5 comments about Peterman Rides Again: Adventures Continue with the Real "J. Peterman" Through Life & the Catalog Business.

1. The Great Cham had James Boswell to capture his life in words.
   Al Stump ghostwrote Ty Cobb's My Life in Baseball.
   Then, there's Plutarch who managed to scribe twenty-three dyads of Greco-Roman biographies.
   
   John Peterman, however, decided to tell his own story. Most people know J. Peterman as the fictional character on Seinfeld, Elaine Benes's eccentric employer who globe-trots for garments. There is an element of truth to the John O'Hurley's caricature; however, as is always the case, fact is overwhelmingly more interesting than fiction.
   
   The real Peterman turned a mail-order duster company into a thriving multi-million dollar operation through the use of a unique business style and a catalog that made use of whimsical vignettes rather than typical ad copy and Bill Hagel watercolors rather than photos.
   
   Peterman's story takes his reader from the batter's box to the boardroom and from The Chiang Mai river market to Chapter 11. It is one-part travelogue, one-part biography, one-part business guide, one-part rags-to-riches-to-rags, and seven-parts adventure story. Even the business parts of this story are as exciting as watching a barnstormer perform an Immelmann turn
   
   Peterman Rides Again: Adventures Continue with the Real "J. Peterman" through Life & The Catalog Business (No. 0-7352-0199-4), by John Peterman. 225 pages of text and photos follow the career of the Merchant-Poet himself; cover photo by Stephen Kennedy shows him in The J. Peterman Coat (No. 1001).
   Price: $25.00



2. If you're among the 40 million Americans who discovered an oddly shaped "Owner's Manual" in your mailbox between 1988 and 1999, you'll recognize John Peterman as the man behind the J. Peterman Company, whose often-imitated mail order catalog changed direct marketing forever. If you're not, John Peterman built a mail order apparel business on an archaically styled cowboy duster coat and a catalog that featured drawings, not photographs, of the items for sale, one item to a page, accompanied by long, poetic descriptions, that marketed mood more than specifics. "Peterman Rides Again" is John Peterman's story of the J. Peterman Company, the culture it created for its customers, and the life it created for himself. His account traces the company from its infancy selling dusters in magazine ads, through the beginnings of the mail order catalog that millions of Americans would read like a novel, to the J. Peterman Company's eventual decline in the mid-nineties and it's bankruptcy in 1999. John Peterman's prose is only moderately eloquent, but it's very readable. I found his discussion of various things the J. Peterman Company did right and the marketing, financial, and organizational decisions that were definitely wrong to be the most interesting aspect of the book. That and the details of upstarting a mail order business might interest any budding entrepreneur. For those of us who miss the early years of the J. Peterman "Owner's Manual", Peterman's account shows us the circumstances behind the bad decisions that I think most customers recognized and lamented at the time. "Peterman Rides Again" is an enlightening read for Mr. Peterman's former customers and anyone in the direct marketing business.



3. solid business story with the details of the failures and successes. a good american business read about a product everyone who lived thru the 90's in the US remembers



4. An inspiring account of an entrepreneur living the
   American dream. I am suprised that John did not recognize the damage that Seinfeld's characterization of him as a pompus, self centered fool and jackass did not ring alarm bells and cause a suit against the continuation of his character assassination. Perhaps the fact that the actor portraying him was tall and handsome obscured the fact that John was portrayed as a sexist, racist, colonialist fool. The real John was a hard working innnovative businessman dedicated to selling unusual, sometimes rare items of clothing and accessories that represented value for a price. John is an innovative merchant who I believe will be successful again. This book is a must for any budding entrepreneur to read and heed, both the right and wrong way to start and manage an enterprise.



5. You remember Peterman, don't you?

   The "Owner's Manual" that read like literature? Open it, and you found yourself sipping martinis on the veranda at Raffles (you know, don't you, that gin was invented so the British could choke down their quinine tablets). Or sharing a tent with the Tuareg under the endless stars. Or watching an entrancing -- and very well dressed -- young woman glide through the Gare de l'Est, the crowds parting effortlessly before her.

