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Want to Increase Income? Take a Quick Survey for Our Next Project

I'm excited to make an (early) announcement about our first business project in more than a year. This project is all about helping people improve their business—or create a successful new one—by understanding why people buy, and what they really want. If you're just getting started, you can spend a grand total of $13 and pick up a copy of The $100 Startup, which now has more than 100,000 copies in print around the world ...

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Fame vs. Community: The Small Army Model

I don't often discuss news articles or reblog things from elsewhere, but I loved a recent article on an independent musician who recently raised $1.2M through Kickstarter for her new album.

A couple of things struck me from this story.

Point #1: “It doesn’t feel like a windfall,” Ms. Palmer said in an interview before the party. “It feels like the accumulated reward for years and years of work.”

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The Lesson of Convergence (Also known as “How to Change the World”)

The book is out, and I'm on the road!

The launch party in New York was extremely fun. Last night I was in Boston at the Harvard Coop, and tonight I'm heading down to Washington, DC. We're hitting a new city almost every day for the next four weeks. Tour dates here. And by the way ... THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! It's going very well so far, and we hope to keep it going for a long time.

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Beginnings, Process, and the Calm Before the Storm

Greetings from East 42nd Street in New York City. I'm here to begin a new journey as The $100 Startup goes out to the world tomorrow. Here are a few notes on the early beginnings. It all started back in 2009. I had established the blog and began a new way of life: writing for a living. Or mostly, writing because it was what I wanted to do more than anything else ...

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A Two-Minute Book Trailer and The Story of Freedom

Over the past six months, my video mastermind Wes Wages has been traveling the country on behalf of The $100 Startup. Along the way he met with several of the people in the book to document their stories ...

Emily Cavalier left a six-figure job in New York to run Mouth of the Border and Midnight Brunch. Michael Hanna was unemployed and started an unconventional mattress store that offers delivery by bicycle. Sarah Young founded a yarn shop at the height of the recession. She now employs seven people. In the video she talks about calling her dad after having her first $1,000 day. Last month, she had her first $10,000 day.

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Thelonious Monk and the Search for Value

A long time ago, I was a jazz musician. I listened to Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans. I loved what they had done for the jazz world, and for the joy of music in general. If only I practiced or memorized enough, I thought, I might not be an original, but I could at least reproduce what they had done. (At least in this case, I decided, individuality is overrated. If I could be like one of them, I'd be happy.) But no matter how much I practiced, I could never be Monk. There was something about the technique, the choice of notes, phrases, and syncopation that couldn't be imitated. I got the feeling that even if the imitation was perfect—mine certainly wasn't—something would be missing ...

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First Steps to Working for Yourself (Follow-Up)

Last week I presented a scenario from one of our readers. Anna was recently laid off from a middle management job, and rather than look for work, she was hoping to become self-employed for the first time. What are the first steps? she wanted to know. I said that I would share my answer, but first I wanted to hear from the rest of our community. If you're in a similar situation or are just curious, you can read some of the answers and see if any advice serves your needs. I've copied a few of my favorite responses ...

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Everyday Decisions: Getting Started with Working for Yourself

Anna wrote in with a common question: how to get started working on your own?

I hear these questions a lot, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Despite the variations, most of them have a common theme. Here's how Anna put it in her message, which I'm sharing with her permission:

I was recently laid off after working in a middle management position for the past four years. The layoff was sad, but not completely unexpected. The company has been losing money, and while I'd like to think I was irreplaceable, I know the truth is that they simply had to eliminate some positions ...

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Behind the Scenes of the “Unconventional Guide to Publishing” Launch

I woke up before 6am on Tuesday morning, eager for a big day. A product launch is always filled with lots of emotions, especially in the first few critical hours. What would happen? Dun dun dun ...

At 7:30 there was a knock on my door. It's Nicky Hajal! Our genius developer (AKA “kid wonder”) had arrived from New York the previous day. Nicky was in town along with Wes and Tera, our media team, for a tour of venues for this year's World Domination Summit ...

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