The score was David 1, Goliath 0, after Howard Jonas, an enterprising kid from the Bronx, had a bright idea that revolutionized international telecommunications, pioneered what is now an over a billion-dollar-a-year industry, successfully fought off AT&T's aggressive attempts to pull the plug on his operation--and then took his own start-up company public, to net over $100 million for himself. And it all began with a hot-dog stand outside a methadone clinic, as the author relates in this effervescent account of a self-made multimillionaire, a book that will teach, inspire, and entertain today's (and tomorrow's) entrepreneurs and just plain dreamers. Jonas's down-to-earth and highly opinionated approaches to business have made headlines and inform every page of this energetic autobiography. Jonas worked his way through Harvard (after the hot-dog enterprise) by selling Venus flytraps by mail order from his dorm room and saved enough to start a publishing business after graduation. This led him to develop a revolutionary system for inexpensive international phone calls--and right into the gunsights of AT&T. How he won this and other battles are lessons that everyone, from would-be entrepreneurs to top CEOs, should learn. Jonas is a terrific storyteller, full of wry wit and iconoclastic wisdom, and his book teaches you how to succeed at the business you love--and love the business you do.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Since kicking off his entrepreneurial career in 1970 as an independent retailer with a hand-built hot-dog stand and the unbounded enthusiasm of a 14-year-old, Howard Jonas has learned what it's like to successfully grow solid ideas into bountiful rewards. On a Roll: From Hot Dog Buns to High-Tech Billions openly chronicles his impressive hits and misses during the subsequent quarter-century-- culminating in 1996, when the international communications company, IDT, that he founded and ran went public and earned him over $100 million. In a contemplative and self-deprecatory manner, Jonas describes the steps that unfolded along the way, such as his youthful Free Horoscope Offer (this $1 offer [of which he pocketed 83¢] attracted thousands of astrology buffs to a "personalized" but mass-produced glimpse behind the planetary alignments). Outlining the professional and personal philosophies that allowed him to parlay such early victories in direct marketing into success in the publishing and later telecommunications industries, he reveals a fertile mind and unflagging spirit that jointly served to propel him from corner food vendor to Internet telephony maven. The advice should prove illuminating and the adventure inspirational to anyone following, or contemplating, a similar self-made journey. --Howard Rothman
From Publishers Weekly
Horatio Alger tales?whether about orphans who make good or CEOs such as Lee Iacocca who rise above it all?never go out of favor. If these memoirs have an Achilles heel, it's the tendency of their authors not to know when to stop talking?a tendency in force in this memoir. While Jonas, founder and CEO of International Discount Telecommunications (IDT), drops the occasional bit of wisdom for would-be entrepreneurs (get your product out early, don't worry whether it's perfect; try to replicate your idea outside your home market if you can), much more space is devoted to autobiographical details that frequently veer off on tangents. Jonas writes about everything from his high school dating experiences (poor) to his undergraduate education at Harvard (too liberal), and he drops opinions on every page. The author's most successful venture?on which he made over $100 million, he reports, on the day it went public in 1996?is an inexpensive way of making international phone calls, which he describes in detail. Readers won't fail to admire the author's drive, and some will enjoy his humorous approach if they're not irked by the padding.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where does this man have time to have 9 kids,
By A Customer
This review is from: On a Roll: Or How a Kid from the Bronx Started with Hot Dogs and Wound Up Making a Fortune (Hardcover)
What is most amazing about Howard Jonas is not that he has built a company from scratch that has a billion dollar market cap, but he is a family man with 9 kids with an uncanny way of being in the right place at the right time!
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Capitalist,
By A Customer
This review is from: On a Roll: Or How a Kid from the Bronx Started with Hot Dogs and Wound Up Making a Fortune (Hardcover)
It seems I am the only female and only non-New-Yorker to review this book... That said, it is very interesting at first. It is very encouraging and engaging to read about a young man working his way up. I thought that whole part was great. Once it got on to where he was older, he became more and more annoying to me. The book was still relatively well written, but it began to reek of capitalist propaganda. Since it is his book and that is what he believes, that is great that he could express it. It just began to annoy me. I was so irritated that after whizzing through the first 3/4ths of the book, i came to a complete stop. At some point he switched from presenting things in the manner of saying thing like: Harvard was not right for me to saying things like: All college professors are left-wing weirdos without a grip on the real world. That was the point where he just started to seem like an arrogant jerk, and I didn't feel as warm inside about his hard work and accomplishments anymore.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Way to Go Howard Jonas! He earned his success.,
By jmpsdh@aol.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On a Roll: Or How a Kid from the Bronx Started with Hot Dogs and Wound Up Making a Fortune (Hardcover)
As someone who had the privelege of sharing a desk with IDT's CEO, Howard Jonas, during the most exciting growth period in the Company's history, and as someone fortunate enough to be part of the IPO process that brought Howard's vision to the public marketplace -- I have the greatest respect for Howard's achievement at growing IDT into one of the world's most exciting telecommunications companies and one of Wall Street's most interesting stories. Facing all the challenges of hyper-growth and the subsequent pre-IPO cash squeeze, Howard stuck to his guns, kept scraping together the money needed to keep the lights on, and refused to sell the company on the cheap -- just days prior to the IPO. As IDT's first Director of Investor Relations, I remember wondering whether Howard would come around and understand Wall Street, or would Wall Street come around and understand Howard -- and the tremendous potential at IDT? The answer has become obvious. Hats off to Howard and the talented financial and manegerial teams at IDT who continue to make IDT one of Wall Street's most important stories in the telecommunications services sector! Jeff Parness, Principal IPO Associates New York City
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