Confessions of a Street Smart Manager [Hardcover]

David Mahoney (Author)

Book Description

A tough-minded guide to corporate success, based on David Mahoney's brilliant career as a street-smart executive, for everyone who wants to develop the vital blend of shrewd practicality, energy and resiliency known as street smarts.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Street smartsa combination of shrewdness, drive and determinationaccording to Mahoney, were responsible for his ascent to the top of the Good Humor Corporation and to the position of CEO of Norton Simon's vast operations via stints in the advertising business and Colgate-Palmolive. In this candid, entertaining account written with freelancer Conarroe, he lists 10 "commandments," as well as various management techniques and tricks. The triumphsand occasional mistakes, mostly of omissionof Mahoney's career have involved not only business dealings and his role as adviser to five U.S. presidents, but building an extensive network of influential friends and directorship of philanthropies. The successful manager, he maintains, must have the ability to take both risks and responsibility for results. As an investor, he frowns on speculation and is wary of experts in any field. Above all, Mahoney stresses, one should enjoy what one is doing.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Simon Schuster Trade
• ISBN-10: 0808139827
• ISBN-13: 978-0808139829
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,395,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-rate, January 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Confessions of a Street-Smart Manager (Hardcover)

This a readable book by a very successful man, who shares the basis of his success (and of others he's worked with, including Norton Simon). He is a noncomformist in a business suit, who has questioned orthodoxy and the status quo, to the benefit of his bank account. I'm surprised it is out of print, because it deserves to be the business classic that the lesser (but still valuable) WHAT THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL is.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Street Smart Manager : a pretty good book, June 6, 2006

By 

SUCCESS WITHOUT KNOWING HOW. (near san francisco, ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confessions of a Street-Smart Manager (Hardcover)

its been years since i read this book & i just wondered tonight if it was still in print.

like the previous reviewer, i also felt the book to be an easy read with valuable insights from a very successful man.

as i recall, he was the first executive to hit the one million dollar a year salary.

some might say his advice tends to be simplistic. and it is which is why its such a good book. the advice is REAL and isn't the trendy trash that authors hawk today simply to make a buck.

for example, he reminds the reader that your mistakes in life are worth their weight in gold. the bigger the mistake, the MORE valuable it is ! ( " so long as you survive it." ) the meaning of course: don't be discouraged in life. we all make mistakes. LEARN from your mistakes to be a more successful person.

he stresses honesty and points out that the safest route through life is " well within the line. not on the line and certainly not over the line." in other words, don't be an enron ceo. value your honesty in life & your honesty will take care of you more than dishonest gain will take care of you.

this last concept has served me well. never having had a good upbringing and coming from a fractured family life with an ex-con father, i followed the author's advice. and he was right. i've been considered a bore by many. i've been laughed at. other people have thought themselves superior to me in their life skills. but, well, guess who came from a poor lad without even enough food in the kitchen to a net worth of nearly a million bucks... with good health ... and eating top of the line food... and taking cruises to tahiti, etc.? yep. honesty works just as he said it would. ( oh, and those other people who thought they were smarter than me? well, lesse. prison. drug addicted. dead. ).

the book is simple to read. nearly too easy. but for a person who needs help for lack of family or close friends, its a winner. then you graduate to the next level: proverbs.