DRIVEN, Notes of a Neurotic Entrepreneur, His Trials, Failures and Victories

by Max Barnet

The Story:
Harry Simon holds nothing back in this story about running a small manufacturing business 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 his employees, his customers, the bank, his friends, his wife and his 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.

Comments from Readers:
"No one should get an MBA sheepskin until they've read DRIVEN. My reaction to DRIVEN is, first and foremost, that it's real. I had the sense that I was indeed living it through with Harry and so understood and felt the frustrations, satisfactions, anger, rewards, sense of accomplishment, disappointment. I like particularly its honest depiction of business life as untidy and unpredictable. Harry's very existence and moods zig and zag...and whose don't? The MBA's I work with think that business is neat and clean and follows the book...Worse, that people can really control most things. Precious little can be "controlled"; ask Harry. I had fun with DRIVEN and found it easy to relate to the "blood and guts" feel of it."
George M. Naimark, Ph.D.,
Business Consultant

"I read DRIVEN cover to cover almost uninterrupted...The prose has the same forward momentum as the driven entrepreneur, and one has the feeling the author is sitting across the room letting his story spill out… it's a tale worth telling; it is told here with great accuracy and even with some very good insights for other entrepreneurs."
Peter W. Cox,
Reviewer for Maine in Print

"Every businessman and the wife of every businessman should read this book."
Barbara Feller-Roth,
Editor

Publisher's Comment:
DRIVEN shows the reader in real-time how things happen in business. Driving powerfully from moment to moment, propelling the protagonist relentlessly forward, the story puts the reader in the CEO's skin. Crises pile on as quickly as solutions are found. Reading the novel is an exhilarating experience, providing a unique window on the life of the CEO, and its impact on those - his wife, his employees, his customers, his banker etc.- who depend on his leadership. Loaded with business savvy, DRIVEN is an emotionally honest and truly compelling novel.

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