   How many catalogs made you want to run a bath and settle in to read about luggage and clothes?

   This book is like that. But different.

   Different?

   Different.

   It has some of that same flair. Some of the same locales. Even some of the same copy, printed in excerpts (and a name to go with it, copywriter Don Staley, my new hero).

   But it's not escapist. It's valuable, real-world information ... like what to do when you find yourself stranded up the Yangtze River with nothing but a toothbrush and silver cuff links, the kind an archduke would have worn to a Vienna ball.

   Okay, not that.

   But it does take an honest look at the rise and fall of a company that many people loved. A catalog that countless people waited anxiously -- really! -- to receive. So many people wanted it to work. "Clearly, people want things that make their lives the way they wish they were."

   In some ways, it was a classic tale. Entrepreneur with a vision, a passion, a soul, creates a company with a soul too. The business catches fire. It gets huge. Too huge. Too much time crunching numbers. Soul gets crowded out.

   "Classic cases" become classic because people keep making the same mistakes.

   For years, the business looked like nothing could stop it.

   But then the bottom fell out.

   Peterman knows why. And he tells you why. Some of it was his fault, and he doesn't pull punches, even when they're directed at himself.

   I like that in a man.

   I like that in a book, too.

2 comments about A. P. Giannini: Banker of America.

1. Most people today never heard of A.P. Giannini. Yet, they can probably thank him for most of the banking services that they take for granted: consumer loans, mortgages, interstate and branch banking. Giannini brought banking to the masses. Bonadio's book chronicles the life and struggles of this man who helped build California and modernized the whole business of banking.



2. When people say "You have a one track mind" they mean it as an insult.After reading this book about A. P. Giannini, you'll be able to take it as a compliment. What he did for banking in America we now take for granted. It wasn't always so. He had a single minded purpose, "To give the little guy a bank who will do business with him." He was going to do that no matter what! And he did.The man was a bull dog in his accomplishments! This an excellent book about a unique man who has largely been forgotten in our day.He created the modern bank.

5 comments about The Farmer From Merna:.

1. I am a current employee in a zone operations center of State Farm. I know they have in the past given this book to new employees. I was never given this book as a required read. However, it is highly encouraged for employees to read this. I read the first chapter and put it down 8 years ago and have never picked it up again. I REFUSE TO BE BRAINWASHED BY STATE FARM. I encourage everyone I know to get rid of their insurance with State Farm and go with 1 of 3 different companies. I have been personally responsible for at least 20 people cancelling multi-line policies for letting these ex-policyholders know what kinds of crummy things this company does to claimants, policyholders, agents, and employees. I explain a lot of the underhanded things I know State Farm does. I also have been personally responsible for several people either not applying at State Farm for a job or withdrawing their applications after finding out how much of a crummy company this really is. I haven't left as I need the pay. That is the only reason I work there. I'm in the process of getting my own business up and running so I can get out of this crummy, mafia-type, Republican run company. They continually want us to contact our legislators to get them to vote the way State Farm wants -- those issues would go against the policyholders and only help State Farm's bottom line. I will not do anything to help them in their quest to be the only insurance company and the only bank in the U.S. as they have stated.



2. This is a good biography written in the late 50's to chronicle the first 30 years of State Farm. It is a good story if you are interested in success stories and the insurance industry.

   The language and insurance terminology (even if you are familiar with it) can get dull at times but I think that anyone who works or is interested in learning about the development of the insurance industry would find this an interesting read.

   I do not see the references to propoganda that other reviews refer to. It really seems to be more of a story and a fairly good retelling of someone's life and their development of such a major organization. While of course it is going to lean towards shedding the best light possible it also discusses some of the problems and personality issues of it's founder.

   Take a read. It didn't take long!




3. Do you really want to read a book about State Farm, written by State Farm? This book is handed out to all employees when they are hired, as part of the brainwashing process. The company was founded on a tradition of not bribing politicians and not influencing legislation. That doesn't apply anymore, as we're asked to call our legislators to support corporate legal initiatives.

