Customer Reviews

Dare to be Great: The Unauthorized Story of Glenn Turner

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This book offers a riviting account of the top network marketing company of the 1970's-Turner Enterprises which actually started with one company, Koscot, a cosmetic company that nearly toppled Avon and Dare To Be Great, a motivational and personal development company.Turner Enterprises extrapulated into 78 companies in 21 countries with over $300,000,000 in sales and nearly 1 million distributors creating over 600 millionaires.Aside from this incredible growth is the factor that the CEO was Glenn W. Turner, a 8th grade dropout who had been born in a charity ward with a harelip and a bad speech impediment. In addition, Turner was named "American of the Year" in 1972 and ran for senate in the state of Florida beating 6 worthy opponents, although losing the race.Turner had 700 lawsuits filed against him, won 699 and lost only one.An incredible success story. Also an incredible story of government abuse in America at that time. Most people feel that Turner was essentially railroaded.Also recommend Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing, The Unstoppable Glen Turner and The Unstoppable American.

Isn't it interesting that a man like Glenn W. Turner can positively impact the lives of literally millions, be named American of the Year, help the handicapped, support so many non profit organizations and charities, but some people still allow themselves to be influenced by the media?Unbelievable!!!Glenn W. Turner change my life too---positively. Thank you GWT!!!

I came across this book in a used bookstore. Since I enjoy reading success stories of business people, thought that I would add the is one to my library.This book covers the rise of a company called "Dare to Be Great", a motivational MLM company in the 70's created by a guy named Glenn W. Turner.Despite the companies eventual downfall, I found this success story very inspirational and motivational. Goes to show what can be done with sheer will power, determination and stickability.

There is no doubt that Glenn W. Turner was the icon of both personal development and network marketing. This man makes you believe in yourself. His personal development program was and still is the standard of excellence in the industry. The Koscot products were state of the art for the times and still better than comparable products being offered today.In addition to this book, I also recommend The SALES BIBLE, Turner, Turner, Turner: The King of Network Marketing, Con Man or Saint? And The Unstoppable American.Glen Turner is the unstoppable American. Great books about a great man.

I well remember this book coming out by Maxa back in the 1970's and I well remember how poorly it was recieved back then. Glenn W. Turner had been named as American Of The Year, ran for political office on the democratic ticket and was considered quite a hero. His companies Koscot Interplanetary and Dare To Be Great provided opportunities for both personal and professional growth as well as income opportunities never seen before or since.

This book is just a readers digest of all that the biased media wrote about GWT back in those days. In fact that was the reason the book failed, even those who did not know the truth about Dare To Be Great and Glenn Turner had already read this crap in their local newspapers and could care less about a book like this.

Turners flagship company Koscot Interplanetary offered state of the art cosmetic products. And Koscot was making a lot of noise in the industry. Large, well known cosmetic companies could not understand how a harelipped, eighth grade dropuot could start a cosmetic company with only $5,000 and be breathing down their necks generating over $350 million in sales in under five years and without major advertising. They didn't understand the power of network marketing or referral marketing. That the best way to promote a product is by one friend telling another friend and so on.

Boxing legend Archie Moore used the Koscot products and said it was the only product he ever used that softened his rough hands. Major celebrities and stars were using the products. Koscot's competitors were not too happy.

And Dare To Be Great delivered on it's promises. Originally the program was set up as a sales and motivational program for Koscot reps. The program consisted of classes, records and movies (this was before audio cassettes and video tapes) and helped reps reach their potential in record breaking time. Eventually, the program was expanded to include family members over the age of 18 and for awhile, a modified Dare To Be Great program was being taught in Jr. and Sr High schools and even in grade schools. Turner felt that success, attitude, positive thinking and goal setting should be started at the earliest possible ages.

An estimated 800 millionaires were created through Turners companies and had over 1 million people involved. The company started by Glenn Turner would eventually extrapulate to over 78 companies in over 21 countries.

What I remember most about GWT was his big heart and his strong desire to help other people. He also had the unique ability to spot greatness where others didn't. For example, there was the case in New York City in 1970. GWT was in the Big Apple for a major promotion. Meeting with his top executives in a upscale restaurant in Manhatten, in walks a homeless man. This was January, 1970 and one of the coldest winters in history. Needless to say, patrons immediately called for the management to throw this "bum" out.

When Turner saw what was going on, he approached the homeless man and told the management that this man was his quest. The manager was aware of who Mr. Turner was, knew that Turner frequented his establishment whenever he was in town and brought in a lot of business so allowed Turners "guest" to stay despite cries of protest from the other patrons.

Turner then didn't just give the man a chance to get out of the cold and a warm meal, paid for courtesy GWT but offered him an opportunity to fly back with Turner to Orlando on his Lear jet. Turner in classic style said; "Let me show you what I've got. If you don't like it, I'll send you back here to go back to what you've got."

