Chicken Lips, Wheeler-Dealer, and the Beady-Eyed M.B.A An Entrepreneur's Wild Adventures on the New Silk Road

by Farwell, Frank

• ISBN13: 9780470828663
• ISBN10: 0470828668
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-17
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

One afternoon in the summer of 1979, at the scarcely experienced age of 28, a New York magazine's associate editor ignored the mounting stack of papers on his desk and fell asleep just as his boss walked by. The boss was the editor-in-chief of this well-regarded sporting magazine, and as he peered into the office, his employee began to vigorously snore. Eventually sensing his boss's presence, the employee's head jerked to attention. He wiped the gathering drool from his mouth, sat up straight, and sputtered out some ridiculous excuse. The boss stood there for a moment, frozen in place, his small blue eyes wide with fury. Then he walked away.As his footsteps padded down the linoleum-tiled hall and secretaries outside the office door tittered with new-gossip delight, the dozing young editor realized it was time to get out. Two years before, his employer had given him a good job, decent salary, responsibility, and even a window overlooking Manhattan's 6th Avenue and 43rd Street, six stories below. But the young editor had no passion for the work and never quite enough income to keep from worrying about money. He felt like a furnace with only its pilot light on trying to heat an entire house. At lunchtime, he wondered how many in the vast Midtown crowds below his window felt the same. If his informal poll of friends and associates were any indication, the answer was: most. Everyone, it seemed, wanted challenge, fulfillment, an ability to control their own career destiny, and immunity to layoffs. Few knew how to go about it then, and fewer still do now. Maybe that's why more than 50 million Americans a year purchase inspirational or self-help books about business.I was the dozing associate editor, and I didn't know how to go about a startup either. But that, and the foolish naïveté of lingering youth, didn't keep me from quitting my job and going out on my own, hoping to start, build, and sell an enterprise in 10 years. Once I set out, everything changed. I became filled with passion, purpose and empowerment, as if a champion's blood had been diverted into my veins, inspiring me with uncharacteristic vigor. The sky seemed no limit. Soon, however, I started running out of cash reserves. Despite my newfound energy, MBA coursework, and subsequent reading and studying, I realized I was a clueless greenhorn who had ridden himself into the unforgiving frontier of entrepreneurship. I was stuck on a forbidding economic desert with no saddle, a dying horse, little remaining food or water, and hostile forces closing in. The only option was to use my wits and try to fight my way out. Ten years later, persistence and hard work provided unimaginable fruit.

Author Biography

Frank Farwell worked as a cub newspaper reporter for the Claremont, New Hampshire, Daily Eagle, and Vermont’s Windsor Chronicle, then enrolled in Northwestern University’s M.B.A. program. After two semesters he took a summer job at Times-Mirror Magazines in New York and stayed on to become managing editor of Ski magazine, and then staff editor at Ziff-Davis’ Yachting. Four years later, tired of publishing’s modest pay scale, he quit gainful employment to found a tiny company in his attic. His staff- and freelance-written articles have appeared in The New York Times, Signature, Ski, Backpacker, Yachts and Yachting (U.K.), AOPA Pilot, IFR, The Guide to Cross Country Skiing, Ski Business, Harrowsmith, Kiplinger’s Changing Times, The Kazi (Japan), Cross Country Skier, Outdoor Life, Marathon World, Nordic World, and In Business. He has been a commercial- and instrument-rated pilot with 2,000 hours flight time, and in his 50’s raced canoe and cross-country ski events throughout the Midwest and eastern Canada. He has three children and lives in the northern Great Lakes region. This is his first book.

Table of Contents

Building and Blundering	p. 1
Cigar Butts and Newspaper Junkies	p. 3
Over the Falls	p. 13
Searching for The Product	p. 21
Chicken Lips and Happy Linebacker	p. 29
A Chinese Clue	p. 35
Seagull in the Desert	p. 47
The Trouble with Miss Wisconsin	p. 53
The Wisdom of Soapstone	p. 57
HR Blunders	p. 63
Emergence, Growth, and Profits	p. 69
The Magic of Smiling Dan	p. 71
The Silver Fox	p. 79
Mrs. Hollingsworth and the Choker Turtlenecks	p. 89
Battling Seventh Avenue	p. 95
The Long Island Leg Breaker	p. 101
Grilled Squid in Backstreet Seoul	p. 109
Uncle Bob and the Sharp-Eyed Rookie	p. 119
The Delusional Printer	p. 129
The Long Road to Almost Perfect	p. 135
Chaos to Clarity: Dodging Bullets While Building an Organization	p. 141
An Accelerating Blur	p. 143
Rookie's Waltz	p. 151
The Philosophy of Numbers	p. 159
Employees from Heaven-and Hell	p. 167
Stocks Crash, Workers Strike	p. 175
Our Own Saint George, and Shanghai Ed	p. 183
The Mulberry Tree Drought	p. 191
Running on Fumes	p. 199
The Dance of Divesture	p. 205
The Plain Truth About Overfed Cowboy	p. 207
The Pantyhose King and Wall Street Con Man	p. 211
Gray Flannel Godzilla	p. 219
Wheeler-Dealer, Big Hitter, and the Beady-Eyed M.B.A.	p. 227
Marathon Poker	p. 235
Fight to the Finish	p. 243
Yawning on Park Avenue	p. 249
The Chinese Limo	p. 255
Epilogue	p. 265
The Darkest Two Years	p. 267
Transitions	p. 281
Offshore	p. 285
Acknowledgments	p. 289
Index	p. 291
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