Put Your Worst Foot Forward - Helzberg Jr., Barnett

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Résumé :
It takes perseverance, passion, and the support of many to create a life-changing mentoring program that matches successful, seasoned entrepreneurs with eager-but-green business owners willing to share what keeps them up at night. But that's exactly what Barnett C. Helzberg, Jr., did a quarter century ago after selling his business to Warren Buffett. He launched, and then led, the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program (HEMP) in Kansas City. Today, hundreds of Kansas City businesses have benefited from his wisdom and HEMP's overall mission of fostering bold, spirited entrepreneurism. Not surprisingly, HEMP has also emerged as a national model for business mentoring. In Put Your Worst Foot Forward, Helzberg openly shares the challenges, successes, and failures that accompanied HEMP's growth. It's a dramatic story of ups and downs. It also provides lessons to other business communities in how they, too, can foster the magic of mentoring in their cities and towns. ...

Biographie:
A Kansas City-area native, Barnett Helzberg, Jr., received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Michigan. He is the former chairman of the board of Helzberg Diamonds (est. 1915) and expanded the company from fifteen units in 1962 into twenty-three states, becoming the nation's third-largest jewelry retailer. In 1995, the company was sold to Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett). Barnett is the creator of the I Am Loved theme and cocreator with Dr. Rich Davis of the book I Am Loved, published in 2001. He is also the author of What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett, published in 2003.Barnett is currently the chair and founder of the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program and cofounder and board member of the University Academy K-12 Charter School in Kansas City, Missouri. He established the Helzberg Leadership Fellows (a program to train young Jewish leadership) and is also an adjunct professor at Rockhurst University.Barnett lives with his wife, Shirley. They have two adult sons, Barnett III and Bush, six brilliant grandsons, and one gorgeous and brilliant granddaughter.