A light, breezy record of one entrepreneur’s rise to fortune and the crazy ways of modern American business.
A gift-card entrepreneur recounts his rise, dispensing life lessons and business tips along the way.
Before he “revolutionized the gift card industry” Dinkin had a rough childhood growing up near Toronto, where anti-Semitic bullies tormented him. But, as he writes in this debut memoir, he’s thankful for the experience; his pent-up anger, he says, motivated him to try harder and eventually become a successful businessman. After he and his family moved to Coral Springs, Fla., he worked in unsatisfying sales jobs before forming his own company, SmartClixx, in the booming gift-card industry. Dinkin, like many successful entrepreneurs, offers plenty of advice, often emphatically (“Life Lesson #1: SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED A LUCKY BREAK!”; “Life Lesson #14: EVERY IDEA STARTS WITH A SPARK”). Although the tips aren’t particularly profound, they do offer readers a dollop of common sense—a scarce commodity in this or any age. Dinkin also shares his insights into the sales game, describing tactics like the “Ben Franklin” close, in which the salesman stresses positives over negatives, and the “reduce to the ridiculous” close, in which a product’s cost is divided over time. This primer on the ins and outs of the gift-card business includes examples of his company’s successes and failures, but its humor sets it apart; at one point, for example, a confused elderly woman calls the author to complain, thinking she’s somehow entitled to free gift cards, and Dinkin also includes his amusing interactions with a wacky, deceitful CEO with a Napoleonic complex. It’s clear in these pages that Dinkin believes he’s fulfilled his goal of success; for example, when he and his second wife drive behind a BMW with a bumper sticker saying “Life Is Good,” they chime in together, “But better for us!”
A light, breezy record of one entrepreneur’s rise to fortune and the crazy ways of modern American business.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-0988775305
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Doodle Vision Productions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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