From nearly dirt poor to filthy rich, it’s his audacious, happy story and he’s sticking to it.
Self-made billionaire Wyly offers a business pep talk wrapped in a memoir.
A Depression baby in Delhi, La., the author grew to maturity in the Texas money patch. That’s about all the personal material he offers, aside from tributes to his parents and brother. His chronicle of lucrative investment begins with a shrewd innovation back in the day when punch cards were state-of-the-art. Expanding from marketing computer-system software, the entrepreneurial Wyly devoted his energies to petroleum, minerals, service stations, seaports, paper and banking. The Bonanza Steakhouse chain and Michaels craft-supply retailers were among his picks. Today the tycoon invests in hedge funds and has embarked on efforts to clean up the environment, all with the fortune derived over four decades from IPOs, takeovers, raids, spin-offs, acquisitions and junk-bond funding by Mike Milken, a financier the author respects. Wyly does not like Charles Wang and his gang at Computer Associates. Though he may sometimes be disappointed with “my boy Bush” (our current president), he ceaselessly adheres to the teachings of, among others, Tom Watson Sr. (the IBM Thinker), Sam Walton (the Sage of Bentonville) and Mary Baker Eddy (founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist). His philosophy is quite folksy. “Business is a lot like football,” he asserts; “roots are good”; “obstacles are only challenges.” His humor is without frills. Asked what would help his business, the manager of Informatics’ Military Division got a good laugh from the suits when he replied, “A good war!” When considering a business, he advises, ask yourself if you can create customers: “Will the dogs eat the dog food?” Wyly may drive a Prius, but his autobiography is authentically Texan.
From nearly dirt poor to filthy rich, it’s his audacious, happy story and he’s sticking to it.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-55704-803-5
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Newmarket Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2008
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
