Learning from the World of Antiques and Collectibles

I learned a lot about being an independent entrepreneur by reading the story of a self-employed antiques dealer in Maureen Stanton's book, Killer Stuff and Tons of Money. Earlier this month I posted a review of the book on EzineArticles.

The central figure of the book is an antiques dealer who works out of his house rather than going to an office or other "typical" place of business every day, and as someone who mostly works from my house, I could relate to his experiences balancing work, home, and family. There's a vivid image of his antiques encroaching on the living space in the house--it made me think of my books and papers strewn from room to room. Anyway, all this to say: even if you're not particularly interested in antiques, this is a great book to check out if you want to read the story of an indie businessman.

I've been doing a little selling on eBay over the past few months, so the story had some extra resonance for me in the descriptions of "the hunt" for treasures--although the stuff I look for (mostly t-shirts and toys) is a far cry from the antiques in the book!

It was clear to me that Maureen Stanton developed a great interest in antiques and collectibles over the course of her research for the book, and I hope she chooses to write more on the topic.

Rebounders by Rick Newman

Usually I wait to post about a book until I've finished reading it, but I have a free moment right now, and I don't want to put off writing about this book until I get around to it later (you never know when that will be!). I picked up the book Rebounders by journalist Rick Newman at the library a few weeks ago along with some other books about entrepreneurship and career change. For more about the book, check out this page on Newman's website.

There are two things I really like about this book! First of all, it's story-based; Newman shares the stories of people in a variety of career fields who either went through a "comeback" (or multiple comebacks) after having career and/or personal difficulties, or who have had a long, hard road to success. The other thing I really like is that Newman shares his own story of figuring out how to bounce back in his own life following a difficult divorce and some professional struggles because of the downturn of print journalism as blogs and other online outlets started taking over.

It was interesting for me as a reader because the first couple of in-depth examples in the book were about men, and I thought, wow, if he doesn't write about a woman soon, I'm going to lose patience with this book, and then the next chapter told the story of Lucinda Williams. I have to say that it was pretty motivating to me personally to read about Williams taking singing lessons in Los Angeles while she was working on kickstarting her career. If Lucinda Williams can be humble and take voice lessons, I can certainly be open to taking classes, doing research, learning from others, etc. There are a lot of things to do as an artist or other professional rather than just "waiting" for something to happen; success isn't just going to come while you wait for it--you have to work on your skills, put in the hours on your new business, etc.

In other words, this is an encouraging book that teaches by example. If you're like me and can draw strength by taking lessons from the experiences from others, pick up this book--especially if you're working through a challenging phase in your career.