如何一直做热爱的事？10年自由职业者说：
“你财富自由之后想做什么工作，现在就该做什么工作，这样的工作才是理想的工作。做这样的工作，你会很开心，能学到东西，充满激情。每天会从床上跳起来，一天不工作都不行。” ——巴菲特
上篇我们分享了巴菲特的演讲，很多朋友被这段话所打动，或许热爱的事无需财富自由后再去考虑，现在我们就可以开始实践。
但依然会冒出很多现实问题：
- 热爱可以变成职业吗？我不确定喜欢的事能不能养活自己。
- 现在的工作让我没有时间精力去尝试喜欢的事情。
- 我要裸辞吗？没有收入怎么办？
今天分享的文章来自Dan Silvestre，他通过设计**「最小可行生活」**，有计划的平稳过渡到了一名内容创业者和教练，并成功运转了10年。
如果你也想实现“一直做热爱的事”，这篇文章一定会给你启发。原文较长，以下是核心内容：
- 最小可行生活（MVL）和最小可行产品（MVP）类似。可以相对低成本的测试你喜欢的事情是否可行，并不断迭代甚至重新尝试。
- 首先你需要评估你的财务状况（包含储蓄和支出），从中抽出一笔梦想基金，计算自己在无收入的前提下，可以为自己喜欢的事情工作多久。比如我抽取了目前存款的20%，在无收入的前提下，以我目前的支出情况，我可以在北京为自己工作半年。
- 为了提高测试成功的可能性，重点是延长测试时间。
- **减少你的非固定支出：**包含住房、聚餐、会员等开支。比如我现在离开了北京，开始了数字游民生活，减少住房和日常成本之外，还可以体验不同地方的生活。在这个前提下，我的测试时间延长到了近1年。
- **增加额外收入：**在为自己工作的同时，可以抽出一小部分时间来兼职，这些收入将会流回你的梦想测试基金。
- 一旦收入开始覆盖日常开支，你的“热爱”就有机会持续运转下去了。
以下是博客的全文及翻译：
每个人都可以做自己喜欢的事情
Rain falls outside. The weather contrasts with my mood. I take another sip of the hot tea and write another sentence. And then another. The more I write, the clearer it becomes what I want to say and where I need to go next. The clackity noise of the keyboard and the sound of raindrops falling on the roofs become one. If there are other sounds, I can’t hear them. I’m in the zone. In the flow. The hands are mere translators of what my brain is thinking. I can feel the thoughts and connections on the screen. What a marvelous feeling. I love what I do. And so can you…
外面下着雨，天气与我的心情形成鲜明对比，我喝了一口热茶，写下一段文字，然后又写了另一段。我写得越多，我就越清楚我想说什么，我下一步该去哪里。键盘发出的“咔哒”声和雨滴落在屋顶上的声音融为一体，如果有其他声音，我听不到，我进入了心流状态。手只是我大脑思考的翻译工具，我可以在屏幕上感受到思考和联系。多奇妙的感觉！我喜欢我所做的事情，你也可以……
For the last 6 months, I’ve been working on my projects. A year into my first job out of university, I quit. I then worked as a freelancer for a while before moving to Sydney to take a job in a tech company. Nine months later, I realized I liked it better before. And so I went back to square one. But this time with a plan. A plan to start making. I started a community of productivity hackers. Finally got serious about blogging. Armed with a simple business plan and using OKRs as feedback loops, I went to work.
过去6个月，我一直在做我的项目。回想大学毕业后的第一年，我辞职做了一段时间的自由职业者，然后搬到悉尼，在一家技术公司工作，九个月后，我意识到我更喜欢以前的生活。于是我回到了起点，但这次有了一个计划，一个开始创造的计划，我开始做一个【生产力黑客社区】，并开始认真写博客。凭借一个简单的商业计划，搭配OKR作为反馈循环，我开始为自己工作了。
And in these six months I’ve achieved more than all the other years combined. While those experiences taught me a thing or two, shifting my perspective was the most important thing. I now accept that things are going to suck. In fact, I expect most things will. But if you put in the work and get in the habit of shipping stuff every week, eventually it not only becomes easier but also better.
在这6个月为自己工作的时间，我取得了比以往加起来还要多的成果。这些经历教会了一些事，但最重要的还是改变了我看问题的视角：我现在接受事情会变得糟糕，事实上，我预计大多数事情都会变得糟糕，但如果你付出努力并养成每周交付的习惯，最终它不仅变得更容易，而且变得更好。
This is not a bragging post. It’s a super condensed version of everything that I learned about work and happiness in the last 5 years. Learn to plan your escape to do what you love by building a Minimum Viable Life.
这不是一篇吹嘘的文章。这是我在过去5年中学到的关于工作和幸福的的浓缩精华。通过构建最小可行生活，学会有计划的改变原来的工作和生活，真正实现一直做热爱的事。
什么是最小可行生活
In tech, most companies start by developing a minimum viable product (MVP). You build a product with only the core features in order to gather feedback from early users. It’s the leanest way to test assumptions and know what you need to build in future product development. Less is more.
