“Things today are waaayyyyy better than Things have ever been. Cavemen had sticks. In the Middle ages they had typhoid. We have iPhones and Hermann Miller chairs and shoes with air in the soles. Inside the soles! How do they get the air inside the soles??? We are living in the Golden Age of Things, in the Golden Empire of Things.”

—Shalom Auslander's Fetal Position via Beckett Drove a Deux Chevaux

I first encountered the Apple billboard a few days after Christmas. I was walking down Fourteenth Street in the Meatpacking district, and there it was—an Apple ad declaring “Newphoria!” in enormous print.

We don’t need newphoria. We need oldphoria, the joy in what already exists. We need simplephoria, the joy in streamlining. We need enoughphoria, the celebration that what we have and who we are is already enough. Newphoria, at least as it relates to running a small business, is not always all it’s cracked up to be.

Today’s post is a crossover from Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h—you can read the post and reply in the comments here: Climbing Down the Entrepreneurial Ladder.

📝 Permission

Celebrate your own -phoria, the joy in running your business in the way that works best for you!

🔗 Resources Mentioned

📚 Books Mentioned

I’m not immune from status-chasing—none of us are. In his book, The Status Game, Will Storr categorizes these games into three types: dominance, success, and virtue. My two all-time favorite books on this topic are Alain de Botton’s Status Anxiety and Wanting by Luke Burgis who is on Substack at Ride or Drive and Anti-Mimetic.
Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
Life After College

🎧 Related Episodes

Listen to the audio version of Jonathan Fields reading “The Unfortunate Middle” here, and check out our series of 12 SPARKED episodes (Spotify Playlist).
Pivot: 305: Is What You’re Wanting Actually What’s Best For You? With Luke Burgis
Pivot x RadReads conversations on status with Khe Hy (Spotify Playlist)
Free Time: Here are some of my favorite Free Time conversations with small business owners who downsized their operations:
016: IP Licensing and “No Full-Time Employees” with Lee LeFever
131: Scaling Joy While Streamlining Business Overhead with Kaneisha Grayson
157: Downshifting to a Delightfully Part-Team Team with Laura Roeder
173: Cut Your Losses—Even While Pivoting in Public with Khe Hy
205: Turning Down a $200K Two-Book Traditional Publishing Deal with Paul Millerd
241: Finding Freedom and Financial Reciprocity through a Paid Newsletter

📝 Check out full show notes and share with friends: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/262

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Adam White and Nathan Howarth

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September 2023

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