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In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
By Steven Levy. 2011
&“The most interesting book ever written about Google&” (The Washington Post) delivers the inside story behind the most successful and…
admired technology company of our time, now updated with a new Afterword.Google is arguably the most important company in the world today, with such pervasive influence that its name is a verb. The company founded by two Stanford graduate students—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—has become a tech giant known the world over. Since starting with its search engine, Google has moved into mobile phones, computer operating systems, power utilities, self-driving cars, all while remaining the most powerful company in the advertising business.Granted unprecedented access to the company, Levy disclosed that the key to Google&’s success in all these businesses lay in its engineering mindset and adoption of certain internet values such as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk-taking. Levy discloses details behind Google&’s relationship with China, including how Brin disagreed with his colleagues on the China strategy—and why its social networking initiative failed; the first time Google tried chasing a successful competitor. He examines Google&’s rocky relationship with government regulators, particularly in the EU, and how it has responded when employees left the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups.In the Plex is the &“most authoritative…and in many ways the most entertaining&” (James Gleick, The New York Book Review) account of Google to date and offers &“an instructive primer on how the minds behind the world&’s most influential internet company function&” (Richard Waters, The Wall Street Journal).One Up on Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money in the Market (Irresistible Miniature Editionstm Ser.)
By Peter Lynch, John Rothchild. 1989
More than one million copies have been sold of this seminal book on investing in which legendary mutual-fund manager Peter…
Lynch explains the advantages that average investors have over professionals and how they can use these advantages to achieve financial success.America&’s most successful money manager tells how average investors can beat the pros by using what they know. According to Lynch, investment opportunities are everywhere. From the supermarket to the workplace, we encounter products and services all day long. By paying attention to the best ones, we can find companies in which to invest before the professional analysts discover them. When investors get in early, they can find the &“tenbaggers,&” the stocks that appreciate tenfold from the initial investment. A few tenbaggers will turn an average stock portfolio into a star performer. Lynch offers easy-to-follow advice for sorting out the long shots from the no-shots by reviewing a company&’s financial statements and knowing which numbers really count. He offers guidelines for investing in cyclical, turnaround, and fast-growing companies. As long as you invest for the long term, Lynch says, your portfolio can reward you. This timeless advice has made One Up on Wall Street a #1 bestseller and a classic book of investment know-how.Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
By Michael D'Antonio. 2006
Extensively researched and vividly written by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Michael D&’Antonio, Hershey is the fascinating story of the unique American…
visionary Milton S. Hershey.The name Hershey evokes many things: chocolate bars, the company town in Pennsylvania, one of America&’s most recognizable brands. But who was the man behind the name? In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D&’Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.Hershey, the son of a minister&’s daughter and an irresponsible father who deserted the family, began his career inauspiciously when the two candy shops he opened both went bankrupt. Undeterred, he started the Lancaster Caramel Company, which brought him success at last. Eventually he sold his caramel operation and went on to perfect the production process of chocolate to create a stable, consistent bar with a long shelf life...and an American icon was born.Hershey was more than a successful businessman—he was a progressive thinker who believed in capitalism as a means to higher goals. He built the world&’s largest chocolate factory and a utopian village for his workers on a large tract of land in rural Pennsylvania, and used his own fortune to keep his workers employed during the Great Depression. In addition, he secretly willed his fortune to a boys&’ school and orphanage, both of which now control a vast endowment.A Passion to Win
By Sumner Redstone, Peter Knobler. 2001
A titan of modern media, Sumner Redstone shares how he became the head of one of the world&’s great media…
