Small Fortunes: Two Guys in Pursuit of the American Dream - Hardcover

Zuckerman, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670816442 ISBN 13: 9780670816446

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1991

Synopsis

Relates the real life sagas of Texas entrepreneurs Pete Binon, who developed a new breed of cattle, and Jim Teal, who hopes to recoup hot-tub rental losses with comic-strip character T-shirt profits

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Texans Jim Teal and Pete Binion--the former a transplanted Ohioan, the latter a native son--once had visions of success American-style as burgeoning entrepreneurs, yet both took falls; each of their stories is told here. As a teenager starting humbly in a fast-food chain, Teal left Ohio with a million dollars' worth of stock and moved to Austin, where he eventually went into the business of selling comic-strip-character T-shirts. Binion graduated from Texas A & M and had begun work on a master's degree there when he became interested in a rare breed of cattle seemingly ideally suited to the American Southwest; he imported a quantity from the Virgin Islands in the hope that they would become a prime breed in this country. Both men failed; the collapse of Binion's dream seems especially unfortunate, in freelance journalist Zuckerman's telling. Still, the book is not depressing: both subjects are sure they'll bounce back.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Journalist Zuckerman profiles two ambitious and energetic entrepreneurs, Pete Binion and Jim Teal, and chronicles their endeavors to establish lucrative businesses. Binion invests in the breeding and raising of a genetically superior cow called the Senepol. Teal, who started out in fast food, markets and sells T-shirts based on popular cartoon characters. The author describes the colorful people encountered by both Binion and Teal, among them Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's; Bloom County and Outland cartoonist Berke Breathed; groups of investment bankers; U.S. Marine Corps officers; St. Croix cattle breeders; and Times Square drug dealers. An entertaining saga of the successes, trials, and tribulations of two entrepreneurs.
- Lucy Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, N.Y.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0670816442
• ISBN 13: 9780670816446
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304