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The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future Audiobook
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(3.01) - 2,957 listener ratings
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Lead a life of adventure, meaning and purpose—and earn a good living. “Thoughtful, funny, and compulsively readable, this guide shows how ordinary people can build solid livings, with independence and purpose, on their own terms.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project Still in his early thirties, Chris Guillebeau completed a tour of every country on earth and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck. Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back. Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and focused on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment. Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise”—even if you don’t consider it such—and what other people will pay for. You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid. Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick. Among Chris’s key principles: If you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish—sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins. In ancient times, people who were dissatisfied with their lives dreamed of finding magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with gold. Today, we know that it’s up to us to change our lives. And the best part is, if we change our own life, we can help others change theirs. This remarkable book will start you on your way.
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"Coming into this book with no expectations, it was a fun and quick read. I always love hearing about people who have made it on their own, so this was a neat collection of those stories, but as a lot of others have said, if you're looking for advice and not just a collection of interesting business biographies, the book doesn't dig deep enough."
— Kathleen (4 out of 5 stars)
Awards
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New York Times bestseller
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A USA Today bestseller
The $100 Startup Listener Reviews
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" Lots of great tips and encouragement. While I'm starting to build my microbusiness, it's given me purpose and reassurance that I can create success from a shoe string budget. "
— Vanessa, 2/18/2014 -
" Practical, helpful, necessary for anyone who has realized, the 9-5 is dead. "
— Kyle, 2/2/2014 -
" Very helpful and the business plan template is genius!! Thanks for writing this Cris! "
— Radhika, 1/27/2014 -
" Great book for generating ideas for your business. Great book for stacking yourself up against other up and comers. Great for perspective on what you could and should be doing to maximize your entrepreneurial efforts. I'll listen to this iTunes audiobook again and again. "
— Jade, 1/21/2014 -
" Not as good as I thought it would be. I was looking for more detail in the case studies. It is a good book for beginners and to get an overall understanding of starting a micro-business. "
— Jade, 1/17/2014 -
" Well written and fun and easy to read. And highly inspiring! "
— Timo, 1/12/2014 -
" Practical suggestions and great direction for people looking to become their own boss. "
— Luaba, 1/6/2014 -
" Good cheerleader for starting a small business, but sometimes I wished there had been a little more depth. I would have liked more details about the challenges and triumphs of the businesses profiled. "
— Amy, 12/29/2013 -
" Makes owning your own business seem feasible. He outlines what's important and the whole prospect seems way less overwhelming. "
— Liz, 12/18/2013 -
" The one thing I took away from this book, other than being inspired by how others started up their dreams and built them into businesses, was the distinct difference between selling features and promoting the emotional connection for your business. "
— Dawn, 11/25/2013 -
" It's a pretty good book. "
— Mark, 10/28/2013 -
" Nothing new here. I was expecting more specifics! "
— DJ, 9/19/2013 -
" Easy read. Wish I'd had a chance to read it in one sitting. About 20 pages of takeaway notes. Looking forward to checking out the website. "
— Suzanne, 9/8/2013 -
" I loved Chris's first book. This one contains more stories than action items. I'd recommend to anyone who thinks they can NOT start their own business. "
— Steve, 6/12/2013 -
" Very good basic start-up book, written in an accessible casual style. "
— Jami, 3/11/2013 -
" Fun book, comes down to just do it all ready, seriously, get it done. "
— Aaron, 3/6/2013 -
" A little disappointed. This book is pretty similar to other books of this nature. I didn't find this book quite detailed enough for a non-business person trying to figure out how to start a business from scratch. "
— Mary, 1/7/2013 -
" This book is an almost perfect combination of inspiration and practical advice for starting and growing your own business with a limited budget. Well worth the price, and a lot better than Guillebeau's first book, The Art of Nonconformity. Next, it's time to apply what I've learned from the book. "
— Jarkko, 9/30/2012 -
" Along with MicroBusiness independence, this is the best how-to guide out there for starting a business. A lot of titles are just wishy-washy follow your dreams and the rest will work out advice, but this provides hands-on advice for actually launching a product. "
— Edward, 7/28/2012 -
" "The element" Startup edition! "
— Jonathan, 5/23/2012
About Chris Guillebeau
Chris Guillebeau is an author, world traveler, entrepreneur, and lifelong learner. Self-employed for his entire adult life, he has an entrepreneurial history ranging from importing coffee from Jamaica, search engine optimization in its early days, Google Adwords and Adsense arbitrage, and building a small publishing company while volunteering in Africa. He is a regular contributor to CNN.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post, and other outlets.