5 comments about The Unlikely Celebrity: Bill Sackter's Triumph over Disability.

1. Dr. Walz tells the life story of Bill Sackter's triumph over disability. The book is written from Bill's perspective and tells of his journey in a Minnesota mental institution to being named Iowa's Handicapped Person of the year. There is a wonderful Christmas story which makes this book particularly timely. I would recommend this book to readers of all ages.



2. This uplifting story will appeal to anyone who is interested in how the human spirit overcomes great adversity. It is also of local interest to residents of Iowa City, as it recaps events that happened in this town and on this campus. A thoroughly enjoyable read that I would highly recommend.



3. This book is a love feast. Story after story of Bill and the "frens" who were fortunate enough to be a part of Bill's circle, including the regulars on the bus who were cheerfully greeted upon boarding, the day care children who had a happy transition from parents dropping them off for day care, the nice lady prostitutes who enjoyed his happy harmonica tunes when he was in Washington, DC to be honored for his achievements. Not only does the book make you glad to know about Bill's magnificent gift of loving, it gives hints about how to nurture that in life. The book is for everyone who celebrates the great diversity of gifts that make life wonderful



4. The story of the life and times of William ("Bill for short") Sackter is as remarkable and inspiring as any in American history. Bill's story is re-told by his good friend Professor Thomas Walz (now retired from the social work department of the University of Iowa) in such sharp, believable detail as even to go so far as to write the majority of the book from Bill's point of view, using the sort of speech, broken perhaps but very gripping, as Bill had used; this aspect brings a great deal of accuracy to the book. The Bible says in I Thessalonians 5 to rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances. Bill Sackter took these principles to the extreme, and as a result, made everyone who knew him take a much closer look at themselves and the world around them. His life still has that effect on people today.

   I'm not going to say here what all happened in Bill's life; the book will do a much better job of that than I. However, I will simply say that this book will open your eyes to an incredible sense of optimism little known in the world we live in today. I can't imagine someone reading this book and being disappointed.

   One thing more: for those of you who have seen and loved the movies "Bill" and "Bill On His Own" (which have been out of print for who-knows-how-many-years), they are available from the very good people at Wild Bill's Coffee Shop at the University of Iowa.




5. This is a wonderful book relating human resiliency and the good of which people are capable. Should be mandatory reading in all college human service programs.

5 comments about Myself Among Others: A Life In Music.

1. I'm only up to page 128 in this wonderful book but am already completely enthralled. As Nat Hentoff said, "He has known more musicians-some very well indeed-than any writer on jazz, and he certainly knows the business end." To read personal accounts of his relationships and experiences with almost every jazz legend I've ever heard of (and some from before my time as well) is mesmerizing. And George Wein's personal life outside of jazz is not exactly "chopped liver" either!! The book is written with a wealth of knowledge, intelligence, insight, warmth, humor and humility. The only criticism I have is that the book is only a little over 500 pages!!



2. Without question, the best book on Jazz I have read. Mr. Wein's story by itself is fantastic. His life is interesting and his writing excellent. Additionally, he dicusses numerous musicians and offers personal observations which bring them to life. He recommends Lp's, CD's, songs and sets. What more could you ask for?



3. George Wein's wonderful memoir, "Myself Among Others", might just as well have been titled, "Payback Time". Although he chided Alberta Hunter for using the expression, as she mounted the stage, after many years in obscurity, followed by renewed stardom in the eighties, I can't help feeling that George is muttering that phrase to himself, as he rollcalls those sometime irresponsible, sometime neurotic, sometime drug addicted children the world knows as "jazz artists".
   George knows the territory very well. As a teenage fan, very competent pianist and singer , jazz night club entreprenuer, and promoter of the "daddy" of the outdoor music festivals, "The Newport Jazz Festival", and oh yes, lecturer at Harvard, in his custom designed jazz course, dare anyone tell George anything about jazz, and the wonderful lunatics that people the jazz world?
   Here is what it's like to do business with artists worshipped the world over, like Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Chet Baker, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus. Space precludes naming them all. In addition to dealing with these "darlings", were the torrential rains at outdoor perfomances, political opposition from irrate townspeople, and the piece de resistance of booking concerts, other promoters dissapearing with George's money.
   Maybe the presence of a natural built in Prozac machine kept George sane through this craziness, but I have another theory. His passion for the music. When you are hearing a Louis Armstrong, or a Charlie Parker and you truly "get it", there is something that goes beyond mere entertainment, or an expert improvisor. I can't even find adequate words to describe it, but when these men improvise on a popular song, it becomes like a classic solution to a philosophic, or mathematical theorum. It's hard to state the "problem" to be solved, but the true jazz fan knows that Louis, and Bird, and the other masters, came up with incredibly beautiful solutions night after night, year after year.
   If you love jazz, and the artists, this book is a must.



