5 comments about The Cell Game: Sam Waksal's Fast Money and False Promises--and the Fate of ImClone's Cancer Drug.

1. This is about the Cancer Game, which might be seen as a part of the Cancer Industry, a kind of bizarre and ghoulish phenomenon of modern times that exists precisely because there is no cure for cancer. Indeed, Alex Prud'homme, who is a gifted researcher and prose stylist, whose work has appeared in such prestigious journals as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, etc., might very well have called his book "The Cancer Game." I wonder why he didn't. Would such a title have offended those who play the game?

   It is specifically about the rise and fall of one Sam Waksal, oldest son of Jewish emigrants and Holocaust survivors, a man of irresistible charm, fabulous energy, and great intelligence, a man driven to success and the high life, a man who had bounced around academia without much success until in the 1980s he saw an opportunity to become a player in the cancer game, and, along with his younger brother Harlan, founded ImClone Systems, Inc.

   It is also about an anticancer drug called Erbitux, originally known as C225 because it was the 225th drug tested by its discoverers, John Mendelsohn and Gordon Sato in 1980. It showed promise because in tests it stopped the growth of tumors in mice.

   And finally it is a story about how drugs get discovered, how they are developed, and especially how they get approved (or not) by the Food and Drug Administration. And of course it is about the Byzantine and incestuous relationship that exists between that August government agency and the massive pharmaceutical industry.

   The curious thing about all this is that Imclone never turned a profit, Erbitux never came to market, and most of the people associated with Waksal and ImClone either made out like bandits or got stuck holding the bag. The drug itself, which works against cancer tumors, particularly colon cancer, by cutting off the blood supply to the tumors (an "antiangiogenesis" drug), was touted as a miracle that would save the lives of innumerable patients and make possibly billions of dollars for ImClone.

   At least this was the hype delivered by Sam Waksal, and bought hook, line and sinker by pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, and by desperate cancer patients as well as salivating Wall Street investors who jumped on the bandwagon as ImClone's stock rocketed skyward. Because of the promise of the drug, Waksal himself was able to live his dream life as a New York socialite, throwing lavish parties for celebs (including Martha Stewart while he dated her daughter), collecting fine art, popping open $600 bottles of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild while secretly selling stock on the side, sending the proceeds overseas, buying expensive apartments and houses for himself, etc., etc.

   But the cold hard facts of Erbitux, like those of almost any cancer drug one can name, are very far from the hype. As Prud'homme notes on pages 332-333, "these agents...[Erbitux and others like Avastin and Iressa] are remarkable scientific advances, [but] they still only benefit some 10 to 20 percent of patients, and they only extend patients' lives by a matter of months."

   That's it. That's the bottom line. And yet these drugs are so valuable that the companies that end up selling them can make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars.

   Waksal apparently came to this understanding sometime during the early eighties. He realized first the simple fact that the way the cancer industry works is doctors have to prescribe something rather than nothing. Then he realized that living a few months longer can mean a lot to people. Therefore any FDA-approved cancer drug will automatically fill a need. What this means is that the PROMISE of a cancer drug, if cleverly promoted, will spark a rally in the shares of the company that owns the patent. If, like Sam Waksal, you own millions of those shares, you can get rich on mere promise alone.

   Furthermore, should the drug have any real value at all, and be approved (or even look like it's going to be approved) by the FDA, you might be able to get some pharmaceutical giant like Bristol-Myers Squibb to front a whole lot of money on that promise since they are desperate to find a cancer drug to replace those that have gone generic.

   This works because even drugs with very limited effectiveness are better than no drug at all. This is true for many patients, for many doctors, and is especially true for the big pharmaceutical companies.

   Note that these drugs are valuable because the people who need them are typically people of relative means who can afford to pay large sums of money for them, either through their HMOs, their government, or their own funds. In contrast a drug that would prolong the life of poor people in third world countries would be of only marginal value to the big pharmaceutical companies.

   I should also mention that Prud'homme spends some serious ink in this book on Waksal's long-time friend Martha Stewart and her troubles. Her personality, her empire, and the way she handles herself are vividly detailed. In fact, some readers might find her story the most interesting part of the book.




2. I could hardly put this book down. Never mind the Martha Stewart trial, this is where the excitement and drama in the ImClone story lies.

   Sam Waksal, a scientist and business developer with a checkered past, lives a celebrity lifestyle, hanging out with the rich and famous, owning several fancy houses, driving fast cars, and heading a firm that is working on a cancer drug so promising that people with no other hope of treatment are flinging themselves at ImClone, begging for a merciful dose of "Erbitux."

   The drug apparently does reverse inoperable tumors in a few test patients who had no other hope of living. Now the race is on to fast-track the drug through the FDA approval process based on the glowing clinical trials. But the FDA reviewer is unaccountably unencouraging when meeting with one of ImClone's top scientists. What is wrong? Is Erbitux, instead of being approved , instead going have its application refused? Why! And what will this mean for the high-flying ImClone stock?

   The book reads like the best thriller, and author Alex Prud'homme is adept at making you feel like the proverbial fly-on-the-wall during the action. If you are at all interested in what happened behind the Martha Stewart debacle, you must read this. It's fantastic.




