for the annual Chautauqua event. Alan was an attendee, but he offered to give a presentation on how to start a business. And it was fantasticIt fit perfectly in with all the other presentations of the week. It helped answer one of the biggest questions people have about financial independence and early retirement, and that is, What do I do nextAnd thats an incredibly important question to ask and answer. And thats something that I found over the last three months, since I quit my job, how important that is, and how important it is to have something that youre working towards and that youre working on. So, Im really excited to get him on the show, to talk about, not only why you should start a business, but how, and how you should do so in a way that doesnt jeopardize your pursuit of financial independence, and actually could help speed up your journey getting there. So, without further delay, Alan, thanks a lot for being here. I appreciate it. Alan Donegan Its my pleasure. Ive been looking forward to this. Mad Fientist Just a week ago, we just got back from a ridiculously incredible week we had in Ecuador for the Chautauqua. How did you find the experience Alan Donegan It was an incredible experience. Katie, my wife, and I came. And just to be sat in a 1. MMM, you, Jim Collins, and discussing our future, financial independence and all that stuff, was just an amazing week. Mad Fientist It was. It exceeded all my expectations as well. Was it what you expected or was it quite different Alan Donegan I think the biggest difference from what I expected was that there was less of a focus on the pure mechanics, math and strategies of how to get to financial independence. I think because a large part of the participants were actually well on the journey. And there was more of a focus on happiness, purpose and what to do after youve reached financial independence. That was the biggest thing that surprised me. Mad Fientist It was great for me because, yes, I think about the mechanics so much, but being there and hearing all the different perspectives onexactly what you said, the happiness part of it, just made it incredibly useful for me as well just hearing everyones stories and struggles. So yeah, I completely agree. It surprised me as well. It was a fantastic difference from what I expected the Chautauqua to be. So, thats great. You had a good time, and Im assuming Katie had just as good of a time. Alan Donegan Oh, yes. And I think well come again. It was brilliant. Mad Fientist Oh, wow Nice. Any major lessons learned, or any big changes in your personal journey from it or are you still processing it Its only been a week since weve been back and Im sure youve been ridiculously busy with normal life. Alan Donegan Katie and I are some of the most organized and geeky people around. So we had a tab for each of the one to one sessions we had with different questions that we have wanted to ask yourself, Jim Collins and MMM. The Sims Perfect Patio Stuff there. Weve written down those lessons which we then turned into an action plan of what were going to do now were back. Thats been taking us quite some time this week to make sure that we work out what all the actions are from the workshops. Weve got six or seven major ones that have come out of it such as more of a focus on tax advantage accounts, as opposed to just putting it outside tax advantage accounts. Then obviously, we need to translate the American advice into an English platform, so that we can actually implement it. Mad Fientist Thats right. So yes, maybe people have picked on this, but you are not from America. Where exactly are you fromAlan Donegan I am not American. Yes, Im Alan. Im from England. Im from South of England, a place called Basingstokeor Amazingstoke as I like to call it. Mad Fientist Thats a little inside joke from the Chautauqua. Weve got a lot of laughs when he introduced himself, and he was quite offended by it because even though Jill was not from America, nobody laughed when she said she was from Scotland. But everybody seemed to laugh when he said that, Im Alan, and Im from England. Yes, a little inside joke. So youre from Basingstoke. It is quite a different journey, Im assuming, when youre pursuing FI in the U. K. Well get to that as well. But yes, maybe just give a little background about how you got on this journey and where you guys are at. Alan Donegan So how we got on the journey, weve read some Robert Kiyosaki books, I dont know if youve ever read Rich Dad, Poor Dad many years ago. And he spoke about the difference between an asset and a liability. And up until that point, Id never owned an asset, which quite shocked me. So, we spent some time working to buy assets which we own a couple of small flats that we rent out which led us onto all sorts of study and learning, which, eventually, a friend sent us to Mr. Money Moustaches website, which that led to your blog which we devoured, which led to one called The Escape Artist, which is a U. K. specific one, which we also devoured. And eventually, Katie and I were both from the same page that this was something we wanted to achieve. So we set the goal of getting it all done by my 4. September 2. 01. 8. We spent the last 1. Its about two years until we make the jump to being financially independent. Mad Fientist Thats fantastic You mentioned The Escape Artist. Are there any other good U. K. or European blogs that you would recommend because I know a lot of people ask meThere are a lot of people in the audience that are from the U. K., and they just want some U. K. specific things. Are there any other ones that you found useful Alan Donegan No. The short answer is Ive not found a lot. One of the first books we read on this was actually Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins. And it must have taken Katie and I three months to translate that from American to English. And I know we speak the same language, which is quite shocking. But since then, its got a lot easier. For any of the English people listening out there, there is some very easy stuff. The 4. 01. K is a pension. A Roth 4. 01 is an ISA.