empires and one of the richest men in the entertainment business.In one of the most fascinating and eye-opening business autobiographies written, Sumner Redstone shares the unvarnished story of how he overcame significant obstacles on his trek to build a vast media and entertainment engine.A Passion to Win gives a riveting look behind the scenes at the highly charged negotiations that won Redstone both Viacom and Paramount, revealing the intense business calculations and strong emotions of Redstone&’s head-to-head confrontations with adversaries such as Barry Diller and H. Wayne Huizenga.In a book that shows readers what it takes to win, Redstone shares the rollercoaster journey that led him to become the head of a wildly successful company and the mind behind the revolution of the video industry.What Makes a Baby: A Book For Every Kind Of Family And Every Kind Of Kid
By Cory Silverberg. 2012
Geared to readers from preschool to age eight, What Makes a Baby is a book for every kind of family…
and every kind of kid. It is a twenty-first century children’s picture book about conception, gestation, and birth, which reflects the reality of our modern time by being inclusive of all kinds of kids, adults, and families, regardless of how many people were involved, their orientation, gender and other identity, or family composition. Just as important, the story doesn’t gender people or body parts, so most parents and families will find that it leaves room for them to educate their child without having to erase their own experience.The White Sharks of Wall Street: Thomas Mellon Evans and the Original Corporate Raiders
By Diana B. Henriques. 2000
It almost seems that Thomas Mellon Evans was a man so far ahead of his contemporaries that he had moved…
into the shadows before the full force of his business style had dawned on the rest of corporate America. At every step in his career, he was barging in where few would follow -- at first. But follow they did, at last." -- from the PrologueThe first in-depth portrait of the life and times of the trailblazing financier Thomas Mellon Evans -- the man who pursued wealth and power in the 1950s with a brash ruthlessness that forever changed the face of corporate America. Long before Michael Milken was using junk bonds to finance corporate takeovers, Thomas Mellon Evans used debt, cash, and the tax code to obtain control of more than eighty American companies. Long before investors began to lobby for "shareholder's rights," Evans was demanding that public companies be run only for their shareholders -- not for their employees, their executives, or their surrounding communities. To some, Evans's merciless style presaged much that is wrong with corporate life today. To others, he intuitively knew what was needed to keep America competitive in the wake of a global war. In The White Sharks of Wall Street, New York Times investigative reporter Diana Henriques provides the first biography of this pivotal figure in American business history. She also portrays the other pioneering corporate raiders of the postwar period, such as Robert Young and Louis Wolfson, and shows how these men learned from one another and advanced one another's takeover tactics. She relates in dramatic detail a number of important early takeover fights -- Wolfson's challenge to Montgomery Ward, Young's move on the New York Central Railroad, the fight for Follansbee Steel -- and shows how they foreshadowed the desperate battle waged by Tom Evans's son, Ned Evans, to keep the British raider Robert Maxwell away from his Macmillan publishing empire during the 1980s. Henriques also reaches beyond the business arena to tally the tragic personal cost of Evans's pursuit of success and to show how the family dynasty shattered when his sons were driven by his own stubbornness and pride to become his rivals. In the end, the battling patriarch faced his youngest son in a poignant battle for control at the Crane Company, the once-famous Chicago plumbing and valve company that Tom Evans had himself seized in a brilliant takeover coup twenty-five years earlier. The White Sharks of Wall Street is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary man, whose career blazed across the sky and then sank into obscurity -- but not before he had provided the template for how American business would operate for the next four decades.Silent Cry: The True Story of Abuse and Betrayal of an NFL Wife
By Dorothy J. Newton. 2015
Raised near New Orleans as one of six children, Dorothy Newton was surrounded by abuse and poverty as she grew…
up. But she became the first in her family to graduate from college and moved out of poverty. She then began to live out her dreams in Dallas of a better home and life when she married celebrity superstar football player Nate Newton. She had gone from poverty to the pinnacle of success. She was married to a handsome, successful, famous professional athlete, who was a three time Super Bowl Champion and six time Pro-Bowler for the Dallas Cowboys.But all that glittered was not gold.Before long the relationship turned abusive. She found herself living in the world she thought she had escaped in her years growing up. The world did not see her suffering behind closed doors—she was betrayed, treated abusively, threatened continually. Dorothy was trapped with no one to talk to and nowhere to run. In this book Dorothy shares her experiences of pain, loss, survival, hope, recovery, and victory. A gripping story throughout, A Silent Cry is a testament to Dorothy&’s will to live and the peace that comes with hope in the God who sees and hears your tears—even when no one else does.The Negotiator: A Memoir
