Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur

"A nicely balanced personal and practical book of corporate reflections and hard-won business lessons." —Kirkus Reviews

What is it really like to be an entrepreneur? After nearly fifty years of building a successful media company, founder of American all-sports radio Jeff Smulyan shares with candor and humor just how many bitter failures come with each great victory along the way.

For founder and CEO of Emmis Communications Jeff Smulyan, the path to success has been anything but straightforward. When you’ve owned a Major League Baseball team, started America’s first all sports radio station, created the world’s two largest hip hop radio stations and managed everyone from David Letterman to Ken Griffey Jr. and Don Imus and even been nationalized by an ally of Vladimir Putin, you’ve seen the rollercoaster ride of an entrepreneur from every side.

Aspiring entrepreneurs, radio and media industry insiders, and avid sports fans alike will appreciate Smulyan’s honesty as he shares the countless lessons he’s learned from decades of entrepreneurship. Smulyan offers readers priceless insight into navigating the twists and turns of growing a business and teaches how to build a culture based on both trust and humor—the essential keys to surviving almost anything.

Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down details Smulyan’s journey: from taking over his cousin’s failing country music radio station and founding his own company, to purchasing and then selling ownership of the Seattle Mariners and guiding his company through the Golden Age of Radio. Alongside his humorous, eventful, and dramatic stories, Smulyan presents valuable pointers and tips—for anyone else brave enough to try their own hand at starting a business.

The journey to booming business is a rollercoaster. Learn from someone who has experienced all the ups and downs—and knows that what’s most important is to hold on while keeping your sense of humor intact.

Jeffrey H. Smulyan serves as founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of Emmis Communications Corporation, an Indianapolis-based publicly traded diversified media company. A cum laude graduate of USC with a BA in history and telecommunications, Jeff earned a JD from the USC Gould School of Law, where he served as note and comment editor of the Southern California Law Review. He has served on the USC Board of Trustees since 2001.

 

Jeff is a former director of the National Association of Broadcasters, and a member of numerous civic boards and committees. As principal shareholder, he led a group that purchased the Seattle Mariners baseball team in 1989. In 1994, Jeff was named by the White House to head the U.S. Delegation to the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunications Union. Smulyan resides in suburban Indianapolis with his wife Heather; he has three children—Samantha, Cari, and Bradley—and two grandchildren.