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Interview: Author Richie Norton

Richie is author of The Power of Starting Something Stupid, a book about crushing your fears, making dreams happen, and living without regret.  You can read a number of posts I wrote about his book here.  Richie was nice enough to sit down with me and talk a bit about his book and tell me about a book that greatly influence him.

Book that influenced Richie: Banker To The Poor by Muhammad Yunus.

Principle from Banker To The Poor that affected Richie: Social entrepreneurship.

Impact of that principle: Started cashmere business in Mongolia, taxi company in Samoa, impacted development of entrepreneurship program at university, eventually wrote a book.

Get to know more about Richie Norton at his site http://richienorton.com and pick up his free 76-day challenge guide at http://richienorton...

November 13, 2013 Interviews, The Power of Something Stupid 2 comments
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who am i?

PSSS: Who Am I? Being Authentic.

Richie Norton quotes Oprah Winfrey in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid as having once said, “The reason people fail is because they’re pretending to be something they’re not.”  In other words,  a large part of your success is dependent upon being authentic, being the real you, and being able to answer the question, who am I?  Being authentic can be difficult because a lot of people choose money over happiness; we’re in jobs or situations where it is just easier to sacrifice what really makes us happy in order to meet financial responsibilities.  But are we really as happy or successful as we can be when we sacrifice our authenticity?

Who am I?  How to be authentic

Richie Norton in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid writes, “Truly being authentic is knowing ...

March 5, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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scared

PSSS: Don’t Be Scared of Dreaming Big – Think Bricks, Not Walls

It is so easy to be scared of your big dreams.  They can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time and that’s usually when we give up.  Big dreams like going for a PhD, running your first marathon, recording your first record, or writing your first book – they’re all scary.  You probably ask yourself the usual questions, “where will I get the time?,” “how will I learn how to do this?,” or “where am I going to get money?”  Richie Norton in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid shares a tip on how to overcome these fears.  He says, you have to break down your big dream into small projects.  Or as I call it, think bricks, not walls.

Don’t Be Scared and Start a Project – Start With Bricks

scared

Don’t be scared of big dreams. It’s like building a brick wall...

March 5, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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how to stay relevant

PSSS: Stay Relevant

How do you stay relevant?  I’ve asked myself this question at so many different situations in life – as a writer, musician, employee, or student.  In an ever changing world, how do you remain fresh and valuable.  Richie Norton gives an example of how to do just that in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid.  Richie writes that to stay relevant you have to “permanently live in beta.”

Stay Relevant: Live in Permanent Beta

how to stay relevant

Betamax video tapes, a passing trend from the 80s that is no longer relevant

Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, told Richie that the best way to remain relevant is to live in “permanent beta” or in other words, never stop starting, and always be in the creation period...

March 5, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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PSSS: Excuses For Not Trying – Time, Education, and Money

We make excuses for not trying our "stupid" ideas.

We make excuses for not trying our “stupid” ideas.

Most of us have something that gets us really excited, something that lights our fire.  For me, it’s writing, recording, and performing music.  For you maybe it’s something fun like horseback riding, surfing, research, film photography, eating ice cream, or crafting pillow cases.  Whatever it is that makes you lose track of time or become extremely focused, you probably have some amazing idea, something that you’ve dreamed of doing since you were a kid, but just haven’t mustered the courage to get started.  You likely have some excuse why haven’t started.  Maybe you’ve even told someone about the idea and they called it stupid, killing your spirit.  In my previous post I mentioned Richie Norton‘s upcoming book, The Power of Starting ...

February 21, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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The Power of Starting Something Stupid: A Book by Richie Norton

the power of starting something stupidRichie Norton, a friend of mine from college, is about to release his first book The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen & Live Without Regret.  We caught up recently and I told Richie about my recent involvement in the launch of Dan Pink’s book To Sell is Human.  Richie and I came up with a bunch of great ideas to help launch his book and so he asked me to help promote his book before it becomes available on 5 March 2013.  It’s pretty amazing how successful this book looks like it is going to be – it’s only his first hard copy book!  He published an ebook last year called Resumes are Dead, that book did really well also, and you can pick that up at Amazon.  I got a hard copy of the upcoming book in the mail not long after our chat and I tore t...

February 12, 2013 Books, The Power of Something Stupid No comments
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