maleficent

Shameless Exploitation, In Pursuit of the Common Good
by Paul Newman and AW Hotchner

This book is superb, I found it in the business section of the book store, but it's so much more than that. This book chronicles the history of Newmans Own, and what Paul Newman and his partner, with 40,000 dollars in hand, went thru to make a huge success out of their company, that now grosses more than his movies ever did, in a few short years.

A lot of time is focussed on his the whole in the wall gang camps, and what Mr Newman went thru to get this camp built properly. He's not just a pretty face behind the company, he's running the company and definitely the visionary behind it.

The book is funny, heartwarming, a little self-serving, but they deserve it, newmans own has given well over 100 million dollars away to charity... The book's telling of their story is all about how they broke the rules along the way, did what they wanted to do, followed their hearts and made a huge success.

One of the funnier points in the book is describing the office they worked out for a number of years, since they weren't sure if they were going to be a success, they didn't want to buy furniture, so in an old barn, they had pool furniture, complete with umbrella, and the confernce room table was a ping pong table. It's great... He never seemed to use his celebrityhood to make this company a success, it just happened.

Awesome read.

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