3. This book is a fine character study of an amazingly talented man whose endless need to gratify his own appetites and emotional needs led him to careless and even cruel behavior. There is no denying the great talent of Sam Waksal, but to this day he doesn't seem to understand that his talent and accomplishments do not provide a license to indulge himself at other's expense.

   It is amazingly sad that all of this misery was so pointless because Erbitux has at last been approved. It almost certainly could have been approved earlier if the talented team at ImClone would have had a culture of discipline and getting things done and documented in ways that everyone knew the FDA required. If they had, all this pain and loss would never have occurred and Dr. Waksal would be a real hero instead of the one he only pretended to be.

   Mr. Prud'homme writes with style and vitality. The book moves along well and has a great feel for keeping the story personal and emotionally accessible for the reader. We don't get overwhelmed with the scientific side of things, although it is always interesting to read about this emerging science and the wizards who are making it happen.




4. This book is beautifully written and the story is powerfully, artfully told. Alex Prud'homme's eye for telling details and anecdotes brings to life all of the egos, greed, outsized appetites, and fat wallets that intersected in Sam Waksal and Martha Stewart's world. I couldn't put it down.



5. This fascinating story has appeared just as the Martha Stewart trial is getting underway. The book is crammed full of details not only concerning the principal characters, but also cancer treatments and the burgeoning world of biotechnology. Sam Waksal comes across as a mercurial salesman with no true sense of right or wrong, a classic striver seeking recognition and aspiring to great wealth, but also dissing the hopes of many with cancer. It's a good read -- fast-paced, up-to-date and accurate. If you really want to know why Waksal is in jail for seven years and how Martha Stewart became involved with his world, read this amazing and well-researched tale.

5 comments about Ben & Jerry's: The Inside Scoop: How Two Real Guys Built a Business with a Social Conscience and a Sense of Humor.

1. It's a hippie story. Rarely do you ever read a book about a company that makes you change your buying habits. For some reason this was one of those books to me. The story is pure Americana - gutsy, clumsy, real. Not the smoothest flowing narrative but if you like their story it flows none the less.



2. A good recount of how the company got going, but the last few chapters dragged.

   There are things to learn about how Ben and Jerry developed their company:
   1)They are geniuses at this. They actually figured out mass production without knowing what they were doing, they figured out marketing from scratch, they encountered financing and survived.
   2)They had a near masochistic willingness to work. Boy did these guys work hard (it would kill me to do what they did, even if I had the will to do it).
   3)They could adapt incredibly.

   4) and finally: There are pitfalls and prices to trying to make social profits and business profits at the same time and to not planning your company to be as big as it already is.

   You can learn about businesses in their growth phase from this book. You can learn about making sure a company has sufficient controls in place for its size. You may be able to learn whether you have what it takes to be an entrepeneur.

   The first 3/4th of the book were fun to read but for some reason the last couple of chapters, when Ben and Jerry were playing less of a part in the business, were slow and boring (I don't exactly know why but I know they dragged).




3. I read this book at the suggestion of a business school professor. It was supposedly a great illustration of the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurs.

   I found that the book tried more to be humorous than to convey any business knowledge to the reader. Everything seemed to be an inside joke. Rather than producing a well thought-out account of a business experience, the book fell flat with dumb humor. I was very unimpressed with how the company was run, and I don't feel like I got much from the book.




4. It's a chronicle of the intriguing journey of junior high friends who split the $5 cost of a home study course in making homemade ice cream and turn it into a $237 million company (1999 sales). Ben & Jerry's antics of giving away ice cream so they can 'get the ice cream into people's mouths so they will buy it,' take on some unusual situations. Free cones are offered to folks who register to vote, donate books to Head Start, or send postcards to elected officials for a variety of causes, and to celebrate at Fall Down Festivals with block long stilt walking races, music and other amusements. Solar-powered mobiles are used to transport the ice cream and a show on the road. They still sponsor customer appreciation day once a year when free cones are dipped all day.

   It's hard to resist a bowl or cone of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cherry Garcia as you read this humorous show and tell of two guys who really want (and do) make a difference. You'll be ready to book a snow shoe tour of the Vermont plant by the time you finish reading about these guys' mission. Their values-led business (in addition to having fun) is to produce the best ice cream from Vermont dairy products, to increase the value of the of the company for the stockholders and create career opportunities and financial rewards for employees, and to improve the quality of life for the community. (They donate 7.5% of pretax profits to Ben & Jerry's Foundation that supports a variety of causes that improve the quality of life for children.)

   I'm using this book as a project for an organizational communications course and enjoyed the reading (and eating) more than I ever expected. It was the most fun I've had doing homework!




5. This was a really good book that shows "How Two Real Guys Built a Business With a Social Conscience and a Sense of Humor." This should be required reading for MBA's along with Hawkin's Growing a Business.

5 comments about Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business.

1. I liked the way it was written. It gives you a broad idea of how the cable industry developed over the years. Goes in to details of specific deals that gives you a better feeling of how the industry dealt with growth, changes in technology, competition, content suppliers, etc.



2. A great inside look at one of the most powerful players in media. Cable Cowboy tells the great story of how Malone built his emprier and -- for better or worse -- how he used that power. A great read.