在科技领域，大多数公司都是通过开发最小可行产品（MVP）开始的。构建一个只有核心特性的产品，以便从早期用户那里收集反馈。这是测试和探索产品方向的最简单方式，**少即是多。**
The Minimum Viable Life (MVL) follows the same logic:
- Find the “core features” of your life: everything that doesn’t add value to your life is not core and you can live without it.
- Design the leanest possible version: once you focus only on the core features of your life, you might discover that you could already be working for yourself.
- Gather feedback early on and adjust as necessary: rather than a one-off, the MVL is a continuous process of iteration.
最小可行生活（MVL）遵循相同的逻辑：
- 找到你生活中的“核心特性”： 所有对你的生活没有价值的事情都不是核心，你可以没有它；
- 设计最简化的版本： 一旦你只关注你生活中的核心特性，你会发现你已经可以为自己工作了；
- 收集早期反馈并根据需要进行调整： MVL不是一次性的，而是一个持续不断的迭代过程。
The true beauty of MVPs lies in little commitment. Using Minimum Viable Life as a model gives you the same edge: if it doesn’t work, iterate and try again. And if that leads to nowhere, you are free to move on and try something else.
MVP的美好之处在于没有过多的成本。使用最小化可行生活作为模型可以给你同样的优势：如果不起作用，迭代并再试一次。如果没有任何结果，你依然可以继续前进，去尝试其他的东西。
是什么在阻止你做自己喜欢的事情？
I have been a freelancer for more than 10 years. I started doing writing and admin gigs at Elance (ah, those were the days!) around 16. Pay was great and allowed me to backpack around the world. Albeit part-time, I rather enjoyed doing it. And yet, I stopped doing it after college and went into banking instead.
我已经做了十年以上的自由职业者。我在Elance从事写作和行政工作，那时的薪水很高，让我背包环游世界。虽然只是兼职，但我非常喜欢这份工作。但我在大学毕业后却停止了自由职业，转而进入银行业。
Why? In one word? Fear. I was afraid I “wouldn’t make it on my own”, didn’t have the experience and expertise and had to “fake it ‘till I made it”. I conformed to social norms and did what was expected. But the truth is right there in the opening sentence of this section.
为什么？用一个词来形容？是恐惧。我害怕“自己无法独立生存”，没有经验和专业知识，必须“假装自己知道，直到做到为止”，我顺应社会规范，做了符合预期的事情。
After college, I had already been freelancing for more than five years. Was I the most successful freelancer in the world? No. Did I know everything about freelancing? Absolutely not. Did I know more than most people? Definite yes.
但事实是，在大学毕业后，我已经做了五年以上的自由职业。我是世界上最成功的自由职业者吗？不是的。我是否知道所有关于自由职业的知识？绝对不是。我是否比大多数人更了解一些？当然是的。
Fear held me back. And a couple of years later, I took another job because of it. What’s even crazier was that I was making a decent income already and was expecting it to ramp up in the upcoming months. Working for yourself is terrifying. It’s like driving on a road you don’t know on a foggy night. You barely see what’s ahead of you. Terrifying. And yet, that’s happens to be the best part.
但恐惧阻碍了我。几年后，我因此又换了一份工作。更疯狂的是，我已经有了不错的收入，并有机会在接下来的几个月不断实现更高的收入。为自己工作很可怕。就像雾天在一个你不熟悉的路上开车，你几乎看不到前面的路，这很可怕。然而，这恰恰也是最好的部分。
I don’t regret those experiences. They shaped who I am today and I learned a lot. It’s because of them that I am in the driver’s seat in my life today.
我不后悔那些经历。它们塑造了我今天的人生，我学到了很多东西。正是因为有了它们，我今天才掌控了自己的人生。
Want to do the same? Learn to conquer your fears. Believe in your projects and value. If you don’t, no one else will. People will see right through you. The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Use it.
想做同样的事情吗？学会征服恐惧。**相信你的项目和价值，如果你不相信，其他人也不会相信。**人们会看穿你。你拥有的唯一无人能及的东西就是你自己，去利用它。
设计一个最小可行生活
The first step of your Minimum Viable Life plan is to assess your current situation. You need to know your income — regular, passive, and savings — as well as your expenses — variable and fixed. Open the Minimum Viable Life spreadsheet and select “File -> Make a Copy” in the upper left. Add your numbers to the yellow boxes. Everything else is automatic.
**第一步是评估你现在的财务情况。**你需要知道你的收入——常规收入、被动收入和储蓄，以及你的支出——可变支出和固定支出。打开 Minimum Viable Life 电子表格，并在左上角选择“文件-》创建副本”，将数字添加到黄色框中。其他所有内容都是自动的。
Here’s a quick explanation of each category: Regular Income: what you currently make at your job (after taxes) Passive Income: any sources that provide income without doing any work Savings: wealth you saved up over time Variable Expenses: anything that you can get rid of or minimize if you want to (e.g. food, rent, entertainment) Fixed Expenses: anything that you truly cannot get rid of (e.g. college loans installments)
以下是每个类别的简要说明：
- 普通收入： 税后你目前在工作中的收入
- 被动收入： 任何可以不需要做任何工作就能提供收入的来源
- 储蓄： 你随着时间所积累的财富
- 可变费用： 任何你想要减少或者消除的项目（例如：食物、租金、娱乐）
- 固定费用： 你真正无法消除的项目（例如：大学贷款分期付款）
On the table you can see your runway: how long you can work for yourself until you run out of money given your initial financials.
