Customer Reviews

Too Good to Be True: The Outrageous Stor

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

 

 

Remember Wedtech? The minority-owned defense contractor that rose from the ruins of the South Bronx to become the Reagan administration's paragon of success in America. Wedtech had everything: Modest beginnings, a workforce that came from the slums but could compete with the best from Raytheon and Rockwell, and -- most of all -- the promise that anyone could succeed in business with hard work, commitment, and good-ole Republicanism. Trouble was, it was all a massive fraud.

But it didn't start that way, and James Traub's brilliantly-written account takes the reader from Wedtech's inauspicious beginnings as a humble machine shop to it's dizzying heights as a government-sponsored powerhouse sustained by politics, greed, and self-deception.

Great writing -- insightful, entertaining, and full of portraits of Reagan administration officials caught with their scruples down. Highly recommended!

This story kept me glued into early morning hours. I haven't stopped thinking about it since the first time I read this book in 2003. Many individuals in the industry of government contracting have reminded me of the characters, so well portrayed by James Traub.

The characters were so well researched that they were to me completely real and with whom I generally felt sympathy. In fact, I liked a few of the characters a lot, especially Wedtech's accountant. As they got themselves deeper into an impossible situation, the suspense grew. The conclusion didn't disappoint - and it's all true.

Wedtech was really getting it all right in the business of federal contracting, playing the game exactly as all the professional seminars advise. If the company hadn't gone to the dark side, its managers could have parlayed their success into successful careers teaching others how to win in government contracting.

Unfortunately, the great success of Wedtech was not in reality the truth, as so often happens with highly celebrated businesses. This book provides a good education on business and this particular industry. It's one of the best books I've ever read, and that's saying a lot.