   Don't get me wrong, 99% of companies do worse, giving money directly to candidates and lobbyists. But that's just a sad comment about the state of our current political and corporate environment.




4. I'm sorry that one of it's readers tends to think it is for nothing more than insomnia and making coffee jokes. It's obvious they never understood it's meaning and that is why they no longer work for State Farm (A great company to work for)! This book is rather incredible if you take it for what it is worth and look at where State Farm is today. A great inspiration for any entrepeneaur.



5. "State Farm was launched in 1922, by a 45-year-old, semi-retired Illinois farmer, to compete with long-established insurers ¾ haughty institutions in New York, Philadelphia and Hartford ¾ that possessed overwhelming advantages in capital, reputation, and distribution. Because State Farm is a mutual company, its board members and managers could not be owners, and it had no access to capital markets during its years of fast growth. Similarly, the business never had the stock options or lavish salaries that many people think vital if an American enterprise is to attract able managers and thrive.

   In the end, however, State Farm eclipsed all its competitors. In fact, by 1999 the company had amassed a tangible net worth exceeding that of all but four American businesses. If you want to read how this happened, get a copy of The Farmer from Merna."

   -Warren Buffet, Year 2000 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report

   Instant gratification it is not. But America has had too much instant gratification, and now it is time to get back to work.

1 comments about American Business Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present (2 Volume Set).

1. In his preface to what he hoped would be an encyclopedia for
   general readers, Neil Hamilton admits that selecting which business
   leaders to include was no easy task. Ultimately, he selected 413
   visionary male and female "movers and shakers".

   The well-known moguls of American industry are all here,
   shoulder to shoulder with the lesser-known. Andrew Carnegie, Bill
   Gates and John D. Rockefeller keep good company with Mary Spratt
   Alexander, who built a mercantile empire in early Colonial America
   while, at the same time, bearing ten children and supporting her
   husband's political career, and Madame Sarah Walker, an
   African-American who became a millionaire in the 1800's by building
   a business based on hair care products for black women.

   All the contemporary heavy hitters are represented, from Dick Clark
   and Helena Rubinstein to Boone Pickens, Ross Perot and Ben & Jerry.

   While the emphasis, naturally enough, is on American business
   during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the encyclopedia
   covers the period from the seventeenth century to the present day.
   The areas of evdeavor include finance and banking, heavy industry,
   food processing, broadcasting and communications, computers and
   entertainment.

   The entries, written in a lively and informative manner, are all
   set within the social context of their times, and each is
   accompanied by a bibliography.

   A good source for researchers, browsers and those seeking inspiration,
   this excellent and very readable work also offers an alphabetical
   listing of business leaders, a preface, a list of leaders by field
   of endeavor and an index.

No comments about Prescription for Success: The Life and Values of Ewing Marion Kauffman.

5 comments about John Maynard Keynes: Volume 2: The Economist as Savior, 1920-1937.

1. John Maynard Keynes apparently had a life full of brilliant ideas, and the evolution from one idea to another is a brilliant story. I'm not quite sure how I know this, because the second volume of Robert Skidelsky's Keynes biography doesn't really convey it. But I do know it, somehow.
   
   The main thing I've learned from this book is that I should go and read Keynes himself. Whenever Skidelsky quotes Keynes at any length, I breathe fresh air and I'm reminded that life can, indeed, be a wonderful place. For the remaining 95% of the book, I'm plodding through perfectly serviceable but unengaging prose. Skidelsky doesn't explain Keynes's economics well enough for intelligent non-specialists to really get the point. He explains Keynes's social life decently well, but one can consume only so much about country vacations and "Bloomsberries" before mentally consigning the lot of them to an eternity of bad food and cattiness.
   
   The jacket insists that Skidelsky has told an amazing love story, presumably the one between Keynes and Lydia Lopokova. I don't know quite which biography that reviewer was reading. Certainly not this one.
   
