Product Description
After dropping out of school at just sixteen, James Caan started his business life in a broom cupboard with no qualifications and two pieces of fatherly wisdom: 'observe the masses and do the opposite' and 'always look for opportunities where both parties benefit'. Armed with this advice, natural charm and the Yellow Pages, he built a market-leading business with a turnover of GBP130 million and swiftly became one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs.From Caan's childhood as a Pakistani immigrant to the phenomenal success of his first company and beyond, "The Real Deal" traces both his financial and personal achievements. It offers a frank account of what success at thirty really signifies and brings us right up to the present, including his impact on Dragons' Den and what his charity work, from saving a hospital in London to building a school in Lahore, means to him. Ultimately, it is a story of learning what money is really worth, told by one the country's most insightful businessmen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

inspiring!
I was not aware of James Caan until I happened upon his show, Drangon's Den, while vacationing in England.Found his advice to be very interesting and I liked the way he seemed to believe in the people pitching ideas to him as much as the ideas themselves, so I was happy to see this book available and snapped it up right away.

Very inspiring!I had no idea of James' background before reading this book and I think it's a good lesson that just because somebody is successful now doesn't mean that he was always successful or inherited money or something else to "jumpstart" the process.James is a guy just like you or me; he simply went after what he wanted and made it happen!

A great book!

The Best Business Bio I Have Read in a Long While
As a fellow bootstrapping entrepreneur I found this book to be a great reminder of what is possible with great focus and determination.I picked up the Audio version, (read by the author) His voice is upbeat, interesting and authentic. He recounts details of team building, sales techniques, (including cold calling) negotiating and closing deals as only an experienced business person could. In this book Mr. Caan finds the perfect balance of business and personal life lessons.He gives a lot of detail about how he was able to build a business empire while dealing with real life challenges(without the "preachy tone" found in most business books). I wish more business autobiographies were written this way.It was the perfect book to read (listen to) at the beginning of the year.I loved it!

Carletus Willis

A business bio from a back seat perspective
Although this book follows the typical business biography format (e.g. I was born here, I did this, I accomplished that) it stands above many others in that Caan comes across as a sincere, grounded, like-able guy and offers some insight into his motivations, hopes and worries. His willingness explore the conflict between his own aspirations and those of his father is refreshing and make his story personal. For much of the book the story is not rushed and you gain some real perspective on his experience but the exceptions to that are significant. The most notable examples are the lack of detail dedicated to his two most break-through and career changing events. Sure, once somebody has achieved success and wealth it is interesting to learn how they think and what they do when they are on top of their game, but more focus on the defining moments that lead to the success would have taken this book from pretty good to a must read. He could have chosen to let the reader experience the leap of faith that every first time entrepreneur takes while sharing the set backs as well the first taste of success. Instead of doing that Caan goes from a 19 year old high school drop out who stumbles into a recruiting job to the manager in charge at the flag ship location of one of Brittans most renown recruiting companies in about 1 page. He repeats this mistake in the section about opening his first business. Here, the time between using a personal credit card to fund the start up of his clothing store and realizing enough profit to purchase an outrageous home and open a second location seem to pass with just a brief mention about learning the difference between capital and cash flow. All said, this is a good read especially for entrepreneurs hoping to find motivation in the story of a self-made gazillonaire.

A real joy
This biography delivers from beginnig to end giving us insight into the trials and challenges, the good times and the bad of James Caan.I gained a lot from seeing his thought process and the critical decisions he made that took him from a mildly successful businessman to the cream of the crop.

A very candid account of a remarkable life
This book is quite a read. I was expecting it to be simply a marketing focussed book timed to coincide with James' appearances on "Dragons' Den" but instead it is quite a well written, at times personal account of James' life.

I am impressed that he reveals the intimate thoughts of his fears and weaknesses when he was young and then reveals his attitude to thinking as he grows up and encounters success. In contrast to other successful businessmen who never want to admit weakness it is refreshing to read of James' willingness to ask questions when he did not understand something regardless of what others thought of his questions.

