[quote style=”boxed”]Start fights with people who are wrong. Bullshit should be called out. You can’t be nice to everyone.[/quote]
Paul Carr is a writer, columnist and the Founder of Not Safe For Work Corporation. In his new book – The Upgrade: The Cautionary Tale of a Life Without Reservations – is the story of how he comes to the surprising realization that it would actually be cheaper to live in a luxury hotel in Manhattan than in his tiny one-bedroom apartment. Inspired by that possibility, he decides to sell most of his possessions, abandon his old life and spend a year living entirely without commitments, as a modern-day nomad.
What are you working on right now?
I’m getting ready to launch Not Safe For Work Corporation, my new company with no less noble goal than to save publishing.
Where did the idea for Not Safe For Work Corporation come from?
I looked at how fucked up book and magazine publishing is and I thought, “I should fix that.”
What does your typical day look like?
That really depends where I am. Wherever I am, I spend a huge amount of my time writing.
If I’m at my home base in Vegas, I typically spend my morning and lunchtime hanging out at the NSFW Corp office writing, editing copy and replying to the 5 billion emails I get every day. Sometimes I lose an hour fighting with a stranger on Twitter. After lunch, I usually have meetings or phone calls to take care of. Evenings are always different; it is Vegas, after all. Right now my girlfriend and I are trying to work our way through every Vegas buffet. It’s going pretty well.
Most of the time I’m not home. I travel a lot, mainly to San Francisco and New York. That means I do a lot of working out of coffee shops and airport lounges. I like meeting people face to face. Skype meetings are bullshit.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I don’t over-think or over-plan them. If an idea is good, I just go out and do it. Some work, others don’t.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The backlash against SEO-driven bullshit “content” that’s suffocating the Internet.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
Delivering newspapers. I learned that dogs are mean.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
Nothing.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Start fights with people who are wrong. Bullshit should be called out. You can’t be nice to everyone.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
A subscription-based Converse delivery service.
Tell us a secret.
No. It’s a secret.
What are your three favorite online tools and what do you love about them?
A boring answer, but my favorites are Twitter, the Kindle app and Google. And if I have to explain why, then I’m writing for the wrong audience.
What’s on your playlist?
An embarrassing amount of Barenaked Ladies. I’m a sucker for songs with lots of words.
Three people we should follow on Twitter and why?
- @sarahcuda for tech stuff and baby pictures
- @mediaredef because it’s like mainlining for media junkies
- @friendlyskies because she’ll kill me if I don’t include her
When was the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it?
Five minutes ago at the NY Times Magazine’s special feature about London. They joked that a true Londoner would never set foot in an Angus steakhouse. So true.
Who is your hero?
Heroes are dangerous things to have. You can spend your life trying to mimic them and be crippled by inferiority when you can’t. Batman is pretty cool, I guess.
Connect:
Not Safe for Work Corporation Website: www.nsfwcorp.com
Paul Carr Website: http: www.paulcarr.com/
Paul Carr on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thepaulcarr
Paul Carr on Twitter: twitter.com/#!/paulcarr
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.