Click here for the interview with Bernie Marcus!
A candid, rollicking business memoir from the Home Depot cofounder, filled with personal stories, savvy business advice, and timeless lessons for a life well lived.
With a foreword by Pitbull
"An extraordinary story. ... [Tells] Marcus's version of the American dream, from tenement to boardroom, homespun into lessons for readers wanting to make it in business or philanthropy." — Financial Times
The start of Home Depot sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: Two Jews and an Italian decide to build a new kind of hardware store... In 1978, Bernie Marcus's livelihood depended on just such a scenario. Having been fired at the age of forty-nine, he teamed up with Arthur Blank and Ken Langone on a bold new endeavor. Their first day in business was so disastrous that the next morning, Marcus's wife wouldn't let him shave because she didn't want a razor in his hands. But the last laugh would be theirs, as the business partners grew Home Depot into the world's largest home improvement retailer, empowering millions of Americans to "do it yourself."
"Doing it yourself" has been the theme of Bernie Marcus's entire life. By the time he was fifteen, he had held more than a dozen jobs, joined a gang, and worked as a hypnotist in the Catskills. The son of a cabinetmaker and garment worker who survived the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Bernie overcame a hardscrabble upbringing to author one of the best entrepreneurial stories in American history. Today, Home Depot employs 500,000 associates at 2,300 stores and is one of the most recognized and admired companies in the world.
The same energy that made Home Depot successful has helped Bernie give away more than $2 billion and pioneer a new model for philanthropy, transforming millions of lives. There is no single, winning formula for trying to make the world a better place, but Bernie shares what he's learned—that the skills needed to build a Fortune 500 company are the same ones that can help cure cancer, treat veterans with PTSD, and transform autism treatment. And it doesn't take a fortune to make a big difference in your community.
Kick Up Some Dust will inspire you to dream, build, and give—and, maybe, change the world.
In his new book — How Far Do You Want to Go, billionaire entrepreneur John Catsimatidis, owner and CEO of the Red Apple Group, reveals how his instincts and common sense have propelled him to massive business success in this detailed account of an incredible rags-to-riches story.
Born on the small Greek island of Nisyros, John Catsimatidis immigrated to the States with his family and quickly became a true New Yorker, raised in Harlem. He went to school by day and worked in a small grocery store by night to help his parents pay the bills until, just eight credits short of graduating from New York University, he opted to work in the grocery business full-time.
Today, that grocery business has become the Red Apple Group, a conglomerate with interests in energy, real estate, aviation, baseball, entertainment, and media, including the iconic radio station WABC, where John hosts leading figures in government, politics, business, and economics.
As Catsimatidis has discovered, the American Dream doesn’t come with an instruction manual—or even a sign to let you know when you’ve arrived at the finish line. How Far Do You Want to Go? tells Catsimatidis’s dynamic story, from his beginnings in the grocery business to entering the political arena, including a New York City mayoral campaign. He’s tried his hand at nearly everything, but he’s far from finished with his adventures. Now, he offers readers a glimpse into the wisdom he’s gained—and the excitement he has for what the future holds in store.
Take a Listen! A Conversation with Victor Davis Hanson | The Dying Citizen
Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the “citizen” is historically rare—and was among America’s most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns historian Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish.
In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the historical forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self. And a top-heavy administrative state has endangered personal liberty, along with formal efforts to weaken the Constitution.
As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 ripped away our complacency about the future. But in the aftermath, we as Americans can rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours.
Take a Listen! A Conversation with John Yoo | America's Roundtable
Justice in the Balance
Alexander Hamilton famously predicted that the judiciary would be "the least dangerous" branch of government. How's that working out?
The Supreme Court stands as arbiter over a country increasingly unable to govern itself. Americans can't agree on the meaning of the Constitution or even the rule of law. Are the nine high priests enthroned in their marble temple the saviors of the Republic or the pallbearers of democracy? Are they defenders of the Constitution as written or super-legislators who make law from the bench? What did the Founders envision when they vested the "judicial Power" in "one supreme Court"?
John Yoo, a professor of law at UC Berkeley, and Robert J. Delahunty, a fellow at the Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life, provide the answers with an incisive reading of the law and constitutional history. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court explains:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court offers a penetrating and irreverent account of the justices—ideologues and cowards, geniuses and mediocrities, all of them thoroughly human—and a fascinating analysis of a Court that has swung like a pendulum from preserving the Republic to undermining government by the people and back to defending the Constitution. Sprightly, informative, and powerfully argued, this book is guaranteed to give the reader a deeper understanding of America's most powerful judicial body.
The first in a series, The Syndicate Spy weaves a story of fact and fiction, telling the true story of female intelligence officers who stand on their laurels of intellect and skill to see beyond religious and cultural barriers to find what unites them, rather than what divides them.
“Sacrifices must be made; battles will be lost. It is always this way in a quest for change.”
The Future: Earth’s oil reserves are depleted. Nations race against terrorists for control over alternative energy sources, and the Syndicate—a conglomerate of allied intelligence agencies—must put an end to the global energy war. Syndicate spy, Juliet Arroway, and her best friend, Mariam, a Saudi princess, are tasked to hunt down energy terrorists. When the Syndicate begins to suspect that Mariam’s family is somehow involved, tensions build and the carnage multiplies. Juliet’s long-time boyfriend, Jean-Marc, is targeted and killed. In her quest to seek revenge and end the war, Juliet is paired with Graham—a dashing, yet arrogant FBI agent with whom she ultimately falls madly in love—to infiltrate Mariam’s family to prevent further attacks. When peace means a stunning betrayal, Juliet must decide if her mission is worth risking her own life as well as the lives of those she loves.
