Before there was Tony Hawk skateboarding in empty swimming pools there was Robbie Slater screaming down the Cheyenne Frontier Days arena ramps and launching himself on his old green Schwinn. Before there was Fear Factor contestants climbing scaffolding with safety lines and eating worms there was Robbie Slater topping out on the hardest routes in Yosemite having subsisted for five days on Sara Lee coffee cakes and Mint Milanos, three days on water alone and the last two days on nothing. Before there was the X Games and its generation of pop culture daredevils there was Robbie Slater diving off antennae, bridges, skyscrapers, mountain cliffs and canyon walls with a parachute, mostly at night. Before climbers wore Lycra there was Robbie Slater wielding the Lovetron on previously inconceivable, death-defying aid moves on El Capitan. Long before “crazy” became cool and popular on TV there was Robbie Slater. I know about Robbie because I am his identical twin brother. I called him Robbie and he called me Richie. As we got older, we were called Rob and Rich by others, but between us it was always Robbie and Richie. We were in many ways as similar as two human beings could be. We looked alike, talked alike and even liked the same kind of Pop Tarts. But when it came to living life, Robbie went much further out on that razor's edge, staring down The Reaper and thumbing his nose at disaster than I ever had the courage for. I have never been afraid of dying, but my twin brother had a much greater need for adrenaline and danger than I've ever felt. Quoting the infamous Charles Manson, Robbie used to joke he “was crazy back when being crazy meant something.” But it was much more than that.
Frank Black is a god on Wall Street. He has survived the Great Recession. At home, he has the dream life; lives in a Mansion, has a beach house in the Hamptons, a beautiful wife and two adorable sons. The millions of dollars he makes each year, seem to provide him with everything he could ever want. When a prized client asks him to spend a month in the Dominican Republic to review the potential acquisition of a sugar plantation, he can't refuse. On the island, Frank meets a tiny man who has nothing except his daughter. Enslaved by the plantation, this man teaches Frank the difference between wanting and needing. He opens Frank's eyes to the real world, not the one made of Sugar. One person can change the world, and in this stirring tale, we come to understand how. It wasn't enough for Frank Black to have what most would have longed for in this life: a beautiful, caring wife, handsome, good boys, more money than ninety-eight percent of the world, comfort, luxury, and most of all he was loved. It simply wasn't enough. The drive for more consumed him. He would be a loser if he didn't win the big one. He needed to get more of what he had to satisfy his insatiable lust for the Sugar in life, the coatings, the superficial wants and desires of a life unfulfilled. His addiction had grown out of control. He needed now, rather than wanted. Where his wants turned to needs is hard to say, but it is for certain they were no less powerful than the addiction of drugs. He couldn't imagine a life without what he had, not who. He always imagined the who in his life would be there forever. Until it all changed. His American Dream went awry. He awoke, and that's when Frank Black started living and stopped dreaming.
Twenty years after that grave night of November 4, 1995, when Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was felled by an Israeli assassin's bullets, Robert Slater goes back to once again explore the man, politician and leader – a leader whose personal history paralleled that of his country, a onetime warrior that became a peacemaker. As the life of Yitzhak Rabin unfolds, the story of Israel is told: Rabin was the first native-born prime minister, the first to be born in the twentieth century, the first to be educated entirely in the country and the first to emerge from the army, bringing an altogether different tone to Israel's leadership. In his life he had been a bland, unexciting figure, whose military and political efforts were often overshadowed by more charismatic Israeli leaders. He had none of the down-to-earth charm of Golda Meir or the swashbuckling bravado of Moshe Dayan. So, what did make Rabin – former chief of staff and a taciturn, shy politician with an unpolished and simple style – into one of Israel's most longed for and admired leaders until this very day? Shortly before passing away, biographer Robert Slater, based on years of exhaustive research including extensive interviews with Rabin himself, former colleagues, aides, political rivals, friends and family, sheds light in this wide-ranging account on Rabin the man, statesman, leader and warrior for peace.
The book contains clearly written thumbnail sketches of 31 people who were of paramount importance in the conception and creation of the computer industry
If leadership is an art, then surely Jack Welch has proved himself a master painter." --BusinessWeek on Jack Welch Jack Welch on Leadership distills the bestselling Jack Welch and the GE Way into 23 of Welch's leadership secrets and traits, and provides Welch devotees across the nation and around the globe with a rare glimpse into the mind and methods of the man Tom Brokaw dubbed "the smartest boss I ever had.