   I'm told there's a condensed version of the Keynes bio: one volume instead of three. That may be worth your time. It depends on what you want. The life of Keynes doesn't actually seem all that interesting on its own -- no more interesting than any other smart person's life, and substantially less interesting than Bertrand Russell's (with whose life Keynes's overlaps). As for the content of Keynes's ideas, those certainly are worth the time, but I just can't see that Skidelsky -- condensed or otherwise -- is the man to teach these to us.
   
   Probably the best route is to read Keynes's own Economic Consequences of the Peace, Tract on Monetary Reform, Essays in Persuasion, and General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. I'm told that Alvin Hansen's Guide To Keynes is how economists normally approach the General Theory, and my initial glance at Hansen's book suggests that it's a good start.
   
   If we believe Skidelsky, Keynes's Treatise on Money is overlong, impenetrable, and notationally confused. I trust bad writers to spot their kin, so I believe him on this score.



2. I highly recommend the second volume of Skidelsky's three volume study of the life of John Maynard Keynes for the general reader.The general reader will be rewarded with a 5 star performance.Skidelsky masterfully weaves an incredible amount of material about the private and public life of Keynes in a manner that will provide the nonspecialist,general reader with many hours of reading pleasure.Unfortunately,the same cannot be said for the specialist seeking a technical analysis and evaluation of Keynes's scientific contributions to philosophy,applied probability,applied statistics,decision science and economics.It is in this area that Skidelsky fumbles the ball just as it appeared that he was going to go all the way and score a touchdown.This is most likely due to the fact that he is a historian with little or no training in philosophy,mathematics,statistics,probability and economics.Let me catalog the technical problems .First,Skidelsky confuses the 12th-13th century debate between the nominalists and the realists(Platonists) with the realist versus idealist debate of the 19th-20th century between,among others,G.E.Moore and Bertrand Russell(the realists of the 20th century who would be supporting the nominalists in the 12th century),on the one hand and J.M.E.McTaggart and F.H.Bradley,on the other hand,who would be supporting,in general,the realists of the 12th century.(See Skidelsky's extremely confusing discussion on pp.74-77).Second,Skidelsky is completely confused about the nature and construction of Keynesian probabilities.Keynesian probabilities,in general,are intervals.They require the use of two numbers ,not one.The first number is called a lower bound.The second number is called an upper bound.Keynes's approximation method has absolutely nothing to do with ordinal rankings. In fact,the general case occurring among decision makers in the real world would be of overlapping intervals.Consider the following simple example.Let probability one be estimated by the interval[.4,.6].Let probability two be estimated by the interval[.5,.7].The probabilities have very specific numeric bounds,but they are ,in fact,nonrankable,noncomparable and nonadditive.It is not possible to say that one of the two probabilities is greater than,less than or equal to the other probability.Skidelsky has accepted at face value the extremely poor analysis of Keynes's TP done by F.Ramsey in two book reviews published in 1922 and 1926.Ramsey committed the fatal error of misinterpreting Keynes's chapter 3 terms in the TP,nonnumerical and nonmeasurable,as meaning that no numbers could in general be used to estimate the probability relation.Ramsey never read chapters 15 and 17 of the TP where Keynes made it clear that most probabilities could be represented as intervals.(The reader will find literally one dozen errors of omission or commission committed on pp.58-61 and 67-73 of Skidelsky with regard to the issue of the use of numbers in Keynes's logical theory of probability).Skidelsky ignores Keynes's creation of an index to measure the weight of the evidence,w,where w is defined on the unit interval[0,1]and measures the completeness of the relevant potential evidence available upon which to make an estimate of a probability.Skidelsky overlooks Keynes's conventional coefficient of risk and weight,c,that solves all of the paradoxes of subjective expected utility theory.Keynes was the first scholar in history to devise a decision rule incorporating nonlinear probabilities and weight of the evidence(later called ambiguity of the evidence by D.Ellsberg in 1961).Lastly,Skidelsky has overlooked the mathematical specification of Keynes's theory of effective demand that Keynes derived from his Y model of chapter 10 and from his D-Z model of chapters 3,20-21 of the General Theory in 1936.Let us define w to equal a constant money wage,p to equal the price level,w/p to equal the real wage,MPL to equal the marginal product of labor in the aggregate,MPC to equal the marginal propensity to spend on consumption goods, and MPI to equal the marginal propensity to spend on copital goods.Keynes then arrives at the following general result:w/p=MPL/(MPC+MPI).The classical and neoclassical(monetarism,rational expectations,real business cycle theory,etc.)theories are all special cases which require that MPC+MPI=1.Skidelsky's claim that Keynes did not provide a mathematical model of his theory of effective demand in the GT (see pp.537-542,especially p.540)is an error in magnitude equal to the errors made by Frank Ramsey about the meaning of the terms "nonnumerical" and"non measurable".The specialist will be disappointed with this volume of Skidelsky's biography of J.M.Keynes.



