In Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig’s narrator is having trouble with one of his college students. She’s been asked to write 500 words on the USA, and her mind’s a blank. The subject’s just too big. She can’t get a grip on it, can’t find that one little hook that gets her started.

So Phaedrus tells her to go to a building on Main Street, and try again… starting with the upper-left-hand brick.

The next day she’s back – with five thousand words on paper.

Pirsig’s Brick is why I wrote this book.

In decades working for myself, I’ve seen thousands of people with the skills and smarts to easily earn an income in the top 1% … but who weren’t anywhere near that top percentile.

It wasn’t for lack of desire. They’d all like to be up there. To be one of those freelancers who always seem to be buzzing with projects, have a humming sales pipeline, a stuffed order book. (And don’t seem to expend much effort getting them.) Remember this: those people only have it together because they got over the huge problem posed by Pirsig’s Brick. Getting started.

And with a detailed step-by-step-plan, you can do the same.

Think of Day 1 in this book as your upper-left-hand brick. Together, that chapter and the 99 after it get rid of the stumbling blocks, with a clear and concise set of tasks to complete every day between dawn and dusk. Each day taking you 24 hours closer to a single goal: earning a six-figure income from the expertise you’ve got now. Even if you’ve never freelanced before.

(Note this book isn’t just for freelancers – even salaried salespeople use these methods to build their roster of customers and plan their quarterly activities. But it’s aimed more at the indie set than anyone else.)

After all, freelancing isn’t for everyone. Just those who want to work their own hours, on their own terms, doing work they enjoy. Living a life true to themselves and beholden to no-one.

With this book, there’s no excuse not to.

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of the books in the 100 Days Bibliography, a list of the literary works that inspired 100 Days, 100 Grand.