Entrepreneurship Memoir

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso, read by Sarah Jes Austell. The first thing Sophia Amoruso sold online wasn't fashion. It was a stolen book. At age 17 she was a dumpster-diving, shoplifting anarchist. By 29 she was the founder and CEO of Nasty Gal, a $100 million-plus fashion empire. Filled with brazen wake-up calls ("You are not a special snowflake"), frank observations ("Failure is your invention"), and behind-the-scenes stories....

Everyone has heard of Habitat for Humanity, the faith-based housing initiative that has built homes for more than a million of the world's poor. Many are familiar with its founders, Millard and Linda Fuller. But few know the amazing love story behind the movement a story that began accidentally and will conclude in a world forever changed by its impact. By age 29, Millard Fuller was a self-made millionaire. But that success came at a cost.

A single mother of four, Angie Cella, dreamed one night about a device that put gems in her hair. She woke up thinking she would invent it, because she loved what she had seen. A few weeks later, she had a second dream. In this one, God told her, “I want you to make this product.” As a woman with a burgeoning faith who’d been waiting for just this kind of direction, Angie spent the next several years navigating the tough and often painful - yet ultimately gratifying - road to success.

Delane Parnell is not your typical tech entrepreneur. He was raised in a gang-riddled neighborhood on Detroit’s west side, bouncing between homes as his mother tried to make ends meet. Many of his closest friends and family members ended up in jail or dead. This makes it even more incredible that Delane became the 25-year-old founder and CEO of PlayVS, a Los Angeles company that is forever changing the gaming landscape in America.

Roland Martin is a name synonymous with excellence in journalism and entrepreneurship, particularly within the Black community. Through his prolific career in media and his ventures in business, Martin has not only broken barriers, but has also been a relentless advocate for social justice and equality.

Hired by ForbesTraveler.com to review some of the most luxurious accommodations on Earth, and then inspired by a chance encounter in Dubai with the impoverished workers whose backbreaking jobs create such opulence, Bob Harris had an epiphany: He would turn his own good fortune into an effort to make lives like theirs better.

How did she turn a side hustle into a game-changing business, and at the same time, achieve happiness and fulfillment in her life? For Charlotte, it all came down to one thing - jeong. One of the most important Korean cultural concepts, jeong is a deep and meaningful connection that can be felt between people, places, and things. It goes deeper than love and friendship, and grows stronger with time. In South Korea, jeong encourages generosity, empathy, and the cultivation of lasting bonds.

Leal llegó a los Estados Unidos sin un centavo cuando era adolescente, casi sin hablar inglés; literalmente durmió en la sala de calderas de una fábrica de queso de Wisconsin durante meses antes de que lo atraparan. A través del trabajo duro, la determinación y el ingenio, Leal lanzaría su propio negocio. Se le atribuye ampliamente el mérito de introdujo quesos mexicanos en el mercado estadounidense e hizo crecer su empresa hasta convertirla en una historia de éxito multimillonaria.

Life was good for Jorge Newbery. 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.

In the past 10 years, the Internet video platform YouTube has changed media and entertainment as profoundly as the invention of film, radio, and television did more than six decades earlier. Streampunks is a firsthand account of this upstart company, examining how it evolved and where it will take us next.

George Washington: general, statesman...businessman? Most people don't know that Washington was the country's first true entrepreneur, responsible for innovations in several industries. In George Washington, Entrepreneur, John Berlau presents a fresh, surprising take on our forefather's business pursuits. History has depicted Washington as a gifted general and political pragmatist, not an intellectual heavyweight. But he was a serious inventor and inveterate tinkerer and just as intelligent as Jefferson or Franklin.

Leigh Perkins bought Orvis in 1965 and over the next thirty years would revolutionize the catalog industry as he successfully blended his love for the outdoors with his business acumen. A Sportsman's Life is the story of a man, his company, and his love of the outdoors, his commitment to conservation, and his infectious enthusiasm for the good life.

Jonathan Rigsby spends his days as a crime intelligence analyst and his nights as an Uber driver. Reeling from his divorce and struggling to pay rent while caring for his autistic son, Rigsby became a rideshare driver, joining the millions of people with a side hustle just to make ends meet.

In The Accidental Entrepreneur, author Janine Allis shares the secrets and skills that took her from housewife to entrepreneur to head of a multinational corporation. As the founder of Boost Juice, Janine has journeyed from zero formal business training to leading a company with over 400 stores in 12 countries. This audiobook takes you down the long road that she travelled, including some quirky stops along the way, and gives you valuable insight into taking the alternative road to business success.

In 2001, Adam Neumann arrived in New York after five years as a conscript in the Israeli navy. Just over 15 years later, he had transformed himself into the charismatic CEO of a company worth $47 billion. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the six-foot-five Neumann looked the part of a messianic Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The vision he offered was mesmerising: a radical reimagining of work space for a new generation. He called it WeWork.

This is how they did it. These are the strategies that built the biggest companies in the world, and made their owners the richest men in the world. Includes sections on Steve Jobs and Apple; Bill Gates and Microsoft; McDonald’s and Ray Croc; Thomas Edison and General Electric; the Coca Cola Company; the Rockefellers and Standard Oil; the Hershey Chocolate Company; Sam Walton and Walmart; Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company and Andrew Carnegie of U.S. Steel.

In The Startup Story: An Entrepreneur's Journey from Idea to Exit, renowned serial entrepreneur Martin Warner takes a fledgling company all the way from zero to hero, selling it for $50 million after a mere seventeen months. It's a memoir of whirlwind entrepreneurial success, a nonfiction narrative that puts the listener in the CEO's seat, giving the feel of what it's really like to steer a company around the toughest of tracks and come out with a massive payday.

Dalla povertà delle case popolari all’orfanotrofio, da una bottega in periferia a una fabbrica nelle Dolomiti, fino a diventare il numero uno. Con un’idea fissa in testa: "essere il più bravo". Dopo aver per primo setacciato fonti e documenti, incluso il fascicolo presso il collegio Martinitt, parlato con estimatori e detrattori, collaboratori e concorrenti e aver, infine, incontrato lo schivo imprenditore, Tommaso Ebhardt racconta, in questa esclusiva e non ufficiale biografia, il patron di Luxottica.

Uma das mais bem-sucedidas histórias de empreendedorismo do Brasil começou com uma demissão. Em 2001, Guilherme Benchimol iniciava sua carreira no mercado financeiro carioca quando perdeu o emprego. Envergonhado, decidiu fugir do Rio de Janeiro: pegou o carro e dirigiu quase 20 horas até Porto Alegre, onde, longe dos principais centros financeiros do país, fundou uma modesta empresa de investimentos, a XP, numa salinha de 25 metros quadrados.

In Beer School, authors and entrepreneurs Steve Hindy and Tom Potter share the improbable saga of Brooklyn Brewery, the company they grew from a home-brew hobby into a multimillion-dollar business - all in the most competitive beer market in the United States. If you have a thirst for entrepreneurial success, drink up. If you are a business manager or owner and want fresh ideas and insight, tap in. You'll learn entrepreneurial basics, plus some things textbooks don't teach you, as you follow the company's successes (and a few failures).