By George J. Mitchell. 2015
Compelling, poignant, enlightening stories from former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell about growing up in Maine, his years in the…
Senate, working to bring peace to Northern Ireland and the Middle East, and what he’s learned about the art of negotiation during every stage of his life.It’s a classic story of the American Dream. George Mitchell grew up in a working class family in Maine, experiencing firsthand the demoralizing effects of unemployment when his father was laid off from a lifelong job. But education was always a household priority, and Mitchell embraced every opportunity that came his way, eventually becoming the ranking Democrat in the Senate during the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.Told with wit, frankness, and a style all his own, Senator Mitchell’s memoir reveals many insights into the art of negotiation. Mitchell looks back at his adventures in law and politics—including instrumental work on clean air and water legislation, the Iran-Contra hearings, and healthcare reform—as well as life after the Senate, from leading the successful Northern Ireland peace process, to serving as chairman of The Walt Disney Company, to heading investigations into the use of steroids in baseball and unethical activity surrounding the Olympic Games. Through it all, Senator Mitchell’s incredible stories—some hilarious, others tragic, all revealing—offer invaluable insights into critical moments in the last half-century of business, law, and politics, both domestic and international.A History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction
By Lydia Semler, Jana Hill, Ilea Magdelina Bonner. 2024
A History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction explores pregnancy clothing worn throughout the decades, providing historical information, images,…
and patterns.Filled with photos showing extant attire, with intricate details and sample patterns that can be recreated to scale, this book examines how maternity clothes were constructed, provides historical context, and aids readers in designing their own maternity garments. Each chapter includes examples of commonly worn maternity styles from a number of regions of the English-speaking world, with information from the United States, Britain, Australia, and Canada. The book concludes with a chapter on historically accurate underpinnings from the 17th century to the present day.A History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction is written for costume professionals looking to research historically accurate characters and costumes for production, as well as fashion historians and costume enthusiasts.Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story
By Julie K. Brown. 2021
The New York Times Bestseller“A gripping journalistic procedural… Spotlight meets Erin Brockovich.” —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times“Julie K. Brown's important…
book offers not just a definitive account of the Epstein case, but a compelling window into her own experiences as a dogged reporter at a regional newspaper, facing off against powerful interests set against her reporting.” —Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Catch and KillDauntless journalist Julie K. Brown recounts her uncompromising and risky investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex trafficking operation, and the explosive reporting for the Miami Herald that finally brought him to justice while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him.For many years, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's penchant for teenage girls was an open secret in the high society of Palm Beach, Florida and Upper East Side, Manhattan. Charged in 2008 with soliciting prostitution from minors, Epstein was treated with unheard of leniency, dictating the terms of his non-prosecution. The media virtually ignored the failures of the criminal justice system, and Epstein's friends and business partners brushed the allegations aside. But when in 2017 the U.S Attorney who approved Epstein's plea deal, Alexander Acosta, was chosen by President Trump as Labor Secretary, reporter Julie K. Brown was compelled to ask questions.Despite her editor's skepticism that she could add a new dimension to a known story, Brown determined that her goal would be to track down the victims themselves. Poring over thousands of redacted court documents, traveling across the country and chasing down information in difficulty and sometimes dangerous circumstances, Brown tracked down dozens of Epstein's victims, now young women struggling to reclaim their lives after the trauma and shame they had endured.Brown's resulting three-part series in the Miami Herald was one of the most explosive news stories of the decade, revealing how Epstein ran a global sex trafficking