Peterman Rides Again: Adventures Continue with the Real "J. Peterman" Through Life & the Catalog Business - Hardcover

John Peterman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0735201994 ISBN 13: 9780735201996

Publisher: Prentice Hall Press, 2000

Synopsis

"J. Peterman" is a name known to over 40 million consumers and business people, thanks to a unique mail-order catalog hailed as "witty, entertaining....the stuff of literature" (New York Times Magazine) and regular appearances of a "J. Peterman" character on the popular Seinfeld TV show.

Now the real John Peterman steps from behind his persona in a candid memoir that interweaves the rise and fall of the J. Peterman Company with a recounting of the unusual life experiences that shaped the man himself.

Starting with a $500 investment and one product-an ankle-length, cowboy-style duster coat bought on impulse in Jackson Hole, Wyoming-Peterman built a $75 million company. His unconventional "Owner's Manual" catalog used long, literate copy and artful watercolors instead of photos to surround his wares-whether a Navy watch cap or a deck bench from the Titanic-with an aura of adventure and romance. Then came a cash-flow crisis, Chapter 11...and a harrowing personal and professional reassessment.

Through autobiographical anecdotes (including his early years with the Pittsburgh Pirates), Peterman explains how to turn dreams into action, find courage to go beyond the conventional, and be part of a team without sacrificing individuality. He shows how true passion and drive are not defeated by failure, but used as a stepping stone for the next venture.

For anyone starting, growing, or running a business, Peterman Rides Again offers hard-won lessons in entrepreneurship and the painful (but essential) art of learning from mistakes. For consumers, it's a chance to finally meet up close the bon vivant and raconteur they knew from the pages of the catalog.

About this title

About the Author

John Peterman, a former second baseman in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, was chairman and CEO of The J. Peterman Company from 1987 to 1999. He is currently developing a "second generation" e-commerce business (johnpeterman.com) in Lexington, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Audrey. He still wears his famous duster.

Reviews

The romantic product descriptions in J. Peterman's clothing catalogue not only launched one of the most eccentric careers in the retail world but led Peterman to sitcom notoriety as Elaine's boss on TV's Seinfeld. Offering "protection against the winds of Wyoming, the blizzards of Wall Street," Peterman's ad for a long cowboy duster earned him and his partners $580,000 in their first year in business. However, during the decade of his tenure at the J. Peterman Company (which is now owned by Paul Harris), Peterman's business decisions were not always sound: he expanded the catalogue business too rapidly, opened several lavish stores around the country and didn't hire experienced executives. In 1999, he sat through bankruptcy hearings and found himself out of a job. In addition to his business venture, this memoir chronicles Peterman's lifeAfrom his days as a minor league baseball player to his journeys around the world in search of exotic products. The anecdotes about his eponymous company are amusing (who would have thought 5,000 people would want to buy a $90 gold-plated monocle?), yet Peterman's memoir reads too much like one of his cataloguesAlike a grab bag wreathed in gauzeAjumping confusingly from his college days to the present, back to his childhood and then forward to his first years of heady success. Photos. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0735201994
• ISBN 13: 9780735201996
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 225