Unique Genius Possibility Manifesto

8/3/2019 Unique Genius Possibility Manifesto

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A Free Unique Genius Ebook:

You Can Make As Much Money AsYou Want, Doing What YouLove

By Aaron Ross


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Hello!

Hi, Im Aaron.

Im a corporate refugee, who founded the com-pany PebbleStorm (Make Money Through Enjoy-ment), and created the Unique Genius body of

work to combine the best of money (capitalism)and happiness (buddhism).

Were a creating a worldwide movement of workbased on values like trust and integrity and fun.

I want you to be able to make as much money asyou want, doing what you love.

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Geek Makes Good

Heres a bit about me so you know that Im notsome get-rich-quick guy making it up as I goalong. Ive put my time into the trenches

Before starting PebbleStorm, I spent 15 years asserial entrepreneur and in investment banking,software and venture capital. Ive founded sixcompanies.

I created a Cold Calling 2.0 sales process and teamat Salesforce.com that helped add $100 million in

just a few years.

Ive written two books, CEOFlow: Turn YourEmployees Into Mini-CEOs, and PredictableRevenue. My third, The Unique Genius 21-DayProgram, is in development.

At age 36 I rediscovered, after 30 years, that I aman artist, as youll see with some sketches in thisebook.

2/ You Can Make As Much Money As You Want, Doing What You Love

I love motorcycles, adventure, meditation,and morning green smoothies.

I grew up and spent 35 years of my life inthe San Francisco Bay Area. Now I live inSanta Monica, California, just outside Los

Angeles.

(If you ever visit Santa Monica, here are twoeating places you need to visit:Huckleberry for their hot chocolate, andPlanet Raw for just about everything.)


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My life hasnt been all poniesand rainbows

Beyond the resume, Ive had my share ofchallenges too, like a failed business, a failedmarriage, and before all this I was a geeky, sociallyawkward high school programmer who didnthave friends for years or a date until I was 18.

I have had long periods of self-doubt, with lotsof thoughts like what if I fail?, will this work?and will I fail to live up to my potential? (Shhh -those doubts can still pop up now and again.)

Id like to say I dont care about what you think ofme and my work, but Id be lying, because I want

you to like it and get value from it.

I have lots of strengths and plenty of weaknesses

I am a human, with all the related imperfections.

In other words, Im just like you.


Turn that around and realize that yourejust like me, with my potentialand the po-tential of all the other successful peopleout there you put on pedestals.

No one is perfect, and if they seem like it,you just dont know enough about them I

guarantee they have their dark sides too!

You dont succeed by being perfect or neverfeeling fear and doubt you succeed bymoving forward despite any fears, doubtsor uncertainties.

Forget any feeling of a lack of money, time,college degrees, skills or people you know

There are onlythree reasons you will notbe successful: you dont try new things, youdont learn from what you try, or you giveup.


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Choose Both

The PebbleStorm and Unique Genius story be-gins in 2007 (after all the entrepreneurial andcorporate stuff Id done), while I was at a Silicon

Valley venture capital rm as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

I had a dream job getting paid to gure out whatkind of company I wanted to start.

And after three months there, I had a hugerevelation.

I realized that while I enjoyed the salaries, securityand often the people in it (if not the managementcultures), the corporate world and technologystartups held no meaning for me.

Regardless of how much money I made or couldmake in the corporate and startup world, it just

wasnt fullling.


I also realized that I have always had theability to make money doing what I want todo but I never tried to because I didnt re-ally believe I could do it.

(This is true for you, too.)

I had bought into the lie that I had to choose

between well-paying OR fullling work.

I committed to choose both, to creatework that was well-paying AND fullling.

And the truth is you too can choose both:you can make money doing what you enjoy,without compromising how much you make

or how you make it.


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What Happened to Integrity inWork?

In guring out how to choose both happinessand money, my views and perspective on businesschanged. I used to buy wholeheartedly into busi-ness is the answer, and free markets solve all.