Behind the scenes with the legendary CEO Jack Welch’s innovative leadership strategies revived a lagging GE, transforming it into a powerhouse with a staggering $300 billion-plus market capitalization. In writing Jack Welch and the GE Way, author Robert Slater was given unprecedented access to Welch and other prominent GE insiders. What emerged is a brilliant portrait that tells you what makes Jack Welch tick. Learn how to work the Welch magic on your own company as you find out how he dismantled the boundaries between management layers, between engineers and marketers, between GE and its customers to streamline the process of getting products and services to market. Get details on Welch’s far-reaching Six Sigma quality initiative, and discover how its principles and standards can save billions of dollars...how and why he has made GE a truly global company (and why you must think global as well)...and all the other Welch "midas touch" strategies you can put to work in your organization, at every level!
In March 2000 Cisco Systems, with a market capitalization of $531 billion, was the most valuable company on the planet. With 44,000 employees and a stock price at $80 per share, Cisco was poised for unstoppable growth and unending glory. Six months later with the crisp smell of cold cash in the air, Cisco president and CEO John Chambers vowed to change the world. Who knew that in a matter of days disaster would strike? The Eye of the Storm: How John Chambers Steered Cisco Through the Technology Collapse offers the gripping account of the high-tech American dream turned nightmare. Bestselling author Robert Slater's riveting narrative traces the path of Cisco's rise from anonymity to prosperity and then to its sudden, shocking fall, as a world without ceilings gave way to a world where no floor was in sight. Through unprecedented exclusive interviews with Chambers and Cisco's top executives and unparalleled access to Cisco's private forums, Slater reveals the confidential working and insider decisions behind what was nothing short of a business miracle before the vision went temporarily awry. Unadorned and unequivocal, this is the fascinating story of how Chambers, once widely hailed as "King of the Internet," navigated Cisco through a period of inconceivable success before guiding his company through unimaginable misfortune. Throughout this engaging tale of the birth and death of the new economy, Slater gleans pearls of business wisdom and essential lessons for corporate decision-making in the new millennium. Collected here are the brilliant maneuvers that catapulted Cisco to glory and the devastating mistakes that brought the company low. The Eye of the Storm is a story at once captivating, instructive, and provocative. Never again will we forget that our soaring revenues of today may well become our plummeting stock prices of tomorrow. Slater's incisive and illuminating firsthand account takes you behind the scenes from the boom to the bust through to the recovery of a company that has earned its place in the history books as one of America's greatest.
Nick Fox, is the genius, code-named the Web Master and the founder and leader of Factor 9. From their state-of-the-art, underground command post located just outside of Washington, DC, the Web Master directs his Factor 9 team through the infiltration of our enemies networks. With the aid of their multi-billion dollar, supercomputer, UtahRaptor, this team renders their enemies electronic operations lifeless. Hired by the CIA to track down one of the most dangerous men in the world, Factor 9 must navigate through their most dangerous mission yet, Operation Pacemaker. From the Middle East to Australia to the Port of Baltimore, Factor 9 pursues the largest global arms dealer, who is planning a supply line of weapons that may destabilize the world. Operation Peacemaker comes at a time when the Web Master must reconcile the death of his beloved wife. Unable to let go, his world begins to crumble, at a time when his team needs him the most. Will Web survive his internal demons and at the same time be able to survive the hunting of the most dangerous man in the world? While this fast-paced, cyber-thriller leaves a sinuous trail across the globe, the answers the Web Master seeks, may be back at home.
Education today is increasingly focused on tests and testing. Teachers are being judged on how much they can increase test scores from one year to the next. These year-to-year gains in scores are part of a "value-added" approach to teacher evaluation, and value-added teacher assessment is all the rage now. A main point of this book is that while teachers do add value when they enable students to increase their performance on standardized tests, this is neither the only nor the most important value they add. An analysis of 40 years of data on teachers suggests that an equally if not more important value added is their contribution to the stability of our increasingly unsteady democracy. Teachers help steady modern democracy by teaching children the limits of liberty and by cultivating the social virtues -- trust, cooperation, helpfulness, and the like -- upon which civil society depends. We need not only to recognize this but also to avoid education policies that undermine their willingness and ability to do so.
