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WTF?!

WILLING TO FAIL

A magnate’s friendly and accessible account of how he rose from rags to riches.

The founder of a junk-removal company combines a memoir with a business guide.

In his nonfiction debut, Scudamore, self-described as the most normal guy in the world, lays out parts of his life story and the grounding business principles that helped make his junk-removal company, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, into a multimillion-dollar behemoth that’s on track to become a billion-dollar enterprise. Growing up as an awkward outsider in Canada and falling short of graduating from high school, the author at one point in a drive-through line saw a truck sign advertising a trash-hauling service and thought, “I could do that.” Over the next two decades, he steadily grew his fleet of junk-hauling trucks, broadened his networking, and slowly built his company into “the FedEx of junk-removal.” The story delivers a classic, intriguing business arc. Scudamore is a natural raconteur, smoothly pivoting from his own “ordinary guy” status to the formidable triumphs of the company he started from nothing, with almost no money, while at loose ends for what else to do. There is of course an enormous amount of serendipity that can never be duplicated in almost all such accounts. But his “If I can do it, so can you” approach rescues much of this book—written with Williams (co-author: Pendulum, 2012, etc.)—from the smugness that usually afflicts business success stories. Still, Scudamore can’t resist doling out the kind of platitudes that are endemic to this genre (“Possibilities are the beginning of every adventure,” for instance, or “Let yourself be shaped by the people who love you the most,” or “I believe things always work out for the best”). Fortunately, the volume evens out any sententiousness with plucky optimism and winning anecdotes from the years the mogul spent with his colleagues building the business, including the tactics he has used to motivate his increasing number of managers and partners. The end result may well inspire budding entrepreneurs.

A magnate’s friendly and accessible account of how he rose from rags to riches.

Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5445-0108-6

Page Count: 182

Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing

Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2018

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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