Showing results by publisher "Ascent Audio" in Professionals & Academics

Kathy Sidell’s earliest memories bring her back to food. At age five she was taken with her grandmother’s artistry in the kitchen, and even more so by the big family meals shared on the front porch of their seaside home. Though raised among foodies - her mother, a talented home entertainer; her banker father who single-handedly is credited for building the restaurant business in Boston; and her sister, now a chef and restaurateur - Kathy’s route to food was not as linear.

You've used their products. You've heard about their skyrocketing wealth and "don't be evil" business motto. But how much do you really know about Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin? Inside Larry and Sergey's Brain skips past the general Google story and focuses on what really drives these men and where they will take Google in the future.

Rose Handy had a great life with a good job, great boyfriend, and was nine months pregnant. Realizing too late that her boyfriend was pocketing the rent money and they ere now being evicted, the boyfriend left and Rose was forced into giving birth in a women's shelter. Angry, frustrated and embarrassed, she decided to fight back creating a company that will hit $1 million in 2010. The shelter provided Rose with a good environment in which she could take care of her newborn while also dealing with the trauma of what had happened to her.

At 32, Amy Boesky thought she had it all figured out: a wonderful new man in her life, a great job, and the (nearly) perfect home. For once, she was almost able to shake the terrible fear that had gripped her for as long as she could remember. All of the women in her family had died before the age of 45 - from cancer - and she and her sisters had grown up in time's shadow.

"One day, one of Bozana's Skojo's friends told her she was 'a good poor'. Bewildered by the words at first, Bozana gradually came to realize they really did describe her - someone who was never overcome by adversity, but who fixed up her hair, put on a little lipstick and her 'game face' to work her way out of any difficulties that fate tossed her way. She realized it was a strategy for living that could apply to any situation.

Sanjay Burman has had an accomplished life - he produced two feature films and two TV shows by the age of 24, and sold his high school to Pepsi for $1.2 million. This book showcases personal anecdotes and honest lessons he has learned through his failures and successes that can inspire others to persevere. People who want to go further in life but lack the confidence can be motivated to take risks, despite class, education, or lack of money.

An inspirational, motivational book that chronicles Michael MacDonald's transformation from a scholarship player at Rutgers' high-level Division I basketball program to a highly successful executive at Xerox and then chairman and CEO of Medifast.

The Good Fail is part business story, part guilty pleasure, exploring Richard Keith Latman's very public missteps and the painful lessons he learned as a result, presented to fellow entrepreneurs, in his own words, for the first time. Written in a lively, conversational style, the book answers questions many computer-industry veterans have been asking for more than a decade about what went wrong at Microworkz, the failed former free PC enterprise.

Beating the Odds is the improbable, inspiring autobiography of financial guru Eddie C. Brown, one of the nation's top stock pickers and money managers. It details how Brown skillfully kept Brown Capital Management afloat through the dot-com bust, 9/11, and the Great Recession. Born to a 13-year-old unwed mother in the rural South, this African-American investment whiz created a Baltimore-based financial firm that amassed more than $6 billion under management.

A deeply revealing memoir of big wins and hard lessons from a seasoned executive caught smack in the middle of the trillion-dollar soft power struggle pitting China against Hollywood, the NBA, and American business....

Don't Push Too Many Trolleys: And Other Tips from Navigating Life and Business teaches listeners 10 crucial principles required to succeed in life and business. Written by Ying Tan, founder and CEO of a multimillion-pound financial services company, Don't Push Too Many Trolleys imparts sage advice suitable for anyone, at any stage of their life.

In 1996, an unprecedented decade-long courtroom battle was waged in Florida to help bring justice and hope to the family of a young boy born with no eyes after his mother was doused outside of a local u-pick farm by a chemical fungicide believed to have caused his birth defect and the birth defects of many other children. It was a battle that nearly everyone but attorney Jim Ferraro deemed unwinnable. After all, it involved one of the world's most powerful industrial giants.

Jim McNerney was one of Jack Welch's top protégés at General Electric and a finalist to replace the retiring Welch as CEO. McNerney lost that competition in 2001, but since then he has emerged as one of the most effective leaders of his generation.

In 2009, at the peak of the financial crisis, AIG - the American insurance behemoth - was sinking fast. It was the peg upon which the nation hung its ire and resentment during the financial crisis: the pinnacle of Wall Street arrogance and greed. When Bob Benmosche climbed aboard as CEO, it was widely assumed that he would go down with his ship. In mere months, he turned things around, pulling AIG from the brink of financial collapse and restoring its profitability.

Over the last three years, Forbes has published in depth profiles of this new batch of billionaires, including the founders of Spotify, Dropbox, Tumblr, and Twitter. Now, in a compilation introduced and updated by Forbes editor Randall Lane, fans and critics alike will get a comprehensive look at who these super-entrepreneurs are and what they say about their own success and their plans for the future.

A must-listen business biography from Stephen B. Siegel, chairman of global brokerage for CBRE, the world’s largest real estate firm.

Andrea Jung, the glamorous former head of Avon, was arguably the world's most charismatic and effective CEO, credited with the astonishing turnaround of the venerable brand. Jung seemed incapable of making a wrong move, until, amid declining sales, an investigation by the SEC, and a brand in crisis, she stepped down in late 2012. In Beauty Queen, former Avon VP Deborrah Himsel uses Jung's story as a case study for two timeless leadership questions: What makes great leaders great? And what makes them fail?

In Good Business, Novelli begins with his early career success in Mad Men-era marketing, which left him feeling unfulfilled. He describes the process of changing career trajectory: how he helped reposition the Peace Corps; built Porter Novelli, a global PR agency for social impact; fought the Tobacco Wars; and became CEO of AARP, the largest nonprofit in America.

Judge Richard Posner is one of the great legal minds of our age. A judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the principal exponent of the enormously influential law and economics movement, he writes provocative books as a public intellectual, receives frequent media attention, and has been at the center of some very high-profile legal spats. He is also a member of an increasingly rare breed—judges who write their own opinions rather than delegating the work to clerks. Now, for the first time, this fascinating figure receives a full-length biographical treatment.

Ten years of riding the startup waves forced Helaine Knapp to develop grit, determination, resilience, creative problem solving, deep interpersonal skills, and her own unique leadership style. Now, she's ready to show other women how they can do the same. With Making Waves, Helaine inspires and speaks to women who want to start something new and change their lives. If she can do it, so can they.