Needless to say the man accepted. Turner found this homeless man a place to stay, got him cleaned up, found him a job and exposed him to his company. He gave him records to listen to and films to watch. He told him the books to read like Think & Grow Rich, The Magic of Believing, The Power of Positive Thinking and so on and let attend Dare To Be Great and Koscot Opportunity Meetings. He met some of the top people in Turner's companies. Turner made the man work for everything. It was the classic story of "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

The story has a happy ending. The man, after working for awhile paid the $10 fee to join Koscot because that was all he could afford at the time. He eventually got his own apartmentment and bought his own car. This once homeless man became one of the great leaders in Koscot and eventually, through the profits he made with Koscot got into Dare To Be Great. A homeless man who once resided on the streets of NYC now became a successful businessman. All thanks to the generosity of Glenn W. Turner.

Needless to say, you won't find that story in Maxa's book. Nor would you have found it in any of the biased newspaper articles of the times. A title that says "Millionaire Businessman takes homelessman under wing and transforms him into a successful businessman" wouldn't sell in those days and probably wouldn't sell today. As the saying goes, if it bleeds it leads, if it smells it sells, bad news headlines that is.

As one of the many people who was exposed to GWT and the Dare To Be Great program all I can say to GWT is thank you, thank you, thank you. To Maxa, you should be writing articles for the cheap tabloids.

Imagine for a moment you are me. Thirty years ago, as a Washington Post reporter, I wrote a book titled "Dare To Be Great" about an entertaining guy named Glenn W. Turner. I'd covered his business adventures and legal troubles for years and was fascinated by his appeal to the hopes, dreams and greed in all of us.

The book garnered excellent reviews including two in the New York Times, one in the daily book review section, the other in the Sunday Times book review section. It was not a best seller, but "Dare To Be Great" sold respectably.

Time passed. Glenn Turner went in and out of jail. And like most books, mine went out of print. But thanks to the Internet and new companies such as Amazon.com, an electronic marketplace began for the resale of used books. Even better, readers could post reviews of those books on line for the world to see.

Maybe, if you'd written a book, you'd do what I've done and sign on Amazon.com every year or so just to see the price your book was fetching on the open market. Even better, you could have a little fun reading reviews by recent buyers.

Well, that's what I did today. And imagine how surprised I was to find that after receiving seven, five-star reviews for "Dare To Be Great" between the spring of 2001 and the fall of 2003, suddenly an unusual number of people IN A SIX DAY PERIOD last summer took the time to review my book. And all of them hated it so much they awarded it only one star and trashed my writing, my career, my motives, and my reportorial reputation.

I wonder what could have caused such a huge surge in interest in a 30-year-old book?

Following these words, you'll find "reviews" that show this: Between Aug. 16 and Aug. 24, 2005, an astounding nine folks HATED my book and wrote to say so. Heck, three people alone on Aug. 20th took time out of their busy lives to sign on to Amazon and slam me and my writing.

As I write in the title of this review at the top, I'm impressed. Impressed that there could be such a startling revival of interest in a book written three decades ago about a guy who is only in the public eye when his hometown newspaper in Florida decides to do a "Whatever Happened To" article about him. Impressed that he still has loyal fans dedicated to smearing anyone who doesn't regard Turner as a saint. (The biography he paid a journalist named John Frasca to write years ago was titled "Con Man or Saint?")

I'm also impressed that those die-hard fans would, in an eight-day period, all decide to read my book and sit down and write reviews for Amazon.

As we used to often write about such things when I was the DC bureau chief for the satirical magazine called SPY . . . "Coincidence? I think not."

First of all, interested readers should be made aware that this is not the same educational type DARE TO BE GREAT books that are out by great writers like Cameron and Kreuger. You won't find any information in this tome on how to be great at anything.

Instead of being educational, this book is about an apparent ripoff company called Dare To Be Great from the 70's. According to author Rudy Maxa, the founder and CEO Glenn W. Turner cheated thousands out of $44 million+ with an apparent illegal pyramid scheme called DARE TO BE GREAT.

Judging by the reviews here, Turner apparently had a lot of fans and supporters. In any event, I found this book worthless and not even worth the $1.25 it was selling for at a used book store. The book is small and has no useful content.

This book by Rudy Maxa is still another attempt by a overambitious writer who attempts to use the general publics ignorance for his own personal financial gain.

What Maxa does in this book is merely regurgitate the same nonsense that the mainstream media had been regurgitating since 1968. To believe Maxa, you would think that Glenn W. Turner was a cross between a tv evangelist and JR Ewing. In fact Glenn W. Turner was one of the kindest people most of us ever met.

I recall hearing a story about a 12 year old girl with a harelip so severe that she went into recluse, refusing to go to school because of the constant attacks by her peers. The girls mother called Turner Enterprises hoping to get Glenn Turner to talk to her daughter knowing full well that Turner had overcome the stigma of a harelip to become super successful. Turner did better than talk to the girl by phone, he went to the girls house. Despite a great motivational speech by Turner, the girl was still distraught. Turner then informed the girls mother thant he was going to arrange to have the young girls harelip surgically removed. When the mother indicated that she couldn't afford it, Turner in classic style said; "No problem, I'll pay for it."