4. I just finished reading "Myself Among Others" by George Wein. This is the best book on Jazz I ever read. Politics, craziness, love, trust, friendship, race relations... are all inside by a major insider.
   I even learned things I did not want to know about my idols. That is a must read book for anyone who has any warm corner in his heart for the "classical music of America."



5. George Wein has blessed music lovers by utilizing his God-given business acumen to influence the way live music is presented. He has blessed us again with this warm and well written memoir that contains a wealth of anecdotes regarding a who's who in American music in the later haalf of the 20th century. George Wein started out as a jazz pianist but his exposure to so many legendary jazz performers brought him to the realization that his talent for the business side of music may have exceeded his actual musical ability. He devoted himself to promoting jazz performances and performers ultimately becoming the driving force behind the famed Newport Jazz Festival. Along the way he has countless stories to share regarding the great legends of jazz with whom he became acquainted. Branching out to promote folk music festivals and having some intersting experiences with the newly emerging Rock culture , George adapted his approach and enjoyed some additional successes. The book includes characters such as Ellington, Basie, Armstrong, Monk, Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, etc, etc.
   
   This is a very entertaining book for music lovers of all stripes but will have special significance for the jazz lover since George Wein is clearly a jazz lover and speaks the language. A great book.

No comments about Walt Disney The American Dreamer.

5 comments about A Passion to Win.

1. i agree with the EDITOR's review of this book as well. Often self-promoting, this book can often be too tedious in its descriptive of the deal makings. i enjoyed it more having worked for the firm for a while. i didnt agree with everything he said and his comments about some of the people he fired were too slanted in my opinion, but hell, thats what being the boss entitles you to. i would have liked a more candid description of the different chgannels rather that a listings of the shows which appeared to be just a listing provided by someone at each channel. toughness during deal-making is the message i got most from this book and is what will stick with me most. one last thing--i would have enjoyed more details on the work during wwll .



2. If one is asked to describe a blueprint for genocide, Hitler's "Mein Kampf" invariably comes to mind. Thus ever should Sumner Redstone's "A Passion to Win" be linked with the equally heinous crime of cultural genocide.

   In this book, Mr. Redstone recalls the long road that led him from drive-in theater projectionist to media mogul. At every twist and turn, Mr. Redstone defeats "incomprehensible" odds to claw his way to the top of his "entertainment" empire. The capstone of this empire was his acquistion of Viacom, and with it, MTV.

   Redstone describes with almost messianic fervor how he ignored advice to sell off the fledgling music channel. "I believed that MTV could be a cultural force in America" (page 116). "Young people 12 to 20 were going to become adults of 30 to 40...", "If we attracted them early, we could keep them forever." (page 117).

   Well, attract them he did, and anyone who can sit through ten minutes of MTV "programming" can readily appreciate Mr. Redstone's "cultural messages". (Try searching "Shower Rangers" on you favorite browser some time. Thanks, Sumner!).

   Even more sinister is the calculating way in which he targets the youngest viewers for his oily propaganda. "I felt much the same way about Nickelodeon and the possibilities in creating a children's brand." (page 117). From cradle to grave, Uncle Sumner had a direct conduit to America's, and then the world's, most impressionable viewers.

   But Mr. Redstone does not live in a vacuum. He has children and grandchildren of his own. They grew up with the MTV generation too (Can't you just see Grampa Sumner settling down with the grandbabies to watch some quality rap videos?). Mr. Redstone, however, believes that while "multiculturalism" and "diversity" are just the ticket for the gentiles, his family would attend private schools in Israel.

   Towards the closing pages of this book, Mr. Redstone also mentions his wife of 50+ years, as he is in the process of divorcing her. "I took measures to see that she would have no control in the company". Heart warming, ain't it?

   I highly recommend this book. As the old proverb goes, "Know thy enemy."




3. Whether you buy this book for self-help or because you want to know how the top people made it in their careers, this book will satisfy you. Well written and focused, you catch a glimpse into the life of Sumner Redstone as he rose from a "poor, Jewish boy" to becoming a media conglomerate who is well respected (and feared) in his arena.

   Reading about people like this, you can't help but be inspired. Whether you agree with Mr. Redstone's tactics, you will admire and respect his fortitude and resilience. He takes you through a journey of his life, and you see how successful people overcome the obstacles in their lives. I don't want to give away everything in the book, but Sumner faced many "obstacles". What's nice is he also names the names of the people who have infuriated him throughout his career. He has guts!

   I recommend this book. Honestly, though, it may not be for someone who has already "made it" in life. I think the best person to read this book is a recent high-school or college graduate who has his/her whole life ahead of them. This book will make an excellent gift to someone and will definitely inspire them.