Soon to be an ABC reality series entitled Ultimate Surfer, starring 11-time World Surf League champion Kelly Slater Six-time world surfing champion, actor, and American heartthrob Kelly Slater tells his inspiring story of triumph over adversity From Beach Blanket Bingo to Baywatch to Blue Crush, surfing has fascinated people for years, and Kelly Slater is the sport’s hottest star. He has won more world championships than any other competitor, and he continues to change peoples’ minds about what can and can’t be done on a surfboard. His wild ride has included fame, fortune, a stint on Baywatch, and a high-profile relationship with Pamela Anderson. Not bad for a skinny kid from a broken home in Cocoa Beach, Florida. In Pipe Dreams, Kelly takes the reader into oceans around the world to take on thunderous walls of water and shares the outrageous stories, solemn moments, and undeniable spirit that have made him a superstar.
The Streak may appear to be about a big baseball game and the star player, Billy Thorton, but in fact it is about much more. It is about making choices in life, no matter the surrounding noise. Heading into the Championship Game, Billy Thorton is able to break a national hitting streak, held for the last 20 years. Everything changes when a new kid shows up to school. Billy finds himself asking the questions we all ask ourselves about truth and doing what is right. Could you make the 'right' choice?
The first concise book of essential Welch-isms, abridged from the bestselling Get Better or Get Beaten Jack Welch built a career out of fighting waste. 29 Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch follows in Welch's footsteps, boiling the legendary CEO's leadership successes down to 29 strategies that made GE the world's most competitive companyand Welch the world's most successful and admired CEO. This all-in-one Welch reference updates material from Robert Slater's bestselling Get Better or Get Beaten, and is today's ultimate fast-paced, no-nonsense handbook on the ways of Jack Welch. It taps into the heart of Welch's courage, innovation, and leadership success by examining simple leadership secrets that include: Managing less is managing better Make quality the job of every employee Have global brains and vision
A penniless survivor of the Nazi occupation of Hungary, George Soros is now one of the richest men in the world, and Robert Slater does an excellent job of helping us understand how Soros did it. . . . Slater distinguishes Soros from other great investors by explaining his mental processes . . . . He explains how Soros views markets as chaotic, not efficient, and very prone to boom-bust sequences. . . . Slater has written a fascinating volume."--Barron's The highly acclaimed bestseller updated to reveal Soros' role in our new economic and political era As a financial genius, global philanthropist, political activist, man of conscience, and the world's only investor with his own foreign policy--it cannot be denied that Soros is an enigmatic man of enormous influence. For more than four decades he has been so successful that he has been accused of directing the course of global markets and shaping the destinies of nations. Now, in this exhaustively updated and expanded edition of his 1996 bestseller, biographer Robert Slater separates fact from fiction to get at the truth about the mysterious figure of George Soros. Working from extensive interviews with Soros and those closest to him, Slater combines compelling biographical detail with scrupulous analysis to: Detail how Soros made his billions as a global currency trader and stock operator Chronicle his role in bringing down communism and establishing open societies to Eastern Europe and the former USSR Demystify Soros's macroeconomic approach to investing and his oft-misunderstood theory of reflexivity Explore his fanatical obsession with unseating George W. Bush in 2004 and his growing involvement with left-wing political activist groups Reveal George Soros's strategies for surviving and thriving in the chaos of today's credit markets
Urban environments are prime targets for suicide bombings over the next decade. While the threat may be ever-present, measures are available that can empower law enforcement personnel to thwart attacks, or at least mitigate the effects by reducing casualties. Written by professionals with first-hand experience, Terrorist Suicide Bombings: Attack In
The Streak may appear to be about a big baseball game and the star player, Billy Thorton, but in fact it is about much more. It is about making choices in life, no matter the surrounding noise. Heading into the Championship Game, Billy Thorton is able to break a national hitting streak, held for the last 20 years. Everything changes when a new kid shows up to school. Billy finds himself asking the questions we all ask ourselves about truth and doing what is right. Could you make the 'right' choice?
