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Driven: Notes of a Neurotic Entrepreneur : His Trails, Failures & Victories
Harry Simon holds nothing back in this story about running a small manufacturing business during the sixties, seventies and eighties in America. He writes of the double-dealings, the betrayals and petty dishonesties, as well as the acts of generosity, trust and loyalty that occur in his relationship with employees, customers, the bank, friends, wife and mistress. He reveals his deepest conflicts, fears and doubts in his struggle to survive and win as a warrior in the competitive free enterprise war. Brutally self-aware, Harry Simon is Driven to succeed and does so at great personal cost.
401 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 3, 2011
This novel, about the two decade experience of a business CEO, brings the reader into the skin of the principal character and drives home the relentlessness of having to confront the vicissitudes that occur almost daily, particularly in human relationships. Here you'll find the blood and guts of running a business and the interaction between a CEO's business life and his personal one. The story is told in present tense while events are happening.
A Review of Driven
________________________________________
Max Barnet's crackling novel DRIVEN is damn near Shakespearean in its drama, psychology, and insight. From paragons to parasites, from gifted people to those as flaky as a barrel of dandruff, Barnet's characters forge a convincing impression that running a business can be frivolous to some, yet an almost religious experience to others. And there are times when one should just throw a tent over the enterprise and charge admission.
The novel resonates in its telescopic view of the pursuit of power and the influence of influence in business; it also underscores one man's search for the meaning of life. Though not a quest for the Holy Grail, it reveals an epic theme of deep consequences, a symbol of twentieth first century man's diminished capacity in spirit and love.
The diary form, covering the years 1966-1984, documents the crisis and triumphs of Magicolor, a manufacturer of plastics color concentrate, owned by Harry Simon, a cross between a feudal lord and a successful twentieth century businessman, who has the mistress, the anxiety, and the psychiatrist to prove it. With the courage of a lion and the heart of a shepherd he protects his workers, nurturing and vitalizing them through good and bad economic times.
Harry does business with those who know "the price of everything and the value of nothing," while demonstrating that behind every successful man is a woman and behind her his wife. Harry's business associates appall him by their guile; he appalls himself by betraying his wife Janet while deceiving his mistress Cathy. Torn by these two women, he, in turn, tears them. This dichotomous upheaval in Harry's life inevitably generates a guilty, unquiet mind.
DRIVEN reveals the odyssey of a decent man, obsessed with "omnipotent" power, who learns that power can destroy something vital in a man. Relinquishing it, however, he finds the solace he has been desperately seeking.
No longer concerned with "What I am" but rather "Who I am," Harry journeys from his early dominating years to his repose in his garden in his middle years, spanning an eternity in a lifetime.
A Review of Driven
________________________________________
Max Barnet's crackling novel DRIVEN is damn near Shakespearean in its drama, psychology, and insight. From paragons to parasites, from gifted people to those as flaky as a barrel of dandruff, Barnet's characters forge a convincing impression that running a business can be frivolous to some, yet an almost religious experience to others. And there are times when one should just throw a tent over the enterprise and charge admission.
The novel resonates in its telescopic view of the pursuit of power and the influence of influence in business; it also underscores one man's search for the meaning of life. Though not a quest for the Holy Grail, it reveals an epic theme of deep consequences, a symbol of twentieth first century man's diminished capacity in spirit and love.
The diary form, covering the years 1966-1984, documents the crisis and triumphs of Magicolor, a manufacturer of plastics color concentrate, owned by Harry Simon, a cross between a feudal lord and a successful twentieth century businessman, who has the mistress, the anxiety, and the psychiatrist to prove it. With the courage of a lion and the heart of a shepherd he protects his workers, nurturing and vitalizing them through good and bad economic times.
Harry does business with those who know "the price of everything and the value of nothing," while demonstrating that behind every successful man is a woman and behind her his wife. Harry's business associates appall him by their guile; he appalls himself by betraying his wife Janet while deceiving his mistress Cathy. Torn by these two women, he, in turn, tears them. This dichotomous upheaval in Harry's life inevitably generates a guilty, unquiet mind.
DRIVEN reveals the odyssey of a decent man, obsessed with "omnipotent" power, who learns that power can destroy something vital in a man. Relinquishing it, however, he finds the solace he has been desperately seeking.
No longer concerned with "What I am" but rather "Who I am," Harry journeys from his early dominating years to his repose in his garden in his middle years, spanning an eternity in a lifetime.
May 2, 2013
I mistakenly thought this was a non-fiction, with tips and what to do, what not to do in business. I is not. It is a novel that kind of has general tips, what to do and not to do, if you take it as a whole piece. Harry grows and manages his business from the start and deals with problems along the way. To me it also contains his dealing with other people and himself, not only in business but his personal life as well. Friends and women, that is. He has kids but we don't really learn anything about them. We don't really know what his product is physically till late in the book. The book is titled well in that Harry is driven. Almost obsessed with running this business in the way he thinks it needs to be to succeed. The story shows dirty deals and good. You kind of want to shake your head about some things(bad) and approve of others. But it really shows that things in the business world are not fair. Overall I liked the book. I gained some understanding of what business management people do and why. I would definitely recommend it to people who are in or want to be in business management.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews