The $100 Startup: How to Fire Your Boss and Create a New Future, Guillebeau Chris

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 hes 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 whove learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. Its all about finding the intersection between your expertise--even if you dont consider it such--and what other people will pay for. You dont 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 Chriss key principles: If youre good at one thing, youre 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.