3. The second part of Prof. Skidelsky's magnificent biography of J.M. Keynes is nearly totally concentrated on economic issues. Keynes' personal life was perfectly settled after his marriage with a Russian ballerina. He continued to be in contact with the Bloomsbury group, which 'remained subversive by habit, but was anxious to retain their dividends and beauftiful houses'.
   In fact, this book centres on the question how Keynes came to write the 'General Theory' and its defense of governmental intervention (public investments) in the economic cycle in order to break the capitalistic slump. He proved that in a laisser-faire system an equilibrium could be formed at a far lesser level than 'natural' unemployment: 'There is work to do, there are men to do it. Why not bring them together!'
   We discover that Malthus was a real influential precursor with his proposition to prop up insufficient demand by public works and that Richard Kahn made a decisive contribution with his multiplyer effect.
   Prof. Skidelsky characterizes perfectly the 'General Theory' as a complex psychological drama with as main characters the life-denying rentier, the businessman and his fantasies and the victimized working class.
   Keynes' ultimate nightmare was a world were making money triumphed over making things, which is actually happening. Financial transactions are dwarfing the industrial ones and there are many more investment trusts than industrial companies in the US.
   The discussions after the publication of the 'General Theory' are fascinating. In fact, the debate is still red hot: inflation/deflation, the influence of the (inter)national banks, savings and (un)employment.
   This book is not an easy read. I recommend readers to (re)read some parts of the 'General Theory'. But this work is a fascinating tale about the (r)evolution of the ideas of the greatest economist of all times.
   I have only one minor remark: Ibsen is a Norwegian, not a Swede.



4. Keynes activities, both as an active participant of the economic life of his country and continent, and as an icon to the cultural life of his epoch and to his many friends and groups of interest, is impressive. To define him is an elusive task: philosopher?, economist?, historian?, linguist?. He was all this and much more, but he was above all a man of a very practical mind and, notwhidstanding his immense philosophical background, deeply attached to the theories of his contemporary G.E.Moore and others, he had the feeling of having a mission to accomplish, given the immense superiority his intellect had over the rest of the mortals.

   What was to become of Europe after the end of the First World War was foreseen by him in many essays and primarily in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace. The task which lays ahead for him, and only him, was to warn politicians and thinkers of the impending dangers of the years to come, specially in regard to a lack of theoretical analisys to support the transition from the old economy (classicist in his jargon), which ended with the death of the great Alfred Marshall, and a new one, which he purpoted himself to establish and then save the world. And save the world he did!!! Keynes is one of this towering figures who had the opportunity to mingle himself with daily facts and change them for the better. Amid a lot of controversy and polemic regarding the originality of his ideas, he published his major opus in 1937, which was to be used against the vagaries of rampant unemployment and inflation. His General Theory of Interest , Employment and Money is a sort of tribute he pays to his father , Malthus and G.E.Moore.
   In the personnal side of his life, if this can be said of Keynes for his personal life was eminently devoted to cultural interests i many areas, the book portrays some important changes in his personal atitudes towards homosexuality (he abandoned) and his new life marrying the russian ballerina Ludmila.