Nick Fox, is the genius, code-named the Web Master and the founder and leader of Factor 9. From their state-of-the-art, underground command post located just outside of Washington, DC, the Web Master directs his Factor 9 team through the infiltration of our enemies networks. With the aid of their multi-billion dollar, supercomputer, UtahRaptor, this team renders their enemies electronic operations lifeless. Hired by the CIA to track down one of the most dangerous men in the world, Factor 9 must navigate through their most dangerous mission yet, Operation Pacemaker. From the Middle East to Australia to the Port of Baltimore, Factor 9 pursues the largest global arms dealer, who is planning a supply line of weapons that may destabilize the world. Operation Peacemaker comes at a time when the Web Master must reconcile the death of his beloved wife. Unable to let go, his world begins to crumble, at a time when his team needs him the most. Will Web survive his internal demons and at the same time be able to survive the hunting of the most dangerous man in the world? While this fast-paced, cyber-thriller leaves a sinuous trail across the globe, the answers the Web Master seeks, may be back at home.
How oil volatility may lead to violence among oil powers The world supply of oil is running out. Meanwhile, the balance of oil power is shifting away from the United States and the Arab states toward national oil companies (NOCs) in Russia, China, and some emerging economies in Africa and South America. As developing countries seek a middle-class existence, their demand for oil grows exponentially, causing oil prices to spiral, turning some into international bullies. Until another fuel is found the world risks being at the mercy of these tyrants whose insatiable appetites for higher oil prices heighten competition and spur the threat of violence, domestic as well as global. In Seizing Power: The Grab for Global Oil Wealth, bestselling author Robert Slater: Profiles petroaggressors like Russia's Putin, Venezuela's Chavez, and IranÕs Ahmadinejad Describes how oil-rich outlaw nations are using a valuable natural resource as a weapon in global politics Warns that, as oil dwindles, these outlaw nations may turn upon one another in the fight for what oil is left Seizing Power clearly explains why oil is potentially toxic to world stability.
The book contains clearly written thumbnail sketches of 31 people who were of paramount importance in the conception and creation of the computer industry
Twenty years after that grave night of November 4, 1995, when Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was felled by an Israeli assassin's bullets, Robert Slater goes back to once again explore the man, politician and leader – a leader whose personal history paralleled that of his country, a onetime warrior that became a peacemaker. As the life of Yitzhak Rabin unfolds, the story of Israel is told: Rabin was the first native-born prime minister, the first to be born in the twentieth century, the first to be educated entirely in the country and the first to emerge from the army, bringing an altogether different tone to Israel's leadership. In his life he had been a bland, unexciting figure, whose military and political efforts were often overshadowed by more charismatic Israeli leaders. He had none of the down-to-earth charm of Golda Meir or the swashbuckling bravado of Moshe Dayan. So, what did make Rabin – former chief of staff and a taciturn, shy politician with an unpolished and simple style – into one of Israel's most longed for and admired leaders until this very day? Shortly before passing away, biographer Robert Slater, based on years of exhaustive research including extensive interviews with Rabin himself, former colleagues, aides, political rivals, friends and family, sheds light in this wide-ranging account on Rabin the man, statesman, leader and warrior for peace.
Martha Stewart is the most famous and wealthy woman on earth--a person whose name is a brand and whose influence touches virtually every home in North America. This is the Martha Stewart story you have never heard It is the behind-the-scenes story of arrogance and miscalculation that led Martha to a trial that should never have happened...her life in a federal prison cell, told by those who were there...her personal transformation...and finally, her carefully plotted comeback...all the way to The Apprentice and beyond. This gripping narrative reads like a mystery novel and draws upon dozens of exclusive interviews including candid discussions with many principals associated with Martha's trial. In Martha: On Trial, In Jail, and On a Comeback , You'll go behind the scenes through every phase of Martha's fall and rise: the crime itself; the indictment and both sides' trial strategy; the damning testimony of star witness Douglas Faneuil and Martha's long-time friends; the tearful and shocking testimony of her decades' long personal testimony; the verdict and more. Robert Slater spoke to insiders at Alderson Federal Prison Camp to gain insight into Martha's prison life and behavior, including her relationship with inmates and prison authorities and how she began plotting her comeback even while still in prison. Last but not least, he reveals the PR campaign to resurrect Martha's reputation: one that is making her the first convicted business leader of her stature to come back stronger than ever before.
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