A clear, brisk, and satisfying reflection on an underdiscussed industry.
An experienced medical device salesman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist explains his field and offers a broader philosophy for professional and personal success.
Normandeau spins an all-American rags-to-riches tale while drawing on his experience in a highly specific career: ensuring that high-tech medical devices for spinal surgeons get from manufacturers to operating rooms. The author grew up poor in Concord, New Hampshire, in the 1990s, leaning heavily on his adoptive grandfather, Ron, and stepfather, Jeff, for paternal support. Jeff, in particular, cultivated Normandeau’s love of sports, and he credits his early athletic career, playing hockey and lacrosse, with teaching him the values of determination and teamwork. Although Normandeau initially dreamed of becoming a surgeon, a family friend suggested that he go into the medical device industry instead. The author frequently likens people in this career to caddies in professional golf, since they bear a great deal of behind-the-scenes responsibility for the success of surgical procedures. The text’s middle section gives readers a sense of the medical device industry itself. As in other sales industries, it can be fast paced and even cutthroat; sabotage of a competitor’s tools is infrequent, the author says, but not unknown. At its core, however, the field is an industry of care, where success allows patients to live longer, healthier, happier lives; Normandeau also extols the virtues of giving back through mentorship and philanthropy. While the author’s final lessons are simple and self-evident (“Show up, do your homework, and build real relationships”), readers will find that his mastery of his field of study is compelling. Chapters often begin with a description of surgical preparation, rendered with vivid sensory detail, as when the author notes the antiseptic smells of the operating room or the uncomfortably hot spotlight that’s directly over the patient. Medical devices may seem like a niche interest, but Normandeau draws out the field’s most engaging aspects, as when he describes a situation in which a patient’s 30-year-old spinal hardware from a prior surgery must mesh seamlessly with modern tech. Such exceptional, practical knowledge enlivens a fairly straightforward narrative.
A clear, brisk, and satisfying reflection on an underdiscussed industry.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9798887503585
Page Count: 168
Publisher: ForbesBooks
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rags-to-riches how-to as entertaining as it is wise.
In this debut memoir, Bahamian millionaire Bastian offers insight into building a business.
The author was a millionaire by the time he was 19, an impressive feat considering he began his working life filling stockpots and rolling napkins in his father’s Nassau restaurant, a locals’ hole-in-the-wall far from the city’s tourist hotels. “In many ways, I started ten steps behind the starting line in a world where opportunities felt few and far between,” writes Bastian in his introduction. A poor student with a gambler’s risk tolerance and a salesman’s eye for an unserved market, the author dropped out of college to launch his own satellite installation business—the first of its kind in the Bahamas—eventually expanding into prepaid phones and other electronics. With this book, Bastian uses his personal experiences to illustrate the steps aspiring entrepreneurs should consider when building their own empires. “My goal isn’t just to tell my story,” he explains; “it’s to provide you with a starting point, a strategy, and the encouragement you need to take your first step toward something bigger.” The book alternates between memoiristic chapters describing the author’s youth and career and instructional chapters outlining the best practices to “become a lion” (his preferred metaphor for a brave, risk-taking captain of industry). From evaluating one’s skill set and choosing a suitable goal to the practicalities of regulation and taxes, Bastian walks the reader through the complicated processes of starting and maintaining a successful enterprise. While much of the advice is of the boilerplate variety, the author offers it with clarity and candor, devoting an entire chapter, for example, on how to fail productively. It is the biographical material that lends his advice unusual weight—Bastian’s stories of flying back and forth between the Bahamas and Miami to personally import satellite dishes are fascinating enough to stand on their own. Readers may be unable to replicate his success, but there is no denying that his tale is inspiring.
A rags-to-riches how-to as entertaining as it is wise.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798891882485
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Advantage Media Group
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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