The “life-changing” book that has helped 55k+ people imagine a better story for work & life
A powerful personal story of self-discovery, a shattering of conventional work beliefs, and an exploration of what matters. Follow Paul’s journey as he quits his job, faces his money fears head-on, travels abroad without a plan, falls in love, and finds a portal to a new way of being.
Start Reading Or Listening
Read the introduction here (pdf) or listen to the first part (podcast) to preview the book!
You can also read the first two chapters on Amazon.com for free here
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE BOOK
(THESE ARE ACTUAL READERS, I DON’T DO BLURBS OR REQUEST TESTIMONIALS)
“I could easily see this book having the cultural impact of Rolf Pott’s Vagabonding.” – Amazon Book Review
“I just finished the last 100+ pages this morning and I can confidently say that this is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in my life.”
Justin Welsh, Solopreneur & Creator
I hadn’t prioritized reading it since I assumed I’d know what it was about from his newsletter, but no… this is polished and fresh content. It really should be a mainstream airport bestseller type book, not niche subculture blogger self-published book.
– Venktatesh Rao, Ribbonfarm
“Like the four-hour workweek, but attainable.” – A Reader
The best non-fiction book I’ve read in a while. It helped stop me from frantically applying for jobs and be intention with choosing what to work on instead
– Trisha Lim, Digital Nomad & Software Developer
This is fast becoming one of my most highlighted books.
-Ali Abdaal , YouTuber
From Getting Ahead to Coming Alive
Part 1: The Default Path
Exploring the history of work through my own aggressive pursuit of a prestigious and impressive career
1. Introduction: An exploration of the default path of success, what the pathless path really is about, and why it matters
2. Getting Ahead: My journey of learning how to become a “hoop-jumper,” breaking into strategy consulting, going to business school, and then how dealing with the loss of my health and someone important changes what I value
3. Work, Work, Work: An exploration into the history of work and trying to make sense of our current relationship to work around the world and some of the fundamental flaws
4. Awakening: The start of a slow but steady drift towards a breaking point while I discover an inner creative and experimental energy that needs to be expressed
5. Breaking Free: Quitting my job and taking the dealing with the loss of an important identity
6. The First Steps: Learning how to prototype a life shift, opening up to possibility and wonder, finding the others, taming my fears and deepest insecurities
Part 2: The Pathless Path
Embracing a different kind of journey, one focused on coming alive, embracing uncertainty, experimenting, and being open to possibility
7. Wisdom of The Pathless Path: Embracing non-doing, falling in love, taking extended breaks, leaning into leisure, re-thinking retirement and money, and learning to trust the world
8. Redefine Success: How to shift away from the default modes of success and towards your own definition, designed around building your own tribe, defining enough and shifting beyond scarcity mindset
9. The Real Work of Your Life: Engaging in the real work of your life: finding the things you want to keep doing. In addition, unleashing your inner creative spirit, figuring out how to be useful and injecting hope into the journey
10. Playing The Long Game: How to sustain the journey by working backward from who you don’t want to be, learning to reinvent yourself, embracing abundance, creating your own culture, and developing your own principles
Book Trailer
MORE PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE BOOK
(AGAIN, ACTUAL READERS, I DON’T DO BLURBS OR REQUEST TESTIMONIALS)
Fortunately, the Internet makes the pathless path possible like never before. When you share ideas on the Internet, you can work from anywhere in the world and create opportunities from the comfort of your couch. Your rate of learning is limited only by your curiosity and thirst for knowledge. I know Paul’s ideas are legit because he lives what he preaches. He’s my neighbor in Austin, and whenever I run into him, he’s in a state of blissful joy while I’m slaving away on some challenging project.
– David Perell, Writer & Creator
This book is about designing an embodied life. A life that embraces calculated chances because that is what living is. You get one life. You can order off the menu. If any of this sounds cliché, it’s because the question of how to live a life is as old as philosophy. And yet, Paul Millerd, in 2022, has published the sum of his story in such a way that it adds to the conversation. More than ever, its message is relevant and practical.
– Kris Abdelmessih, Retired Trader & Writer
What I really liked about this book is that it is the opposite of what I anticipated: it has zero hacks or to-do lists. Paradoxically, it has a more methodical, applied method toward reinventing yourself and your career than I have read about anywhere else.
– Charlie Becker, Writer & Professor