Follow your dreams ...

Last week a student recommended a book for me to have a look at - pay back perhaps for my constant suggestions to the class to add to their "optional" reading list of entrepreneurship/business books! It is called "The $100 Startup:reinvent the way you make a living, do what you love and create a new future" by Chris Guillebeau (http://100startup.com/).  I downloaded it from Audible.com (of which I am a raving fan) and  began listening to it earlier today when I was walking our dog Cheywa.  The focus of the book is to provide examples of microenterprises - businesses that fulfill at least 4 of the following criteria: 1. People followed their passion (typically a hobby or interest), 2. low start up costs - less than $1000, 3. at least $50k net income pa, 4. no special skills - anyone can operate  (e.g. coffee roaster rather than a dentist), 5. full financial disclosure for approx 3 years  6. Less than 5 employees. The idea is that these businesses have enabled people to follow their dream, not through a large business but on a scale that enables them to keep their independence and freedom. Of course this is nothing new, as the author points out; rather today there is an ability to reach customers and  make connections on a scale that is unprecedented because of the internet.


Which brings me to the second book that I am listening to "Tribes: we need you to lead us" by Seth Godin. He argues that mass marketing is over and businesses should now look to developing a "a tribe" - a group of people with shared ideas, interests and values.  http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/). Growing that "tribe" contributes to the success of the $100 Startup.

One of the things that Godin remarks on is the fact that "the market is looking for remarkable". That has me asking myself - how many times do I experience  "remarkable" ? What product or service  have you come across recently has been "remarkable?

        And the thought for the day ...