Confessions of a municipal bond salesman

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Edward Ugel

In his wry and funny memoir, Edward Ugel tells the story of America's addiction to the lottery from an astonishing angle.At age twenty–six, Ed found himself broke, knee–deep in gambling debt, and moving back into his parents' basement. It all changed, however, when he serendipitously landed a job as a salesman for The Firm – a company that offered up–front cash to lottery winners in exchange for their prize money, often paid in agonizingly small annual payments, some lasting up to twenty–five years. For the better part of the ensuing decade, Ed spent his time closing deals with lottery winners, making a lucrative and legitimate – if sometimes not–so–nice – living by taking advantage of their weaknesses... weaknesses he knew all too well.Ed met hundreds of lottery winners and saw up–close the often hilarious, sometime sad outcome when great wealth is dropped on ordinary people. Once lottery winners realized their "dream–come–true" multimillion jackpots were not all that they were cracked up to be, Ed would knock on their door, offering them the cash they wanted–and often desperately need. This cash sometimes came at a high price, but winners were rarely in a position to walk the other way. As Ed learned, few of them had the financial savvy to keep up with the lottery–winner lifestyle. In fact, some just wanted their old lives back.A charmingly neurotic gambler, Ed traveled deep into the heart of the country where he discovered the American Dream looks a lot like a day at the casino. And Ed knows casinos. In fact, his own taste for gambling gave him a unique insight into lottery winners: he intimately understood their mindset, making it that much easier to relate to them. And like lottery winners, Ed struggled to find balance in his own life as his increasing success earned him a bigger and bigger salary. Even as he relished his accomplishments, he grappled with the question: "If you are good at something that is bad for some people, does that make you a bad person?"Ed Ugel takes the readers inside the captivating world of lottery winners and shows us how lotteries and gambling have become deeply inscribed in every aspect of American life shaping our image of success and good fortune. Money for Nothing is a witty, wise, and often outrageously funny account of high expectations and easy money.

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John Train

Second edition featuring a brand new foreword.If you had put $10,000 in Buffett's original investing partnership at its inception in 1956, you would have collected about $293,738 by the time he dissolved it at the end of 1969. He had never suffered a down year, even in the severe bear markets of 1957, 1962, 1966, and 1969. When the partnership was wound up, you could have elected to stay with Buffett as a shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., which was spun off from the partnership and became Buffett's investing vehicle. In that event, your $10,000 would by the end of 1986 have turned into well over $5 million.So, John Train introduces the remarkable story of Warren Buffett in his classic text, 'The Midas Touch'. First published in 1987, 'The Midas Touch' was one of the first books to recognise Warren Buffett's spectacular record, and to attempt to explain how he achieved his success. It is short, lucid and written with style and wit. A worthy testimony to its remarkable subject.From the back cover of the book:This is the book that tells readers how to invest like the man known as 'the Wizard of Omaha' (Forbes) and the investor with 'the Midas Touch' .Warren Buffett is the most successful investor alive - the only member of the Forbes 400 to have earned his fortune entirely through investing. Bestselling author John Train analyzes the strategies, based on the value approach, that have guided Buffett in his remarkable career, strategies that work even though Buffett operates a thousand miles from Wall Street.

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the Wall Street Journal

A selection of the wild, the weird, and the wonderful culled from the Wall Street Journal's popular, and long-standing, "A-Hed column." One of the Wall Street Journal's most popular features for more than seventy years, the daily "A-Hed" column, "named for a headline that looked like a letter A," has diverted readers from the more glum news of war, economic woe, natural disasters, and man-made malfeasance. Covering a wide range of lunacy and the unusual from across the nation and the world, the "A-Hed" continues to enchant longtime readers. Now, the best "A-Hed" stories from recent years have been bundled into this entertaining collection. There are romantic tales, including the Japanese "infidelity phone" (it keeps trysts secret) and the story of "wingmen" and "wingwomen" who escort wallflowers to nightspots and maneuver them into the arms of prospective catches. Lovers of dogs, cats, and fish will learn how a Marine Corps bulldog got promoted to sergeant, how a grumpy cat acquired a Hollywood agent, and will be left wondering if a 63-pound carp named Benson died naturally in England or was the victim of foul play. From pantyhose (or mantyhose) for men to a campaign to recruit youthful nudists, a hairdo archaeologist to five escaped wallabies and hippies smoking catnip, these stories will make readers laugh and keep them entertained.

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Kathy Aaronson

When Kathy Aaronson was eight years old, she set up a small roadside stand next to her family's farm and began selling vegetables that weren't up to supermarket standards (too small or too misshaped). Her entrepreneurial drive was sparked by a need to connect with people, and in the process of learning to sell successfully she learned about how to find and provide value to any type of customer. In The Golden Apple, Aaronson uses the lessons learned at her produce stand and applied later in executive sales to illustrate nine lessons that can help readers turn their careers and lives around. Using humor and practical, step-by-step guidance, this book will teach readers how to: get the attention of busy, distracted client prospects; how to do business confidently and well with anybody -- even rude, crude client prospects; how to use stories to successfully sell products, services or ideas, and how to develop business relationships that will protect their careers in any economy. With...