4. As a highschool student, I found this book to be extremely inspiring. Anyone who has ever thought of entering the field of business should read this book. I did and it helped me channel my i nner ambition. Redstones inspiring stories (he survived a terrible fire) made me want to get out and conquer the world. At times, Redstone seems a bit full of himself, but anyone who can climb to the top usuallly is. This book is a great read to anyone wanting to find passion by reading from a passionate person.



5. Wow! I'm the first to review this book here in over a year!
   
   A Passion to Win was recommended to me by a fellow Viacom employee, though he's at Paramount and I have freelanced at MTV for the past four and a half years. I'm embarrassed to say that I previously knew nothing of Sumner Redstone or his behind-the-scene battles to turn Viacom into the world's top entertainment company. When confronted with the inevitable bureaucracy of performing my job duties, I just envisioned a nameless, faceless corporation that really only cared about the bottom line.
   
   What a treat it was to spend the last day and a half seeing operations from the creator's perspective! I have a newfound respect for Mr. Viacom (or Mr. Redstone) and every other division that has invariably kept him awake at night as he set to reform it from the inside out. Quite an inspiring and optimistic tome from someone who could easily have concentrated on the negatives of his own triumphant journey.
   
   I was surprised with Redstone's candor in recounting his business deals, including the personalities of the players involved. The character "types" he has dealt with paralleled my own encounters with businessmen over the years. It was comforting to know that our dealings were not so dissimilar, only in the scope of what was being negotiated.
   
   I'm sure Sumner has his share of detractors, but I was really impressed with his story. I found myself cheering (though not audibly) when he closed a significant business deal. The uncomplicated prose actually helped me through most of the legal situations, as that's never been an area of interest for me.
   
   Suffice it to say that I think this book holds up exceedingly well, giving great insight into one of the top business minds currently at play on the American (even global) corporate landscape. A complete recommendation.

5 comments about The Rise of Silas Lapham (Signet Classics).

1. William Dean Howells's "The Rise of Silas Lapham" is one of the earliest American novels about a businessman, and that qualification alone makes it a literary curiosity, but what is most remarkable about it is what its title character is not, rather than what he is. Silas Lapham is not a ruthless, villainously greedy tycoon who bullies his employees and relishes destroying the careers of his competitors and enemies, but a conscientious, likeable man to whom misfortune happens because of his gullibility and sense of guilt rather than hubris.

   Lapham is a human emblem of the new American industrial economy of the 1870s. A self-made millionaire in the paint business, he is now one of the richest men in Boston and is radiantly proud of the fact that he has earned every dollar. Having grown up poor and undereducated in Vermont, he still speaks in a rustic vernacular and has yet to understand the rationale behind the rules of high society, let alone assimilate them. A simple, practical man with a sense of duty, he even put aside his business to serve in the Civil War, in which he was seriously wounded and achieved the rank of colonel. He can be boastful and garrulous, but he is not arrogant or overbearing.

   Lapham is dearly devoted to his wife Persis, who in turn has supported him through thick and thin, and his two daughters. Penelope, the older girl, is relatively plain but witty and sardonic and, at least in the first half of the novel, never seems to take anything seriously; her sister Irene is the more beautiful but vapid and superficial. Irene falls for Tom Corey, the young man who comes to work for her father as a foreign sales representative, but Tom and Penelope have a mutual attraction that, Penelope fears, could break Irene's heart. This romantic subplot allows Howells to contrast Tom's family, part of the old Boston aristocracy, with the even wealthier but socially crude Laphams with whose daughter Tom's mother has snobbish doubts about his possible union.

   The novel has almost the air of Greek tragedy in that Lapham is a man of stature who has fatal flaws that threaten to destroy him. He is a teetotaller, and when he does take the liberty of trying some wine at a dinner party, he embarrasses himself and his family by talking too much. He abstains from gambling, but, instigated by his former business partner and current gadfly Milton Rogers, he gets into financial trouble when he stakes money on bad property and bad stocks. And, to compensate for a traumatic event in his past, he is charitable almost to a fault to a pretty girl whom he employs as a typist in his office.

   The style of "The Rise of Silas Lapham" is a dramatic realism similar to that found in the novels of Howells's contemporaries Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser; the structure is straightforward, and the dialogue cuts to the core in laying bare the characters' sentiments and unfolding the plot. It may fall short of being a "great" novel, but for its candid portrayal of a specimen of the nouveau riche, it can be considered a minor monument of nineteenth century American literature.




2. To the page, this book is symmetrical in its structure. It opens with a public confession (to a reporter) and ends with a private one (to a priest). In the exact center comes Lapham's moment of realization when he is drunk at a party. There is more to the structure, but that should be enough to get you going.
   
   A reviewer below calls Lapham a 'mogul with a conscience' which is accurate. The true core of this book is the way Howells carefully built it, though. Considering it comes from an age before modernism, it certainly feels quite modern. Give it a shot.



