I just finished reading Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price
. It is a fascinating read, following in the footsteps of Freakonomics, the book that a few years ago taught us that a subject as dry and technical as economics could be entertaining if used to explain why ordinary things around us turn out the way they do.

Free has generated a lively debate in the blogosphere, with some questioning the validity of its conclusions, others finding some merit to them but hoping that we can find a way out, and others fully embracing them as the inevitable way things will be from now on.

The book is full of interesting examples of how companies and entire industries have been build around giving away stuff. There is a comprehensive chapter on Google (probably the best known company that has been able to build a business around a wide array of free services).

There is also a very good example that I think summarizes the main point of the book: that as previously scarce things become abundant, new scarcities are created, and with them, new ways of making money. Anderson goes back in time to remind us how in the early days of radio, musicians got paid for life on-air performances. That business model was killed by records, which became the new way to make money. Nowadays, of course, the recorded music industry is being challenged by the zero marginal cost of distributing music over the Internet, which has forced musicians to embrace other ways to make money, like live performances and licensing.

My impression after reading this book is that we are not necessarily doomed by the economics of free, but we do need to work on creating business models where we can turn giving away stuff to our advantage (for example, to build an audience faster) and then find related products and services where money can be made.

The main importance of this book for small business owners, in my opinion, is that it will open our eyes and minds to new ways of charging for products and services, and will help us understand the complicated dynamics of pricing in an Internet economy.

As we internalize the concepts discussed in this book, we will come to accept that some of the things that made us money in the past may need to become a marketing cost, as we strive to create multiple, new streams of income that feed each other.

Start up entrepreneurs are the Navy seals of the business world. They must work insane hours to solve hard problems, for little or no pay, under the constant threat of running out of cash. In their world, failure is not an option and there is no plan B.

It is in this environment that Guy Kawasaki earned his chops as an entrepreneur. The former Apple evangelist, venture capitalist and founder of Internet ventures Truemors  and Alltop, has distilled decades of experience in his latest book, Reality Check, and does it in a way that is both informative and entertaining.

The book is thick but you won’t find filler or superfluous content. The chapters are short and focused on very specific business topics, from how to send effective email, to how to deliver a presentation, to how to prepare an effective business plan, to how to make a pitch.

They are often written in a list-of-top-tips format that makes identifying the main takeaways easy. Also, since each chapter deals with a specific topic, you can read them in the order you want at any time.

Guy also enlisted the help of top experts to write some of the chapters, like Penelope Trunk on career advice or Garr Reynolds on presentation design, so you’ll be learning from the best.

If you’ve already read Guy’s other books or his blog, you may find some of the material repeated. However, the value of Reality Check is in the way the content has been organized and summarized, and enhanced with new material to form a cohesive volume that covers virtually every aspect of running a business.

If you want to be successful in the business world, either as an entrepreneur or as an employee, this book will definitely give you an edge. Highly recommended.

If you’ve ever wondered how you can turn your passion into a business, this book is probably the best place to look for answers. Compared to other how-to books, this new book by Jonathan Fields doesn’t hold anything back (you’ll even find a chapter showing you how to pitch your loved ones before leaving your job to start your own business).

The author, who left a career in law years ago to pursue his dreams as an entrepreneur, describes in great detail seven often overlooked ways to make money doing what you love.

He starts by explaining how each particular strategy can work for you, and follows through with real life examples and a list of resources for you to dig deeper on your own. Then, he continues to guide us through the process of marketing our dream, the basics of Internet marketing, and how to use blogs and social media to make our mark in the world and gain influence.

Perhaps the passage of the book that I liked the most is when the author talks about conventional wisdom, and how it gets in the way of identifying opportunity. Learning to defy conventional wisdom (or what others may call “thinking out of the box”) is the best way to discover niches that nobody is addressing and that you can turn into a business.

With that frame of mind and the practical tips in this book, you shouldn’t have any problem finding work that is at the same time lucrative and fulfilling.

