A shrewd analysis of the real estate market but a lackluster fount of “spiritual intelligence.”
A real estate entrepreneur reflects on the principles of his success.
Debut author Flower grew up in Yonkers in the 1950s, the eldest of four brothers. When he was only 16 years old, his father suddenly died, compelling the author to take over the family’s funeral home despite his youth and lack of any background in the business. The experience was eye-opening, especially when neighborhood thugs squeezed money from his mother, a lesson in the merciless nature of business. In 1962, at 22, Flower decided to go out on his own and bought a cheap car and rented a basement apartment, trying his hand at real estate. His first six months were an abysmal failure: He made less than $60. But he realized that he was held back by his own fears and doubts and that a reconstructed worldview could pave a path to success: “The funny thing is that people say philosophy does not make you money, but I found that not to be true. In fact, my new philosophy was not only what would make me money in the future, but it also gave me substance and character.” By 1964, he was working in his own office, constructing his first building, and taking college courses. Flower eventually built such a sterling reputation that he was asked to teach courses on real estate at Seton College and West Point Academy. The author discusses not only the business strategies that helped him creatively adapt to a volatile real estate market, but also the foundational precepts of achievement in general, what he calls the “spirit of success.” Flower combines three genres—self-help, memoir, and business strategy—into one lucid work written in a self-assured but consistently breezy, congenial prose. His life is a genuinely memorable one, filled with both accomplishments and defeats, and the way he overcame the latter to have a surfeit of the former remains inspiring. In addition, while the book focuses on his professional activities, the author includes a candid account of more intimate challenges as well, including a bout with leukemia that nearly killed him. Still, the highlight of the volume is Flower’s expert discussion of the real estate industry and the numerous transformations it has undergone since the ’60s. His combination of practical experience in many sectors of the business and deep reflection on its historical permutations is sure to be a valuable resource to others getting started in real estate. But the self-help portion of the book largely issues vague and shopworn platitudes. The spirit of success, unsystematically presented, seems to amount to a process of self-reflection whereby fears are reinterpreted as opportunities for growth. When readers encounter a “field of tension,” the outer perimeter of their comfort zones, the author encourages them to press on and overcome the disbelief in oneself that generates hesitancy. Of course, this is inarguably good advice, but that’s largely because it’s so blandly commonplace.
A shrewd analysis of the real estate market but a lackluster fount of “spiritual intelligence.”Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 197
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