3. What this book is really about is how during the last 1/4 of the 20th Century, our governments allowed a few rough and tough businessmen to carve out the new American technologies, with little or no regards to any public interest. First of all, the entire satelitte technology came out of Naval communications and had been paid for already by Federal taxpayers. Then the cable cowboys were able to string their lines along the regulated telephone lines and telephone poles, which had already been paid for also by everyone in their phone bills. There is nothing in the book about this reality, and only a little on what happened to those who tried to question these things and were slammed along the way. Yet, Mr. Malone seems to despise Al Gore and the Federal Government and wonders why anyone has the right to question his motives or actions.
   
   
   Why is there no real competition? Even with satelitte tv, cable still represents at least 3 separage monopolies. Try to guess why the politicians gave away the monopolies and anyone who questioned this became the target of personal and viscous attacks, if not more. Where were the regulators? There is no other comparable monopoly in America, with the average citizen's 4th or 5th largest expenditure each month going to cable tv and/or cable hi-speed internet.
   
   Who makes the decisions as to what channels are broadcast? Only in America would we turn over these kinds of decision to nameless businessmen, hiding behind huge corporations and limited partnerships. In my own community, on the "local government channel", the elected and appointed politicians from one political party appear almost daily. Those persons from the other major party do not appear at all. The perfect alliance: local government, a faceless corporation or limited partnership and monopoly rates.
   
   This is the real scenario of a big part of cable tv and there is really nothing on the book on these kinds of things. One should read the Stephen Keating book, "Cutthroat: High Stakes and Killer Moves on the Electronic Frontier" to get better insight as to the reality of cable-tv development.



4. An engaging and accessible account of one of America's great business leaders and a complicated industry. Whether your interest is the cable industry, general business, leadership or free enterprise, this is the book for you!



5. Fun, interesting, and insightful read. Provides clear explanation of the financial transactions utilized to help Malone build his cable empire.

No comments about Never Leave Well Enough Alone.

4 comments about Leading By Design: The Ikea Story.

1. Really, this book describes the IKEA way really good. But after reading others people reviews of this book I can understand how hard it is for non-swedes to grasp the real lessons learned in this book. It doesnt make it better that the guy that wrote this book is a quite "boring dude".
   The book is well written and researched, all the facts are true and THE MAN HIMSELF Ingvar KAmprad has had a finger with in this book.
   AND INGVAR KAMRAD IS IKEA. You cant separate the founder of IKEA from the company itself. Yes, Ingvar has put his soul in to this company and it is this mans thoughts and actions that has made this company to what it is.

   At first glanze this book is really boring. But if you give it time, let it melt in and try to see how it was in Sweden for 50 years ago: IF you can put the book in to context you really get a complete and a invaluable picture of THE IKEA WAY.

   Without sounding to cooky I just wanna say that this book is right up there with the books about Nordstroms, Jack Welch and etc.

   Really, buy this book if you wanna learn lean and mean business the IKEA way. The customers rule....this is the IKEA way...

   So you think Jack Welch is better? Just wanna tell you that Ingvar Kamprad made the 50 riches people in the world list!!! THATS SOMETHING!!!




2. Who doesn't like IKEA? Too bad this book isn't as good as the store is. What's wrong? Certainly not the subject of the book, but rather, the writing is repetitive, monotonous, circular, and repetitive...egad...it's contagious!

   Pass on THIS book and learn about IKEA and its very interesting challenges, history, strategy, and product line (and its founder) from better authors around the Internet.




3. If you read many of my reviews, you already know that I seldom rate a book this low. I would normally not finish such a book, and not write a review. However, I felt that this book would attract a lot of readers who, like me, wanted to learn more about the lessons of IKEA's success. What I found instead is one of the most poorly constructed case histories of an interesting company that I can imagine.

   The book claims to tell the IKEA story, but really focuses on writing a biography of Ingvar Kamprad, the company's founder. As a biography, the strength of the book is in describing the family and physical environment that were early influences on Kamprad. Past about the first 30 pages, the book doesn't add much. The most interesting parts of the biography come late in the book when Kamprad's early associations with a fascist group are detailed in the context of press reports exposed in the late 1990s. These should have been fully developed early in the book, rather than treated as a later discussion of how to handle bad publicity. Most good biographies teach you something that you need to know. When I was done with this one, I didn't feel like I had learned anything. There probably were lessons there to be drawn out, but the author did not succeed in helping me find them. That meant that I knocked the book down one star.

   IKEA has been an interesting international success with an unusual formula. The book assumes a great personal knowledge of that formula. Yet there are very few of the IKEA stores in most countries, so many people who will read this book will lack the experience of knowing about what is being described. Originally written for the Swedish market, that lack of handling the perspective of what the store experience is like limits the book's ability to translate its lessons. I rated the book down one more star for insufficient background early in the book on the reasons why the business works and how it works today. These are dropped in occasionally, so many of them are there by the end. You would then have to read the book a second time to really understand the relevance of the points.

   Next, the book attempts to describe the company's success. A lot of time is spent on this, but the author seems to lack the perspective to pick out what is important and what is not. Kamprod is a classic experimenter. If something works well, he does a lot more of it. After a while that pattern becomes something he will not vary from. Since he was not a systemmatic experimenter, it meant that many developments were delayed. On the other hand, he always made it a place where people liked to work so he had someplace to stand on for continuity as the experiments continued. Without the necessary perspective, this is a little like reading 30 annual reports. Unless you have lots of management background, you will have trouble seeing what the important management lessons are in this book.

