Every Mistake in the Book: A Business How-Not-To

by F.J. Lennon

Why suffer from your own business mistakes? Here's a lifesaving guide from a man who's made them all.The world of business is like the world's worst one wrong step in any direction and you're history. It's a lesson F. J. Lennon has learned over and over again, as his entrepreneurial career careened from snafu to snafu. But Lennon was from the beginning he kept a journal of the screwups, big and small, he watched himself and others make. And by monitoring his own learning curve he helped turn himself -- finally -- into a successful businessman.Every Mistake in the Book collects all the best lessons Lennon learned from his mistakes, pulling them together in a pithy, witty, and universally useful format. Whether you're a business owner, a manager, or a freshly minted graduate, Lennon's no-nonsense advice will enlighten If you're contemplating a startup, here are essential lessons you won't learn in a classroom or read in a textbook.Money From venture capital to corporate debt, know the financial fundamentals or pay the price.How to Manage All managers are card-carrying members of the baby-sitters club. Learn what you should -- and definitely shouldn't -- do to the poor saps who call you boss.In the Not everyone plays nice and you can't, either. Down-and-dirty advice for when the going gets tough.Let's Get Yes, it does matter how you act, speak, write, and dress. Here's how to get that little bit of polish -- or at least not alienate everyone around you.Often hysterical, always practical, this straight-from-the-hip handbook will educate and encourage everyone from the dot-com greenhorn to the established business professional.

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

F.J. Lennon is a novelist, screenwriter, and independent digital media producer, designer, and writer.

During his 25-year career, Lennon has been actively employed in multiple industries including video games, interactive television, advertising, and toys.

He has authored three books: Soul Trapper (Atria, 2011) and Devil’s Gate (Atria, 2012), the first two novels in a series of supernatural thrillers that follow the turbulent life of rogue ghost hunter, Kane Pryce; and Every Mistake in the Book (HarperCollins/Regan Books, 2001), a light-hearted business memoir about Lennon’s years in the video game industry. He has also written numerous screenplays and teleplays in various stages of development.

Since 1985, Lennon has been instrumental in the development of 47 interactive games, educational software titles, and entertainment properties for companies including Electronic Arts, Take 2 Interactive, Disney Interactive, Mattel, Sesame Street, DIRECTV, Paramount Digital Entertainment, Simon and Schuster Interactive, Marvel Comics, MicroProse Software, and the U.S. Federal Government.

Between 1985 and 1996, Lennon was Take 2 Interactive Software’s Creative Director and Senior Vice President of Product Development, a Senior Producer for MicroProse Software, Inc., and the co-founder and Vice President of Paragon Software Corporation, which was sold to MicroProse in 1992.

Lennon is a 1986 magna cum laude graduate of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he earned a degree in Communications and a minor in English Literature.

He is a native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania and currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately by the time I read this book, I could've written it myself.

[Smellsofbikes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair amount of good advice, in with a lot of anger, distrust, and general crabbiness.