The book The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World was written by Chris Guillebeau.

I learned about this book through Chris’ blog. He hosts a very popular blog where he writes on lifehacking, entrepreneurship and his goal to travel to each country in the world.

In this book Chris tries to show the reader that you don’t have the live your life the way other people expect you to. As long as you are open to new ideas, are dissatisfied with the status quo and are willing to work hard, you should be able to live the life of your dreams.

The first part of this book was an eye-opener for me. Once you find something that you really enjoy doing, your passion, make a commitment and be dedicated to use it to make a positive change. For yourself and for the world. Don’t be afraid to be somehow different, a lot of great things have been accomplished outside the status quo. If living the life you want, takes it for you to be unconventional and nonconformist, overcome your fear, and pursue it.

In the second and last part of the book, Chris lost most of my interest. In the second part he shares his personal experience with education, building an army of followers and financing a noncomformist lifestyle. The last part of this book is on building a legacy.

Throughout the book Chris shares his personal stories and aneckdotes. There are also dozens of stories about other people changing their lifes for the better. I especially enjoyed the latter. In his personal stories some of his achievements are repeated throughout the book, which sometimes gives the impression he wrote the book to brag and to promote the AONC brand. Another letdown of this book is that some of the advice isn’t useful for most of us. Frequent flyer miles anyone?

I enjoyed the first part of the book a lot. Too bad the other parts mostly failed in keeping me interested.

My rating: 3/5.