   Basically, Kamprod is an advocate of low-priced distribution of low-cost, mass-produced goods based on high quality designs. His personal values are those of family and treating people with hospitality (like an honored guest). Having started his business from the family farm in Sweden with family and neighbors having been the first customers and employees, you can see the influences quite easily. What is unusual is that his business model developed earlier than that of other furniture merchants. It was reasonably complete by 1960. Only in the last ten years have we seen a reasonably similar store experience in the Boston area.

   The best part of the book is that it contains lots of first-person stories from Kamprad. As such, this book will be a valuable source for the first person to write a good book about IKEA as a management case history. I hope that book will soon be written. There must be important insights to be gained about how IKEA developed its business model so many years ahead of others, but I could not figure out what those insights were.

   In the meantime, unless you have a compulsive interest in learning more about IKEA today, skip this book.




4. Leading by Design has been well researched and covers not just to good times, but also the major challenges faced by Ingvar Kamprad while building IKEA. The interesting conflicts of satisfaction at a job well done and insecurity about choices and the future is a well developed theme. The conclusion I draw is that this is a unique man and his successful company that could only have started in Sweden with it's own interesting social mix.

5 comments about Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco: The Life and Times of Colonel Frank M. Brandstetter.

1. A great read about a remarkable man. I knew Brandy personally and this book doesn't give him true justice but does tell the story of his amazing life. A must read for those in the hotel industry or those that have ever stayed at Las Brisas. The book covers his military days thru to his retirement ,as a spy and hotelier extrodinaire ,in the hills above Acapulco. Buy it and you won't have a regret only perhaps your life could have been as fullfilling and adventurous.



2. I met Colonel Frank Brandstetter in Omaha beach, Normandy-France, late 70's. Fantastic personality, true humanity, a great lesson of life at a time when the Cold War was not over yet.

   I was assigned to Ste.Mere Eglise by the Commander of the 32nd Company Division, during my national service after finishing the military academy (reserved officers). Mission was to be the "ordonnance" of this VIP for the D-Day ceremonies. There were also exhausted officers just back from Vietnam. We tried our best to take care of all these great people, and shared a lot of good and intense moments during the ceremonies.

   I was early 20, he was soon 70 and Frank told me a lot about the war and the peace, about the life and death, about mission and respect, and how to be able to "carry on" day after day.

   I remember his comments about General Ridgway, about Europe and USA, about horrors of war and hate but he mostly talked, free, about peace and how to maintain the peace and build the future. It was really an experience! God, he spoke so many languages in the same time. The whole crowd around was impressed, so was I. Well, I saw him with my eyes and heard with my own ears how he had managed and practice the talents he had during WW2 and after that, in Europe.

   If one of the most important thing in life, for all of us, is to know what are the good things we leave behind us; well, i guess that Frank could teach a young man and a few other guys at an important time in their lives, how to manage and forecast the rest of their lives; and he did it well. I have not met Frank again, and I often thought about Accapulco and "Brandy" in his colourful Jeep riding in the jungle around the resort, opened to the astronauts back on earth, all of them firmly standing on the world again.

   I never forgot his fascinating character. He achieved a hell of a job as an Officer who had a tough life, as a man, and as a friend.

   Later on, my work drove me and my wife to work in the Far-East, very closed from a place where General Ridgway took over the work of an other historical icone, Doug. Mc Arthur. And I often remembered, on assigments for my media, a couple of lessons Frank Brandstetter tought to me.

   I really think the writers did an extraordinary and fascinating book, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for that amazing encounter, now presented and shared with people. Bravo ! Joel Legendre




3. As a baby boomer, the only personal connection I had with WWII, was that my father worked as a chemist on the Manhattan Project in Washington State.

   So when a friend sent me a copy of Brandy: Our Man in Acapulco: The Life and Times of Colonel Frank M. Brandstetter, I thought what does this book have to do with my life?

   The answer is everything. The authors of this compelling historical memoir, Dominic Monetta and Rodney Carlisle, brought WWII and the Cold War to life for me.

   Colonel Brandstetter's life reads like a Hollywood screenplay. this book has everything fiction has: espionage, movie stars, strong American values, heroic rescues and escapes. It is refreshing to know, in a world where sports figures are amongst the few heroes our young people admire, that there is a living war hero who saved hundreds and hundreds of lives as a human intelligence officer - a humble man with the courage and passion to make a difference.

   I would urge teachers to request Brandy: Our Man in Acapulco as required reading in high schools around the country.




4. Colonel Frank Brandstetter obviously led a fascinating life. The words, "officer, gentleman and scholar," come to mind as he seems to embody all those qualities. He was also a visionary in the world of hotel managment--many of the practices Brandy instituted are now standard operating procedures in the hotel business.

   Brandy was obviously a risk-taker--but risk-takers also make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and come up with better ideas. I wish the author had mentioned which ideas had failed--it would have presented a more in-depth and complex portrait of Col. Brandstetter. There was also very little personal information about Brandstetter in the book. A man is more than the sum total of his accomplisments.