And Americas model of work seemed like a shin-

ing example to the world.

Yet the reality is that the way you work is stressfuland drains you of your happiness, fun and health.

You work too much with people who dont careabout you, doing things you feel are a waste oftime (but the boss wants it), not getting paid whatyou are worth.

Somewhere business lost its honor and integrityand prot at any price - became everything. Its

just not right for companies to violate the rules ofhumanity and integrity in the name of prot andpress...whether the result is a trashed environ-ment, overseas slave labor, or even the corporate


servitude we accept right here in the USA.

You are TIRED of corporate servitude onthe career track. We grow up being trainedto believe all kinds of lies about what ittakes to be successful.

(Ill be sharing with you Five Great Lies OfSuccess and Five Great Truths Of Success.)

Because we believe the lies (or were nevertaught the truth), we end up working at allkinds of jobs that either stress us out, aremeaningless, or dont pay us what wereworth.


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Five Great Lies Of Success

If you can choose both money and happiness,why havent you done it yet? Why dont more ofyour friends do it?

You and I have deep misconceptions about what ittakes to be successful.

These unspoken assumptions of success sabotage

you, because if you buy into these lies, you prac-tice the wrong principles.

Here are Five Great Lies Of Success Ive foundthrough mentoring hundreds of people, things youmay believe but that are not true:

The First Great Lie Of Success

You Cant Have It All:You must choose EITHER

work that pays a lot of money OR fullling work,because you cant make much money doing whatyou love - even if you could gure out what that is.All deeply fullling, meaningful work has to be


done through non-prots, right? (No!!!)

The Second Great Lie Of SuccessHaving Fun At Work Wastes Time: To makemore money, rst work harder. More work willx it. Actually, more work will x anything,and when in doubt, just work harder.

Enjoyment and fun arent bad or actively dis-couraged in work (hopefully!), but they do getin the way of getting things done and makingmoney.

The Third Great Lie Of Success

You ll Be Discovered: Hope is your strategy;if you work hard, following the career track, atsome point youll be noticed. Someday you ll

just be discovered.

Some people win the lottery too...but do youwant to bet your life on it?


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The Fourth Great Lie Of Success

You Just Need A Promotion: If you get a newjob or promotion, then THAT will make you hap-pier, wealthier or more successful.

Of course, you thought that same thing before get-

ting this oneand the one before thatand beforethat. Groundhog day anyone?

The Fifth Great Lie Of Success

Youre Not Good Enough:What is your dream?Can you make as much money as you want, doing

what you love?

Your inner critic tells you all the reasons youcantdo it, like Who are you to start a business?

Who are you to change peoples lives? Youre notspecial, people dont need you, they dont value


what you have to offer, you dont haveenough experience, talent or creativity, andon and on and on. (Those are all lies.)

Finally...an Extra Great Lie AboutMoney

Earning Money = Making Money: Theworking world and school teaches you howto earn money, not make it as in being ableto create money when you need it.

Which, my friend, is thankfully a learnableskill like learning to play a guitar.


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A Mission: Bring IntegrityBack to Work

As my search for combining money and happinessgot clearer and clearer, I realized that what wasmissing was integrity.

I found my life purpose: to bring integrity back toall levels of business, to our relationships and to

our purpose of work, and integrate work into therest of our lives.

Integrity means not only getting to work withpeople you trust all the time, but even more im-portantly, making it possible to remain true to ourpersonal purpose and passions in work and life.

We dont have to sacrice passion, fun or healthfor money anymore in work we can have it all if

we choose.

How this can happen begins with a dream.



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A Dream

What if you could work on what you want, whenyou want, from where you want, with whom youwant?

What if everyone you worked with partners,clients, coworkers, vendors, managers, employees was someone you liked, respected and trusted?

What if values like trust, freedom, authenticity,fun and play were the basis of how you and we all

worked together?

