Jim Paul's meteoric rise took him from a small town in Northern Kentucky to governor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, yet he lost it all--his fortune, his reputation, and his job--in one fatal attack of excessive economic hubris. In this honest, frank analysis, Paul and Brendan Moynihan revisit the events that led to Paul's disastrous decision and examine the psychological factors behind bad financial practices in several economic sectors. This book--winner of a 2014 Axiom Business Book award gold medal--begins with the unbroken string of successes that helped Paul achieve a jet-setting lifestyle and land a key spot with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It then describes the circumstances leading up to Paul's $1.6 million loss and the essential lessons he learned from it--primarily that, although there are as many ways to make money in the markets as there are people participating in them, all losses come from the same few sources. Investors lose money in the markets either because of errors in their analysis or because of psychological barriers preventing the application of analysis. While all analytical methods have some validity and make allowances for instances in which they do not work, psychological factors can keep an investor in a losing position, causing him to abandon one method for another in order to rationalize the decisions already made. Paul and Moynihan's cautionary tale includes strategies for avoiding loss tied to a simple framework for understanding, accepting, and dodging the dangers of investing, trading, and speculating.

Some of the smartest, most successful people in the country didn’t finish college. None of them learned their most critical skills at an institution of higher education. And like them, most of what you’ll need to learn to be successful you’ll have to learn on your own, outside of school. Michael Ellsberg set out to fill in the missing pieces by interviewing a wide range of millionaires and billionaires who don’t have college de­grees, including fashion magnate Russell Simmons and Facebook found­ing president Sean Parker. This book is your guide to developing practical success skills in the real world: how to find great mentors, build a world-class network, make your work meaningful (and your meaning work), build the brand of you, and more. Learning these skills is a necessary addition to any education, whether you’re a high school dropout or graduate of Harvard Law School.

An in-depth look at the failure of Wall Street's "proven" financial models Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into intricate and aesthetically attractive shapes. As such, it is the perfect metaphor for the Wall Street financial engineering model, which ultimately proved to be the underlying cause of the 2008 financial crisis. In Financial Origami, Brendan Moynihan describes how the Wall Street business model evolved from a method to transfer risk into a method for manufacturing risk. Along the way, this timely book skillfully dissects financial engineering and addresses how it's often a mechanism to evade regulatory constraints, provide institutional investors with customized products, and, of course, generate revenue for financial engineers. Reveals how Wall Street's financial engineering business model morphed into something destructive Highlights how the origami model worked well in the comparatively stable years of the early 2000s, when there was less risk to transfer Discusses how Wall Street began manufacturing risk by creating products that multiplied risk exposures and encouraged subprime lending With the collapse of Lehman Brother the Wall Street business model effectively broke. But there are many lessons to be learned from what has transpired, and Financial Origami will show you what they are.

A successful stock fund manager reveals the secrets behind a fifty percent return in this comprehensive, practical guide featuring all the tools you’ll need. Fund manager Joel Greenblatt has been beating the Dow (with returns of fifty percent a year) for more than a decade. And now, in this highly accessible guide, he’s going to show you how to do it, too. You’re about to discover investment opportunities that portfolio managers, business-school professors, and top investment experts regularly miss—uncharted areas where the individual investor has a huge advantage over the Wall Street wizards. Here is your personal treasure map to special situations in which big profits are possible, including: Spin-offs Restructurings Merger Securities Rights Offerings Recapitalizations Bankruptcies Risk Arbitrage This is a practical and easy-to-use investment reference, filled with case studies, important background information, and all the tools you’ll need. All it takes is a little extra time and effort—and you can be a stock market genius.

