“This is Steve Jobs. I saw your picture in a magazine a few years ago and thought we’d work together someday.” After Steve Jobs was unceremoniously dismissed from Apple, he bought a little-known graphics company called Pixar. One day, out of the blue, Jobs called Lawrence Levy, a Harvard-trained lawyer and executive to whom he had never spoken before, to persuade Levy to help him get Pixar off the ground. What Levy found was a company on the verge of failure. To Pixar and Beyond is the story of what happened next: how, working closely with Jobs, Levy produced and implemented a highly improbable plan that transformed Pixar into one of Hollywood’s greatest success stories. Set in the worlds of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, the book takes readers inside Pixar, Disney, law firms, and investment banks. It provides an up-close, firsthand account of Pixar’s ascent, how it made creative choices, Levy’s enduring collaboration and friendship with Jobs, and how Levy came to see in Pixar deeper lessons that can apply to many aspects of our lives.

    capitalism, the future of banking, and the root causes of the financial meltdown.Award winning, veteran sell side Wall Street analyst Mike Mayo writes about one of the biggest financial and political issues of our time - the role of finance and banks in the US. He has worked at six Wall Street firms, analyzing banks and protesting against bad practices for two decades.In Exile on Wall Street, Mayo:Lays out practices that have diminished capitalism and the banking sector Shares his battle scars from calling truth to power at some of the largest banks in the world and how he survived challenging the status quo to be credited as one of the few who saw the crisis coming Blows the lid off the true inner workings of the big banks and shows the ways in which Wall Street is just as bad today as it was pre-crash. Analyzes the fallout stemming from the market crash, pointing out the numerous holes that still exist in the system, and offers practical solutions. While it provides an education, this is no textbook. It is also an invaluable resource for finance practitioners and citizens alike.

    A person would spend their entire career with ONE company and then upon retirement they would receive a pension which was a guaranteed paycheck every month for the rest of their life. Most Americans have no chance at getting that deal anymore. The burdens, challenges, and risks of today's world are far greater. The stock market has seen negative returns for an entire decade. Health care costs are up but benefits are down. Life expectancy has dramatically increased but pensions are all but extinct! We are in a time when people need guaranteed income more than ever, yet fewer people have it than ever before. Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions For Life is a guide for retirement that is BUILT for markets like these. It's a roadmap for surviving, and thriving, in difficult economic times. This book is not an Op-Ed on how "Average Joe" can invest to generate huge returns. It is a mathematical and scientifically proven guide on how to create a solid retirement with as much upside potential and downside protection as possible. Its purpose is to help you make absolutely sure that you have guaranteed lifetime income to keep you and your family protected in any market.By using simple financial products properly, having a plan for long term care, and utilizing cutting edge estate planning ideas, Paychecks and Playchecks will show you how to retire with enough guaranteed lifetime income to cover your basic expenses and optimize the rest of your portfolio to make sure you receive your "playchecks." It's not rocket science - it's financial sense. Despite what most experts say, "Happily ever after" still exists and it starts with Paychecks and Playchecks: Retirement Solutions For Life.

    Through the true stories of two sets of people who braved the rough road, Startup Sutra presents entrepreneurship in its essence not a checklist to be crossed, but a vision to be realized; an iterative process of near-death experiences and incredible turnarounds that founders of businesses bravely navigate through a combination of chutzpah, sagacity and sheer brazen luck. In bringing to life the daily dramas, the struggles in the trenches, the battles with insatiable inner demons and impossible external odds on the journey to achievement, it enumerates, in wise words, the five qualities that entrepreneurs necessarily possess. For everyone who dares to dream big, this book will change your life.

    When you direct more attention online to your brand or business, you drive more long-term revenue. Regardless of who you are or how small your business is, you can have a huge impact using free Internet tools...provided you understand and correctly apply the latest techniques.Attention! gives you an educational and motivational guide to using social media to market your brand or business online. In three parts, you'll discover everything you need to know to get off the ground and thrive in the social mediasphere, includingThe tools, techniques and tricks to get attention online and turn that attention into profit The theory behind the importance of making your mark on the Internet How other businesses and individuals made money from online marketing Whether you're just starting your business, just moving it online, or already established and looking to take your business to the next level, Attention! is the key to success.

    Yet despite all the championship banners the team has put on the walls of Staples Center, and despite all the books the Lakers have put on the shelves of fans - featuring everybody from Jerry West to Magic Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Phil Jackson to Chick Hearn - there has never been a book on the Lakers from the Buss family. Until now. Until Laker Girl.

    With no advertising or big-box distribution, creator Ty Warner - an eccentric college dropout - become a billionaire in just three years. And it was all thanks to collectors.The end of the craze was just as swift and extremely devastating, with "rare" Beanie Babies deemed worthless as quickly as they'd once been deemed priceless.Bissonnette draws on hundreds of interviews (including a visit to a man who lives with his 40,000 Ty products and an in-prison interview with a guy who killed a coworker over a Beanie Baby debt) for the first book on the most extraordinary craze of the 1990s.