What if the people you worked with were devotedto helping you succeed?

What if there was no competition, only coopera-

tion, because everyone was a Unique Genius whohad found their special gifts and turned them intoenjoyable, meaningful work?


And everyone could bring their unique talents to-gether, like unique puzzle pieces, to jointly createmasterful new products, businesses and money?

What if work was enjoyable, playful, meaningfuland fun and we all made a lot more money be-cause of it?

Is this even possible?


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A Vision

I began to think about how I could make thedream real. How could it be possible?

And the answer came to me: a community basedon trust.

Whether they are employees, partners or clients, Idont enjoy work when its with people that I dont

like, respect or trust.

I love working with people whom I like, respectand trust. What if I could work with trusted people

ALL THE TIME?

What if you could too?

What if we had a community of like-minded peo-ple big enough that we could always work withgreat people whether as partners, employees, orclients?

What if we could collaborate, buy, sell and hirebased on trusted, long-term relationships rather


than complex legal, sales, and HR con-tracts?

Where everyone works and makes moneytogether based on principles like trust, in-tegrity, fun, freedom and fulllment

Where there isnt dog-eat-dog competi-

tion, because each person has found theirspecial gifts, their Unique Genius andeach person is like a unique puzzle piece

with their own single place in the broaderpuzzle

What if we could get so many people in-volved that we reached a tipping point of the

world (~1% of the worlds future population,100 million people) ...and revolutionizedthe way people work - and thus their lives around the world?


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You Have a Special Gift

One thing Ive learned this from mentoringhundreds of people is that everyone has a gift.EVERYONE. (However, not everyone is ready or

willing to discover it and do something with it.)

This means that YOU have a special gift to sharewith the world. A gift that can be heard, respectedand turned into fun, fullling work!

Perhaps your purpose and fullling work is tochange the world. Perhaps it is to change yourself.

Dont you feel this inside yourself, that there is abigger gift in you yet to be discovered and shared?

That you are meant for more? (Yes you are!!!)



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You Have Superpowers

I have never met anyone who did not havesuperpowers or the potential to make as muchmoney as they want doing what they want (again,

whether or not theyre ready to take action to doit.)

This is what I know about you:

YOU have a 1-in-6 billion combination oftalents, interests and gifts

YOUR life story can inspire, educate orentertain others

YOU have a form of x-ray vision that seesaspects of the world or people that no else does

YOU have an intuitive spidey sense that picksup on challenges and solutions in a way that no

else does YOU can make a difference in the world and

change lives (and make money doing it)



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The First Great Truth OfSuccess

You can make as much money as youwant.

Question: What is holding you back from makingmore money?

Answer: Yourself.

You choose your jobs. You choose your expenses.You choose who you work with and how. Youchoose how much you learn, and if and how youapply it.

You choose to start your own company or not, and

what it does, how you work and with whom youwork.

You can choose how much money you make(though not how fast you make it).


But you have to practice BELIEVING youcan do it. Because it is your commitmentand desire that will pull you forward to g-ure out how to do it.

If you say, I want to be a millionaire [or

billionaire], but never take steps, evenbaby steps, to make it happen (such asreading Napoleon Hills bookThink &Grow Rich) then maybe you dont really

want what you think you want.

If other people have done it, so can you.


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The Second Great Truth OfSuccess

You can do anything you love.

Do you love adventure?

Time and location independence?

Health? Fun? Integrity? Creativity? Kids? Givingback?

No matter what your values are, you can creatework around them and in alignment withthem.

With me for example, staying healthy is a core

value. When I work more than 30 hours aweek (regularly), my health suffers.

So I dont work more than 30 hours a week.And another of my principles is that I have to en-joy my work which I do.


The clearer you are on what is important toyou, and how you want to work, the easier itis to make it your reality.

Start with a single day. If you could startover, from scratch, and could do something

you enjoyed as much or as little as youwanted, what would your ideal work day orweek look like?