3. This book blew my mind! I found it absolutely engaging and the character of Silas Lapham was endearing to the point of surprise. This book says a lot about a class conscious America and even more about how "mom and pop" capitalism gets pushed aside to make way for impersonal mega corporations.
   Silas Lapham is a good-hearted, yet rugged individualist who pulled himself up by the bootstraps to make a giant fortune. Once he succeeds however, there is a whole group of people at the top of the ladder ready to push him onto his face, along with his whole "wretched family." No matter what he does to fit in with the "old money" he just can't seem to fit in and the more he works to fit the millionaire mold, the more he compromises his own values.
   What's best though is that we see him and his family through good times as well as through the downward spiral after his business crashes, and while it is sad, we see that they return willingly to what once was without coming out any worse.
   This book made me smile because the characters, especially Silas Lapham, are realistically flawed and human. I recommend this highly.



4. You might be able to take a man of humble beginnings and make him a rich man, but can he ever cross the line into Society? Silas Lapham becomes rich from paint that he sells, but fails totally in his attempt to become an accepted member of the upper class. The book also concerns a misunderstood love interest by one of Lapham's daughters: the young man is actually in love with his other daughter. Lapham's business fails at the end, but he doesn't sacrifice his integrity. Which is why it is only the "rise" of Silas Lapham and not the "rise and fall." This is among Howells's best novels.



5. The merchandise arrived timely and the overall experience was a good one.

5 comments about Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur.

1. While this book was well written, I was dissapointed with what I learned about Bill Gates. There was not enough detail and the book was pieced together from a number of different quotes, which is ok for many biographies but the extent of the number of quotes compared to the varied sources did not complete the picture.

   The books cover claimed 'Insight From The Worlds Greatest Entrepreneur' but I did not feel an insight.

   Despite the above, if you like Bill Gates and want to learn a little more about him, I recommend this book. There are some fun stories and some things to be learned about the man. It is put together nicely, it makes a high claim but does not completely deliver on this claim.




2. I like to be told a story. Although the book starts with a good story on how Bill Gates got started, it quickly digresses. This book is an accumulation of facts and boring accounts about Bill Gates and Microsoft. It never gets into the meat of things. I would have liked to have read more about the litigations against Microsoft. Maybe some more about Nescape's lawsuit. It mentions very little about the Antitrust lawsuit that I was looking forward to learning about. Instead we get quotes from Bill Gates that do not enhance the book, but instead interrupt it. The author references websites about Microsoft's and the government's claims about the lawsuit. It's like the author got lazy. Don't waste your money on this book. A very big dissapointment!



3. It's an easy to read story of Gates, but there's nothing new here. In fact, the whole book is made up of quotes from other books and articles. You can't really tell if they are taken out of context or not. There's just not much original stuff here.



4. This is one of a series of books that covers highly successful, highly visible individuals and how they got that way. These books are targeted at school age teens to inspire them to follow their paths for success. The author seems to cover the life stories of Bill Gates and adds quotes where appropriate to boost the storyline. There are occasional segments on subjects related to Gates as shown in the Amazon's "Look in" review. It's an easy read with only 230 pages. If you read any of the other books such as "Gates" or "Hard Drive" you'll get the feeling of reading this book before. Since the work isn't original and seems to heavily reference other books I give it 3 stars. The only question I have is whether the author actual sat down with Bill Gates and talked to him or did she really just go to the library, the Internet, etc. to get info on the book. As a first book on Bill Gates life, it's still a good read for young adults looking to be inspired.



5. Bill Gates Speaks provides plenty of insight including numerous pertinent quotations. Those with little knowledge of Gates yet an interest in his views will find value in this book; however, I struggle to rate this book above three stars as it is merely a scattered collection of thoughts as oppose to a well organized account. With that said, I would also be hard pressed to rate this book negatively as the subject attracts intrigue on its own right and Lowe appears to be at least both informed and well-researched on the topic.
   
   If you have a keen interest in Bill Gates, I would read this book; otherwise, I would search for something a little more engrossing.

No comments about My Life and Work - 'Any color car as long as it is black!' Ideas & Innovation in the Early Days of the Automotive Industry.

2 comments about The Miller Beer Barons: The Frederick Miller Family and Its Brewery.

1. The Miller Beer Barons: The Frederick J. Miller Family And Its Brewery is the true and fascinating story of the Miller family, which started and ran the Miller Brewing Company for over one hundred years. Stretching from late 1800's Germany, when Mr. Miller brewed his first beer, to 1970, when Harry G. John Jr.'s sale of Miller stock was the end of the family's involvement with the company, The Miller Beer Barons is a trans-generational tour of wealth, power, and their sometimes rocky transitions. An inset section of black-and-white photographic plates nicely rounds out this exhaustively researched, meticulously detailed, highly recommended family biography.