In his new book “Tribes” Seth Godin the marketing guru gives way to Seth Godin the life coach. In this thoroughly engaging book, Seth urges us to live a life of purpose, to become leaders, and to throw ourselves wholeheartedly to the pursuit of our dreams.

He builds upon the premises laid out in his previous books to underscore the fact that traditional interruption marketing doesn’t work any more, and that business models based on hierarchical organizations, top down marketing messages and large advertising budgets are a thing of the past.

What this means is good news for you. Seth gives us example after example of how the Internet is allowing ordinary people to speak out, get noticed and connect with each other, in a way and scale that was simply unthinkable even a decade ago.

Blogs are free and can be set up in minutes. People (your tribe) can start following you by just clicking on the RSS icon. Tools like Twitter and Facebook make building communities of like-minded people a snap. If you can’t find a publisher for your book, you can publish it yourself. All the barriers to entry that could have served as a valid excuse years ago no longer apply.

But tools mean nothing if we are not willing to use them to effect change. To make sure we get the point, Seth doesn’t spare nudges. One that I found particularly powerful is this (paraphrasing): instead of taking two weeks off so that you can forget the other fifty, wouldn’t it make more sense to design a life that you don’t have to escape from? How do you react when someone asks you: how was your day?

If the answer is anything but ‘great’, if you’re stuck facing a dead end in your career, or if you are afraid to take the first step and start leading, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Tribes.

Reactions from around the blogosphere:

• Debbie Weil
• The Future Buzz
• Torley Lives

P.S. You can also download the audio version of “Tribes” free from Audible.com .

In this age of information overload and short attention spans, the ability to deliver clear and concise presentations is one of the most important skills.

Instead, business presentations today are mostly long, unfocused and boring. In a typical PowerPoint presentation, the audience is forced to sit through slide after slide of charts, bullet points and text while the presenter reads from the screen.

As a result, both presenter and audience feel stressed and disengaged, and everybody ends up wasting their time (this common situation is also referred to as Death by PowerPoint).

Garr Reynolds’ quest to end PowerPoint as we know it started years ago when, riding on the express train from Tokyo to Osaka, he had his epiphany: after watching a Japanese businessman nervously flip through a printout of poorly designed PowerPoint slides in an obvious state of confusion, he decided to launch his Presentation Zen blog, now the most popular presentation design site on the web.

Presentation Zen (the book) is organized in three main sections:

• Preparation
• Design
• Delivery

In the way of the true classics, this book is more than a simple step by step tutorial. It outlines an approach, a strategy to solve the complex communication issues of today. It not only tells us how to do a presentation, but instead takes us on a journey to discover what is it that we need to communicate in the first place, and how to make it resonate with our audience.

Here are some of the things I learned:

• How to discover your core message (the one thing, and only one, that you want your audience to remember).
• The importance of having quiet time to think. Busyness kills creativity. We all need some quiet time alone to come up with our best ideas.
• To use pencil and paper to brainstorm the content and outline of a presentation.
• To use two often forgotten PowerPoint tools: notes (so you don’t have to read from the screen) and handouts (so you don’t have to cram all the data on your slides).
• Less is more: remove from slides every single element that doesn’t add to our core message.
• PowerPoint is not a document creation tool. It’s job is to provide a visual aid to our presentation. The slides themselves are not the presentation.
• Images are more powerful than words.

Garr has packed this book with visual examples of great (and not so great) presentations, so we can see the difference. Also, he summarizes the most important ideas at the end of each chapter, and links to great presentation resources on the web (my favorite is TED, where you can see the great presenters of our time in action).

This book is not for everyone. Those readers who are looking for a few quick tips on how to do a PowerPoint presentation may get impatient with the author’s frequent and lengthy references to the Zen philosophy and concepts.

However, if you bear with him, you will learn more than just do a presentation. You will learn to analyze and solve complex communications problems, to see the big picture from your customers’ perspective, and how to effectively position products and services in the marketplace.

If you have to do presentations for a living (and who doesn’t these days?) read this book and keep it handy for future reference. And, while you’re at it, add Presentation Zen (the blog) to your blogroll or favorites.