BIG LUCKY

In this debut guide/memoir, a successful entrepreneur draws lessons from his wide-ranging experiences.

“I was made to win,” Markham asserts at the beginning of his book, “even though the odds had been stacked against me from the very beginning.” Married at the age of 15 (he and his wife required their parents’ consents), the author went on to become a “serial entrepreneur” in the hair-care industry. In these pages, he reflects on that long personal journey and distills what it taught him about business and life into 22 “ingredients” for long-lasting success. Most of these ingredients are well-known truisms of the business/self-help/motivation world, things like “Dare to be different,” “Keep your emotions in check,” and “Learn from the best.” What sets most of them apart are the incredibly dramatic circumstances that form the backdrop of Markham’s learning them in the first place. Jay Sebring, the author’s mentor in Sebring’s very successful high-end hairstyling business (many of the company’s clients were big-name celebrities), was one of the victims of the infamous Charles Manson family. “I could have easily let fear of the unknown stop me,” Markham writes. “My friend had been murdered, and at that point no one knew why he’d been targeted, who had committed the crimes, or what they might do next.” Sebring’s unexpected death propelled Markham into the role of company president, inheriting many of his mentor’s A-list clients. This not only leads to a great many entertaining anecdotes about luminaries, but also to the author’s memories of his close friendship with actor Paul Newman. It’s these behind-the-scenes looks at a celebrity stylist that are the most memorable stretches of Markham’s book, written with Garrett. The work delivers these glimpses of Markham’s life story with the flair of a Hollywood script, as in this tale about the business executive and a man named Big Cecil: “Without a word, I walked back into the pool hall, picked up the money, grabbed the hand of one of his girls, and escorted her out of the pool hall. The victory was mine.” Readers who come for the entrepreneurial tips will stay for such stories.

A hair-product magnate’s grippingly readable, star-studded rise to the top.