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Blue Mountain: Turning Dreams Into Reality
 
 
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Blue Mountain: Turning Dreams Into Reality [Hardcover]

Susan Polis Schutz (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 1, 2004
Blue Mountain is the story of how our publishing company, Blue Mountain Arts, and electronic greeting card website, bluemountain.com, were founded and developed. In this book, I write about some of the experiences my husband Steve and I had: from the time we silk-screened our first posters and lived in the back of our pickup-truck camper to when our poetry greeting cards became the number-one-selling card line in America.

Years later, we fought--in court--two of the largest corporations in the United States to save our companies. Because these lawsuits had such a strong impact on us, I describe them in detail. In the late 1990’s, our family was swept up in the insanity of the dot-com craze. I also chronicle our whirlwind entanglement into the fast-moving world of the Internet.

Many people have told us that our story is inspiring and that they admired the way Steve and I successfully pursued our personal and professional dreams. Over and over again, we were asked to write a book about how we did it. At first we wondered what could be learned from our story. Then we realized that the knowledge we gained might help others turn their dreams into reality and bypass some of the pitfalls we experienced.

If you can learn a single lesson from this book that helps you to avoid one of the hurtful mistakes Steve and I made, then this book serves a purpose. This is why, after years of living privately, we felt Blue Mountain should be written. We have managed to live our dreams--a life we designed for ourselves. I hope this book will encourage you to take a paintbrush and create your own mountain of dreams.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With spouse Stephen, Schutz founded Blue Mountain Arts, the company that eventually spun off into the multibillion-dollar bluemountain.com ad-driven e-greeting company. Already a book veteran with To My Daughter With Love and other titles, Schutz skillfully chronicles her own and the company's history, from the early days, when the couple drove around in a van asking college bookstores to display the silkscreen posters they'd designed, to their spectacular online expansion. The transition was occasionally bumpy. Inexperienced at negotiating, the couple made some disastrous hiring decisions and some unprofitable sales arrangements, all unflinchingly recounted. Overall, though, the Schutzes effectively combined their family and business life, choosing their compromises with care. A long and painful copyright battle with Hallmark ended in their favor. The book concludes with Schutz discussing her childhood, early marriage, family and other nonbusiness topics. Unpretentious and relatively forthcoming about her approach to her personal life generally, and overly painstaking in describing the Hallmark court case, Schutz spends less time on business mechanics than on the conversations she and Steve had in and around this business, which may be even more useful to small-business owners looking for vision. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

SUSAN POLIS SCHUTZ grew up in the small country town of Peekskill, New York. In 1969, she and her husband, acclaimed artist Dr. Stephen Schutz, moved to Colorado, where their intense love for each other and their desire to be together at all times prompted them to begin silk-screening posters of Susan’s poetry and Stephen’s artwork. From this union of their talents and love, SPS Studios was born. Today, Susan is the author of eleven bestselling poetry books, and her poems have been published on millions of greeting cards. Whether she is writing about her feelings on motherhood, her love for Stephen, her fondness for nature, or her thoughts on life, her heartfelt words are the ones people look to for help in understanding and expressing their own emotions.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Blue Mountain Arts (August 1, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0883966956
  • ISBN-13: 978-0883966952
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,548,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book with Universal Application, August 30, 2004
By 
Silvano Zheng (Guangzhou, China) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Blue Mountain: Turning Dreams Into Reality (Hardcover)
Blue Mountain is hard to categorize. Susan Polis Schutz seems to have naturally combined elements for a business book, a publishing history, a family story and a inspirational leaflet into her account which ends up in a unique work. My overwhelming impression, though, is about the consistent sincerity, courage and faith shown in the Schutzes' every action that keep this book integrated. Those who read it only looking for a shortcut to wealth would probably be disappointed, but other readers might find in it, aside from every other merit, a rare quality extremely lacking in most of today's self-help books: an unflagging faith in humanistic values and a belief that they will prevail.

I read Blue Mountain last year when it was sent as a trade sample to the Chinese company I worked for. Its narration was emotive without being sentimental and immediately took me into the book's world despite the fact that I came from a distinctly different Chinese background and had no business aspirations. Still, I could relate much of my personal experiences to the book and apply its lessons to see through the problems within my company. Now I have resigned from that company and work as a freelance translator, enhancing my skills to pursue my dream. I am indebted to Blue Mountain for its keeping me company through the difficult, depressing period of my previous job and inspiring me to a new awareness of where I should be. For its universal application, I hope the book will soon be translated into Chinese so more of the 1.6 billion people will be inspired and dare to live up to their dreams against the mammonism and consumerism increasingly prevalent in the country.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Successfully turning Passion Into a Livelihood, December 26, 2008
This review is from: Blue Mountain: Turning Dreams Into Reality (Hardcover)
It's always nice when David wins against Goliath. In this case, David is a couple who started a greeting card and poster company out of an old van. And the twin Goliaths are Hallmark and Microsoft, both of whom tried to muscle in, and both of whom lost against this tiny upstart.

Blue Mountain not only tells the stories of battling giant predators, but also about creating a culture and a product line that wasn't based on research polls, but on heart. And of people who were so committed to the ideals of their company that they turned down a buyout that would have made them economically secure for the rest of their lives. Schultz is also not afraid to admit mistakes; she and her husband made lots of them, and learned important lessons--which they pass on to the readers of this book. While the writing could be a bit tighter, it's a story well-worth telling.

Shel Horowitz's award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, demonstrates how to build a business around ethics, environmental sustainability, and cooperative practices--and how to develop marketing that highlights those advantages.
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3.0 out of 5 stars starting a business, March 31, 2007
This review is from: Blue Mountain: Turning Dreams Into Reality (Hardcover)
They have a very inspiring story, but I wish they had given more details on the business of greeting card. Perhaps more of a step by step way to start a business.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Most people do not realize that the story behind the famous bluemountain.com website actually began over thirty years ago when my husband, Steve, and I founded our publishing company, Blue Mountain Arts. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
poetry cards, recognizable look, electronic greeting cards
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Blue Mountain Arts, New York City, Personal Touch, National Stationery Show, Harry Melkonian, San Francisco, Cliff Scott, Kansas City, United States, Dave Hill, Mike Drukman, New Jersey, Susan Polis Schutz, Charles Hudson, District Attorney Wade, Los Angeles, Bob Gall, June Polis, Northern California, Princeton University, Professor Scott, Boulder Daily Camera, Good Morning America, Happy Birthday, Colorado Springs
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