2. I went to High School with the author in Milwaukee- just blocks from the Miller Brewery; played on the same football team. Later I spent 13 years as an employee of the Miller Brewing Company. (After Tim John's family had sold to Philip Morris).
   
   Tim has to be congratulated for both the scholarly handling of the subject and his candor about what has to be a deeply emotional subject.
   
   I know that Tim John really cares for the people at Miller Brewing today. Even with no direct ties to the brewery he wanted to know how the workers at Miller were treated during my tenure. He is entitled to take pride in the incredible heritage his family left.
   
   This book is quite refreshingly different from most self praising beer stories. Tim John writes frankly and well about a family business, a city and its neighborhoods, and the sometimes crazy world of beer. It's like that first good lager on a warm summer day!
   
   I hope to catch up with Tim in Milwaukee sometime; perhaps at the 2007 150th Anniversary celebration of Marquette University High School. Maybe he'll buy me a beer!
   
   If you want a real and honest history get this book.

5 comments about American Sucker.

1. I had been attracted by the very smart design of the book cover which resembled the tickers on Bloomberg, and the very positive comment by Justice Little, one of my most favorite reviewer here on Amazon. So bad that I had read only half of it and given up. Perhaps I had too high an expectation of it as the modern day "Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of the crowds" per description on the back cover, and that it would be filled with plenty of feelings/experience of the author during the whole Internet Bubble catastrophe. In fact, the author had given me much stuff of his personal life that's not investment/trading related at all.
   
   If and only if you will be satisfied with the stylish writing of a renowned film critic irrespective of what he wrote, you may give it a try. For those who wanna read not to fall into the same kind of irrational exuberance trap in his/her investment life, "Devil take the hindmost" and "Origins of the Crash" are much better choices.



2. The premise of this book intrigued me greatly. The effects of the 2000 crash as told through the eyes of an average Joe who was swept up in the hysteria? Fascinating. I looked forward to reading and feeling the effects of that great decline in the stock market as told by an ordinary man who had experienced it first hand. I've read plenty about the bursting of the tech bubble-now, I thought, I could feel the human element behind it.
   
   Unfortunately there is no human element in American Sucker. Denby himself is a hollow character, flat and one-sided, puffing himself up with intellectual and philosophical musings while failing spectacularly at creating himself as a character. It is the sort of narrative one would expect from a medieval morality tale-as the market spirals downward (though there is little actual commentary on this-it's more of an incidental) and the technology bubble collapses, Denby receives just the right revelation and insight at just the right time. Mere days before the March 2000 meltdown he ponders the seven deadly sins and decides that, in fact, greed is the most deadly of them. How convenient that such an epiphany should come at the exact perfect moment And it does not stop there-without fail an impending crisis is prefixed with an ironically well-placed musing on that exact subject just days or hours before the event actually happens.
   
   Yet for all these discussions on moral and philosophical discussions, for all the flashes of light the muse of intellectual snobbery generously gives our "hero," Denby proves his incompetence at seeing that which is right in front of his face and does absolutely nothing, contenting himself with metaphysical revelations of wealth, greed, and envy as his capital vaporizes before his glazed over eyes. To call it missing the forest for the trees would be an understatement.
   
   The NASDAQ crashes, but it goes unnoticed among romantic idealizations of festive holiday celebrations and epiphanies that come, conveniently, at just the right time and as fully developed ideas. Denby is shown the writing on the wall repeatedly but cannot recognize it-for all his attempts at flaunting his intellect he is remarkably slow. When someone tells him something he does not want to hear he conveniently dismisses that person as a fool, regardless of any amount of reverence or respect held for that person before his or her naysaying.
   
   There are redemptive moments. At one point, Christmas, 2000, Denby actually talks about his stocks, and allows the reader the gaze inside his portfolio he has withheld for 200 plus pages. At that point, as in so many others, Denby realizes, with uncanny clarity and amazing insight (hindsight is, however, 20/20) that he's made a mistake. Yet still he does nothing. There are other moments as well-brief respites from the intellectual fluff-where Denby comments on the market, describes how he felt, what the general feeling on the street was, and at times he even elaborates on the hope he and others struggled to keep alive. Unfortunately these moments are few and far between-more often market commentary serves only as a launching point for some snobbish flexing of the intellect.
   
   All in all, it seems that Denby had a contract to write a book about the market, and, with the bursting of the tech bubble, this ended up being the best he could come up with. He even alludes to this several times in the text. And so it's possible that this book was thrown together without much regard for actual content, and may have even had a predetermined length which is achieved only through Denby's incessant ramblings. Having read the book, that certainly seems to be the case. Or maybe Denby is just that poor a tale-teller, whatever his talent as film critic may be. Either way, I couldn't help but wonder, as I finished the book if the American Sucker referred to in the title was actually ME, having taken the time to read the book and having been disappointed more or less throughout.



3. Let's try not to build great expectations here. Denby is not a financial professional, he's not even a financial journalist. He's a self-described "liberal arts guy". Don't read this expecting to get a lot of insight into the market or as a "how to" guide (or even a "how not to" guide).
   Read this because it's an enjoyable read. I read it on the train on my commute and was thoroughly entertained. He offers great insight and philosphical introspection into what was going on in his life and how his obsession with the market intertwined with it and coincided with some major events in his life. He also offers first-hand glimpses into some very high profile stories from the bursting of "the bubble".
   Good stuff.



4. In many ways, the author is the typical loser; first, his wife and children after the divorce, and then trying to find a way to get on with life -- so what else in new? It happens to the majority of us at one time or another, and we live on to regret marrying that person in the first place. A thing is itself and not another thing. He thinks in riddles sometimes.
   
   Instead of accepting the inevitable and moving on to a new place, a better place, David is the typical American male who thinks he's the king of the castle in his own home. Far from it. The woman always rules the roost, or in the new movie I just saw, 'Charlotte's Web,' the rat does). He wants his cake and eat it too; the fancy Upper East Side apartment near Central Park. Holding on to the past, be it an expensive apartment, a woman who loves someone else and not you (perhaps never you), an old clunker (car) for sentimental reasons -- none of that works these days.
   
   The coming year, 2007, is the time for freedom -- at last. Freedom to be yourself in your own way and not molded by another. Freedom from the demands and drudgery of a bad marriage. DAvid, a dreamer with a vision, decided he, a novice at the stock market, can make $1,000,000 to buy his former wife's share of the abode. If he'd loved her, he would have given it to her "for the sake of the children," being a greedy man, he wants to live a movie fantasy life creating the same "home" for the kids to visit. Sucker! Kids like variety these days, they get tired of the same old thing, and they grow up and away from the nest before you know it.
   
   Don't trust a tech guru. One in Milwaukee had the ability to hack into my computer to destroy it via the Internet. Davidted the wrong people, Martha Stewart's financial group (she spent time in prison for tryiing to bilk the public; I won't watch her ever again). On a show made in Heaven, she pretends that nothing ever happened and she can prance right back into one's living room and be a friend again. No siree, I don't forgive easily. Once a felon, always a felon. It sticks with you.
   
   Envy is described as a snake in the garden and, finding nothing vain to attack, would turn back and bite itself in bitterness. No one gets too rich to envy others. I once spent a week in a strange house to dog-sit, and after getting out of that luxury, I said I would never envy those in big houses ever again. Upper New Yorkers ahve the illusion that life's greatest daners can be avoided, that everything will be okay "if only one never makes a mistake." One cannot make a mistake! I have news for him, we all make mistakes all of the time, from the simple silly idiot kind to the sublime. Choosing the wrong people to love and trust is the biggest mistake in anyone's life.
   
   Desire, regret, passions, obsession, mistakes are life and we can only strive to recover in one piece the calamity these things cause. Some part of our psyche gets lost along the way. Money is the root of all evil but it does not buy happiness, contentment, real love. Lose it and you're a bum, but homefree to be yourself and enjoy just being alive. He's a freelance writer, the most desperate of all literary occupations -- who says all writers are literary? Not so many I know can even write proper grammar. False successes like Yahoo and AOL (I'd add Google to that category as those boys never grew up -- their tree will fall.) were the investments which failed for him. He quotes Alexander Pope, Dante, Freud, and Theodore Dreiser to show the reader what a well-rounded intellectual he is. Greed dissolves the foundations of character. Along the way, he lost his balance.
   
   Greed was, is, a soul-destroying force, a canker wearing away one's innards. Religions, political, and economic moralists consider man's "reason" a destructive madness. God is wrathful in the Old Testament of the Bible; so is Achilles in 'Iliad' the first warrior of the West. Indifference to mass suffering is the most destructive form of sloth. Envy is an unambiguously nasty, a low despicable emotion. Envy ruled the Upper West Side of Manhattan and David Denby, film critic for 'The New Yorker.' He and Betsy Pickle would make a good pair.



5. Basically, American Sucker is an autobiographical look at the experience of an individual stock investor/trader during the period of roughly 1999 to 2002. That, of course, was very challenging time for participants in the equity markets and it is clearly documented in the text.
   
   Before I get into talking about the story, though, it's worth taking some time to consider the author. Denby is a writer used to addressing a fairly sophisticated audience. His primary vocation was as film critic for the New Yorker and he had previously authored a book discussing the classics thinking of Western civilization. As such, his language is not that of one writing for the masses. I consider myself pretty well read and with a decent vocabulary, but there were several words Denby used in American Sucker I'd never heard before.
   
