Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists

Joshua Fields Millburn · Ryan Nicodemus

Jan 2014 · Asymmetrical Press

About this ebook

What if everything you ever wanted isn’t what you actually want? Twenty-something, suit-clad, and upwardly mobile, Joshua Fields Millburn thought he had everything anyone could ever want. Until he didn’t anymore.

Blindsided by the loss of his mother and his marriage in the same month, Millburn started questioning every aspect of the life he had built for himself. Then, he accidentally discovered a lifestyle known as minimalism…and everything started to change.

That was four years ago. Since, Millburn, now 32, has embraced simplicity. In the pursuit of looking for something more substantial than compulsory consumption and the broken American Dream, he jettisoned most of his material possessions, paid off loads of crippling debt, and walked away from his six-figure career.

So, when everything was gone, what was left? Not a how-to book but a why-to book, Everything That Remains is the touching, surprising story of what happened when one young man decided to let go of everything and begin living more deliberately. Heartrending, uplifting, and deeply personal, this engrossing memoir is peppered with insightful (and often hilarious) interruptions by Ryan Nicodemus, Millburn’s best friend of twenty years.

Ratings and reviews

I was expecting more of a guide than a story of arrival. I only took away one chapter's worth of insight. Interesting concept.

A story that questions what we as human beings really care for; a starter guide to asking what matters, why those things matter, and to re-align values to shape the life we've thus far only been reaching for, yet have been too afraid to grasp, hold, and fight for.

Puts the "consumerist" life into perspective. If you've read some of the essays on their website you'll come across some passages in the book you recognize. Never hurts to reread something more than once. Regardless, Joshua's words and Ryan's footnotes really left an impact on me. Keep it up guys!

About the author

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus have garnered an audience of more than 2 million readers at their website, TheMinimalists.com, where they write about living a meaningful life with less stuff. Their story has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, National Post, LA Weekly, and on CBS This Morning, ABC, NBC, FOX, NPR, BBC, CBC, and dozens of other outlets. 

Since embracing simplicity as a lifestyle, they have written two bestselling books; they co-founded Asymmetrical Press, a publishing house for the indie at heart; and they have spoken at at Harvard Business School, SXSW, TEDx, the World Domination Summit, and many other organizations, schools, and conferences. They are currently in the middle of a 10-month, 100-city international book tour to support their new memoir, Everything That Remains.

Both born in 1981 and raised Dayton, Ohio, Joshua and Ryan now live in Montana.