Finally (and I apologise profusely for the delay) it’s time to announce the winners of the $100 Start Up Book Giveaway.

For the chance to win both of Chris Guillebeau’s books I asked:

How would you use $100 to change the world for the better?

You might remember that Chris gave all 1000 attendees of the World Domination Summit $100 with a similar challenge to each of us. Here’s the video if you want to see what happened:

At first I was a little disappointed in the lack of entrants to the competition, with only three people actually responding! I can only assume that most readers of this blog went right out and bought the book already after my review.. 😉

But I’m a great believer in quality rather than quantity, and the three responses were very heartening to read indeed.

Juliet, aka Crafty Green Poet, had this suggestion, which I’ve chosen as the overall winner because I believe it is really in line with the generosity behind Chris’s gesture as well as being a really great idea:

There are so many ideas but, I was thinking to spend $100 on copies of The $100 dollar start up and giving them to community libraries and schools in ‘poorer areas’ so that the local communities and students can be inspired by all the ideas in the book. Who knows how many great projects that would inspire?

What Anne said was really heartfelt, touching and also very encouraging in terms of what I’m doing with the blog – making my decision an extremely tough one despite only having 3 entries to choose from!

I’m in the business of encouraging and morally supporting my three adult children to follow their dreams and live their lives doing something they love and are good at, so not only are they fulfilling themselves, they are doing something positive in the world. All have chosen different areas of the Arts. I would invest in speciality books and some you and others are recommending on your blog. The ‘$100 Start Up’ is on the wishlist already, but I’m hoping you might pick me.

As I write my youngest son is preparing presentations and video for an application for funding for a ‘Start Up’ to further develop a prototype, so this would be invaluable and immediately useful.

Thank you for doing what you’re doing. I thoroughly enjoy reading and watching your progress and it lends extra confidence and inspiration, to encourage and support my children in their endeavours. The more happy and positively motivated people in this world, with the priority of following their true calling in life, creatively using the strengths they possess and for the benefit of others, the better, healthier and happier the world will be.

And finally, long time pal of this blog Vishnu was really being supportive and encouraging when he said:

I’d use the $100 back into your business, Milo to pay for some service, product or platform you might need to bring your services into the world and to have more access to the Clear-Minded Creative. So, my suggestion is invest in yourself to help bring out the brilliance (compliment) of this site into the world. Use the money to create that product, bring an ebook into the world, design a cover, etc, hire your cat to do a promo video.

Now there are advantages to only having 3 entries, the main one being that although as the overall winner Juliet will receive both books ($100 Start Up and The Art of Non-Conformity) as promised, I’m also going to send a copy of the $100 Start Up to the two runners up, because I believe they will both use the book for very positive means.

I’d like to talk to Juliet though about how we could put her idea into practice. Maybe there’s a way to make all of the Clear-Minded Classics so far more accessible for people who may not know about them or be able to afford them?

I’d love to hear your ideas, thoughts, opinions, advice in the comments below. And if you were one of the attendees at WDS I’d love to hear what you did with your $100 investment.