Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality

I love this book! Not only does the budding entrepreneur learn about hiring, funding and networking, but you also learn about Bill Gates' house (Freud would approve) and Bill Clinton's weird handshake. Christine is a gifted storyteller and amazing coach.

I've read many business building books out there, and this one was the right message at the right time for me. Christine puts together a simple and concise system for drilling my focus down so it's easier to actually get the important stuff done. I feel confident that I can build my new venture to be what it's intended to be in the world. Thanks Christine! Laurie Cameron, Founder, The Fear to Love Project(tm)

First off, forget EVERYTHING you've learned about what it takes to succeed. Christine Comaford-Lynch is a high school and college dropout, a former model and former programmer with Microsoft, a receptionist and an entrepreneur who had made 10 million by the time she was 37 - some 3 million of which she gave to various charities. At 40, she retired, having consulted to more than 700 companies in the Fortune 1000. And she was a five-time CEO. Whew! Let's back up a bit. Yes, Christine Comaford-Lynch ran away to New York at 16 to become a model; after she tired of that, she talked her way into college but did not finish, and opted, instead to become a Buddhist monk. A year later, she was back in the work world, and Christine, armed with a job as a receptionist in the banking field - soon found herself with a lot of responsibility, perks, a decent salary and a new-found respect for the business world. She went back to college but left that for an entry-level job at Microsoft, (as she says, "embracing her inner geek") where she also picked up some programming skills on the side. When the call came for more programmers, Christine changed her name badge to Chris and talked her way into a programming job - since she already knew how to program the required languages, a skill she had picked up from friends at Microsoft. Christine was well on her way to learning something about herself. She could do IT - whatever IT is! In one of her chapters, she says: You don't need an MBA - you need a GSD - Get Stuff Done. Too many of us strive to get into the `right college,' choose the `right degree' and find the `right ladder' to climb. That is not the only way, nor is it the best way, or necessarily the right way for everyone to succeed. Here is what Christine says in her book, Rules for Renegades: how to make more money, rock your career, and revel in your individuality In her chapter, "Everything's an Illusion so Pick One That's Empowering", Christine encourages the reader to create create the illusion they want to become - to ACT who they want to become. "We create illusions every day at every stage of our lives. These illusions can be positive or negative, growth inducing or destructive. Only when we recognize our propensity to create our own reality can we do it consciously, fostering happy, progressive illusions, instead of unhappy ones that hold us back." In her sub-chapter, "Evicting the Vile Bitch - So what's stopping you? If you're like most of us, fear raises its ugly head just when the fun starts." But Christine knows that fears are only illusions - and you can pick a better illusion and live up to that. Her advice: "Identify the inner fear monger inside your head - draw a picture of him or her and write down what he or she says. Mine is quite the blabbermouth - stop making so many mistakes! You're fat! Work out more! You're not making a big enough contribution to the world, do more, give more! You're a fraud, you're not as smart or as accomp

This is the most readable business book I've ever seen. The stories are funny and touching, sometimes crazy and sometimes sweet - but in every one Christine cheers us on to be better. Part of the lesson is risk taking and, rather than tell us to suck-it-up and be fearless, Christine shares the fear that she has felt. The key to Getting Stuff Done (GSD) includes the simple lessons of perseverance, belief, and a bit of daring, but it is not a get-rich-quick do-it-yourself kit. This is a map of how dreams are built on a foundation of both success and failure. The best thing about this book, as opposed to so many stuffy business books, is that you come away with a sense of Christine's humility. She's a normal woman, she's not a genius, she's not stunningly beautiful, she wasn't granted inordinate opportunities, she was no prodigy - she's one of us and, if she can do it, then we can too.