The Jenny Craig Story: How One Woman Changes Millions of Lives [Hardcover]

Jenny Craig (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471478644 | ISBN-13: 978-0471478645 | Publication Date: March 5, 2004 | Edition: 1

"A fascinating insight into the world of big business and how a little Cajun girl from New Orleans can achieve great success in this country."
--Dick Van Patten, actor (Eight Is Enough)

"Jenny Craig's story is a splendid example of what can be accomplished in our entrepreneurial society with dedication and hard work. Jenny's spirit, determination, and focus on providing service to her clients enabled her to create a leading weight-control company and help millions of people. Her journey is an American success story."
--Steven N. Blair, President and CEO, The Cooper Institute

"Jenny Craig is a pioneer in delivering nutritious, portion-controlled food, now recognized as one of the most powerful dietary weight-loss tools, in the context of a comprehensive program to change one's lifestyle. The story of her success in building a multinational weight-management program can serve as an inspiration to other women (and men) who have the capacity for the hard work needed to carry their creative ideas to fruition. This is a book well worth reading."
--Frank Greenway, MD, Medical Director and Professor Pennington Biomedical Research Center

"Reading the story of Jenny Craig's personal journey is a truly inspirational experience. Her persistence and adaptation to change in all aspects of her life, ranging from her personal relationships and professional activities to coping with health problems in later years, provide an exemplary model of self-actualization and compassion for others."
--G. Alan Marlatt, PhD, Director, Addictive Behaviors Research Center Professor of Psychology, University of Washington

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The weight-loss guru celebrates her personal and professional journey in an autobiography that began as a journal for her children and grandchildren. In unadorned and sometimes awkward prose, Craig (neé Genevieve Marie Guidroz) tells how she and her husband built their business from a few storefronts in Australia to a company of 650 centers all over the world, where, she says, dieters can receive support and information about healthy living as part of the program designed to help them lose weight. She writes how she made it a priority to hire women in the upper level positions of the company: "My whole life, I’ve done everything I could to promote women’s advancement and growth, both in business and in my private life." Craig evinces a genuine enthusiasm for her life’s work, even though now, at 70, she’s relinquished day-to-day operation of the company. She provides an in-depth look at the ups and downs she faced over the years, including a freak accident that left her with a serious speech impediment, and what she says were a series of opportunistic lawsuits that shook her faith in the American dream. Understandably, Craig takes great pride in what she has accomplished, and she relates her story with unwavering confidence. However, the book reads too much like its earliest, most informal incarnation (which she describes as "random thoughts about my childhood, marriages, and career"), making it plodding and repetitive—in dire need of better editing. Craig spends a great deal of time explaining the technicalities of running a business, which readers looking for a straight bio will find tiresome. (But nor is this a business book.) Despite the book’s shortcomings, though, the author’s fans should appreciate her impressive story and delight in her anecdotes about her run-ins with celebrities, her rich lifestyle and her zest for a life of pleasure shared with family and friends.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“…simply told, with some well applied gloss … an inspiring story of third age entrepreneurial energy.” (Business Eye, 1 May 2004)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471478644
• ISBN-13: 978-0471478645
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,951,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and motivating memoir, March 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jenny Craig Story: How One Woman Changes Millions of Lives (Hardcover)

There are commercials and ads for the Jenny Craig program but I didn't realize that there was a real Jenny Craig! This is a wonderful first person account of how she started the business--with no advanced degrees or training--and built it into a huge empire. It wasn't always easy and Mrs. Craig had to make some difficult decisions along the way. I learned a lot about how she ran the business. This book should inspire many people to get off the couch and start working toward something they want--whether it be getting in better shape or finding a new career.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, March 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jenny Craig Story: How One Woman Changes Millions of Lives (Hardcover)

I'm on the Jenny Craig program and I love it! However, this book left a LOT to be desired. I thought it was boring and even though she says things like "I'm not bragging but...", she really is. I really don't want to hear about her $2.5 million race horse and all of her expensive stuff when I'm struggling to come up with the considerable amount of money I pay each week for Jenny Craig food. As a businesswoman myself, I was hoping to read an inspirational story, but it was not too be.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jenny Craig - a woman, a business, March 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jenny Craig Story: How One Woman Changes Millions of Lives (Hardcover)

We've all seen the commercials starting off when the staff had lab coats to now with people losing weight and living a healthier life. But you never really think about the fact that there was a real Jenny Craig that was running the business. This is a great book that details everything from the risk of starting a business to discovering the delights and challenges of working in the corporate world. A worthy read if you've ever been on the client side of the diet industry.