July 17, 2018

Meet Our Mentors

July 17, 2018/ Emily Orton

by EMILY ORTON

A few weeks ago I wrote about drinking the Kool-Aid and how we can leverage our natural inclination to conform by deliberately choosing who we want to follow and then giving them lots of space in our brains. That’s what we did with Totem.

In early 2014 our family of seven moved out of our small Manhattan apartment into an even smaller boat where we lived for most of that year. We did lots of two-steps forward one-step back preparations. We’ll tell more in our upcoming memoir available March 2019. Nothing beats just starting, but one of the most important steps for facing our fears was finding mentors.

March 08, 2018

So I Was Reading in My Journal...

March 08, 2018/ Erik Orton

“So I was reading in my journal...” is how I’ve started a lot of sentences this week. Emily has been very kind to listen to all my reminiscing. It’s often said that reading our journals can give us a sense of perspective, but I hardly ever do it, until now.

April 20, 2017

You Are What You Read

April 20, 2017/ Erik Orton

I have a habit of rereading books I like. But I don’t reread the whole book. I like to skim through while I’m eating my bowl of cereal in the morning, only reading the bits I’ve underlined or highlighted. I get reminded of all my favorite ideas and it stokes my fire for the day. Here’s a selection I bracketed in Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek. As I re-read it, I found myself nodding my head in agreement, realizing how reading these kinds of books were a big part of what helped us get ourselves off the dock. Several years later, I literally hear myself saying the exact same things I underlined.