pyramid scheme with impunity for years, targeting vulnerable teens, often from fractured homes and then turning them into recruiters. The outrage led to Epstein's arrest, the disappearance and eventual arrest of his closest accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the resignation of Acosta. The financier's mysterious suicide in a New York City jail cell prompted wild speculation about the secrets he took to the grave-and whether his death was intentional or the result of foul play.Tracking Epstein’s evolution from a college dropout to one of the most successful financiers in the country—whose associates included Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Clinton—Perversion of Justice builds on Brown's original award-winning series, showing the power of truth, the value of local reportage and the tenacity of one woman in the face of the deep-seated corruption of powerful men.The Style Strategy: A Less-Is-More Approach to Staying Chic and Shopping Smart
By Nina Garcia. 2009
From Nina Garcia—fashion judge on Bravo’s hit Project Runway and the New York Times bestselling author of The One Hundred…
and The Little Black Book of Style—comes Style Strategy: a perfect primer on achieving the best fashion look possible, with a strong emphasis on saving money in the process.Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape from the Stock Market Grinder
By Andy Kessler. 2004
Wall Street is a funny business. All you have is your reputation. Taint it and someone else will fill your…
shoes. Longevity comes from maintaining that reputation. Ask Jack Grubman, the All-Star telecom analyst from Salomon Smith Barney; uber-banker Frank Quattrone at CS First Boston; Morgan Stanley's Mary "Queen of the Net" Meeker; or Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget.Well, they probably won't tell you anything. But have I got some great stories for you. Successful hedge fund manager Andy Kessler looks back on his years as an analyst on Wall Street and offers this cautionary tale of the intoxicating forces loose in the world of finance that overwhelmed sober analysis.Drinking with Strangers: Music Lessons from a Teenage Bullet Belt
By Butch Walker, Matt Diehl. 2011
Rolling Stone magazine called Butch Walker one of “America’s best singer-songwriters” and voted him a “Producer of the Year.” An…
American music industry giant, Walker has worked with some of today’s hottest talent, including Weezer, Katy Perry, Dashboard Confessional, Pink, Tommy Lee, Fall Out Boy, and The Donnas to name but a few. In his riveting memoir, Drinking with Strangers, Walker tells the fascinating story of his life and remarkable career, taking readers on a breakneck ride from his Georgia roots to the Hollywood music scene, and giving us a close up insider’s view of life behind closed recording studio doors.Burn Book
By Kara Swisher. 2024
From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who…
wanted to change the world but broke it instead.While tech titans bragged they would 'move fast and break things', Kara Swisher was moving faster and breaking news. Covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, she developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the truth of this new world order. Her consistent scoops drove one CEO to accuse her of "listening in the heating ducts" and for Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg to once say: 'It is a constant joke in the Valley when people write memos for them to say, "I hope Kara never sees this."'Burn Book is part memoir, part history and, most of all, a necessary recounting of tech's most powerful players. This is the inside story we've all been waiting for of modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world.While still in college, Swisher got her start at The Washington Post, where she became one of the few people in journalism interested in the emerging field of tech. She was among the first to recognize the potential of the internet, accurately predicting that 'everything that could be digitized, would be digitized.' She went on to work for The Wall Story Journal, joining with Walt Mossberg to start the groundbreaking AllThingsD conference, as well as pioneering online tech sites.It's only a slight exaggeration to say Swisher has interviewed everyone. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few who Swisher made sweat-figuratively and, in one famous case, literally.Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech's potential to help solve problems and not just create them. She calls upon the industry to make better, more thoughtful choices, even as a new set of powerful AI tools are poised to change the world yet again. At its heart, this book is a love story to, for, and about tech from someone who knows it better than anyone.Burn Book includes soaring tales of innovation and brilliant entrepreneurs, as well as Silicon Valley's much more complex history of striving, success, and failure. The book details how the commercial internet came into being and how, for all it has given the world, it now sits at the center of global power, creating a clear and present danger to humanity.Burn Book