5. A great book about a great man. The development of Keynes' thought is handled well, although some more discussion around possible sources of some of his ideas would have been welcome. Several books about his Bloomsbury freinds have emerged recently, and it is interesting to compare perceptions. I'm uncomfortable with Skidelsky's analysis of Keynesian theory which strikes me as too much of a shoe-horning of Keynes into a classical framework, but I'm hardly an expert. All in all a book to be savoured, and an essential item in one's library.

1 comments about Out of the Middle East: The Emergence of an Arab Global Business.

1. One would have expected the Author to reflect, in more detail, on the emergence and thereafter the undisputable success of an Arab business enterprise, as the title implies.
   
   Instead, one encounters prolonged political views over lengthy political narrative of the Middle East history (19th - 20th centuries) - an arguable approach for a development business entrepreneur that is rather much fit for a political historian.
   
   An ardent reader would have also expected more reflections on the founding team (partners) of the company and the collaborative contribution of each. The Author was silent on the same and the book was hence, to a great extent, absorbed within the "self".
   
   The story-line therefor defies the purpose and certainly does to the title and the impression of unwary readers.

3 comments about Turn Your Talents into Profits.

1. I should be more disappointed with this book than I am. It's helpful in its own way, but suggestions to seek out further details using suggested Prodigy & CompuServe keywords seem, to be polite, a little quaint, & the publication date of 1998 makes it fairly clear that this is an "updated" version of an older (self-published?) book. One suggested business, for instance, is to start a BBS, a phenomenon that pretty much had gone the way of the mastodon by then.

   The book is also lacking in serious instruction on how to run a business. Since this book is aimed at people who are enough adrift to need these ideas in the first place, the target audience probably needs more than a whirlwind 9-page overview of practical & critical business skills.

   If that's all there is, I would've struggled to give this book a bare 3 stars. However, the majority of the suggested 100+ microbusinesses aren't too bad. Keep in mind that many of them require some sort of preexisting skills; you probably don't want to leap into a mural-painting business if you have absolutely no sense of form or color, for instance.

   More important than the ideas themselves, though, is their range. If you read this book cover-to-cover, or even just flip through it & glean a few ideas that appeal to you, you will definitely be motivated to start concocting your own small-small business. It might be a variant of an idea from the authors, or wholly your own creation, but you'll have been bitten by the bug -- I guarantee it.

   And if you already have an idea, read it anyway! One of the most crushing weights to the entrepreneurial spirit is the feeling that you're the only one crazy enough to try. Reading this book will make you feel a little less lonely. With that to brace you, you'll be a little more encouraged to follow your dream in a sensible & ultimately rewarding manner.




2. If you've been dabbling in a home business or dreaming about starting one, this is a book you've got to have. Turn Your Talents Into Profits will inspire you and encourage you. It's easy to read, gives you lots of great ideas, and has an amazingly complete bibliography.



3. Turn Your Talents into Profits has been in the news quite a bit lately. It was featured on the Montel Williams show in late March, in the March issue of American Baby, and in the May 11th issue of Woman's Day. I think this book has been getting so much attention because it focuses on microbusinesses (very small, part-time, home-based businesses), and microbusinesses are the fastest-growing type of small business in America.

1 comments about Lives of the Laureates, Fourth Edition: Eighteen Nobel Economists.

1. The book's whole idea (having a lot of Nobel laureates write about themselves) might have worked well for, say, six to eight such laureates, but it just doesn't scale to the 18 that are now writing -- a kind of dull repetitiousness falls upon the whole work by about the halfway mark or earlier. If you do get this book, and that may be worthwhile since each individual essay is useful and readable, by all means read it in small snippets (1-2 autobiographies at a time) with long waits in-between: trying to just read it cover to cover is a mistake.

No comments about A Korean Nationalist Entrepreneur: A Life History of Kim Songsu, 1891-1955 (S U N Y Series in Korean Studies).