Business Professional

In 1986, fresh out of college, Paul Downs opened his first and last business: a small company that built custom furniture. With no idea how to run a business or how to build custom furniture, Downs spent a year teaching himself the business, and in 1987 he hired his first employee. That was when things got complicated.

He spent 40 years at the Bank of Montreal, was the CEO and a part of the key group of people that developed the first ATM machine. He always had a willingness to share technology and systems in order to bring about larger change. Full of leadership lessons from the financial world, technology world, and philanthropy world.

One L, Scott Turow's journal of his first year at law school and a best seller when it was first published in 1977, has gone on to become a virtual bible for prospective law students. Not only does it introduce with remarkable clarity the ideas and issues that are the stuff of legal education; it also brings alive the anxiety and competitiveness, with others and, even more, with oneself, that set the tone in this crucible of character building.

This book chronicles my 30-plus years in the transportation industry. Starting as a taxi driver during a transit strike, to driving Long Combination Vehicles, measuring over 120 feet long, weighing over 130,000 lbs. My travels have taken me to all of the lower 48 states, and all Canadian provinces except Newfoundland. Some of the stories are quite humorous, others are quite tragic. All have had a lasting effect on me.

Thirty-five years ago, Wayne Huizenga rose before the sun to run his garbage collection route. Today, the sun never sets on the international Blockbuster Video empire he created, and he has emerged from the spoils of the Paramount/Viacom merger one of the most powerful and wealthy figures in the entertainment and sports businesses.

Perfect for a recent college graduate as well as those looking to climb the ladder in their respective jobs or industries, Business Etiquette Made Easy is an essential guide for any working professional.

Thrust into a life and family that neither of them were looking for, Gabi Jacobs and Terrence Whitaker decide that they'll just make the best of it, because the have most important ingredient: love. Through the ashes of their failed romantic relationship, they're able to form a different type of bond, one that allows them to effectively co-parent their daughter, and even become friends. Constantly pulled together by chance and circumstance, will Gabi and Terrence decide to embark on a journey to finish what they started, or will they decide that it's best to leave the past in the past?

In this inspirational corporate history, follow the company's rocket-like growth over its first two decades and meet its major players, such as Tobias Lütke, who co-founded the company in 2004, transitioned from programmer to CEO in 2008, and thereafter steered Shopify to its incredible growth trajectory, relying more on first principles thinking than the business nostrums of MBA classes. Economist and business journalist Larry MacDonald investigates the factors behind Shopify's growth and shares lessons for entrepreneurs, business managers, employees, programmers, policymakers, and investors.

The Swedish firm Hästens enjoys an outstanding international reputation for creating the finest beds in the world, as evidenced by a client list that includes everyone from Hollywood royalty to actual crowned heads of state. Its luxurious, handcrafted, top-of-the-line Grand Vividus sells for as much as $750,000. Now the family business lovingly run by fifth generation and CEO Jan Ryde sells its beautiful beds in fifty countries around the world. In When Business Is Love, Jan shares his leadership philosophy and explains how any business, in any field, can operate on the basis of love.

The story the Vanguard Group as told by its founder, legendary investor John C. Bogle, Stay the Course traces the history of Vanguard - the largest mutual fund organization on Earth. An engaging blend of company history, investment perspective, and personal memoir, this book provides a fascinating look into the mind of an extraordinary man and the company he created.

This account describes how a 28-year-old from Watford, Nick Leeson, plunged Barings Bank into ruin. In 1994, Leeson seemed to be making the company millions of pounds a week, but he explains how the cover-up of a colleague's small error led to the crash of Britain's oldest merchant bank.

Imagine accidentally discovering a pending environmental disaster where you live, and having only eight years to try to stop it. That is precisely the situation Cole Summers finds himself in. A planned and preventable fiasco looms in his part of the Great Basin Desert, and it appears to be up to him to use his unique education to spread awareness, rally support, and rectify the situation before it is too late.

What makes a company great? Management trends come and go. Economic conditions fluctuate, and market demands shift. Corporations restructure and new owners take over. The one constant, the one enduring truth, is that people define the character of a company. They always have and always will. Motivated, passionate people make the difference between ho-hum mediocrity and extraordinary performance. That's the message from Peter W. Schutz, former CEO of Porsche AG and author of this new book.

Tesla Motors and CEO Elon Musk have become household names, shaking up the staid auto industry by creating a set of innovative electric vehicles that have wowed the marketplace and defied conventional wisdom. But behind the hype, Tesla has some serious deficiencies that raise questions about its sky-high valuation, and even its ultimate survival. In Ludicrous, journalist and auto industry analyst Edward Niedermeyer lays bare the disconnect between the popular perception of Tesla and the day-to-day realities of the company - and the cars it produces.

This is The Shift, where “for the love of the game” has given way to an exclusive world of wealth and greed. Learn about it from someone who has lived it as a coach, mentor, and most importantly, as a father.

Unstoppable is the ultimate immigrant story and an epic David-and-Goliath adventure. While American teens were socializing in ice cream parlors, Siggi was suffering beatings by Nazi hoodlums for being a Jew and was soon deported along with his family to the darkest place the world has ever known: Auschwitz. Siggi used his wits to stay alive, pretending to have trade skills the Nazis could exploit to run the camp. After two death marches and near starvation, he was liberated from camp Mauthausen and went to work for the US Army hunting Nazis.

Inside one of the world's most dangerous jobs with the star of History's top-rated reality show, Ice Road Truckers. The highest-rated reality show ever to hit the History channel, Ice Road Truckers follows the heart-pounding adventures of the tough-as-nails truckers who risk peril every day to deliver goods and supplies in Alaska and across Canada's frozen north. Alex Debogorski here shares tales of his adventures - and misadventures.

The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.

Francis has mastered the "risk game." Now, with Rebecca Paley’s gripping prose, he takes us behind the scenes in Risk Game and reveals firsthand how he has become a self-made force in the competitive world of New York real estate—and a champion for nonprofit organizations in the fields of art, education, and, most recently, social and criminal justice.

When does the sales process really begin? Some say that sales starts at the very first "hello". Everything before that first critical opening word, these people say, is marketing; everything after that is sales. Others say that the real work of sales doesn't begin till the prospect first says, "No". "Otherwise", they insist, "it's just order-taking". Antonio Garrido's Asking Questions the Sandler Way rejects both of those answers. It holds that selling begins when you start asking good questions.