   That said, I didn't find the book to be pretentious or anything like that. From a writing style perspective it was a pretty smooth read.
   
   Getting to the subject matter, I found it a really interesting perspective on the thought process of the individual investor during a time span which ran from euphoria over the prospects of profits from a market rising rapidly to the depths of despair in the face of not just falling prices, but also destroyed confidence in the whole system. As such, Denby caught the tone of that whole period of time during which the stock market peaked and then fell in the most dramatic of fashions. In fact, I couldn't help but draw comparisons to what's going on in the markets and the economy right now.
   
   I think the first real benefit of reading this book for someone involved in the markets is the psychology of investing which plays out in the author's thinking and actions. He starts off not wanting to miss out, wanting to get his fair share out of the booming stock market of the late 1990s. The euphoria of the time combined with personal developments in his life to lead to toss all his usual caution to the wind and jump into things with both feet. Later, as the markets start to unravel and his portfolio value is dramatically reduced, Denby talks through the waves of hope and fear that are so often found in times of strain.
   
   Basically, anything you have ever read about in trading psychology texts regarding the way most people's mental process works while watching their account values rise and fall are clearly seen through Denby. It's all there. As a reader, you can actually see the thoughts and actions which create the price patterns so prevalent in bear markets.
   
   Along the way, Denby documents his evolving beliefs as events in the markets and the performance of his portfolio combine with events in his life. There's an important lesson to be had there. Your trading and investing cannot be entirely separated from the rest of your life. They are inter-related and that's something you need to realize can impact on what you do and how you perceive things.
   
   What makes the book even more interesting is the author's relationship with some of the major controversial figures of the time period. One of them was Henry Blodget, the disgraced Merrill Lynch technology analyst. Another was Sam Waksal of ImClone. Denby's interaction with both men feature prominently.
   
   Overall, I found American Sucker a very good read. Denby does spend quite a bit of time ruminating on the subject of greed and related topics, as well as some other philosophical ideas - his own and that of others. Some readers might find this stuff uninteresting and I will admit that at certain points I skimmed along when the narrative stopped and the deep thinking started. It's an autobiography by a well read, sophisticated, and mature individual, though. You can't expect it to be without introspection.
   
   In short, I definitely recommend this book for traders and investors and for anyone else with an interest in the markets.

5 comments about No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump.

1. I have read and reviewed many of Slater's previous books and consider him to be among the most perceptive and eloquent commentators on the contemporary business world. It came as no surprise, therefore, that Trump agreed to cooperate with Slater on the writing of this book but only after checking him out with those who had already had a close working relationship with him, notably Jack Welch. There is probably no other executive who has a tighter schedule than does Trump. However, on numerous occasions, beginning in June of 2004, he agreed to meet with Slater or talk with him on the telephone. Trump also arranged for Slater to attend various private meetings related to Trump's building projects; to travel with him to a building site in Manhattan and observe his inspection of it; to journey with Trump for a book promotion appearance at QVC, the shopping channel; and to fly with him on his jet to a "demolition party" in Chicago where Trump planned to build a 90-story $800-million luxury tower on what had been the site of the Chicago Sun-Times. Slater was also allowed to observe a casting call for the third season of The Apprentice television program at during the filming of one of the episodes for its third season. Finally, Trump helped to facilitate many of the interviews of those best qualified to discuss both his business career and the celebrity synonymous with it.
   
   Trump is as protective of the privacy of his three children as he is eager to discuss almost anything and anyone else. Nonetheless, he allowed Slater to meet with one son (Donald Trump, Jr.) and apparently set no restrictions on what they could discuss. Presumably Trump allowed such direct and extensive access, both to himself and to countless others, because he trusted Slater, was favorably impressed by his professional credentials, sensed his inherent integrity, and believed that he would receive fair and circumspect treatment in what later became this book.
   
   With regard to its title, it is Slater's opinion that, at least for now, "there seems to be no downside" to all the attention Trump has so actively sought and has so substantially achieved. "His look of giddy pleasure at the amount of attention he is [currently] getting says it all. He savors having so many choices to make [i.e. he is inundated with participation proposals of various kinds] that put him in the public spotlight. If he could, one imagines, he would not make a choice at all. He would do everything. After all, in Donald Trump's world, there is no such thing as over-exposure." At least for now.
   
