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1,000 Dollars and an Idea

by Sam Wyly

(Newmarket Press, 256 Pages)

The rags-to-riches story of an amazing business wizard—from the Louisiana cotton fields to the worlds of computers, retailing, fast food, high finance, and green energy—life lessons from a man ahead of the pack and ahead of his time.

"My work is to create companies and build them," says the billionaire whom Fortune magazine, over thirty years ago, characterized_as "one of the most, if not the most, important entrepreneurs" of the century. This was even before Wyly contributed to nearly every great technological, service industry, and investment business breakthrough in the second half of the twentieth century.

Now, in his fast-paced, fascinating, and candid memoir, Wyly reveals the thought processes, relationships, and financial machinations behind the building of his diverse businesses over the last four decades.

Here's the story of how he worked his way through Louisiana Tech selling class rings and why, after his first job in which he broke sales records for IBM (along with Ross Perot, a fellow IBM salesman) and a brief stint at Honeywell, he decided to risk $1,000 of his savings to found the first "computer utility" company in the business world. This was in 1963. Two years later, he took his University Computing Company public and became an instant millionaire.

Never losing his entrepreneurial spirit, Wyly undertook one challenge after another, such as:

• Waging a successful anti-monopoly battle against AT&T, enabling him to build a "telephone highway" for computers

• Growing the modest Bonanza Steak House chain, which he "inherited" as the result of a bad debt, to a total of 600 outlets before selling it for a huge profit

• Creating a new systems software company, Sterling Software, which he eventually sold for $4 billion

• Dividending Sterling Commerce to public shareholders and selling to AT&T_for $4 billion in 2000

• Expanding the small arts-and-crafts chain Michaels Stores from 10 to 1,000 stores before selling it for $6 billion in 2006

• Founding Green Mountain Energy, which has become the largest and most profitable green business in the country.

Part autobiography and part inspirational self-help business guide, Wyly not only provides his homespun life lessons in the practice of starting and building businesses, but he also delivers refreshing new insights into how many American businesses operated from the 1950s to the present.

About the Author

Sam Wyly, a self-made billionaire of Scottish-Irish descent, grew up in Louisiana, attending local schools before eventually going to Louisiana Tech to study journalism and accounting. He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Michigan Business School, where he earned his MBA. Always an avid reader, student of history, and environmentalist, Sam and his brother, Charles, his partner in many of his businesses, together funded The Charles Wyly Sr. Tower of Learning at Louisiana Tech, built in memory of their father. Sam is an active proponent of clean air through clean energy. Recently, he and his wife, Cheryl, purchased the independent Explore Booksellers and Bistro in Aspen, where he maintains a home, as well as in Dallas and New York City.

The Little Book That Saves Your Assets

by David M. Darst

(John Wiley & Sons Inc, 224 Pages)

While it's difficult to outperform the market year in and year out, some people continue to earn substantial market-beating returns from their portfolios. How do they do it? With the help of savvy asset allocation strategies, such as those developed by author David Darst, one of the world's leading thinkers in the field of asset allocation. Now, with The Little Book That Saves Your Assets, Darst discusses how readers can invest like the rich by implementing this proven approach in their everyday investment endeavors.

Based on brilliant thinking and innovative research, this book is crisp, clear, and down-to-earth. It explores both the art and science of asset allocation and makes this crucial method accessible to anyone--investors and professionals alike--all of whom can benefit from asset allocation strategies. Along the way, Darst details the importance of spreading assets among uncorrelated classes, and building a portfolio that can beat the market at best, and match it at worst. Page by page, he describes the principles behind this process and stresses the substantial investment returns that the right mix of stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, gold, commodities, and other assets can bring to the average portfolio.

Wealthy individuals and financial institutions have successfully used this strategy to achieve excellent returns in a variety of markets. And with The Little Book That Saves Your Assets, these same strategies can now be understood and used by anyone.

Saving the World at Work

by Tim Sanders

(Currency, 224 Pages)

From Publishers Weekly
The Responsibility Revolution is underway, and it's challenging the importance of the bottom line, argues Sanders (Love Is the Killer App), former CSO of Yahoo. Both consumers and employers have turned away from price consciousness to demand that companies make a difference to society through their products, manufacturing methods, environmental efforts and community outreach. According to the author, casual consumers now represent the minority; mindful consumers have brought in a new value system, paying as much attention to a company's environmental and social policies as to its pricing structures. Companies that do not clean up their acts will be left in the dust, losing customers who want their money to go toward good causes and employees who place more importance on green factors and job satisfaction than pay scale. Through success stories like Horst Rechelbacher, the brains behind the ecologically sound cosmetics company Aveda, and Lee Scott's greening of Wal-Mart in 2004, Sanders makes a compelling argument for the necessity for businesses to appeal to their customers' hearts as well as their wallets. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Relevance

by Tim Manners

(Portfolio, 224 Pages)

This book goes on sale September 18, 2008.

Branding expert Tim Manners says that marketers should give up the flashy practices and groupthink of the last fifty years--the demographics-driven strategies, fashion-obsessed things, and old-fashioned advertising. Today's customers don't care about those things. All they want to know is, "Why should I care? What's in it for me?"

Iconoclast

by Gregory Berns, Ph.D.

(Harvard Business School Press , 224 Pages)

No organization can survive without iconoclasts -- innovators who single-handedly upturn conventional wisdom and manage to achieve what so many others deem impossible.

Though indispensable, true iconoclasts are few and far between. In Iconoclast, neuroscientist Gregory Berns explains why. He explores the constraints the human brain places on innovative thinking, including fear of failure, the urge to conform, and the tendency to interpret sensory information in familiar ways.

Through vivid accounts of successful innovators ranging from glass artist Dale Chihuly to physicist Richard Feynman to country/rock trio the Dixie Chicks, Berns reveals the inner workings of the iconoclast's mind with remarkable clarity. Each engaging chapter goes on to describe practical actions we can each take to understand and unleash our own potential to think differently -- such as seeking out new environments, novel experiences, and first-time acquaintances.

Packed with engaging stories, science-based insights, potent practices, and examples from a startling array of disciplines, this engaging book will help you understand how iconoclasts think and equip you to begin thinking more like an iconoclast yourself.

Author Bio:
Gregory Berns, MD, PhD, is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University. He has written for numerous science publications and has been interviewed on National Public Radio, CNN, and ABC's Primetime. He has been profiled frequently in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other media.