   In the long-run, I think a novel based on Col. Brandstetter's life would make a fascinating read. He led a life of intrigue, daring, and heroic and accomplished endeavors and seems to have remained a gentleman throughout--the kind of hero we like to see in a novel.




5. Real life is better than fiction. Frank Brandstetter is one of those who really made things happen...where ever he was. This book tells his story in unflowery language, and yet it reads like a movie. His life has touched so many highlights of the 20th century.

   His story is also a guide to how to live life honorably. He is guided by ideals, philosophy and values that are clear and relatively simple. Today, we are reluctant to believe that life can be lived well and honorably when based on such simplicity. Brandy's sense of honor is palpable. This creed has been tested greatly. There is no fair weather advice from his life. Inspirational. The stuff of world-class leadership.

No comments about The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.

5 comments about American Sucker.

1. Basically, American Sucker is an autobiographical look at the experience of an individual stock investor/trader during the period of roughly 1999 to 2002. That, of course, was very challenging time for participants in the equity markets and it is clearly documented in the text.
   
   Before I get into talking about the story, though, it's worth taking some time to consider the author. Denby is a writer used to addressing a fairly sophisticated audience. His primary vocation was as film critic for the New Yorker and he had previously authored a book discussing the classics thinking of Western civilization. As such, his language is not that of one writing for the masses. I consider myself pretty well read and with a decent vocabulary, but there were several words Denby used in American Sucker I'd never heard before.
   
   That said, I didn't find the book to be pretentious or anything like that. From a writing style perspective it was a pretty smooth read.
   
   Getting to the subject matter, I found it a really interesting perspective on the thought process of the individual investor during a time span which ran from euphoria over the prospects of profits from a market rising rapidly to the depths of despair in the face of not just falling prices, but also destroyed confidence in the whole system. As such, Denby caught the tone of that whole period of time during which the stock market peaked and then fell in the most dramatic of fashions. In fact, I couldn't help but draw comparisons to what's going on in the markets and the economy right now.
   
   I think the first real benefit of reading this book for someone involved in the markets is the psychology of investing which plays out in the author's thinking and actions. He starts off not wanting to miss out, wanting to get his fair share out of the booming stock market of the late 1990s. The euphoria of the time combined with personal developments in his life to lead to toss all his usual caution to the wind and jump into things with both feet. Later, as the markets start to unravel and his portfolio value is dramatically reduced, Denby talks through the waves of hope and fear that are so often found in times of strain.
   
   Basically, anything you have ever read about in trading psychology texts regarding the way most people's mental process works while watching their account values rise and fall are clearly seen through Denby. It's all there. As a reader, you can actually see the thoughts and actions which create the price patterns so prevalent in bear markets.
   
   Along the way, Denby documents his evolving beliefs as events in the markets and the performance of his portfolio combine with events in his life. There's an important lesson to be had there. Your trading and investing cannot be entirely separated from the rest of your life. They are inter-related and that's something you need to realize can impact on what you do and how you perceive things.
   
   What makes the book even more interesting is the author's relationship with some of the major controversial figures of the time period. One of them was Henry Blodget, the disgraced Merrill Lynch technology analyst. Another was Sam Waksal of ImClone. Denby's interaction with both men feature prominently.
   
   Overall, I found American Sucker a very good read. Denby does spend quite a bit of time ruminating on the subject of greed and related topics, as well as some other philosophical ideas - his own and that of others. Some readers might find this stuff uninteresting and I will admit that at certain points I skimmed along when the narrative stopped and the deep thinking started. It's an autobiography by a well read, sophisticated, and mature individual, though. You can't expect it to be without introspection.
   
   In short, I definitely recommend this book for traders and investors and for anyone else with an interest in the markets.



2. In many ways, the author is the typical loser; first, his wife and children after the divorce, and then trying to find a way to get on with life -- so what else in new? It happens to the majority of us at one time or another, and we live on to regret marrying that person in the first place. A thing is itself and not another thing. He thinks in riddles sometimes.
   
   Instead of accepting the inevitable and moving on to a new place, a better place, David is the typical American male who thinks he's the king of the castle in his own home. Far from it. The woman always rules the roost, or in the new movie I just saw, 'Charlotte's Web,' the rat does). He wants his cake and eat it too; the fancy Upper East Side apartment near Central Park. Holding on to the past, be it an expensive apartment, a woman who loves someone else and not you (perhaps never you), an old clunker (car) for sentimental reasons -- none of that works these days.
   
   The coming year, 2007, is the time for freedom -- at last. Freedom to be yourself in your own way and not molded by another. Freedom from the demands and drudgery of a bad marriage. DAvid, a dreamer with a vision, decided he, a novice at the stock market, can make $1,000,000 to buy his former wife's share of the abode. If he'd loved her, he would have given it to her "for the sake of the children," being a greedy man, he wants to live a movie fantasy life creating the same "home" for the kids to visit. Sucker! Kids like variety these days, they get tired of the same old thing, and they grow up and away from the nest before you know it.
   