   Proportionality is a key element in Slater's earlier discussions of other prominent executives such as John Chambers, George Soros, and Jack Welch and it is also true of what he has to say about Trump. Obviously, there is much that Slater admires but much else which Slater finds irritating (at best) and sometimes infuriating (at worst). Of greatest interest to me is Slater's explanation of how and why Trump "openly names his products after himself and markets his name as synonymous with his products: his luxury residences, his casino hotels, and so on. [Trump] insists, as well -- correctly, at it turns out -- that using his name on his company products enhances their value." (Please see Chapter 8, "Branding a Name.") I was also interested in learning about certain differences between the public Trump and the private Trump. For example, that he seldom fires anyone in the Trump organization and, generally, is far more patient, forgiving, generous, and deferential than his public persona suggests.
   
   More a quibble than a complaint, I wish Slater had included (perhaps as an appendix) an annotated Timeline of the key dates and defining moments in Trump's career thus far. For example, when and why he decided to become a commercial real estate developer in Manhattan, Atlantic City, Chicago, and Las Vegas; also, when and why he agreed to produce and star in The Apprentice television program. Slater addresses these and other issues within his narrative. However, given the complexity of Trump's various business activities, it would be helpful to have a chronological frame-of-reference to consult periodically, one which clarifies when, what, with whom, where, etc.
   
   Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Slater's earlier work, notably Jack Welch and the GE Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO; Microsoft Rebooted: How Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Reinvented Their Company; SOROS: The Unauthorized Biography, the Life, Times and Trading Secrets of the World's Greatest Investor; The Wal-Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy into the World's #1 Company; Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner; and Get Better or Get Beaten!: 31 Leadership Secrets from GE's Jack Welch.



2. If you are interested in the business world or not, there has been no other business leader consistently in the news more then Donald Trump over the last 20 years. If you think he is an attention starved ego driven showman or just a smart business leader in the right place at the right time, the fact is you have an opinion of him. Few other business leaders share his celebrity. It is this celebrity that prompted me to pick up this book for no other reason then to see what all the fuss was about. As a bit of a perspective to this review I have not watched one episode of his TV show and I have always felt that his biggest skill was an uncanny knack for finding television cameras. If you mentioned Trump to me the only thing I would think was oversized ego.
   
   So I needed a lot of convincing to be done to move my view of Trump into more of a positive light. This author did make me rethink my position, but unlike the subject of the book and his in your face M1A1 tank approach to image, the author laid out facts and present his story with limited bias. The author does cover some history, but the area I found most interesting was the focus on the current Trump activities. The one thing I came away with is that you have it hand it to him, he is driving to have his business empire catch up to his ego. Overall I enjoyed the book. This is the first book on Trump I have read in a long time so there was an element of freshness to the subject. I also found that either the author had an engaging method of writing or the subject mater was just so interesting that I kept moving from page to page excitedly.



3. This admiring biography of real estate billionaire Donald Trump begins with a reference to Trump's "swept-back blonde mane" - although his thinning forward comb-over is probably the most famous weird hairdo in America. Perhaps author Robert Slater picked up a bit of his subject's tendency toward what Trump calls "truthful hyperbole." Slater's writing is interesting and accessible, in a breathless sort of way. However, despite being based on 150 interviews, this biography doesn't contain a lot of information that Trump has not already disseminated through his books, TV show and softball press interviews. Slater seems to regard Trump's exaggerations as charming foibles and, given tremendous access, apparently accepts Trump's self-assessment that he is a skilled negotiator, shrewd investor and efficient administrator - even when the author's own anecdotes show Trump in another guise: as a bullying micro-manager. Of course, the insight that negative publicity isn't always a bad thing is a primary theme. We recommend this close-up meeting with Trump to general readers who find that his outsized ego, lifestyle and accomplishments hold a certain fascination and to businesspeople who just want to know how he always lands on his feet. (Hint: he delivers the goods.)



4. Robert Slater wants you to know that Donald Trump threatened to sue him, to prevent him from writing this book. "Odd and chilling," is how the author describes the letter he received from one of Trump's lawyers, during the height of the success of The Apprentice.
   The lawsuit didn't happen, and after wasting several hours of my life reading "No Such Thing as Over-Exposure," the reason is evident. Trump -who must indeed be a very charming person--brought Slater to his side, and used him as a stenographer for his endless hype and self-promotion. Slater doesn't question anything, not even the most ridiculous of Trump's assertions, such as saying that he could go into the Middle East, and bring peace to the area, faster than you can say, "You're Fired."
   Slater -who must have picked up something from his subject in terms of hyperbole--wants the reader to believe that he did a tremendous amount of research (More than 150 interviews! Flights in Donald's plane and helicopters!) but the book comes across as nothing more than a quickie job and one more pamphlet proclaiming the wonders of The Donald.



5. I found this very interesting especially the bit where Trump gets into serious financial difficulty and how he pulled it off. This bookshows you how
   
   Trump is a great PR guy and uses this to get the banks tofinance his deals. Knowing how touse the media to generate free publicity for your business is something Trump is great at.
   
   The book is well researched and written in a way that keeps you reading through.