By Kara Swisher. 2024
From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who…
wanted to change the world but broke it instead.While tech titans bragged they would 'move fast and break things', Kara Swisher was moving faster and breaking news. Covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, she developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the truth of this new world order. Her consistent scoops drove one CEO to accuse her of "listening in the heating ducts" and for Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg to once say: 'It is a constant joke in the Valley when people write memos for them to say, "I hope Kara never sees this."'Burn Book is part memoir, part history and, most of all, a necessary recounting of tech's most powerful players. This is the inside story we've all been waiting for of modern Silicon Valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in the history of the world.While still in college, Swisher got her start at The Washington Post, where she became one of the few people in journalism interested in the emerging field of tech. She was among the first to recognize the potential of the internet, accurately predicting that 'everything that could be digitized, would be digitized.' She went on to work for The Wall Story Journal, joining with Walt Mossberg to start the groundbreaking AllThingsD conference, as well as pioneering online tech sites.It's only a slight exaggeration to say Swisher has interviewed everyone. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few who Swisher made sweat-figuratively and, in one famous case, literally.Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech's potential to help solve problems and not just create them. She calls upon the industry to make better, more thoughtful choices, even as a new set of powerful AI tools are poised to change the world yet again. At its heart, this book is a love story to, for, and about tech from someone who knows it better than anyone.Burn Book includes soaring tales of innovation and brilliant entrepreneurs, as well as Silicon Valley's much more complex history of striving, success, and failure. The book details how the commercial internet came into being and how, for all it has given the world, it now sits at the center of global power, creating a clear and present danger to humanity.Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic
By Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler. 2012
In the tradition of Pour Your Heart Into It and How Starbucks Saved My Life, a surprising and inspiring memoir…
from the founders of Banana Republic.With $1,500 and no business experience, Mel and Patricia Ziegler turned a wild idea into a company that would become the international retail colossus Banana Republic. Re-imagining military surplus as safari and expedition wear, the former journalist and artist created a world that captured the zeitgeist for a generation and spoke to the creativity, adventure, and independence in everyone. In a book that&’s honest, funny, and charming, Mel and Patricia tell in alternating voices how they upended business conventions and survived on their wits and imagination. Many retail and fashion merchants still consider Banana Republic&’s early heyday to be one of the most remarkable stories in fashion and business history. The couple detail how, as &“professional amateurs,&” they developed the wildly original merchandise and marketing innovations that broke all retail records and produced what has been acclaimed by industry professionals to be &“the best catalogue of all time.&” A love story wrapped in a business adventure, Wild Company is a soulful, inspiring tale for readers determined to create their own destiny with a passion for life and work and fun.Dealings: A Political and Financial Life
By Felix Rohatyn. 2010
It was a German soldier’s chance decision to reach for a cigarette and absently wave a car through a checkpoint…
outside Marseille in 1940 that allowed Felix Rohatyn and his Jewish family to escape from Nazi-occupied France. In the States, a chance summer job led him to the small, private investment bank of Lazard Frères, where he came under the tutelage of legendary financier André Meyer. The summer job turned into an extraordinary fifty-year career. Hailed as "the preeminent investment banker of his generation," Rohatyn was a creator of the merger-and-acquisition business that revolutionized investment banking and transformed the worlds of finance and entertainment. In this very personal account, Rohatyn takes us behind the headlines to offer readers a telling look at some of the era’s most renowned figures in the worlds of finance, entertainment, and politics. We are alongside Rohatyn as he meets Steve Ross in the back of the funeral parlor Ross is managing as they strategize to take control of Warner Brothers, and in André Meyer’s art-filled apartment as they negotiate with Frank Sinatra. We are with Rohatyn as he assists Harold Geneen of ITT weather a series of congressional investigations, and as he stays one step ahead of the canny Michael Ovitz as Matsushita attempts to win control of Lew Wasserman’s Universal Pictures. We also watch Rohatyn defending shareholders’ interests as the RJR-Nabisco buyout becomes a cautionary tale of executive greed. We have a front-row seat as Rohatyn and Governor Hugh Carey forge a desperation plan to save New York City from bankruptcy. And we accompany Rohatyn when he returns to Paris as the U.S. ambassador to the country he barely escaped alive as a young boy. Full of headline-making revelations, insider stories, keen personal observations, and relevant financial wisdoms, Dealings is the page-turning story of a life well lived.The Marathon Don't Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle
By Rob Kenner. 2020
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThis &“beautiful tribute to a legendary artist&” (Quincy Jones) is the first in-depth biography of Nipsey…
Hussle, the hip-hop mogul, artist, and activist whose transformative legacy inspired a generation with his motivational lyrics and visionary business savvy—before he was tragically shot down in the very neighborhood he was dedicated to building up. For Nipsey Hussle, &“The Marathon&” was more than a mixtape title or the name of a clothing store; it was a way of life, a metaphor for the relentless pursuit of excellence and the willpower required to overcome adversity day after day. Hussle was determined to win the race to success on his own terms, and he wanted to see his whole community in the winner&’s circle with him. A moving and powerful exploration of an extraordinary artist, The Marathon Don&’t Stop places Hussle in historical context and unpacks his complex legacy. Combining on-the-ground reporting and candid interviews, &“Rob Kenner has given us the book the world—and hip-hop and pop culture—has been waiting for…one that should be celebrated alongside the best biographies ever about iconic figures we have loved—and lost&” (Kevin Powell, author of When We Free the World).In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
By Steven Levy. 2011
&“The most interesting book ever written about Google&” (The Washington Post) delivers the inside story behind the most successful and…
admired technology company of our time, now updated with a new Afterword.Google is arguably the most important company in the world today, with such pervasive influence that its name is a verb. The company founded by two Stanford graduate students—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—has become a tech giant known the world over. Since starting with its search engine, Google has moved into mobile phones, computer operating systems, power utilities, self-driving cars, all while remaining the most powerful company in the advertising business.Granted unprecedented access to the company, Levy disclosed that the key to Google&’s success in all these businesses lay in its engineering mindset and adoption of certain internet values such as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk-taking. Levy discloses details behind Google&’s relationship with China, including how Brin disagreed with his colleagues on the China strategy—and why its social networking initiative failed; the first time Google tried chasing a successful competitor. He examines Google&’s rocky relationship with government regulators, particularly in the EU, and how it has responded when employees left the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups.In the Plex is the &“most authoritative…and in many ways the most entertaining&” (James Gleick, The New York Book Review) account of Google to date and offers &“an instructive primer on how the minds behind the world&’s most influential internet company function&” (Richard Waters, The Wall Street Journal).The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age
By Ralph Watson McElvenny, Marc Wortman. 2023
The enduring story of Thomas Watson Jr.—a figure more important to the creation of the modern world than Rockefeller, Vanderbilt,…
and Morgan Nearly fifty years into IBM&’s existence, Thomas Watson Jr. undertook the biggest gamble in business history when he &“bet the farm&” on the creation of the IBM System/360, the world&’s first fully integrated and compatible mainframe computer. As CEO, Watson drove a revolution no other company—then or now—would dare, laying the foundation for the digital age that has transformed every society, corporation, and government. The story of Watson being &“present at the creation&” of the digital age is intertwined with near-Shakespearean personal drama. While he put IBM and its employees at risk, Watson also carried out a family-shattering battle over the future of the company with his brother Dick. This titanic struggle between brothers led to Dick&’s death and almost killed Watson Jr. himself. Though he was eventually touted by Fortune magazine as &“the greatest capitalist who ever lived,&” Watson&’s directionless, playboy early years made him an unlikely candidate for corporate titan. How he pulled his life together and, despite personal demons, paved the way for what became a global industry is an epic tale full of drama, inspiration, and valuable lessons in leadership, risk-taking, and social responsibility.