   Don't trust a tech guru. One in Milwaukee had the ability to hack into my computer to destroy it via the Internet. Davidted the wrong people, Martha Stewart's financial group (she spent time in prison for tryiing to bilk the public; I won't watch her ever again). On a show made in Heaven, she pretends that nothing ever happened and she can prance right back into one's living room and be a friend again. No siree, I don't forgive easily. Once a felon, always a felon. It sticks with you.
   
   Envy is described as a snake in the garden and, finding nothing vain to attack, would turn back and bite itself in bitterness. No one gets too rich to envy others. I once spent a week in a strange house to dog-sit, and after getting out of that luxury, I said I would never envy those in big houses ever again. Upper New Yorkers ahve the illusion that life's greatest daners can be avoided, that everything will be okay "if only one never makes a mistake." One cannot make a mistake! I have news for him, we all make mistakes all of the time, from the simple silly idiot kind to the sublime. Choosing the wrong people to love and trust is the biggest mistake in anyone's life.
   
   Desire, regret, passions, obsession, mistakes are life and we can only strive to recover in one piece the calamity these things cause. Some part of our psyche gets lost along the way. Money is the root of all evil but it does not buy happiness, contentment, real love. Lose it and you're a bum, but homefree to be yourself and enjoy just being alive. He's a freelance writer, the most desperate of all literary occupations -- who says all writers are literary? Not so many I know can even write proper grammar. False successes like Yahoo and AOL (I'd add Google to that category as those boys never grew up -- their tree will fall.) were the investments which failed for him. He quotes Alexander Pope, Dante, Freud, and Theodore Dreiser to show the reader what a well-rounded intellectual he is. Greed dissolves the foundations of character. Along the way, he lost his balance.
   
   Greed was, is, a soul-destroying force, a canker wearing away one's innards. Religions, political, and economic moralists consider man's "reason" a destructive madness. God is wrathful in the Old Testament of the Bible; so is Achilles in 'Iliad' the first warrior of the West. Indifference to mass suffering is the most destructive form of sloth. Envy is an unambiguously nasty, a low despicable emotion. Envy ruled the Upper West Side of Manhattan and David Denby, film critic for 'The New Yorker.' He and Betsy Pickle would make a good pair.



3. Let's try not to build great expectations here. Denby is not a financial professional, he's not even a financial journalist. He's a self-described "liberal arts guy". Don't read this expecting to get a lot of insight into the market or as a "how to" guide (or even a "how not to" guide).
   Read this because it's an enjoyable read. I read it on the train on my commute and was thoroughly entertained. He offers great insight and philosphical introspection into what was going on in his life and how his obsession with the market intertwined with it and coincided with some major events in his life. He also offers first-hand glimpses into some very high profile stories from the bursting of "the bubble".
   Good stuff.



4. The premise of this book intrigued me greatly. The effects of the 2000 crash as told through the eyes of an average Joe who was swept up in the hysteria? Fascinating. I looked forward to reading and feeling the effects of that great decline in the stock market as told by an ordinary man who had experienced it first hand. I've read plenty about the bursting of the tech bubble-now, I thought, I could feel the human element behind it.
   
   Unfortunately there is no human element in American Sucker. Denby himself is a hollow character, flat and one-sided, puffing himself up with intellectual and philosophical musings while failing spectacularly at creating himself as a character. It is the sort of narrative one would expect from a medieval morality tale-as the market spirals downward (though there is little actual commentary on this-it's more of an incidental) and the technology bubble collapses, Denby receives just the right revelation and insight at just the right time. Mere days before the March 2000 meltdown he ponders the seven deadly sins and decides that, in fact, greed is the most deadly of them. How convenient that such an epiphany should come at the exact perfect moment And it does not stop there-without fail an impending crisis is prefixed with an ironically well-placed musing on that exact subject just days or hours before the event actually happens.
   
   Yet for all these discussions on moral and philosophical discussions, for all the flashes of light the muse of intellectual snobbery generously gives our "hero," Denby proves his incompetence at seeing that which is right in front of his face and does absolutely nothing, contenting himself with metaphysical revelations of wealth, greed, and envy as his capital vaporizes before his glazed over eyes. To call it missing the forest for the trees would be an understatement.
   
   The NASDAQ crashes, but it goes unnoticed among romantic idealizations of festive holiday celebrations and epiphanies that come, conveniently, at just the right time and as fully developed ideas. Denby is shown the writing on the wall repeatedly but cannot recognize it-for all his attempts at flaunting his intellect he is remarkably slow. When someone tells him something he does not want to hear he conveniently dismisses that person as a fool, regardless of any amount of reverence or respect held for that person before his or her naysaying.
   
   There are redemptive moments. At one point, Christmas, 2000, Denby actually talks about his stocks, and allows the reader the gaze inside his portfolio he has withheld for 200 plus pages. At that point, as in so many others, Denby realizes, with uncanny clarity and amazing insight (hindsight is, however, 20/20) that he's made a mistake. Yet still he does nothing. There are other moments as well-brief respites from the intellectual fluff-where Denby comments on the market, describes how he felt, what the general feeling on the street was, and at times he even elaborates on the hope he and others struggled to keep alive. Unfortunately these moments are few and far between-more often market commentary serves only as a launching point for some snobbish flexing of the intellect.
   
