What If And Why Not

Starting your own business is hard. But the biggest obstacles often have less to do with time and money, and more to do with fear and doubt. In What If? and Why Not? serial entrepreneur and small business advocate Jen Groover—creator of the Butler Bag and creator and host of Launcher's Café, an online community for entrepreneurs—shows you how to transform your fears into action by rethinking the negative questions that can lead to failure before you even get started. Being an entrepreneur, Groover says, isn't just about selling a product. It's about personal growth—about taking your vision and bringing it to fruition, and about always pushing yourself to take that vision further. What gets in your way isn't the money you don't have, or what you don't know about the industry you want to get into—it's believing you can't do it, that you don't have the power or the resources you need to make your dream into a reality. Groover walks you step by step through ten negative “What If?" questions—What if I don't know what I'm doing? What if I don't have the money? What if I fail?—and how to turn them around by asking yourself: What if I can learn? What if I don't need much money? What if I succeed? She also asks “What Not?": Why not find a mentor or take a class? Why not ask for investors? Why not try? With dozens of personal stories from successful entrepreneurs in areas as diverse as dog walking and handbag-invention, plus practical advice for every step of your journey, What If? and Why Not? is the most complete guide available to help you you start the business of your dreams.

In the tradition of novels of Gayle Forman and John Green comes this extraordinary YA debut about a blind teen girl navigating life and love in high school. Parker Grant doesn't need 20/20 vision to see right through you. That's why she created the Rules: Don't treat her any differently just because she's blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances. Just ask Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart. When Scott suddenly reappears in her life after being gone for years, Parker knows there's only one way to react--shun him so hard it hurts. She has enough on her mind already, like trying out for the track team (that's right, her eyes don't work but her legs still do), doling out tough-love advice to her painfully naive classmates, and giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn't cried since her dad's death three months ago. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened--both with Scott, and her dad--the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem. Maybe, just maybe, some Rules are meant to be broken. Combining a fiercely engaging voice with true heart, debut author Eric Lindstrom's Not If I See You First illuminates those blind spots that we all have in life, whether visually impaired or not.

On December 16, 1967, five adventurous boys from one of the Island’s elite high schools, Jamaica College, set out into the majestic Blue Mountains in search of a mythical trail, endeavouring to reach its highest point, the Peak, at elevation 7402 feet. They never made it.A platoon of soldiers dispatched to the area where it was believed that the boys began their hike along the Blue Mountain Ridge, reported that they were never there or had vanished into the jungle. The soldiers turned back.After almost ten days in heavily forested terrain described as “inaccessible as any place in the world, and perhaps where no man has ever trodden,” they found themselves hopelessly lost, trapped, and far from a living soul. Cold and starving, they probably only had hours to live.This is the story of the harrowing journey that would make headlines and test the character of five boys as they faced down death on their way to manhood. Using eyewitness accounts, maps and never-before-seen photographs, the author tracks the action from an innocent plan hatched during Christmas break to the dramatic, last-ditch efforts to rescue the boys.In 1967, Geoffrey Haddad was a curious Jamaica College student with a passion for the outdoors. He was one of the five.

“Big ideas that just might save the world”—The Guardian The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it's more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it. In these times of deep division and deeper despair, if there is a consensus about anything in the world, it is that the future is going to be awful. There is an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic of anxiety, a mental health crisis of vast proportions, especially among young people. There’s a rise in extremist movements and governments. Catastrophic climate change. Biodiversity loss. Food insecurity. The fracturing of ecosystems and communities beyond, it seems, repair. The future—to say nothing of the present—looks grim. But as Transition movement cofounder Rob Hopkins tells us, there is plenty of evidence that things can change, and cultures can change, rapidly, dramatically, and unexpectedly—for the better. He has seen it happen around the world and in his own town of Totnes, England, where the community is becoming its own housing developer, energy company, enterprise incubator, and local food network—with cascading benefits to the community that extend far beyond the projects themselves. We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, Hopkins argues, but we’re failing because we’ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination. As defined by social reformer John Dewey, imagination is the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. The ability, that is, to ask What if? And if there was ever a time when we needed that ability, it is now. Imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future. Yet imagination is also demonstrably in decline at precisely the moment when we need it most. In this passionate exploration, Hopkins asks why imagination is in decline, and what we must do to revive and reclaim it. Once we do, there is no end to what we might accomplish. From What Is to What If is a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now, as we speak, and witnessing often rapid and dramatic change for the better.

A Medal of Honor recipient looks back at his own service in the Vietnam War—and ahead to America’s future. Jack Jacobs was acting as an advisor to the South Vietnamese when he and his men came under devastating attack. Wounded, 1st Lt. Jacobs took command and withdrew the unit, returning again and again, saving fourteen lives—for which he received the Medal of Honor. Here, Col. Jacobs tells his stirring story of heroism, honor, and the personal code by which he has lived his life, and expounds with blunt honesty and insight his views on our contemporary world, and the nature and necessity of sacrifice. If Not Now, When? is a compelling account of a unique life at both war and peace, and the all-too-often unexamined role of the citizenry in the service and defense of the Republic.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE Iconic singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and illustrator David Walker team up to present this charming, cozy, and touching interpretation of “If Not for You.” If not for you… I’d be sad and blue. If not for you… I just wouldn’t have a clue. If not for you… What would I do? In this inventive interpretation of Bob Dylan’s 1970 song “If Not for You,” illustrator David Walker beautifully imagines Dylan’s lyrics as portraying the bottomless love between a parent and a child—and the magical experiences they might share together.

In the proud tradition of its late, lamented series of the seventies and eighties, the House of Ideas once again poses the question, "What if?" The hottest creators in comics take on Marvel's top characters - turning their lives upside-down in the name of entertainment! Featuring decidedly different interpretations of Daredevil, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, and more! Collects What If? #1-6.

During economic contractions, it becomes much more difficult to sell your products, maintain your customer base, and gain market share. Mistakes become more costly, and failure becomes a real possibility for all those who are not able to make the transition. But imagine being able to sell your products when others cannot, being able to take market share from both your competitors, and knowing the precise formulas that would allow you to expand your sales while others make excuses. If You’re Not First, You’re Last is about how to sell your products and services—despite the economy—and provides the reader with ways to capitalize regardless of their product, service, or idea. Grant shares his proven strategies that will allow you to not just continue to sell, but create new products, increase margins, gain market share and much more. Key concepts in If You’re Not First, You’re Last include: Converting the Unsold to Sold The Power Schedule to Maximize Sales Your Freedom Financial Plan The Unreasonable Selling Attitude