Look what I found!

When pulling books off our shelves because they weren't selling today, I found a couple of gems which made me think "I've GOT to buy this" mostly to stop them going back to wherever they go and facing the possibility of mulching. My favourite (amongst a few rather dry books like 'Varieties of Capitalism") is

"Dream Merchants & HowBoys

Mavericks, Nutters and the Road to Business Success"

by Barry J Gibbons. Gibbons, being the former CEO of Burger King in the early nineties, could have adopted the usual deadly dull style of business writing, but doesn't. He is a joker as well as an educator, making the reader really want to find out what the people described in chapters within really did so well to become the subject of our attention.

"How do I explain and/or justify the downsides of these people? The times that they failed after or before they struck their pots of gold? The times where their attitude and/or thinking and/or behaviour epitomized something we'd rather not stick on the front of our fridges thank you very much? The answer is: I don't. I put the spotlight on them for a specific time and performance - and there is more than enough for us to learn from those high light reels. For example, Steve Case is included for his time and performance in taking AOL from its genesis to 30 million members - and the fact that he went vaguely doolally afterwards and all but disappeared up his own fundamental orifice with Time Warner is of no interest to us. We have the luxury of being able to be picky. We don't want biography; we want stuff we can use. We don't want now, we want THEN."

It's a superb book, hilariously funny on every page, making you giggle and laugh out loud to your mild embarrassment, and the amusement of all around you. Even if you don't like the idea of the book, the potted successes of some of the world's richest people, pick it up next time you're in a bookstore and look inside; it's very good.