Paul Nowak is a strong believer of Christianity and aims at spreading faith about it in this modern world. To spread his message, he launched his website 'Eternal revolution' where he shares his ideologies. "The work done by Eternal Revolution both brings awareness to the universal cause of man to restore order according to an eternal plan, and to arm humanity with the tools necessary to engage in such a struggle", shares Paul on his website. Paul is greatly influenced by the view points of G.K Chesterton and it is clearly evident in his products that comprise books, apparels, games, etc.

"To the orthodox there must always be a case for revolution; for in the hearts of men God has been put under the feet of Satan. In the upper world hell once rebelled against heaven. But in this world heaven is rebelling against hell. For the orthodox there can always be a revolution; for a revolution is a restoration. At any instant you may strike a blow for the perfection which no man has seen since Adam. No unchanging custom, no changing evolution can make the original good any thing but good." - G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy.  This is what Paul believes in that makes him altogether a different personality and a small business owner based in Michigan, USA. We contacted him for an interview with us. Catch it below and get to know about his views and some of the cool products he has in Eternal Revolution store:


Paul, please introduce yourself to E-junkies.

I'm a father of 5 and a Greenville, MI based author, t-shirt and board game designer.

Tell us about Eternal Revolution. What is it all about?

Eternal Revolution is my company and brand. It reflects the constant human struggle of good vs evil and light vs dark, and challenging people at the personal level to improve themselves. The theme is of a Christian background influenced by the likes of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R.Tolkien, and G.K. Chesterton.









































Your store has really cool stuff specially apparels. Are you the designer behind creating them?

Yes, I do the design work, although the "Inconvenient Adventure" shirt features an illustration by Luis Escobar, an artist who works on the Simpsons TV show. Most of the shirts so far feature quotes from G.K. Chesterton, but some are based on other works, such as my own book, The Way of the Christian Samurai. Some T-shirt prints at Eternal Revolution:







































Most of your work is centered on G.K. Chesterton. Would you like to share your ideology behind it? G.K. Chesterton is a mentor of mine, despite having been dead for over 70 years. He was an incredibly prolific writer, with over 100 books and over 30 years worth of weekly newspaper columns to his credit, not counting regular submissions to other periodicals, his own weekly paper, and radio broadcasts. Having produced so much and being infinitely quotable [http://gkchestertonquote.com/], he sheds a very profound point of view on virtually every topic imaginable. Some T-shirt Prints inspired by G.K. Chesterton


































Recently a game designed by you has won a 'Mensa Select Award'. Tell us about that game and share your experience creating it.

My brother and I took a very loose concept for a game - more of a joke, really - created by G.K. Chesterton and his friend H.G. Wells, and published Uncle Chestnut's Table Gype, which many people refer to as a cross between Chinese Checkers and Chess. We've made a decision to keep making the game by hand and using as many domestic suppliers as possible, something quite different from the rest of the board game industry. We stamp the dice and print the cloth board and packaging ourselves, literally "in-house." It poses some challenges getting the game into retail, but thanks to technological advances and the internet it's easier than ever for creators to reach the public.



























What are your views about E-commerce? How does it encourage small business owners like you?

I'm a huge advocate of content creators, artists, and anyone with a product idea to leverage e-commerce solutions in order to grow their business, instead of relying on antiquated distribution models. I think Seth Godin said it best when he described it as "picking yourself" instead of waiting for someone to pick you [http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/reject-the-tyranny-of-being-picked-pick-yourself.html].

Instead of waiting for a distributor, corporate buyer, or celebrity reviewer to make your product a hit, you can make a living bringing your work to the public directly. Ebooks are finally mainstream - so much so that you can sell a million copies of a eBook without needing a publisher or printer, and with the retailer taking a minority share of the revenue instead of a majority. This shift is the biggest change in the marketplace since Gutenberg's printing press, and it isn't just for authors. I refer to the new, empowered small business economy as Microcapitalism [http://www.eternalrevolution.com/564/the-microcapitalist-manifesto-full-text-for-free/], and believe it is much more sustainable than the employee-based unbridled capitalism we have in America today.

What are the challenges that a small business owner is likely to face?

Being a small business owner is an incredible amount of work. For one, you are automatically a salesperson, something I am still uncomfortable with personally. Marketing is entirely on your shoulders, and obscurity is your greatest enemy. Then again, few people get their work "picked" by a large entity to make their work a "hit" without a lot of work. No one is standing over you telling you what to do, so you have to keep yourself motivated and on task. Surrounding yourself with encouraging and positive voices is essential. It takes an incredible amount of courage to shoulder the risk of running a small business. You have to care more about the work you are doing than the money you are spending that may not come back. However, the resulting independence is incredibly rewarding, and worth the extra time, sweat, and risk.

Many other aspiring small business owners like you would draw inspiration from you. What message do you have for them?

Remind yourself often that the independence of the path you have chosen is worth the struggle. Also, keeping yourself informed of new technology and services you can use to serve your customers better is part of your work. Subscribe to websites that provide this kind of encouragement and information, because encouraging yourself from within can be nearly impossible on a bad day. I've started collecting some quotes, links and stories along this vein on www.theindieworker.com.

 

Paul, thanks for this delightful interview. It was a pleasure having you with us. We wish you all the very best for your future endeavors. 

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