   All in all, it seems that Denby had a contract to write a book about the market, and, with the bursting of the tech bubble, this ended up being the best he could come up with. He even alludes to this several times in the text. And so it's possible that this book was thrown together without much regard for actual content, and may have even had a predetermined length which is achieved only through Denby's incessant ramblings. Having read the book, that certainly seems to be the case. Or maybe Denby is just that poor a tale-teller, whatever his talent as film critic may be. Either way, I couldn't help but wonder, as I finished the book if the American Sucker referred to in the title was actually ME, having taken the time to read the book and having been disappointed more or less throughout.



5. I had been attracted by the very smart design of the book cover which resembled the tickers on Bloomberg, and the very positive comment by Justice Little, one of my most favorite reviewer here on Amazon. So bad that I had read only half of it and given up. Perhaps I had too high an expectation of it as the modern day "Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of the crowds" per description on the back cover, and that it would be filled with plenty of feelings/experience of the author during the whole Internet Bubble catastrophe. In fact, the author had given me much stuff of his personal life that's not investment/trading related at all.
   
   If and only if you will be satisfied with the stylish writing of a renowned film critic irrespective of what he wrote, you may give it a try. For those who wanna read not to fall into the same kind of irrational exuberance trap in his/her investment life, "Devil take the hindmost" and "Origins of the Crash" are much better choices.

5 comments about Why the Best Man for the Job Is A Woman: The Unique Female Qualities of Leadership.

1. Why women should buy this book? Are they really in need for this kind of "confidence boost" or we already know that women can compete head-to-head with men?

   My advice is simple: If you need this book, then you should look for a career where you don't need to compete with anyone, neither man or woman.




2. This is a wonderful book that should bolster the confidence of all the women who read it. But I would add one very important item: women show far too much humility about their talents and skills. If we want people to value our skills, we must first show that we value ourselves - by making sure our accomplishments are visible to targeted audiences. If we want people to hire us, buy from us, and invest in our companies, they have to know who we are, what we have accomplished and why they should do business with us! Self-promotion is not bragging. It is a valuable business tool that careerwomen must add to their strategies for success.



3. Save your money! The authors hopelessly biased style and language is a big turn-off. Any useful information is obscured by the overly general "truths" about the innate supperiority of women to men. I found this book to be a BIG dissapointment. There are much better books out there that offer similar substance with a more positive and believable tone. Get one of them!



4. Esther Wachs brings something to the table with this one. Writing in a style that's both lucid and engaging, she unpacks the mysteries of how the feminine mystique is shaping the digital age. Useful, check that please, ESSENTIAL reading for men too!



5. This fresh look at women professionals is both entertaining and informative. An excellent reporter and writer, Esther Wachs Book provides in-depth profiles of women CEOs and business leaders (many of whom rarely speak to the press) as she shows how traditionally "female" qualities are assets in today's business climate. A fast, fascinating read!

4 comments about The Way of the Shark: Lessons on Golf, Business, and Life.

1. As a lifelong golfer and equally devoted reader of book about the game, I was somewhat curious about Norman's latest. After all, he's certainly out of the spotlight as a golfer so what's the purpose of this late-issue autobiography?
   
   Let's say this: if Greg Norman is your hero, if you worship the ground he walks on, then I suppose you will fine this effort...uh... awesome. For someone slightly more critical, I will say that the content is less-than-inspiring. During his years as the number one ranked golfer (and did that mean he was really the BEST, or simply one whose high finishes in run-of-the-mill events put him there) I was neutral toward Norman, and I still am. Sure, I thought he cut a dashing figure on the golf course, despite that rediculous hat, but there was always something a bit false about him. Perhaps, of course, that stems from his many failures in majors -- after all, if he was truly as bold and dynamic as he liked to portray himself, wouldn't he have won a great deal more?
   
   But I digress. The book is written in a most pedestrian style, perhaps designed to appeal to Australian teenagers who still have posters from the 1986 British Open still on their walls. Norman's version of his greatest defeat, at the hands of Nick Faldo in the 1996 Masters, tells us how he played beautifully for three days, but even before teeing off in the final round, he tells us that his "hands felt funny," telling caddie Tony Navarro, "It's going to be a long day." Well, it was a long day, as Norman blew a six shot lead to finish third. Hmmm... nerves never had a thing to do with the detonation?
   
   Greg Norman devotes a whole chapter to his befriending of young cancer victim Jamie Hutton at the Heritage and offers countless other examples of just what a splendid fellow he, Greg is. Still, if you're looking for any golf insight, it's just not here. The last two-thirds of the tome is Greg Norman tooting his own horn about his all-important "brand," his many business deals -- without his own money, of course -- and just what a little Donald Trump he's determined to be. All this is both tiresome and uninteresting. The constant crowing about his stellar character are, themselves a complete contradiction. Perhaps one of his "good friends" will one day mention the virtues of modesty. (And while it's none of my business, how does one dump his loyal wife of some 25 years to take up with Chris Evert?)
   
   I strongly suggest you pass.



