The Joy of Not Working
August 19th, 2008 Posted in Financial and Non-Financial ReviewsIf this is your first time here, You may want to subscribe to ADJ via RSS. If you are reading this page via RSS reader, you can visit the main page here -Canada’s Personal Finance Blog
The Joy of Not Working
Imagine that an undergraduate engineering student is doing the following:
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Taking a year off
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Quitting school not once, but twice
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Skipping 85% of his classes
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Failing first-year English three times
If he is in a class of 250 students, what would you expect him to rank? The last possible rank (the 250th) or maybe the 150th?
This is not an imaginary story. This student is now the world famous author Ernie Zelinski. He did graduate, ranking 7th among those 250 students. 
Zelinski’s international bestseller The Joy of Not Working has sold over 250,000 copies and has been translated into 17 languages in 21 countries.
I just finished reading this book, and was greatly inspired by it. While reading The Joy of Not Working, I had the feeling it was I, not Ernie who wrote it. I could not have agreed more with everything he said, each paragraph, every sentence, and every word. It was such a feeling … it was just like reading my own thoughts expressed eloquently by someone else. Perhaps this is because I am going through a phase in my life in which I desire to live on my own terms, and that is what Zelinski talks about in this book.
I am happy to announce that Ernie Zelinski has agreed to an interview request. The interview will be conducted sometime next week, and I would like to offer my readers the opportunity to ask him some questions. Please email me your submissions over the next few days. I will pick a few of the best ones and include them in the interview. Also, I will be doing a review of The Joy of Not Working shortly.To submit your questions, you can email me through contact page, or you can leave a comment right underneath my postings.
Twenty- five summers ago, Ernie Zelinski asked for two months off work. His boss declined, but Ernie decided to take two months off anyway. He was fired upon his return. That was his last job and he has not worked since then.
Free E-Book – Download the preface, Chapter 1, and Appendix from The Joy of Not Working.
Buy the full version here
Some hand-picked posts you may want to read:
The Joy of Not Working – A. Dawn Journal Book Review
ADJ Interviews International Best Selling Author Ernie Zelinski
Your Money or Your Life – A. Dawn Journal Book Review
4 Responses to “The Joy of Not Working”
By Coupon Artist, Frugality and Smart Spending Blogger on May 1, 2009
I just found this, but it is a great post and a great book. I am very resistant to getting a traditional/typical 9-5 job (as I wrote here artofthecoupon.com/finding-job/ ) because I think once you get started you get trapped by the security and the lifestyle inflation that comes with a big salary. However, you are essentially selling so much of your life just to have more things. I think you can find a wonderful way to support yourself, freelancing and/or working for yourself and the freedom is worth any loss in salary you may take for doing so (given that you can pay for basic necessities of course).