    While the ecommerce industry presents incredible opportunities, these four areas can also present major pitfalls in the quest for success. Cyndi Thomason has taken the core concepts of the Profit First methodology, created by Mike Michalowicz, and customized them to address the specific needs of the ecommerce business. Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers addresses each of the four major struggles and provides clear and actionable guidance on how to overcome them, taking the online seller from simply getting by to becoming permanently profitable. This book is for every online seller who dreams of ecommerce prosperity.

    Morale had deteriorated, competition was more intense, and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company's history. "I knew there was nothing to be gained from arguing over the past," Iger writes. "The only thing that mattered was the future, and I believed I had a clear idea of the direction Disney needed to go." It came down to three clear ideas: 1) Create the highest quality content Disney could produce. 2) Embrace and adopt technology instead of fighting it. And 3) Think bigger--think global--and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets.Twelve years later, Disney is the largest, most respected media company in the world counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and Iger is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our time.Now, he's sharing the lessons he's learned while running Disney and leading its 200,000 employees--taking big risks in the face of historic disruption; learning to inspire the people who work for you; leading with fairness and communicating principles clearly. This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as a studio supervisor at ABC. It's also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the evolving Star Wars myth."Over the past fourteen years, I think I've learned so much about what real leadership is," Iger writes. "But I couldn't have articulated all of this until I lived it. You can't fake it--and that's one of the key lessons in this book."Librarian Note: This is an Advance Reader Copy issued with ISBN 9780399592096. That ISBN has been moved to the final published copy, found here

    stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders. They band together—some of them walking away from seven-figure salaries—to investigate, expose, and reform the insidious new ways that Wall Street generates profits. If you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you.

    A high school dropout and serial entrepreneur, he had built a real estate empire of over 4,000 apartments across the USA. Taking risks and working tirelessly were the ingredients to his rise. But, he took one risk too many. An ice storm on Christmas Eve 2004 triggered his collapse. He was maligned, publicly shamed, and financially gutted – even arrested. He lost everything and ended up $26 million in debt. As he struggled to regain his footing, he spent what he could to get others to lift him up. But no one did. He discovered that there was only one person who could build him back up. To move forward, he crafted a new life’s purpose: to help others crushed by unaffordable debts rebuild themselves Burn Zones is a story of playing life’s bad hands and overcoming adversity against the greatest of challenges. It’s an inspirational story of a man who was pushed to his mental and physical limits, and came out the other side even stronger. And, most of all, it’s a lesson that you can do the same.

    Using these key traits, the world's most outstanding traders have employed a remarkable mix of strategies to build huge fortunes. Their careers are a how-to manual for anyone who wants to succeed at investing, no matter what the size of their stake. The lives of rich and famous investors are gripping tales of opportunities seized and squandered; of billions won and lost, and won again. And these life stories are also an eye-opening education in the workings of financial markets.The Art of Investing: Lessons from History's Greatest Traders profiles over 30 men and women at the pinnacle of the investing field, including Warren Buffett, Ray Dalio, John Bogle, Peter Lynch, George Soros, T. Rowe Price, Jr., Linda Bradford Raschke, David Dreman, Michael Burry, and others involved in such ventures as value stocks, growth stocks, mutual funds, index funds, hedge funds, commodity futures, private equity, sovereign wealth, distressed assets, and more. Each lecture covers one of these approaches, together with traders who have made it pay handsomely - along with insights on how they did it.An award-winning teacher and the portfolio manager for a $2.5-billion investment firm, Professor John Longo of Rutgers Business School tells these intriguing life stories with an insider's grasp of the financial details. Included in these 24 half-hour lectures are tips on the most common mistakes made by investors, scores of pithy sayings that synthesize the hard-won wisdom of veteran traders, and, in the final lecture, an investment checklist that lets you narrow down your own best approach to building personal wealth.

    Senator from Massachusetts and bestselling author offers a passionate, inspiring book about why our middle class is under siege and how we can win the fight to save it Senator Elizabeth Warren has long been an outspoken champion of America’s middle class, and by the time the people of Massachusetts elected her in 2012, she had become one of the country’s leading progressive voices. Now, at a perilous moment for our nation, she has written a book that is at once an illuminating account of how we built the strongest middle class in history, a scathing indictment of those who have spent the past thirty-five years undermining working families, and a rousing call to action. Warren grew up in Oklahoma, and she’s never forgotten how difficult it was for her mother and father to hold on at the ragged edge of the middle class. An educational system that offered opportunities for all made it possible for her to achieve her dream of going to college, becoming a teacher, and, later, attending law school. But now, for many, these kinds of opportunities are gone, and a government that once looked out for working families is instead captive to the rich and powerful. Seventy-five years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal ushered in an age of widespread prosperity; in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan reversed course and sold the country on the disastrous fiction called trickle-down economics. Now, with the election of Donald Trump—a con artist who promised to drain the swamp of special interests and then surrounded himself with billionaires and lobbyists—the middle class is being pushed ever closer to collapse.Written in the candid, high-spirited voice that is Warren’s trademark, This Fight Is Our Fight tells eye-opening stories about her battles in the Senate and vividly describes the experiences of hard-working Americans who have too often been given the short end of the stick. Elizabeth Warren has had enough of phony promises and a government that no longer serves its people—she won’t sit down, she won’t be silenced, and she will fight back.

    

    What if life were like a video game? How can we incorporate creative work and the desire to build something into our routine? What truly matters?