The Little Book of Business Wisdom: Rules of Success from More Than 50 Business Legends [Hardcover]

Peter Krass (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Book of Business Wisdom | Publication Date: October 6, 2000

Pearls from The LITTLE BOOK OF BUSINESS WISDOM

"The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won't succeed; you must have a larger ambition."-JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

"Think about the customer, not the competition: Competitors represent your industry's past, as, over the years, collective habits become ingrained. Customers are your future, representing new opportunities, ideas, and avenues for growth."-MICHAEL S. DELL

"You've got to be out in front of crowds, repeating yourself over and over again, never changing your message no matter how much it bores you." -JACK WELCH

"Always break orders to save owners. There never was a great character who did not sometimes smash the routine regulations and make new ones for himself." -ANDREW CARNEGIE

"Don't speak up at a meeting until you have something meaningful to contribute. Talking to attract attention may call attention to your blank spots." -JO FOXWORTH

"Make 'em feel guilty when they do nothing. One thing I can't stand is people who don't act on a situation. I'd rather that people make mistakes than sit around and not do something."-DAVE THOMAS

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This compendium gathers advice from 50 individuals from the past and present who have had a thing or two to say about handling oneself in business. The personal guidelines proffered here are based on personal experience, and they are arranged into eight chapters by broad topic, which include "Management Principles," "Leadership Secrets," "Wall Street Wizards," and "Maxims for Life." Chrysler head Lee Iacocca offers his commandments of management, which should be listened to, since he certainly turned that car company around. Bill Gates, touted here as today's richest man in the world, discusses digital information. We hear from John Patterson, the "father of modern salesmanship." And John Johnson, the "most powerful African-American businessperson" in the country, instructs readers in selling anything in five minutes or less. But these lessons in business are really lessons in successful living and can be appreciated for that by anyone. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

The Cutting Edge
The most successful business people are often also the busiest, acknowledges Peter Krass, a regular contributor to Investor's Business Daily and editor of the Book of Wisdom series. Therefore, he offers The Little book of Business Wisdom: Rules of Success from More Than 50 Business Legends. The advice is varied and often contradictory, but provides readers with a smorgasbord of ideas. From Lee Iacocca's guidelines for CEOs ("Make sure you're maximizing earnings today") to Lillian Vernon's questions for would-be entrepreneurs ("Are you prepared to work extremely hard?"), the advice is succinct but rarely simplistic.

--Publishers Weekly October 30, 2000

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (October 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471369799
• ISBN-13: 978-0471369790
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another "Classic" Resource from Krass, November 16, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Little Book of Business Wisdom: Rules of Success from More Than 50 Business Legends (Hardcover)

I really admire the talents of Peter Krass who has brilliantly edited a number of "Wisdom" books, this being the most recent. Once again, he has assembled a collection of more than 50 essays written by what are correctly referred to as "business legends." Here is how the material is organized:

Part I: Management Principles (eg Lee Iacocca and John Erik Jonsson)

Part II: Leadership Secrets (eg John F. Welch, Jr. and Robert Townsend)

Part III: Qualities for Personal Management (eg David Ogilvy and Andrew S. Grove)

Part IV: Wall Street Wizards (eg Sir John M. Templeton and Peter Lynch)

Part V: Gunslingers and the Entrepreneurial Drive (eg P.T. Barnum and Lillian Vernon)

Part VI: The Gurus (eg Warren Bennis and Peter F. Drucker)

Part VII: Builders of Culture (eg Howard M. Schultz and Mary Kay Ash)

Part VIII: Maxims for Life (eg Carley Fiorina and Benjamin Franklin)

You get the idea. I should add that some of the specific titles are probably not readily available anywhere else. For example, J.C. Penney's "Six Principles for Winning", Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield's "Our Aspirations", and Al Neuharth's "An S.O.B.'s Ten Secrets to Success." This would make a terrific holiday gift for your business associates, customers, etc. but also (especially) for recent or imminent graduates who are committed to a career in business.

Please do not ignore Krass's Introduction. As always, he offers excellent insights of his own as well as remarks which help to create an appropriate context for the essays which follow.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read and very thought provoking, September 28, 2001

By 

Dan E. Ross "Dan Ross" (Frisco, Tx USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Little Book of Business Wisdom: Rules of Success from More Than 50 Business Legends (Hardcover)

I gave this book 4 stars because, while it was refreshing to read and I definitely learned quite a bit, it wasn't a paradigm-shifting book, which is what I am increasingly moving towards for my 5 star books.

I personally love the art of business. Yeah, you read that right........business is an art...

The Little Book of Business Wisdom has tons of useful information (over 50 different short stories/essays) that you could apply to your business or to understand what differentiates average companies from great companies. I underlined more than average when reading this book. I read this book hoping to learn some insightful comments and business practices to apply to my business once I get it up and running. I am trying to plan for the future and all of these business leaders have experienced phenomenal success and growth or trained those business leaders. This book is definitely worth picking up and is a KEEPER! If you are interested in a comparable book worth picking up you may want to look at Every Mistake in the Book by F.J. Lennon as I found this book to be a very straight book from a guy that ran his own company.