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The Third Great Truth OfSuccess

Your work can fulll you AND make adifference.

Does your work fulll you?

Does your work matter?

Theres an illusion that you have to choose be-tween making money or doing really meaningful

work (like in non-prots).

Part of being successful in work and in life is nd-ing a purpose that is bigger than yourself and yourfamily, and living it each day.

If you havent found your purpose yet but want to,its because you havent been committed enoughto it. A stork doesnt just drop your purpose in

your lap like a baby down a chimney.

You have to WANT to nd it, because when


you nd your purpose, doubts will come upwhether or not you can actually do it. Yourdesire for it must be stronger than the fear.

Our deepest fear is not that we are in-adequate. Our deepest fear is that we are

powerful beyond measure. - MarianneWilliamson


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The Fourth Great Truth OfSuccess

You can feel powerful, valuable and capa-ble of making an impact.

Do you have fears, doubts and uncertainties?

I do too.

So do authentic entrepreneurs.

Welcome to the human race!

But fear, doubt and uncertainty do not stop usfrom learning and doing what it takes to nd andexpress our authentic self, which includes the

value and power within us all.

You are far more valuable, powerful and inspiringthan you realize.

I know this because it has been true of every singlementoring client and partner of mine.


Its up to you to nd it, develop it and makemoney from it.

You will have to nd your own path to dothis, by starting your own project or busi-ness.

If you work for other people, without hav-ing your own project or business, you willnever be able to truly nd your full powerand value.


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The Fifth Great Truth OfSuccess

You can have the peace of mind and free-dom that comes with having all the support

you want from people that you trust andrespect.

Forget competition -- community and collabora-

tion is the future of work. There are millions oflike-minded people out there just like you.

You enjoy helping other people, right?

Lots and lots of those people out there enjoy help-ing people too.

They would enjoy helping you.

You cant nd each other if you dont know whereto look.

The clearer and more authentic you are in broad-casting your message, the more easily you will at-tract a community of people who want to support


you and each other.

You have all the help and support you needalready around you and out there. The best

way to receive support is to ask for it.

If thats hard for you, try it once youll seethat it works, and notice that people enjoyhelping you, if its an authentic request forhelp.


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The Key Ingredient To MakingAs Much Money As You Want,

Doing What You Love

isAuthenticity.

There is a very simple explanation for whyauthenticity is the key ingredient to having bothmoney and happiness in work.

Fulllment comes from bringing your full selfto work, including your successes and failures,prides and embarrassments. It also includes yourpast (your life story), present (who you are today)and future (your vision). Its everything you be-lieve in. This total you is your authentic self.

Work based on your authentic self:

1. Creates Value for others by teaching, educat-ing or entertaining based on what youve beenthrough in your life (past), who you are today(present), and your vision (future).


2. Creates Trust in others because youare authentic.

3. Makes You Unique, because no one inthe world has your same combination of lifeexperiences, vision, values and talents.

So through your work, your authenticitycan create value for others, create trustand make yourself unique... which means

you can make (and create) money.

Authenticity is the key to combining moneyandhappiness in work!

If you want to hear me share this live, clickhttp://tinyurl.com/UGEquation


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Who Are You?

So you want nancial freedom, and to be able towork from anywhere? Great!

But theres an even deeper desire for freedom inyou. Its the freedom to be you, in any way youwant, without giving a care about what othersthink and in fact, to be more respected, lovedand successful for it.

The freedom to be your authentic self. To declareto the world who you are, what you stand for andto live it.

Over time, youve forgotten parts of yourself, likemany of your passions and what its like to havefun and be a kid. These passionate and fun partsof you can be remembered, and can be mashed

back into your life and work. In fact, you mustdothis to make more money and feel more fullled.

If you dont know who you are or what you believein why should people believe in you?


Who is your authentic self?

What are you going to do with your life?

Why do you matter?

How will you make a difference?

Why will people miss you when youregone?


