Biography & Autobiography : Business

From his spectacular launch of Playboy magazine to his recent television hit The Girls Next Door, Hugh Hefner has attracted public attention and controversy for decades. But how did a man who is at once socially astute and morally unconventional, part Bill Gates and part Casanova, also evolve into a figure at the forefront of cultural change?. Granted unprecedented access to the man and his enterprise, historian and biographer Steven Watts argues that Hefner has profoundly altered American life and values. Punctuated with anecdotes of life at the Playboy Mansions, the book tells the compelling and uniquely American story of how one person with a provocative idea, a finger on the pulse of popular opinion, and a passion for his work altered the course of modern history. more...

Price: $29.95

In the wake of his incredibly successful TV show, The Apprentice, Donald Trump has gone beyond celebrity to become a true legend. He is the one billionaire everyone recognizes, the only one whose name is its own global brand. But, for all the ink that's been spilled about him, nobody's ever fully captured the man -- until now. Robert Slater has written the first book on Trump that's worthy of this outsized American figure. Slater convinced Trump to give him unprecedented access: over 100 hours of private conversations and meetings. Wherever Trump went, Slater was there: as a 'fly on the wall' at secret deal-making sessions, on a Gulfstream jet trip to the dedication of Trump's newest skyscraper, everywhere. Slater interviewed 150 Trump employees and colleagues -- even top competitors such as Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn. Now, he reveals the man in full: the businessman and dealmaker, strategist and survivor, celebrity and personality always striving for more attention and success, whatever the obstacles. Learn how Trump transformed himself from an unknown local real estate developer to a global magnate. See how he really does business, discovering lessons that go far beyond anything he's let the public see before. Witness his brilliant media management... watch him leverage his celebrity to save his casino business from billion-dollar debts, not once but twice. Most remarkable of all, discover how Trump really feels about his celebrity, his empire, his life. more...

Price: $19.96

How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is a classic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford’s outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in this engaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. more...

Price: $18.00

Just who was the man whose name has become synonymous with the classic “rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul” scam in which money from new investors is used to reward earlier ones?  In December 1919, he was an unknown thirty-eight-year-old, self-educated Italian immigrant with a borrowed two-hundred dollars in his pocket. more...

Price: $19.00

The Sandy Weill story is truly one for the ages. Starting with $30,000 in borrowed cash in 1960, and relying on uncanny entrepreneurial instincts in the corporate world, he made himself a billionaire and became one of the most powerful bankers in the world. After rising to become the president of American Express, Weill saw his empire crash and burn. Undaunted, he started over with a second-tier consumer loan company called Commercial Credit, which eventually led to his position as CEO and then chairman of Citigroup. While at Citigroup, Weill delivered an astounding 2,600% return to investors--better than legendary CEO Jack Welch or investor Warren Buffett during that same period. But success is never an easy path, and Weill shares all the high and low points along the way--warts and all. His ascent to power has been documented by the business media over the years, but never before has Weill gone on the record, revealing his brutally honest and unvarnished side of his astounding life and career trajectory. more...

Price: $9.99