在表格上，你可以看到你的测试时间——根据你最初的财务状况，在没有收入的前提下，你可以为自己工作多久，直到把钱全部花光。
延长你的测试/转型时间
Ideally, you want a runway of at least one year. It takes some adjusting to work for yourself and it will take some time until you rake in your first dollars. One year is a long enough to start making at least the amount of income needed to cover your expenses. Once that happens, you turn your crashing runway into an infinite one.
理想情况下，**你需要至少一年的时间来做这个测试。**在这一年中，你需要不断对自己工作做一些调整，你需要一些时间才能赚到第一笔收入。一年的时间足够长，足以开始赚取覆盖支出所需的收入。一旦收入实现覆盖基本开支，你的测试就逐渐转变为现实。
If you already have passive income streams, you can adjust the leeway needed. In any case, extending your runway is a matter of understanding your finances. There formula is: Savings + Income — Expenses. The easiest way to buy more time is to focus on the “Expenses” part of the equation.
另外，如果你已经有了被动收入来源，你调整的余地就会比较大。但无论如何，重点是延长你的测试时间，因此你需要了解你的财务状况，公式是：储蓄+收入-支出。购买更多时间的最简单方法是专注于方程式中的“支出”部分。
降低支出以增加测试时间
Let’s say this is how your runway looks like:
假设这是你的数据：
At the current burn rate, you are dead in the water on month 3. Let’s consider a few adjustments you can make:
- Moving to a cheaper city (influences all expenses)
- Finding a cheaper apartment to live in the current city
- Buying cheaper food and in bulk, eating the same meals most days
- Cutting back on dining out, going out, and entertainment
- Canceling subscriptions
按照当前的烧钱速度，你将在第三个月陷入困境。让我们考虑一下你可以做出的一些调整：
- 搬到一个更便宜的城市
- 在当前城市找一个更便宜的公寓
- 购买更便宜的食物和批量购买，每天吃同样的餐点
- 减少外出就餐、娱乐和消费
- 取消付费订阅
You decide to pursue a few of those options. Since you’re working from home and thus avoiding commute, there are no gas or public transportation costs. You will eat at home every day as well. Your new runway:
你决定对其中几个选项做重点调整。由于你在家工作，避免了通勤，没有汽油或公共交通费用，你也将每天在家吃饭。你的新的数据会变成这样：
You now have a 9-month runway. While not ideal, it’s 4.5x the previous scenario. That’s the power of cutting your expenses. You need to force yourself to think about what you can remove.
现在你有9个月的时间，虽然不理想，但比之前的情况多了4.5倍。这就是削减开支的力量。你需要强迫自己思考你可以削减什么。
A Minimum Viable Life is about making your runway as long as possible. Expenses are mere trade-offs: you are trading money for runway time. Once you look at it that way, few things are essential. The question becomes: “Do I want to spend money on this or instead extend my runway time?”
最小可行生活是尽可能延长你的时间。支出只是权衡：你在用钱交换时间。一旦你这样考虑，很少有东西是必不可少的。问题就是:“我想花钱在这上面，还是延长我的测试/转型时间？”
If you really want to work for yourself, you’ll choose the latter almost every time. You start to look at money in terms of “time”, instead of currency. Once you make that shift, you’re invincible.
如果你真的想要自己工作，你几乎每次都会选择后者。你开始用“时间”而不是货币来看待钱。一旦你做出了这个转变，你就是无敌的。
“更进一步”的最小可行生活
The safest way to start working for yourself it to take the non-commitment clause of MVPs one step further: work for yourself while working for others.
开始为自己工作的最安全的方法是将最小可行生活更进一步：
在为自己工作的同时，抽出一小部分时间为他人工作。
By doing so, you continue to bring additional money to your runway fund on a monthly basis. Work on your side-project before or after work. Aim for at least one hour per day.
通过这样做，每个月你将为你的测试基金带来额外的资金。每天可以至少额外兼职一小时。
And if you already know you want to work for yourself, lower your expenses from the get-go. No sense to keep burning money and your runway.This is exactly the plan I followed. I saved as much as I could by dramatically decreasing expenses. Soon enough I had a runway of more than a year.
如果您已经知道自己想为自己工作，请从一开始就降低支出。这正是我遵循的计划。我通过大幅降低支出尽可能地节省了资金。很快我就有了一年多的测试/转型时间。
Your escape is less than 6 months away. It’s up to you to take it.
你的测试时间很可能不到6个月，最终结果如何，取决于你是否采取行动。