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You Will Start Your Own Thing

The bad news:You cant make as much as youwant, doing what you love,by working forsomeone else. You can learn a lot by working forothers, but at some point you must do your ownthing.

The good news:You can be an entrepre-neur and start your own thing. Its easier

and cheaper than ever to get started. I foundedPebbleStorm with less than $100, and many oth-ers have started protable businesses this way too.

More good news: Nothing stands in your wayof starting your own thing. You dont need alot of time or money. Or a fancy degree, big net-

work, website, programmers, startup funds or anyof that standard malarkey.

No one is stopping you: not your your boss,spouse, children, ex-husband, parents or friends.(If you think otherwise, then youre not taking re-sponsibility for your life.)


Even more good news:You dont haveto quit your day job to start your ownthing. Start your project on the side, andnurture it with a few hours a month of at-tention, until it grows up enough so that itcan support you.

Do you already have a business? If you

dont enjoy it, treat it as your day job, andstart a new passion project on the side.


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You Will Be An Entrepreneur

All you need to be an entrepreneur is this: to de-clare that you are or will be one.

Say to yourself, I can start my own thing, orI will start my own thing.

Say, I can make as much money as I want,doing what I love.

Say them every day, or some other version thatfeels more powerful, aligned and resonant with

you.

Every time you say this or write it down, you makeit more real.

This can be true, even if it takes twenty yearsto do this (though it wont).



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The Four Ingredients ofSuccess

Success means different things to different peo-ple.

Here are four fundamentals you need for success,and to make as much money as you want, doing

what you enjoy:

Clarity: What do you want? What do you want todo? What are your gifts? What does successmean to you in work and in life? What kind of

work would you enjoy? What do you stand for?If you declared yourself to the world, what would

you say or what would be your message?

Commitment: It takes babies 300 attempts tolearn to walk. What would happen if they gave upon try #297? Nothing works right the rst time,or perhaps the thousandth time. You must keeptaking baby steps. No matter what, DONT GIVEUP, even if it takes twenty years (which it wont).


Condence: You must believe in your-self and your vision. The good news is thatcondence can be learned and practiced,like learning to play a guitar. You turnhalf-baked ideas into awesome ones by get-ting them out there to people and evolving

them. Remember: Dont worry. Be crappy.Itll work out.

Community: No one can do it alone, andcreating success with others makes workmore enjoyable and easier. At the begin-ning, it can be hard to nd like-minded,truly supportive people. However, once you

begin declaring yourself, who you are andwhat you stand for, you will be surprised athow easy it is to nd these people. Peoplemove slowly. Be patient in building yourcommunity of supporters.


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Give Yourself Three Years

Figuring out what you enjoy and how to makeplenty of money from it takes experimentationand time.

While everyone is different, here is a commonpath towards making as much money as you wantdoing what you enjoy:

Year 1: Thinking about it and what you want(taking baby steps).

Year 2: Experimenting with what you want todo (taking more baby steps as well as a leap hereand there).

Year 3: Going All-In and committing 100%to taking leaps to fully replace (or more) your day

job income with your passion income

Does one year sound like a long time?

Does ve? 10?


What is a few years in the scheme of therest of your life?

With patience and commitment, the onlyway you will fail in achieving what youwant is if you give up on it, no matter howmany dragons you have to ght, mountains

you must climb, or deserts you have to

cross.

Dont give up!


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Youre a Lighthouse, Not aFisherman

Weve been working backwards.

Before the internet, it was costly and HARD tostart a business, create a product, stand out and

build an audience of followers and customers.

Youve been trained to nd a market need and llit, to ignore what we want to do.

Its like going out shing for markets and ideas,but not being sure where to nd them and being atthe mercy of where they are and how they move.

There are more than a BILLION people on the in-

ternet, and 500 million on Facebook. All you needis one thousand fans to support yourself in doing

what you want to do.

The challenge isnt starting your own thing, itsstanding out from everyone else.


