May 4th, 2009
by Kaili Hawley
One of my favorite actors of all time is Paul Newman, I first saw him in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof when I was about thirteen and immediately fell in love. I watched that tape until it fell apart and over the years I have learned little tidbits about Mr. Newman and have watched everything he has been in. On screen there is just something magical about him that commands attention and brings about admiration.
Recently I was perusing the shelves in the business/marketing section at my local bookstore and I came across Paul Newman’s book In Pursuit of the Common Good that he wrote with his friend and business partner A.E. Hotchner. It didn’t take me long to decide that I was going to buy this book.
The book is an about how Mr. Newman and Mr. Hotchner started Newman’s Own and how over the years they have grown it into a multi-million dollar business that gives ALL of its profits to charity, and yes I said ALL PROFITS, amazing. So far over $265 million has been given away to a variety of charities.
What I have found so interesting about this book is that at pretty much every turn they were told “no, you can’t do it that way, no one has ever done it that way” or “your product will never sell like that” but through it all Newman and Hotchner stuck with their vision and what they wanted and in turn forged new ways of doing business in the supermarket race. I highly recommend reading In Pursuit of the Common Good, it’s a fun read, not a boring business book, and like everything else Mr. Newman has done it’s creative and fun.
Newman and Hotchner came up with their own recipe for success that includes some of the following ingredients a rub of determination, a dash of creativity, a pinch of tenacity and a touch of love. Everyone has their own recipe for success and the Wild Web Women have a recipe box full of ways to help forge new ways of driving results, because doing the same thing just gets plain old and stale.
