“The $100 Startup” by Chris Guillebeau

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The book "The $100 Startup" lying on a table, next to a coffee, note tags and a pencil

I found The $100 Startup on accident. I was browsing for some other books on Amazon – among them One thousand ways to $1000, which Warren Buffett mentioned in an interview – but then Chris Guillebeau’s startup guide popped up and it went on my booklist immediately. 

In The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau provides timeless lessons on how to get your small business venture off the ground quickly, effectively and how to avoid common pitfalls. He covers customer attraction, the launch of new products and services, pricing strategies and why should sometimes be more gutsy than you would like to. 

All lessons are illustrated with real life examples that were send to Guillebeau as part of a study. People who operated knitting stores or a cowboy ranch shared their experience and helped to illustrate the lessons of this book.

Advertising is like Sex: Only Losers pay for it

Chris Guillebeau
in The $100 Startup

My Purpose of Reading The $100 Startup

I wrote my purpose on the very first page of The $100 Startup: “Get concrete ideas on how to integrate The Reading Dilemma as a, for now, constant side-hustle into everyday uni-life”.

Did I Fulfill that Purpose?

No, not really. This book is directed at actual startups that sell goods or services. There wasn’t that much to gain from it regarding my blog. 

But this is a great example to learn that you don’t need to fulfill the books purpose in order for it to be a good read. I enjoyed The $100 Startup. Sure, I would have enjoyed it even more, if there would have been more and better output for me. Nevertheless, all the personal success stories of small businesses around the world are why reading The $100 Startup is worth your time.

And at the end, I didn’t learn nothing. Just not as much as I hoped. But that’s life. 

Chris Guillebeau had some interesting takes on the purpose of a business, that reminded me of Jim Collins’ Good to Great, which is an excellent read that helps to understand the success of companies like Nike. 

Guillebeau lead me to find a new mission statement for The Reading Dilemma: “Let’s stop wasting our time, find our passions and do something meaningful.” 

Furthermore, you can find some great additional resources in the book: reading recommendations (one that I’ll try is The referral engine by John Jantsch), and the 100startup.com website. If only one of these additional resources turns out to be useful, reading The $100 Startup was definitely worth it. 

But what do we ultimately make of a book that doesn’t fulfill our purpose of reading it?

Trust That the Dots Will Connect

Well, we can make more of it than you might think. In his Stanford commencement adress in 2005, Steve Jobs said that you should always trust that the dots will connect looking backwards. 

So even if a book seemed like a waste of time, don’t think that there will never come a moment when its content becomes valuable to you. That is what connecting the dots means. Maybe, one day,  I am in desperate need of good advice on how to spread the word of a service or good that I’m selling. I’ll connect the dots and know that The $100 Startup offers some solutions.

Steve Jobs’ speech is very motivating and inspirational. I highly recommend you check it out. Whenever I do something that feels meaningless or like a waste of time, I think back on what he said. Trust that the dots will connect.

Business Opportunities Are Like Busses; There’s Always Another One Coming

The $100 Startup was a fun read. Short, but fun. And also, easy to read. I liked the style of Guillebeau very much and it certainly made up for some disappointment that I couldn’t fulfill my purpose of reading the book entirely.

You might not instantly become the next Warren Buffett after reading the $100 Startup, but it is a foundatinon you can build upon – very much so with even more books.

Enjoy!

Further Reading

Eric Ries’ Lean Startup is a natural extension of The $100 Startup. Ries offers a more scientific approach, more complex rules, models and principles of running a successful startup. Lean Startup is considered to be the Startup-Bible and you do not want to miss out on it. 

And, as mentioned, Jim Collins’ Good to Great and Built to Last are very insightful and helpful when trying to understand the important variables of business success.

What do you think?

Have you read The $100 Startup? Did you like? What did you try to get out of this book? I am happy to get in contact with you. Comment or write to me directly.

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