... which you can do, because YOU havethe potential to be a Unique Genius andstand out from the noise.

How? Not by doing what you should doand nding a market and serving it.

In the Unique Genius world, rst you de-cide what you want to do and how youwant to do it, then, as you become bolderand clearer in declaring yourself, the mar-ket nds you.

This is how you stand out by being yourbest self, guring out what you stand for

in the world, your message and sharing itunabashedly with others.

Be a lighthouse... the more clearly andbrightly you shine your light, the easier youattract success to yourself.


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Where I Started (and So CanYou)

One day I took a blank piece of paper and at thetop wrote My Dream Business.

I began writing out ideas around the question: IfI could do ANYTHING without limits of time,money or ability what would I do?

I didnt get any business ideas at all! What I didget I was total clarity on how I wanted to work,including:

1. I wanted to make lots of money at work thatmattered.

2. I wanted freedom to be able to work on what

I wanted, when I wanted, with whom I wanted,when I wanted.

3. I wanted to be able to make abig impact withlittle effort (to make big tidal waves with smallpebbles = PebbleStorm).


Beyond that, I had NO IDEA how to makethis happen.

I did have faith that if I had a clear vision,and kept taking baby steps towards it,never giving up, eventually I would gureit out, even if it took twenty years.

You can start with this exercise too.

And you can achieve what you want aslong as you dont give up.


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You Cant Do It Alone Askfor Help

You cant do it alone.

Dont you like helping others?

So why do you think others wont enjoy help you?You might not like to ask for help because

You dont know who to ask or what to ask for

You dont feel that your ideas are good / interest-ing / unique enough

Its embarrassing to ask for help

You think you or your idea needs to be perfectbefore you can share it

All these reasons for not asking for help from any-one -- friends, family, coworkers, mentors or evenstrangers -- are like cleaning the house before themaid arrives!


You are not alone.

Its okay if you have a hard time asking forhelp, as long as you ask for help. Its im-possible to create anything alone, and byinvolving others, you will get better results

and have a better time doing it.

If you are authentic, you can be surprisedat how readily it comes back to you.

And after you ask for help the rst time?

Keep asking!


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Start Now

No matter what you think your issues, ideas orchallenges are, there are people out there wait-ing for you to share your genius and become yourchampions, cheerleaders, clients, mentors, sub-scribers or partners.

They are waiting for you to take the rst step!

What baby step can you take RIGHT NOW tomove even an inch closer to your vision?

Take out a blank piece of paper and do the MyDream Business exercise.

Call a friend and have a conversation about whatyou most want to do.

Pick a date to hold a meeting-of-the-minds lunchto invite people to share your ideas, to ask fortheir ideas, or even just debate the Great Liesand Great Truths of this manifesto.


Publicly declare on email, Twitter orFacebook what you are going to do about

your work and life!

Hint: It is always more effective when youcan do something with a like-minded bud-dy.


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Free Unique Genius TrainingVideos

I have a series of free Unique Genius trainingvideos on topics like: How To Start A BusinessThat Cant Fail, and 5 Ways To Make MoreMoney On Purpose.

You can nd them here:

www.UniqueGenius.com

I would love to hear from you in the commentssections of the videos!



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Please Share This EBook

You have friends, coworkers & family membersfrustrated with work, who arent happy with whattheyre doing or just arent making what theyre

worth.

Please share this ebook with them.

Here is an link you can use to spread the word

about this ebook:

www.PebbleStorm.com/Manifesto

Some suggestions on where you can share it: Email it to as many people as you can. Post it on your blog. Retweet it on Twitter or share it on Facebook.

Print out copies and leave them in your ofcekitchen.


The more people who believe this is possi-ble, the easier it becomes to make it a real-ity for you and us all.

Thank you for spreading the vision andhelping grow the community.

I cant wait to see what YOU create!

Aaron Ross

Documents

Unique Genius Possibility Manifesto