#1 Best-Seller in 5 Startup & Entrepreneurship Categories *Named Top 5 Business Growth Book by Entrepreneur Magazine This compelling and inspiring narrative gives entrepreneurs a rare behind-the-scenes look inside a fast-growing startup that created the first online dating app and grew to 100 million users. Explosive Growth combines lively and often hilarious storytelling, revealing genius growth tactics, numerous case-studies, and its step-by-step playbook to help your startup grow massively. Due to its raw storytelling style, practical lessons, compelling content, and fast-paced read, Explosive Growth is a one-of-a-kind business book that transcends the narrow entrepreneurial audience to also appeal to readers and business students looking to learn about startup life and entrepreneurship. It holds nothing back while detailing the highest highs and lowest lows of what it's really like to run a startup. Cliff Lerner's online dating startup, Snap Interactive, was running out of money when he bet the company's fortunes on a then-unknown platform called Facebook. The app suddenly began to acquire 100,000 new users daily for free, and soon after the stock price skyrocketed 2,000 percent, setting off an extraordinary chain of events filled with sudden success and painful lessons. You will learn how to: * IGNITE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH by creating a remarkable product * Identify the ONLY 3 METRICS THAT MATTER * Explore valuable VIRAL GROWTH strategies to grow rapidly * Execute the GENIUS MEDIA HACKS that helped us acquire 100 million users * Create a thriving culture of PASSIONATE EMPLOYEES and CONSTANT INNOVATION PRAISE: "A must read for founders and CEOs who want to achieve rapid growth while also building a great product and company." -Payal Kadakia, Founder & Executive Chairman of ClassPass "Explosive Growth is without question one of the most useful and entertaining business books I have ever read. Cliff gives you a roadmap to massively grow your startup with specific tactical lessons made memorable through engaging stories. This book is a must-read." -David Perry, Digital Sales & Business Development Expert at Google, Adobe, Amazon, Startup Advisor "Want to know how to grow your startup to 100 million users? Then this is the book for you. Explosive Growth gives step-by-step instructions, case studies and proven tactics on how to explode your growth." -Entrepreneur Magazine by Syed Balkhi "Lessons for startups and CEOs on growth hacking, marketing, and innovation from one of the smartest founders I know." -Andrew Weinreich, Inventor of Social Networking

How much are your principles really worth? What price is too much to pay? In the abstract these seem like easy questions to answer. On a purely philosophical level, there can be only one response. But, when fighting for what you believe is right causes your foundation to crumble, the answer is not always clear. Adam Smith grew up in an impoverished and deeply religious family. From the agonizing struggle to meet the basic needs of life to the crushing quest for acceptance in adolescence, Adam learned quickly that everything he wanted from life had a high price tag . But, he was not finished learning this lesson. After achieving his dream of being financially secure and successful, Adam discovered the cost to his marriage was a sacrifice he was unwilling to make and walked away from a lucrative career. Finding balance between work and home, Adam settled into a rewarding life with a job he loved and an expanding family that gave it all meaning . . . until he made the choice to stand up for the rights of someone else. His now infamous protest began with the painful renouncement of many of the religious teachings that once formed his world view yet no longer made sense, and ended with the even more devastating surrender of his sense of safety and security. As the journey continues, Adam has found that instead of seeking the ever-moving bar of financial success and approval of others, building the great personal wealth that comes from embracing imperfections and living an authentic life is worth any price.

Contrary to popular opinion, anyone who enters a casino can win at blackjack. In blackjack, unlike many casino games, your winnings depend on skill rather than chance. Players have left behind billions of dollars at the blackjack table, but it doesn't have to be that way anymore World famous blackjack expert Ken Uston provides seven simple rules to improve your game and presents students with four levels of winning skills. Strategies start with the Simple Plus/Minus for beginners and work up to the Advanced Plus/Minus and the Uston Ace-Five Count. "Million Dollar Blackjack" also explains the Uston Advance Point Count method, used by some of the world's top blackjack professionals. Notoriously hailed the "blackjack bible," "Million Dollar Blackjack" remains one of the most pivotal and comprehensive guides on the game. Breaking down the various rules, strategies, and counting methods, Uston discloses the tactics that made him a multi-million dollar winner. In this book, he covers nearly every aspect of casino blackjack from selecting the right game, to avoiding being barred, to the "illegal" side of blackjack, to cheating dealers and players. "Million Dollar Blackjack" details a myriad of playing techniques fortified by insider information. Ken Uston has carefully evaluated all previous blackjack theories and schools to offer you the most comprehensive guide on the game. Ken Uston (1935-1987) was arguably the world's foremost blackjack player and game strategist. He graduated from Yale with a BA in Economics and received his MBA in Finance from Harvard. After a stint as the Senior Vice President of the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange, Uston traded his three-piece suit for the unpredictable life of the professional gambler. During his blackjack career, he mastered card counting, which led him to be barred from a number of casinos. Uston won a lawsuit against casinos in New Jersey, which protested the banishment of card-counting players, and its ruling still holds today. Uston has authored a number of bestselling books including "Ken Uston on Blackjack" and "Mastering Pac-Man."