Customer Reviews

Rain: What a Paperboy Learned About Business

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

 

 

This is the most recent of ten books that Jeffrey Fox has written and is, in my opinion, his most entertaining. In the first part (Pages 1-128), Fox presents a business narrative in which a fictitious youth named Rain embarks on a brief but productive career as a newspaper boy. (Presumably Rain is Fox's surrogate.) Like Forest Gump, he encounters a series of adventures but unlike Gump, he seems to have more "street smarts." Fox cleverly introduces a number of challenges and opportunities to dramatize several basic business lessons. Then in the second part of the book (Pages 129-192), he shifts his attention to his reader whom he invites to compete "a series of analytical exercises anchored in each of Rain's adventures. The exercises are designed to illuminate Rain's entrepreneurial thinking and his rainmaking principles." Actually, completing the 29 brief exercises does more than illuminate the Rain's "rainmaking principles": It also enables the reader to make direct application of most (if not all) of them to her or his own circumstances.

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because when doing so, I recalled many of my own experiences when I was Rain's age and growing up on the South Side of Chicago. I had one paper route that I completed in the morning and later added another in the afternoon. After two years, I also began to work three days a week (4-8 PM) at a newsstand near my home. After about another year, when summer vacation began, I stopping delivering papers but continued to work at the newsstand Monday through Friday, 4-8 PM, and caddied at a local country club each weekend. I certainly did not have Rain's entrepreneurial inclinations. I was simply determined to earn as much money as I could. I also encountered slow pays and no pays, hostile dogs, and customers impossible to please. I also hated getting up mornings when the temperature was near zero and the winds off Lake Michigan nearby were howling or delivering papers afternoons when the heat and humidity were each 90º or more.

How many boys and girls today deliver newspapers? I have no idea. Most of the newspapers in Chicago when I was growing up no longer exist. It seems that in most other major metropolitan areas, there are no evening newspapers and only one morning newspaper. Presumably child labor laws now limit the employment opportunities for those in the 10-15 age range. So, where can they have the experiences and learn the lessons that Fox portrays in this book? I have no idea. However, although younger readers may not be able to identify with many of the situations in which Rain finds himself, I think that they will enjoy reading this book. I hope that many of them also get a clearer sense of the importance of meeting obligations (e.g. being on time, completing tasks), keeping promises to others, being alert to learning opportunities, and meanwhile making whatever personal sacrifices may be necessary.

As I read Fox's book, I also recalled several life lessons that Robert Fulghum shares in his first book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Play fair, Don't hit people, Put things back where you found them, Clean up your own mess, Don't take things that aren't yours, Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody, Wash your hands before you eat, When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together, and Be aware of wonder. Simple? Of course. Naïve? I don't think so. Fox and Fulghum affirm many of the same values that can also be found in the world's most venerated holy works. In my opinion, there is no other business principle that is more important than The Golden Rule. It is central to the culture of the world's most highly admired companies. Moreover, it is no coincidence that - year after year -- these same companies are also among the world's most profitable and most valuable.

Those who share my high regard for Jeffrey Fox's latest book are urged to check out several of his others, notably How to Get to the Top: Business Lessons Learned at the Dinner Table (2007). I also highly recommend his How to Become a Rainmaker (2000) and then Secrets of Great Rainmakers (2006) as well as Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Fulghum's aforementioned book. Those who prefer more recently published works, I suggest these: David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, James O'Toole's The Moral Compass and then Creating the Good Life, and Bill George's Authentic Leadership and then True North.

This book provides a simple presentation of major business and career issues, and his using the paperboy metaphor is magnificent. As my grandson said, "It makes me wish I'd been a paperboy."

This is one of the best book that I have read for a long time. The story is very interesting and short enough to understand it. It's not only a book for people to learn about business, but also a book to teach children about money, responsibilities, respect, how to handle bullying, build the win-win relationships, think outside the box, penalty and reward and many more.

Although "Rain" is the main character in the book, being a mother, I also learned about some of the things that I must do in parenthood. I highly recommend parents to read this book together with thier children. I surely will when my toddler gets older.

Thank you for such an AWESOME book.

Good, simple storyline with business applications throughout.

Good reminders for "back to the basics" business thinking.

Rain, written by Jeffrey J. Fox is an interesting book taking a twist on a memoir and business.

Rain is the story of a paperboy, who, at a young age, decides to take on the responsibility of distributing the paper - and in the course of his getting up every morning and making sure he meets his commitments, he learns a variety of business lessons, ethics and beliefs that mold his teenager years as well as his working years as an adult.

What I liked about the book was the straightforward way in which Fox created Rain. Rain discovers the joys of making his own money, of getting business acumen and getting a leg up on business in general.

There are no complicated business terms here and the storyline is fun and engaging.

The only thing that was a tad annoying was the fact that Fox kept referring to Rain in the third person and calling "Rain" every two seconds - but other than that, this book was a lot of fun to read.

Fox should be commended on making a boring subject, actually a fun read.