Success Memoirs

For 15 years, Mike Rognlien has learned from some of the best (and some of the...not best) people in the corporate world. His tenure at Facebook, as a consultant to Microsoft, and at numerous other companies - from insurance to banking to Silicon Valley - taught him valuable lessons in responsibility, ownership and accountability, and the fine art of T-shirt printing. And now, with a mix of wisdom and rueful humor, he's sharing his accumulated work and life lessons with you. Yes, you.

Jake Daubert could have followed the path of two of his brothers and died as a young coal miner. Instead he died as an active baseball player. Baseball provided an escape from the dangerous coal mines of Pennsylvania, but it couldn’t save him from an undiagnosed genetic condition that cut short his life as one of the best players of the Deadball Era.

Overcome your past, improve your present, and believe in your future. What if you can overcome painful circumstances? Imagine finding inspiration and hope through difficulties! Spanning three generations, author Susan Nicholson has written an honest account of her life which is both compelling in its authenticity and deeply moving in the sheer amount of challenges she has faced.

Gary Lee Veale's memoir, "I Survived A Thousand Times", is a heart-wrenching and ultimately triumphant account of his journey from childhood abuse to successful adulthood. With unflinching honesty, Veale shares his story of physical and mental abuse, and the long and difficult path to recovery and healing.

Permission to Fly tells the true story of boy born into a kind and happy family who grows to realize the executive world his father inhabits may not be his destiny. Thanks to his remarkable mother, Layng is given "permission to fly" early on. Armed with optimism, curiosity, creativity, determination and a wry sense of humor, he begins his amazing journey of many painful-but-educational steps and missteps.

This is the story of the "Skinny Bandit" - a whiter-than-cocaine kid from the gang-filled streets of Otay in San Diego - who robbed banks to eat and ironically no longer needs banks because of his steady success in Bitcoin trading and other cryptocurrencies.

Cornelius Vanderbilt I had no illusions about his life. He didn’t start out with grand plans and ungodly greed. He merely stepped in this world one foot at a time, one boat at a time, one market at a time - one day at a time. He worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He worked hard and played hard. When all was said and done, though, he was a simple man who pushed the world of transportation to be all it could be - to be what it is today. Vanderbilt was a man of steel, and we can learn incredible things from him.

Instead of succumbing to life on the streets, Kimbrough sought the one thing that would redeem him from that dismal, expected fate—education. This is the story of a young man who, despite all the forces that worked against him, fiercely determined to make a better life for himself, and is resolute about showing others the way.

In The Unspoken, author Ashley Haseotes shares her story of hitting rock bottom and finally coming to grips with the reality of her trauma. Suffering deeply and feeling overwhelmed, she becomes debilitatingly ill with chronic migraines and vertigo that leave her confined to her bed for months. Unable to work and take care of her children, lost and disconnected from her life purpose, she stares down feelings of unbridled failure and unsurmountable stress.

Finding success in this thing called “life” can be complicated. Sometimes we’re driven by an insatiable hunger; other times, we drift in life aimlessly looking for purpose. Yet, what appears to be circumstances meant to bury us can become the foundation from which we grow. In life, we grow strong and resilient simply because of our courage to continue through seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This audiobook is an example of what happens when perseverance becomes less of an admirable quality and more of a way of life.

Cyrus Jaffery has been on the move for as long as he can remember, rarely pausing to reflect. As a child, he was forced into exile and had to learn his own way, first in Pakistan and then the United States. After college, he was swept up in the whirlwind of marriage, starting a family, forming a business, and ceaselessly working to grow his personal and professional endeavors. In the process of writing this book, Cyrus realized that what keeps him moving is a hunger to make a difference, to be counted, to be part of something bigger than himself.

Few that know Mary Grothe today would guess that her childhood was traumatic. That she was raised by an alcoholic mother and abusive father in a filthy house, where tar dripped down the walls from the profusion of cigarette smoke. That at fourteen she watched her childhood auctioned off beneath a big top before fleeing town as a result of her parents’ criminal mistakes. Or that dance, her original love and ticket to freedom, would be taken from her in an instant

Autism is often misunderstood by mainstream society. Colin takes us on a journey through the key moments in his life with undiagnosed Autism. The added struggles with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculus are all part of who he is. There are sad times, funny times, times when he felt disdain for himself, but an underlying drive to carve out a life of normality is always there. A graduate of Edinburgh University shows to people that those on the spectrum are not daft or simpletons, only that they process information differently.

Through hard work and entrepreneurial swagger, Bryce transformed himself. By age 23, he brought his net wealth from -$200k (yes, that is a minus sign) to $0. By 25, Bryce had removed all recreational drugs from his life. By age 27 Bryce was a multimillionaire, and by age 30 he had amassed enough wealth to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle in perpetuity. Since then, Bryce has become an advisor and mentor to thousands wishing to escape the horrible fate of society's mediocrity and embrace true richness.

Eat Your Words outlines the history of a first-generation American Italian girl whose early curvaceous entry into womanhood and hearty appetite make for a complex-carb tale about the depth of our relationship with self-nourishment. Often self-derogatory, and certainly comedic, readers can fall in love with Giana as they relate to her often awkward and outlandish process, simply trying to find herself in the land of milk and honey.

It’s June 1953, and 10-year-old Marc Straus is in his mother’s car, getting sick from her cigarette smoke on his way to a Hebrew lesson. He and his younger brother, Stephen, are transferring from public school to a Yeshiva, and Marc needs tutoring. His parents haven’t said why they’re transferring - the family isn’t religious. All Marc knows is he’ll have to protect his brother. Stephen’s a delicate kid other kids pick on. Marc’s a street fighter who knows how to wall off pain.

Why did Harsh Mariwala leave his family business? Why did the Burman family quit the day-to-day operations of Dabur? How did the Dhingras turn a collapsing business into India's second-largest paint company? The Inheritors offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in Marico, Dabur, Keventers, Berger Paints, Select Group, Antara, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Luxor, and Motilal Oswal. The audiobook focuses on culture, family politics, ego battles, business rivalries, and a lot more. And then, of course, there are the inheritors themselves.

Success Reimagined celebrates the inspiring stories of 28 local Lehigh Valley leaders. This book shares the advice and experiences of these business luminaries, including how they triumphed over adversity, pivoted to overcome challenges, and reinvented themselves to improve their lives, businesses, and community.

Historian Sarah Hopkins Bradford details the life of heroic abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who was born into slavery but escaped to lead other enslaved people to freedom.

At the age of six, Matthew lost his father to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. At the age of thirty-seven, he lost his fifteen-year-old daughter to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Between those two deaths, he lost a cousin and two uncles to suicide, and a brother to self-harm. Hope reveals the tenacity of the human heart, showcases unrelenting faith, and shares immovable hope while giving a breathtaking inside look into the battle against generational dysfunction, destruction, and death.