2. 
   How unique, indeed refreshing it is to read a book by and about a professional athlete, unlike so many others past or current, who has achieved great success both in athletic competition and in the business world. In this volume that Greg Norman wrote with Donald T. Phillips, he shares the lessons he has learned thus far (he continues to compete on a limited basis) "in golf, business, and life." It is important to note that when writing a book as well as when preparing for a major tournament or conducting due diligence on a business opportunity, it makes sense to enlist the assistance of others who can provide the knowledge and experience needed to achieve success. I commend Norman on selecting Phillips -- who collaborated so well with Mike Krzyzewski on Leading with the Heart and also wrote Lincoln on Leadership and The Founding Fathers on Leadership - but there can be no doubt that the insights and, of equal importance, the "voice" in this book are Norman's.
   
   Others have their reasons for praising this book. Here are three of mine. First of all, Norman's candor. This was especially obvious when, in Chapter Twenty-Five, he discusses his final round at the 1996 Masters. I was in Virginia that Sunday on a business trip, playing a relaxed round of golf with a friend before a series of stressful meetings the following week. When we teed off, Norman had played the first several holes, well ahead of the field; after we completed the round, we were shocked to learn that he had not won the tournament. How could that be? Later, I saw a telecast of the news conference, one that many golfers would have avoided, responding to questions that many of them would have evaded. "I screwed up today. My thought pattern was good but my rhythm was off. My good shots weren't good enough and my bad shots were pitiful. And that's pretty much it. Just didn't have it today. I place all the blame on myself." Of course, he was grateful for the strong support he received from family members and friends as well as from Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd, Fred Couples, and countless other players. Norman may have failed to win the Masters that year but at the same time demonstrated qualities of character which continue to earn respect and admiration for him, both on and off the course.
   
   I was also fascinated by all that he shares about his various business activities. He is a ferocious but principled competitor. Over the years, he and his associates have build a multi-national corporation focused around golf and the golf lifestyle (e.g. clothing, real estate, sporting goods, wines, gold course design, restaurants, and event management). Norman is an active and involved chairman and CEO of Great White Enterprises which now generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. His approach to leadership and management in the business world seems exactly the same as when playing competitive golf: set ambitious goals, assemble the "best and brightest" people, rigorously prepare, keep ultimate objectives in mind while focusing on significant details, explore all appropriate opportunities, measure only what really matters, never confuse pride with arrogance, welcome constructive criticism, be resilient when circumstances require adjustment, and remain convinced of achieving success eventually, preferably ASAP. As Norman learned on the golf course, there are some pars that are as valuable as birdies, there are some hazards to be avoided even at the cost of a par, that there are sucker pin placements which require a "safe" shot, and that sometimes what seems to be a perfect putt simply won't go in the hole. In this book, Norman cites dozens of examples of comparable situations during his career as a corporate executive.
   
   Finally, I admire the humanity that Norman is willing to reveal so generously. For various reasons, many celebrity athletes are viewed as role models and even as icons. Over time, they become very protective of how they are perceived by the general public. (Joe DiMaggio is one example that comes immediately to mind.) In this instance, I am not referring to protection of privacy that I think is every person's right. Rather, I mean to suggest that it is rare that an athlete of Norman's stature and achievement is willing to discuss, even celebrate those in his life - over the years - whom he has most loved and most respected as well as those whose friendship he most appreciates. He recalls many fond moments, dark moments, lucky breaks, and other ingredients of his life and career thus far. Throughout the narrative, he gives full credit to those who have helped him but always assumes full responsibility for mistakes and failures of various kinds that he duly acknowledges.
   
   When concluding his book, Norman observes, "In golf, you can always shoot a lower score. In business, you can always make another buck. And in life, you can always become a better person. The next minute is the most important minute of your life. You are limited only by your imagination. Your dreams are the blueprint of reality."
   
   Really, this is not a "golf book" nor a "business book." Rather, it is a book about one man's pursuit of self-improvement and personal fulfillment while achieving success both in golf and in business. Greg Norman's journey continues, guided and informed by the lessons he has learned, lessons that can also be of substantial value to others who share his faith in what is possible and his determination to "go for it."



3. I LOVE Greg Norman and this book so far is AWESOME!!!! ANYTHING to do with him is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



4. Who is the greatest athlete Australia has ever produced? Arguably it is Greg Norman. He is certainly the most well known. He has won 91 golf tournaments around the world, including 20 PGA tournaments in the U.S. and 2 British Opens.
   
   Swimming and surfing were his original passions, but his mother's passion for golf captured young Norman as well, and after a stellar, but brief amateur career, he started as a golf professional trainee in 1975 for the magnificent sum of $38 per week--Australian!
   
   If Arnold Palmer pioneered the "go-for-broke" attitude in modern golf, then Greg Norman certainly picked up the mantle from him. That attitude on the golf course carried over into business, and even to the writing of this book. Norman is willing to share his perspectives on the good, the bad, and the ugly--when most would want to focus only on the good.
   
   You'll love his descriptions of his British Open victories (the good), his part in trying to start a World Tour which was quickly snuffed by the PGA Tour's response (the bad), and his meltdown on the final day of the Master's against Nick Faldo in 1996 when he lost a 6 shot lead and lost by 5 to finish third (the ugly). They are open and honest.
   
   Norman also does a wonderful job of describing the business side of golf. At this point only Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus have done a better job of parlaying golf talent into business success. And Norman's success in helping build the Cobra Golf franchise, as well as his thriving gold course design business, clothing lines, etc., all make for fascinating reading.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Any golf aficionado will appreciate this book.