His writing gives real clues to the factors that led to his success. He writes of his early experiences in sales and in learning to be upfront and confident when working as a recruiter, skills that would serve him well in days to come. It is also interesting to read the vivid descriptions he provides of the early working environments he was in, particularly financial services firm Reid Trevena which James says "changed my life".

The life described by this book has many twists and turns, theres everything from the age old father-son drama to losing your head with success to reaching that true golden entrepreneurial point where one ventures for more than just more money. There are interesting tales of learning to fly, racing ferraris, doing an MBA at Harvard not to mention all the excitement of being able to retire fabulously wealthy at just 42 years old.

James, this is a fabulous and well written book. It was exciting and I enjoyed it throughly, so much so that I felt compelled to write my first review on it. Well done. ... Read more

Product Description
PLAYMATE: Laura LyonsCOVER: Jill De VriesPICTORIALS: Marisa Berenson from Stanley Kubrick film, "Barry Lyndon"; And Now...Funderwearis a sensuous pictorial of Playmates modeling lingerie from Frederick's and Lili St. CyrINTERVIEW: James CaanFEATURES: Ficiton by Melvin Van Peebles, The True American; full page Vargas Girl: "Well, you didn't pin me, but you certainly piled up a lot of riding time."; Playboy's History of Assissination- part II, After Lincoln, The Deluge features photos and history of post-Lincoln assassination attempts, by James McKinley; fiction by R. K. Narayan, God and the Cobbler; five page cartoon,A Heavily Italicized History of Sexby Arnold Roth; emmylou Harris and Henry Winkler in "On the Scene" segment; plus much, much more!PAGES: 222 ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Great tips for aspiring entrepreneurs
This book isn't just about how to perform well on the Dragons' Den, it's got great insights and tips from successful entrepreneurs about the challenges and rewards of starting your own business. Many of the Dragon's stories are inspirational in their own right. Essential reading for any aspiring entrepreneurs and recommended for the more experienced as well.

Helpful
Does a good job of covering the basics of what you want to know before a pitch. Then you can go online to watch some pitches to fine tune yours. Overall good job. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Newsmakers 2004 Cumulation, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1981 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Newsmakers provides timely and informative profiles of the world's most interesting people. Separate obituaries provide concise profiles of recently deceased newsmakers. ... Read more

Product Description
mag: GAME 4/75... King Farouk... James Caan Interview... The Old Town Hooker... The Black Slave.. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Akmal Shaikh, Younus Algohar, Nazir Ahmed, Baron Ahmed, James Caan, Tariq Ali, Owais Shah, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammad Sarwar, Mohammad Naseem, Khalid Mahmood, Shaykh Faiz-Ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, Art Malik, Imran Arif, Bashir Ahmad, Mohammad Asghar, Sascha Akhtar, Sarfraz Manzoor, Bashir Maan, Syed Ahmad Hussain Shah Tirmezi, Surinder Arora, Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Ali Abbasi, Allameh Hashim Raza Ghadeery, Unaiza Malik. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 116. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Akmal Shaikh (5 April 1956 29 December 2009) was a Pakistan-born British businessman who was convicted and executed in the People's Republic of China for drug trafficking. The trial and execution attracted media attention and strained diplomatic relations between Britain and China. Shaikh, a Muslim born in Pakistan, moved to the United Kingdom when still a child. After a couple of failed businesses, Shaikh moved to Poland with his second wife in 2005, ostensibly with the dream of starting an airline, and later of becoming a pop star. He travelled to China from Poland and was arrested by customs officers at Ürümqi International Airport on 12 September 2007 with 4 kilograms (9 lb) of heroin hidden in a compartment in his baggage. His defence pleaded ignorance of the existence of the drugs, although his lawyers said that the evidence against him was "overwhelming". Reprieve, an anti-death penalty organisation, argued that Shaikh suffered from mental illness which was exploited by criminals who tricked him into transporting the heroin on the promise of a recording contract. Shaikh, who had never been assessed by mental health experts, himself denied he was mentally ill. He had requested a psychiatric evaluation to prove he was sane, but the requests were refused by Chinese authorities on the grounds t...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=25562844 ... Read more