The Little Book of Business Wisdom: Rules of Success from More than 50 Business Legends (book)

I gave this book 4 stars because, while it was refreshing to read and I definitely learned quite a bit, it wasn't a paradigm-shifting book, which is what I am increasingly moving towards for my 5 star books.

I personally love the art of business. Yeah, you read that right........business is an art...

The Little Book of Business Wisdom has tons of useful information (over 50 different short stories/essays) that you could apply to your business or to understand what differentiates average companies from great companies. I underlined more than average when reading this book. I read this book hoping to learn some insightful comments and business practices to apply to my business once I get it up and running. I am trying to plan for the future and all of these business leaders have experienced phenomenal success and growth or trained those business leaders. This book is definitely worth picking up and is a KEEPER! If you are interested in a comparable book worth picking up you may want to look at Every Mistake in the Book by F.J. Lennon as I found this book to be a very straight book from a guy that ran his own company.

I really admire the talents of Peter Krass who has brilliantly edited a number of "Wisdom" books, this being the most recent. Once again, he has assembled a collection of more than 50 essays written by what are correctly referred to as "business legends." Here is how the material is organized:

Part I: Management Principles (eg Lee Iacocca and John Erik Jonsson)

Part II: Leadership Secrets (eg John F. Welch, Jr. and Robert Townsend)

Part III: Qualities for Personal Management (eg David Ogilvy and Andrew S. Grove)

Part IV: Wall Street Wizards (eg Sir John M. Templeton and Peter Lynch)

Part V: Gunslingers and the Entrepreneurial Drive (eg P.T. Barnum and Lillian Vernon)

Part VI: The Gurus (eg Warren Bennis and Peter F. Drucker)

Part VII: Builders of Culture (eg Howard M. Schultz and Mary Kay Ash)

Part VIII: Maxims for Life (eg Carley Fiorina and Benjamin Franklin)

You get the idea. I should add that some of the specific titles are probably not readily available anywhere else. For example, J.C. Penney's "Six Principles for Winning", Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield's "Our Aspirations", and Al Neuharth's "An S.O.B.'s Ten Secrets to Success." This would make a terrific holiday gift for your business associates, customers, etc. but also (especially) for recent or imminent graduates who are committed to a career in business.

Please do not ignore Krass's Introduction. As always, he offers excellent insights of his own as well as remarks which help to create an appropriate context for the essays which follow.