Customer Reviews

Daddy Big Bucks, Revised Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed this story; It has potential; and yes, there are plenty Daddy Big Bucks walking around our neighborhoods, but they are not known to mainstream America. I got caught up in the beginning with Bert trying to be the good executive in corporate America; Yet, some focus was placed more on his secretary's private business, which initially lead me to believe that perhaps some corporate piracy was going on but it wasn't; and the relationship that developed with Daddy Big Bucks and Bert; Now, this book could have really been great with some more financial advice and points as well as cut down the weak spots.Another thing, Bert's wife was on point on a lot of things, yet, he continued to ignore her advice. She saw things more so than he; Also, Daddy Big Bucks; You can't help but admire his business acumen, you wonder about his idiocyncracies; like not dating women over age 25; good book

Wish this book was available 20 years ago when I started an investment banking firm.

This is an enjoyable fast read that jabs its serious messages across in a humorous way. The self made man is a very real traditional American figure with countless examples from every ethnic background, most often having interesting and ironic adventures along the way. This is one is special because it also examines many aspects of contemporary black experience in an unusual way through Daddy's story. It has a lot of straightforward wisdom about how anyone can make it and could inspire a lot of youths who may think they have no honest chances through their own efforts. Daddy is funny, sometimes outrageous but also challenging and thought provoking. The story moves right along and I hope the author writes a sequel.

For an inside view of the world of the black business man read this book. Both the wealthy entrepreneur, hiding behind a lower class facade, and the successful corporate executive bumping up against the glass ceiling while struggling to be upper class, are fascinatingly portrayed. If you haven't been there, you don't know. Now I do.

Robert Waite conjures up a cleaver story of blacks striving to survive in business in " Daddy Big Bucks".

The story takes place in a New York City Corporation. Daddy Big Bucks is a lowly shoe shine man who shines the CEO's shoes daily. He also happens to be a Real Estate Mongol who owns a fifty-three foot yacht and manages to get much younger women to go out with him. Though no one would accuse him of looking like a stud.

Bert is a bootlicking executive who has sacrificed his soul and his blackness to get points in the corporate world. He learns the hard way that selling out doesn't always guarantee success.

This book is very well written. Mr. Waite a former executive, has his knowledge of corporate America down cold.

Through the characters, Daddy Big Bucks and Bert, Mr.Waite shows the struggle between pre-civil rights blacks who often took the lowly route to success and post civil rights movement blacks, who benefited from their labors and rode their coattails. It's a short book that moves quickly.

Mr.Waite was very thoughtful in developing all the characters.

All aspiring black businessmen should read this just to get a taste of what it's like for a black man in corporate America.

Reviewed by:

Erren Geraud

Mahogany Media Review

Mahogany Book Club

Albany, N.Y.

Being a black executive in a white man's world is what Bert is used to. After all, isn't that what black folks are trained to do? Thinking he has everything he's ever wanted in life right in the palm of his hand, Bert starts to rely on his own common sense, forgetting that the "real world" is never that nice.  

Nice - Daddy Big Bucks is what they call him; the local shoe-shine man who just happens to be a tightwad and close associate of the CEO. Using his street smarts and shoe-shine business, he makes sure to get and effectively pass along all the company's pertinent information.  At the same time, he has everyone thinking he's just what he appears to be. We all know looks can be deceiving, but how deceiving can a shoe-shine man be?  

Not taking Daddy Big Bucks seriously is Bert's major mistake. As he begins to open up and "pay" Bucks, he becomes privy to the most important advice ever given: Be your own boss. Assuming that Bucks is a senile old man, he finally realizes that old sense usually turns out to be the best sense of all.  

This novel was very short, but not a quick read.  Although I understood where the author was trying to go with this, it still turned out to be confusing. The ending needs a lot of work; I felt I had been left hanging. Stylistically, the story was good, but overall, neither the story's concept, nor the moral was portrayed very well.

Reviewed by T. Belinda Williams for Loose Leaves Book Review

Bert Davis, Director of Planning at American Instruments, is a proud Black man who has struggled to make it into the top echelons of corporate America: he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, he earned his M.B.A, and he has opened many doors in corporate America for Blacks less fortunate than himself. When American Instruments succumbs to a hostile takeover, the last thing Bert needs is for some old shoe-shine man to tell him how to survive the cuts.

Hiawatha Jackson, better known as Daddy Big Bucks the shoe-shine man, is a proud Black man who struggled to make it through life: his father was lynched, he earned his advance degree from the street of hard knocks, and he believes Blacks will never make it as a group if they continue fighting for acceptance by corporate America instead of owning their own businesses. He built his multi-million dollar company from the ground up and wants to reach back and mentor Bert.

Mr. Waite did an excellent job at laying out the two different approaches to success the main characters took. He showed pros and cons of each side in a balanced manner, and he uncovered a prejudice many of us have toward those in the service industry. My issue with DADDY BIG BUCKS is that Mr. Waite spent the vast majority of the book explaining the two sides. I felt like the story was on hold while the two main characters got to know each other. DADDY BIG BUCKS was a good book, but if the conflict was introduced earlier, this would have been a more exciting read.

Reviewed by Deatri King-Bey
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

What an interesting story. The writing was smooth, which made the story flow right along. I read this book in one day. The story centers around the main character named Hiawatha Jackson better known as Daddy Big Bucks. At first glance you take Daddy to be just a shoe shine person....but looks can be deceiving and in the case of Daddy they are completely wrong. For a three dollar deluxe shoe shine Daddy Big Bucks would give the managers his thoughts and knowledge of the various economic trends, stock market and people in general. In this story Daddy Big Bucks teaches us how we can achieve our own American Dream, by owning our own business or by rising to the top in the corporate world. As Daddy points out in the story just because you made it to the top of the corporate ladder and the only African American at the top; doesn't mean you get to stay on top. You find that there are some winner and losers in this story.

Reviewed by Jocelyn Lawson for www.avid-readers.com

While Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X disagreed on the process, in the 1960's both leaders worked with the same goal in mind-equality for Black people.

In Daddy Big Bucks by Robert Waite, the argument is expanded into the 1980's corporate world when an academically trained Black executive suddenly becomes aware of shoeshine man, Hiawatha Jackson, who for a three dollar "deluxe" shine would enlighten managers on economic trends from his supposedly humble perspective.

Daddy Big Bucks offers two opposing views on how African Americans can achieve the American Dream through either entrepreneurship or climbing the corporate ladder. One side wins at the close of the story, which ends with a comic twist.

Well written. Entertaining. Good business insight.