Katherine

Inspiring, refreshing, actionable.

This is kind of similar to the 4-Hour Work Week, but they differ vastly in their values. I consider $100 Startup more in line with my own particular values.

I love Guillebeau's emphasis on crafting a business that delivers genuine value to the world, something truly useful, that solves a real problem, or otherwise helps others in a meaningful way. And he himself delivers on truly visionary ways to achieve it, in ways that allow people to express their individuality. That is refreshingly different some of the other books I've read that teach readers clever ways to deceive people or trick them out of their money, or get them out of your way once they've given you their money.

I also like the counterpoint he creates between all his case studies and all the supposedly tried and true methods of building businesses. You don't have to spend months writing a business plan. You don't have to borrow tons of money. You don't have to destroy someone else to ensure your own success. You don't have to become big to be sustainable. Many other crusty old ideas of how to succeed in a small business are shattered by a large, diverse body of real-life case studies.

Yesterday's disenfranchised are becoming today's "new rich", and they travel light. Literally.

To love the good more than I hate the bad. No, scratch that. Love the good. Period. That is, make your life a pursuit of what you love, rather than one of fighting or resisting what you hate. You might be amazed how easily the things you hate will dissolve to nothing when you turn away from them and pay them no heed. And, how easily the things you love will blossom and thrive when you focus on them. I've already seen that principal in action, in some very big ways.

No.

He lost me at the part where he talked about using drugs (hashish and opium) to attain greater spiritual awareness and to commune with... dead people? While we sleep? Really?

Also, recalling during the intro, where it was stated that Mulford did not learn all of what he wrote about from accomplished masters, or from rigorous research. He got it "the old fashioned way: he _discerned_ it." In other words, he made it up.

There were a few random quotable gems.

This book does not contain so much of what I would call actionable information, but some very eye-opening concepts about how money "works", how it _doesn't_ work, and where the real action is in the world economy. I think I've been gradually finding my way to this kind of thinking on my own through trial-and-error, but it was a breath of fresh air to get at least one major piece of the puzzle handed to me in such a painless way.

Thanks, Robert, for being everyone's "rich dad".

Nice tonal quality; good use of vocal inflection and phrasing to enhance the meaning of the content. I concur with the observation others have made about the loud breaths he took through out the narration. I listened to "Unfair Advantage", which he also narrated, and he definitely did "get" the feedback about his breathing; that narration performance was much better.

It was an "Aha!" moment.