Blog | Michael Knouse

Another Kind Of Work

There are two kinds of work. The first kind of work is contributing to someone else’s dream or endeavor. At the end of the day you’re building something for someone else. It may not be your favorite thing to do, but you do it. You show up and you agonize through it. Most people do this. There’s another kind of …

I have a steady paycheck and good benefits. Why am I so miserable?

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T. S. Eliot The truth is that I was pretty miserable in my days of marketing and selling corporate software solutions. Was I successful? Yes and no I suppose. Anyone looking at things from the outside would think that I had it […]

My First Year Of Being In Business Without A Job

Well, it’s been just over a year since my corporate layoff and making the decision to work for myself full time. The past year has been filled with moments of excitement, apprehension, satisfaction, fear and all the other feelings you might associate with riding on a roller coaster with no seat belt. Sometimes it’s the most amazing feeling in the […]

What Time Away Taught Me

I have spent much of my adult life struggling to believe that it’s okay to simply relax and do nothing. I grew up believing that my value was directly connected to what I accomplished every day. If I wasn’t producing something tangible, I would quickly begin to feel anxious and unsettled. After a lifetime of taking short vacations, this year […]

Let Adventure Be Your Guide

“Wander a whole summer if you can. Time will not be taken from the sum of life. Instead of shortening, it will definitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal.” – John Muir Yesterday morning started off with the intent to run three miles with my wife. We took off from the campground and headed in the direction of the […]

Unplug From The Ordinary

And so…the adventure begins. I’m sitting at a picnic table in Crater Lake National Park in my home state of Oregon this afternoon. It’s the start of a 3-week summer road trip that will take my wife and I away from the busyness of our day-to-day lives. We’ve spent the last five days with our 12-year-old black lab, hiking, roaming, […]

Narrow Down and Find Focus

One of the hardest things I’ve had to learn as a new solopreneur is to narrow down my options and find focus. Starting out, I was all over the place. And this served me at the time because I was exposing myself to many new ideas and ways of doing things. But there comes a time when you must narrow […]

Who Am I to…

I just returned from Wanderlust Festival where I immersed myself in music, yoga, and fresh mountain air for four days. I joined my wife, my sister and a bunch of friends in beautiful Squaw Valley, CA for an easy summer getaway . Or so I thought. Isn’t it funny how life sneaks in the big revelations when you’re least expecting […]