Maxa and the mainstream media missed this. Obviously an article about one of the wealthiest people in America paying for a 12 year olds surgery would not sell. But saying that the man was crook, an evangelist that ripped people off I suppose would. As they say in the media; "If it smells, it sells." Even if it is not based on facts or truth.

I have many fond memories of the The Dare To Great Seminars. It was exciting seeing shy, timid people come in to the seminar on day one so lacking in confidence that they couldn't even introduce themselves on day one but by day five were giving compelling presentations!

Although these seminars were initially Sales & Motivation in nature, they also provided keys to family unity and balance. People reported becoming better spouses, better parents and teenagers were taught values. Many students went from graduating from High School to Dare To Be Great reps and were earning more money than their peers were many years later after completing college and working for corporate America.

Contrary to what Maxa says in this book, the $5,000 was not just for a Dare To Be Great distributorship (not franchise) but was also to attend the Dare To Be Great Seminars which allowed the Dare To Be Great Rep, his spouse and family members over the age of 18 the opportunity to attend with UNLIMITED REPEAT PRIVLEDGES. Those of us who took advantage of this program felt that it worth three times the price. As noted above, those who took part in the seminars and training got great, permanent results breaking through barriers and achieving great personal and professional success.

Dare To Be Great Reps became among the highest paid direct sales people in the nation and Dare To Be Great became the hottest business opportunity of the times. It was a personal development program and a business opportunity unlike anything that ever came before it and I don't think that anything has come even close to it ever since.

Most of what is in this book is not true. Maxa is selling sensationalism, not truth. All he has to do is talk to any of the Dare To Be Great reps who followed the program, not the wealth without work people who willingly paid $5,000 but wouldn't go to the seminars or go to work.

To these people I repeat what Turner used to say: "Some people are waiting for something to turn up. Why not try starting with your sleeves and go to work?"

This book by Maxa makes for great toilet tissue. And that is being kind.

I really don't understand the 5 star reviews here. In one sense they applaud Glenn W. Turner and his great work with Koscot Interplanetary and in another sense they give this book which rips Glenn W. Turner apart five stars.

Interesting that this book is selling for as much as $195. No doubt the five star reviewers are attempting to generate book sales and perhaps dupe Glenn W. Turner people into buying this trash. WARNING: It is as biased as the legal system was in the 1970's. It is NOT fair to Glenn Turner and in fact reveals him in an unfair and altered way.

No mention is made in this book that Turner won 699 out of 700 (frivulous) lawsuits that were filed against the man. No mention is made of the great work that Glenn Turner did or the charities he helped. Only the gutter trash, innuendo, rumor without facts.

As the title indicates, this is an "unauthorized story." Had this author taken the time to come to Orlando and truly investigate Glenn Turner, Koscot Interplanetary and Dare To Be Great as John Frasca, a Pulitzer Prize Winner did, this story would have been quite different. Frasca won over 35 major awards for journalism including the Heywood Broun Award. As an investigative reporter his articles for the Philadelphia Daily News were publicly credited by Governor George Leader with leading to improvements in mental hospitals in Pennsylvania. The work of Mr. Frasca led to the release of a sane woman who had spent five years in a mental hospital. On another occasion, Frasca helped save an innocent man from the electric chair.

After carefully researching Turner and his enterprises, Frasca wrote several books about Glenn W. Turner such as Con Man or Saint, The Unstoppable Glenn Turner and GWT Changed The World For Me. These books by Frasca offer a quite different and accurate story about Glenn W. Turner---The True Story.

Regrettably, Maxa resorts to gutter journalism. This book was written back in the mid 1970's. Then as now, the media liked to go after successful businessmen, even if what they presneted in their journalistic trash was totally inaccurate. This book is like a cheap tabloid and I don't understand why it is still around or why it is selling for nearly $200!

Skip this one and get one of John Frasca's books instead. They cost less and unlike this volume, are actually based on fact, not opinion.

Rudy Maxa certaintly is an excellent writer. But what talents he has in writing skills are far overshadowed by the ambitions he had in attacking a man who helped a lot of people, especially in the Orlando, Fl area. That man of course is the great Glenn W. Turner!

Interesting that Maxa forgets to mention that GWT beat Art Linkletter and many other notable benefactors back in 1972 for the American of The Year Award. An award that was presented to him by Burt Reynolds. In fact, Maxa leaves a lot out in his book.

Interesting is what happened to Maxa's career after he wrote this very biased and fact-lacking work. This book bombed and Maxa's career went right down the toilet where it rightfully belongs.

Sorry, I hate to see a good man like GWT attacked undeservedly. I guess I am "old fashioned" that way.

Maxa, you should consider writing a newer version of this book with an apology to GWT. And you should also rely on facts, not what you want people to believe. Your work on this book reminds me a lot of what Dan Rather tried to pull last year on 60 Minutes with forged documents and what Michael Moore tried to present as a "documentary." Give me a break!

Rudy Maxa, you are a joke!