We caught up with Leo Babauta today. He is one of the most popular bloggers in the world today with over 140,000 subscribers. He is also in Technorati's Top 100 Blogs List. He is one of the most successful bloggers in Internet history (hint: he made a lot of money by blogging). His insights into life and work are invaluable.
Are YOU Hungry?
Let's eat...
1. What's life like after all the success you've had after Zen Habits exploded?
It's been amazing. For the first time in my life, I'm able to make a living doing something I love. I have the freedom to work on projects I'm passionate about, and to ignore ones I'm not. That's never happened before in my life and it's absolutely revolutionary. I wish it on anyone who wants to be happy.
2. Take us back to when you started Zen Habits.
I really had no goals for Zen Habits in the early days, no expectations, and no idea what I was doing. I just wrote about things that interested me, that I was working on in my life, that were working for me, and people seemed to like it.
The early days were nice because when you only have a few readers, you can develop a pretty intimate (though non-sexual) relationship with each one of them. I responded to every comment and every email in the first 6 months. Also, with a small audience you don't self-censor as much as you do with a larger one, and there's no pressure to produce really good posts.
I'm not complaining about my success, though. :)
3. How can I as a blogger become better at what I do?
Write a lot, and read a lot, and reflect on all of it. The more you blog (and write in general), the better you get. Read a wide variety of blogs, magazines, books and other material, and reflect on what the writers are doing and why. There's no substitute for experience.
4. Where do YOU get ideas for all the things YOU write?
My life. It's a never-ending source of posts, as my life is a series of experiments, and my blog is my reflection on the results.
5. How do YOU manage to raise 6 kids while writing and running on the same time – on top of that, YOU'RE a vegan? Where do YOU get the energy to do all these?
I just do one thing at a time. It's the same way you eat an elephant -- one bite at a time. When I run, I don't think about all the work I have to do or all the things related to my kids -- I just run. Same when I write or play with my kids or read or eat.
6. Would you describe yourself as more visionary or execution oriented?
Execution, definitely. I have no vision for where I'm going. I just do what I love doing, and hope it turns out well.
7. Any advice you got early on that you didn’t take that you wish you had?
I've learned so much by doing that I would never have wanted someone to steer me in the right direction when I started out -- I'd have missed a lot of great learning. So my advice is to just do it -- don't worry about getting it perfect or what others will think or failure. Just do it, and learn from it.
8. Who are YOUR personal heroes?
I have too many to name, but it would be a cop-out if I didn't name a few. So: Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Tolstoy, Vonnegut, MLK, Obama, Kropotkin, Chomsky, Stephen Covey, my mom, my grandparents, my wife, my kids, my dad, my sisters, and anyone creating anything.
9. What are YOU hungry for?
I'm pretty content. I do love to help people, so I hope I can expand in that area.
10. How can I get a flat stomach?
Suck it in. Over the longer term, eat healthy, whole foods, eat less, and avoid processed stuff. And get active. It takes awhile.
11. In the Author Bio section of YOUR power of less blog, YOU wrote “Tripled his income” right after “Became a vegetarian.” Did becoming a vegetarian have anything to do with YOU tripling YOUR income?
Yes. One thing inevitably leads to another. I learned a lot from becoming a vegetarian -- including that we can adjust to just about anything if you do it slowly and gradually. This translates to increasing income more than you might think.
Please add any other stories, anecdotes or quotes that may help our readers.
My favorite quote is by Thich Nhat Hanh, and it's one that encapsulates my entire philosophy on life: "Smile, breathe, and go slowly."
Leo Babauta is a Top 100 blogger at ZenHabits.net with more than 140,000 subscribers, and the author of the best-selling book, The Power of Less (http://thepowerofless.com). He is also the creator of mnmlist.com, zenfamilyhabits.net, and writetodone.com, as well as several ebooks (http://zenhabits.net/books/).
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