The Joy of Not Working Can Have a Great Impact on Your Life

I received the following e-mail today:

From: Roslyn H.
To: "success101coach [ at ] yahoo [ dot] com
Sent: Thu, March 4, 2010 3:39:51 PM
Subject: Your Books Made a Great Impact on My Life!!

Hello Ernie,

I have read your books and am compelled to say that they have made such a huge impact on my life. I am an engineer--chemical and environmental--and worked at corporations that made exempt employees work 60+ hours a week.

And that was actually a good week. I was also on-call for a manufacturing fab 24/7 for 3 months straight! It exhausted me, so I quit. I returned to school for a masters because I didn't know what else to do. I found another engineering job in Colorado and after 1 week I knew that it wasn't going to work out for me either. So I went to the local bookstore to find books on improving my resume, and that's when I found your book The Joy of Not Working.

An angel must have placed it there just for me! The title caught my eye and I bought it immediately...never bought the book on improving my resume.

I was very excited to read your book because I couldn't believe someone else in the world felt the same way I did about a 40-hr workweek.

Reading your book was similar to listening to my thoughts but in an organized format without the curse words!

I quit that job and moved, and haven't had a real job since.

I even spent 3 months in Palm Beach, FL, laying around on the beach--my goal was to sit down by the beach and not get up until I Felt Like Getting Up.

I have spent some savings and tapped into other money, but I am ok about it because I am feeling emotionally and physically better than ever. I even look better.

My feelings of depression I was experiencing have gone away and replaced with a sense of well-being and confidence. I have reconnected with family and friends, and I spend more time with them and change my schedule to fit their's so I can see them.

In other words, I have re-developed my personal life!

Some of us don't belong in the corporate structure, but are creative and intelligent and require a venue.

You definitely found yours!

My creative venue is right at my fingertips...I can taste it.

Your books are wonderful and have made a great impact on me.

Keep up the great work!

Respectfully,

Roslyn H
Albuquerque, NM

When I get an e-mail like this, I feel a great deal of satisfaction from having written the book.

But I also think about the people who run down my books and post a negative review on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com where they totally thrash the book as if they knew what was good for everyone else. Of course, these reviews about The Joy of Not Working can sway people from reading the book and consequently deny them Happiness after Midlife

Because the last two Amazon.com reviewers of The Joy of Not Working were not that complimentary, this was my response to Rosalyn hoping to get a great review as I did on this Review of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free:

Hello Roslyn:

Thank you for your e-mail and your great comments about my books.

Even though I have received thousands of letters, phone calls, and e-mails about my books, it is always a pleasure to receive an e-mail like the one that you just sent to me.

I particularly thank you for your kind words about The Joy of Not Working.

If you have a spare moment, it would be a great help if you could post a 5-star review of it on Amazon.com and let other potential readers know why you liked it.

It's not necessary to write a lengthy, formal review — a summary of the comments that you sent to me would be fine (your e-maill is at the bottom of this page).

Here's a direct link to the review form for The Joy of Not Working.

http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?asin=1580085520

Also, if possible, can you place the review on BarnesandNoble.com.

If you place this review, I will send you an autographed copy of my best-selling How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free or Career Success Without a Real Job.

Alternatively, I can send you a copy of my second latest book called .
101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting.

In fact, if you place a 5-star review on both Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, I will send you two copies of my books.

I have attached the free e-books (in PDF format) with parts of the respective books to help you decide.

Once you place the review, send me your address so that I can send you one of my other books.

Many thanks and so long for now,

Ernie Zelinski
Author, Innovator, and Unconventional Career Expert
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 110,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Best Retirement Jobs
Retirement Gifts for Yourself
10 Reasons to Retire Early
Retirement Income for Unconventional Retirees

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Note: This is a one-time notification about The Joy of Not Working. Please do not consider it as SPAM.

Our retirement books are designed for corporations so that they can create GOODNESS, COOLNESS, and AWARENESS with clients and customers.

Even more important, our funky retirement books such as How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free help retirees and the soon-to-be retired earn their retirement karma points so that they retire happy, wild, and free.

If you have any objections, please respond and we will not send you further e-mails about our other life-changing books that we intend to release.

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Aggravations of Work

Aggravations of Work

Here are some quotes about work and the problems that accompany it:

If you have a job without aggravations, you don't have a job.
— Malcolm Forbes

You are no bigger than the things that annoy you.
— Jerry Bundsen

It's only work if somebody makes you do it.
— Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by Bill Watterson

Employees who think they know everything are very irritating to those of us who do.
— Unknown wise person

Boy, the things I do for England.
— Prince Charles (on sampling snake meat)

Depressed about not being able to retire as early as you would like? Then check out:

Office Humor

21 Retirement Websites and Blogs That May Help You Retire Early

Turkish Proverbs about The Joy of Not Working

Here is an e-mail that I recently received about The World's Second Best Retirement Book from someone in California who apparently is not having any fun at work :

----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Scott
To: vip-books (at) telus (dot) net
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: The Joy of Not Working .

Hello Ernie,

I just picked up your book The Joy of Not Working this weekend. The title sort of grabbed me. I have been out of work since April and (so far) have found very little joy in it. Then I came to page 50 and fig 4.2 with the two boxes of before and after for a workaholic. It was me. My marriage had been bad for years and finally ended earlier this year. In effect I had already crossed off one item in my box a long time ago. Then my employer decided to help me cross off the other one. No wonder I felt lost, desperate, alone, and with no idea where to turn. The only two things that mattered to me were gone. From that I went through one compulsion after another. First women (the serial dater), exercise, you name it. None made me happy. Now I realize it’s not about finding a passion, it’s about finding all of them. I am going to get to work right now filling up my box.

Thanks for steering me in the right direction. I’ll take it from here.

Tom

Sonoma, CA

And here are three Turkish Proverbs that I used in my speech about The Joy of Not Working to the Turkish National Society for Quality in Istanbul on November 26th.

1. All work and no play will make such a dull boy.
   — Turkish proverb
2. If God closes one door, He opens a thousand others.
   — Turkish proverb
3. There is no right way to do a wrong thing.
   — Turkish Proverb
   

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