Customer Reviews

On a Roll: Or How a Kid from the Bronx Started with Hot Dogs and Wound Up Making a Fortune

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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!

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.

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

I enjoyed this sometimes tell all, sometimes travelogue. The story on Telecom in Geneva is worth the read alone. Lots of inspiration based on perspiration!

Quite enjoyed this book. Easy to read, hard to put down. Full of advice on business and on life in general, though not pompous or lecturing at all. I recommend the book highly.

Howard Jonas was never your classic business tycoon, and never will be, as evidenced by his new book. This free-wheeling, raconteurial tour de force defines him as a latter day Horatio Alger who mixes a mighty cocktail of moxie, brains, humor and fearlessness. Business books are rarely page turners. On a Roll is the exception, as Jonas infotains the reader while tracing his business career from humble beginnings purveying hot dogs on a Bronx street corner, through four years as a direct mail entrepreneur (while earning his Harvard BA) to the evolution of IDT from a call-back innovator operating out of an abandoned funeral home to the billion dollar international telecommunications juggernaut it is today. On a Roll is a must read for anyone in business today, but will be "relished" by anyone who gets inspiration from a fast, funny, brilliant under(hot)dog who can thumb his nose at the pinstriped fuddy duddies we normally think of as businessmen.

Howard's book is actually a book about morals in business. It was such an inspiration that I had my eleven year old read it. It inspired him in many ways. Indeed, when I was recently gone for two days last week. It was because my Son and I spent two day touring Harvard and other institutions museums etc. in the area.

Everyone should remember that Howard Jonas is a deeply moral man. That gives me a great deal of comfort. He is also a visionary and a person who does not hesitate to do things HIS way (in spite of all odds). He has surrounded himself with people that share his vision and to the extent that he does not have a talent. He makes sure his company does. Also, lets remember that people change. A good executive is capable of realizing when he or she is wrong and not allowing his ego or ignorance of a subject dissuade them from making the right changes and decisions. Did anyone ever for instance, think you would see the day when Alen Greenspan would cut rates a 1/4 point 3 times in a row. This, in spite of the fact that when the dow was well below this point, he had been prognosticating about irrational exuberance? Well, people do change. I know for instance, that Howard Jonas does indeed know how to operate a computer. He in fact, monitors these boards when time permits. He also is much more cognizant of the necessity of dealing with the financial community and has taken many steps to see that this happens. My point is, people are constantly growing. Heck, three years ago, I was computor phobic. I mean really phobic. Now, I am considered somewhat of an expert. However, peoples morals do not change and THAT is something every single investor in this company will always be able to count on. I have been saying for sometime that EVERY serious investor in this company should read Howards book. The book comes with a $25 credit in prepaid long distance from IDTC upon request. Frankly, I never requested it.