Career Memoirs

As a 24-year-old line cook, Ellen Marie Bennett couldn't stand the kitchen staff’s poorly designed, cheaply made aprons. So when her head chef announced he was ordering a new batch, she blurted out, “Chef, I have an apron company” - even though she had no company, no business plan - just a glimmer of a design idea and a business license. Through hustle and a willingness to leap into the unknown, time and time again, she built that first order into a multi-million-dollar company called Hedley & Bennett.

An expert on ethical leadership analyzes the complicated history of business people who tried to marry the pursuit of profits with virtuous organizational practices - from British industrialist Robert Owen to American retailer John Cash Penney and jeans-maker Levi Strauss to such modern-day entrepreneurs Anita Roddick and Tom Chappell.

For most of her life (and even during her years as the host of a popular radio show), Courtenay Hameister lived in a state of near-constant dread and anxiety. She fretted about everything. Her age. Her size. Her romantic prospects. How likely it was that she would get hit by a bus on the way home. Until a couple years ago, when, in her mid-forties, she decided to fight back against her debilitating anxieties by spending a year doing little things that scared her - things that the average person might consider doing for a half second before deciding: "nope."

Stop waiting around for the career—and life—that you deserve and start taking the reins! Leading Women shows you how to claim power and respect, conquer your internal barriers, and change the world by helping other women do the same. Featuring stories from 20 nationally acclaimed female leaders, this empowering guide offers real-life advice for breaking free of the predetermined roles in the business world and life.

Gates' Business @ the Speed of Thought is one of audible.com's most popular programs. This is one investment that will pay consistent dividends. Download it for your commute.

The world of show business has never been easy for anyone. Once given the chance, one must take care of it the same way one takes care of valuable things. One great mistake can affect your whole career, no matter how high your achievements are. Johnny Depp is considered one of the most renowned and successful actors in terms of box office, in which he draws recognition. He has formed a solid bond with moviegoers who span over several generations, because of his ability to absorb himself into a particular assortment of dynamic characters.

From the award-winning entrepreneur USA Today named one of the twenty-one most influential Blacks in technology comes an empowering, bracingly honest, entertaining blueprint for success in life and work—including the true story of what really happened to MoviePass—straight from the cofounder and former CEO himself.

Steve Case was on the leading edge of the Internet revolution when he cofounded AOL in 1991. He was an entrepreneur in a business that hadn't even been invented, yet he saw how significantly his efforts could change not only America but the world. In The Third Wave, Case uses his insights garnered from nearly four decades of working as an innovator, investor, and businessperson to chart a path for future visionaries.

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.

Being a champion is a choice. Bullies, self-doubt, failure, abuse, humiliation and setbacks plagued his life. Through a desire to keep pushing forward and the resilience of never quitting, MMA pioneer and Jiu Jitsu World Champion Chad George found a way to transform his self-destructive thinking to believing he can accomplish anything. In "A Champion's Mindset" he shares his journey of building the fighter within and how we all have to FIGHT for what we want in life.

Throughout my life I have done things my way, and they have always worked out - as if I've had luck in my corner. All of my optimism and bravado came to a crashing halt one cold December holiday night, when after an evening out with good friends, I suffered an accident. I was beaten with a pipe and later found under a moving train, resulting in quadriplegia. Given virtually no chance to walk again, I was devastated. But I also had hope, and lots of it. A fire that exists deep within, and has since childhood, burns on no matter the circumstances. I am here for a bigger mission. What would that mission now be?

Deliberate Discomfort follows the journey of Jason Van Camp as a new Green Beret commander taking over a team of combat-hardened Special Forces veterans. This true story tells firsthand the intense, traumatic battles these warriors fought and won, sharing lessons learned from their incredible backgrounds. A cadre of scientists further break down each experience, translating them into digestible and relatable action items, allowing the listener to apply these lessons forged under fire to their own lives.

With over $500 million a year in sales, the Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. But beginning in the 1980s, the Bassett company suffered from an influx of cheap Chinese furniture as the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately was forced to send its production offshore to Asia. Only one man fought back. That man is John Bassett III, a descendant of the Bassetts who is now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of over $90 million.

In 2003, Cindy Monroe founded Thirty-One Gifts in the basement of her home in Chattanooga, TN, with one goal: to help women by giving them the opportunity to run their own successful businesses. Today, she continues to lead Thirty-One Gifts and build relationships with her consultants all over the country.

Most people don't need to be experts in their field. Yes, the successful know more than the average person about a particular topic, and they often possess a better-than-average ability with a particular skill set; but not everyone who is successful is an expert, he makes clear. And yet we continue to deeply value the expertise ideal. In Master of None, Hudson turns expertise on its head and shows that by embracing variety and becoming more versatile, anyone can succeed and become more open to different opportunities in life.

Twenty years before the publication of his magnum opus Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill was an instructor, philosopher, and writer at the George Washington Institute in Chicago, where he taught courses in advertising and sales. These rare, never-before-seen lectures were thought to be lost to history. Until now. Given exclusive access to the archives of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, Jeffrey Gitomer has unearthed Hill’s original course notes containing the fundamental beliefs in hard work and personal development that established Hill as a global leader of success and positive attitude.

Paul McGowan tells all (and then some) in this riotous tale of misbegotten success that’s 99 percent true in all the best ways. From his not-so-innocent youth growing up in the shadow of Disneyland and summer evenings in the innocent 1950s, to his dope-smoking, snake-eating, draft-dodging, loony-bin misadventure through Europe, to his struggles to build a thriving enterprise from a stack of dusty albums - see how the CEO of a worldwide company took 50 years to become an overnight success.

Nolan Bushnell founded the groundbreaking gaming company Atari, the restaurant chain Chuck E. Cheese's, and two dozen other companies. He also launched Steve Jobs' career, along with those of many other brilliant creatives over the course of his five decades in business. In his eagerly awaited first book, Bushnell explains how to find, hire, and nurture the people who could turn your company into the next Atari or the next Apple.

In Players First, John Calipari relates for the first time anywhere his experiences over his first four years coaching the Kentucky Wildcats, college basketball's most fabled program, from the doldrums to a national championship, drawing lessons about leadership, character, and the path to personal and collective victory. At its core, Calipari's coaching philosophy centers on keeping his focus on the players - what they need to get the best out of themselves and one another.

The truth is we all experience the occasional down moments. But if you always feel unproductive, then you need to closely examine how these thoughts are negatively impacting your life…The solution is to find a mentor, a true mentor who have achieved what we’ve ever wanted. This way, we can cut short our learning curve by 15-20 years or more, depending on how effectively we absorb the valuable knowledge and wisdom. And that’s what you’ll discover in Think Like Gary Vaynerchuk.