“I’m like the gunfighter you hire to save the town. That gunfighter is there to do good…but he’ll only do what he does if he knows he’ll get paid for it.” – Carl Icahn
In this dramatic, deal-by-deal portrait of legendary and, until now, secretive financier Carl Icahn, bestselling business writer Mark Stevens takes us behind the scenes of some of the biggest deals in U.S. corporate history: Icahn’s multibillion dollar raid on Phillips Petrolium; his bold move on Texaco’s hidebound management, which netted him $500 million in the largest single transaction ever recorded by the New York Stock Exchange; Icahn’s prolonged battle with CEO David Roderick to break apart the once mighty steel giant USX; and his stunning takeover of TWA.
To write this fascinating audio book, Mark Stevens has utilized to the ultimate his incisive investigative skills and his extraordinary access to Icahn himself as well as Icahn’s friends, associates, adversaries, and critics-those who rode on his takeover bandwagon, and those who fell beneath its wheeling and dealing. The story he has to tell is that of a bookish boy from Bayswater who went to Princeton, studied philosophy, dropped out of medical school, landed as a minor player on Wall Street, and then had a billion-dollar epiphany-a means of “controlling the destiny of corporations” that would ultimately earn him his fortune.
Along with the inside details of the deals that defined the high-flying eighties, Stevens provides a vivid, totally unauthorized profile of Icahn himself. At times deceptively disorganized and absentminded but a ruthlessly brilliant tactician when the chips are down, Icahn won his place at the pinnacle of capitalism by realizing that America’s CEOs could be “persuaded” to spend millions in corporate funds or search for white knights to avert a takeover that might cost them their jobs. It was a plan of predatory genius; in the seventies and eighties Icahn garnered huge profits time after time-until he devoured TWA, and found that his ambitions were greater than his management talents. With his very fortune hanging in the balance, Icahn engaged in epic negotiations with the Pension Benefit Guarantee Board, engineering what may be the premiere victory of his career.
A fascinating tale with a cast of characters that includes Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, T. Boone Pickens, Dennis Levine, and most of the other key players of the takeover era. King Icahn is the first biography of the business buccaneer who changed the course of corporate America.

What’s the secret to building and maintaining wealth?
Rich is a Religion offers an unprecedented and detailed look at the timeless secrets to building and maintaining wealth. It’s a philosophy and behavior that comes before picking out a stock or fund. It is, in bestselling author Mark Stevens’ words, ‘A means of thinking and behaving …a financial religion’.
Both a revelation and a guide, Rich Is a Religion offers you a dramatically different view of how wealth is created and preserved by that enviable breed of people – famous and obscure – who truly have it. These individuals have a different way of seeing the world, in which their philosophy, principles, and belief system allows them to leverage opportunities that many others tend to miss. Stevens illuminates this previously untold approach and reveals why it works. Along the way, he provides insights into the dynamics of getting and staying rich and how this process can make all the difference between doing well financially and creating true wealth.
The author also examines how the wealthy use money as an instrument of independence, confidence, stability, and enduring value as opposed to simply the temporal rewards of luxury.
Filled with engaging anecdotes and advice from real millionaires, Rich Is a Religion provides you with a powerful new way of thinking and living. Its accessible style will help you change your mindset and thought process as you prepare to become and remain wealthy – and live a rich and independent life.

Do you want to join the ranks of the top salespeople in your industry?
Well, the rules have changed! No more diplomatic, play it by the old rules salesmanship.
It’s not enough to simply seek a sale…you must mount an overwhelming offense and move in for The Kill.
In this provocative new audio book, Mark Stevens provides a roadmap for doing just that. He will tell you how to:
* Completely control the agenda
* Introduce the element of surprise
* Develop an offer that is virtually irresistible
Based on real world experience, The Kill is an indispensable tool for exceptional success.

Like a mirror, Your Management Sucks reveals important truths that you may deal with . . . or choose to ignore or put on the back burner.
Everyone manages someone or something . . . your own life and career, an administrative assistant, hundreds or thousands of people. How well or poorly you manage has a profound impact on your personal success.
Mark Stevens makes the compelling point that at any given time everyone’s management sucks. It can, however, be improved and rethought so you can move away from patterns and habits that you can easily fall victim to. Start by declaring constructive war on yourself. Look in the mirror and identify those invisible traps and barriers. Then leave the land of business-as-usual with the seven-point plan Stevens has used to build both his own extraordinary career and his marketing and strategy consulting firm. You’ll soon find that you’re in the fast lane, easily outpacing your passive peers who rarely, if ever, challenge the how and why of what they do.

This BusinessWeek bestseller from esteemed marketing guru Mark Stevens is an entertaining and useful guide to improving the way businesses promote
themselves. Stevens attacks conventional strategies with infectious zeal, making it crystal clear that most companies might as well throw their money away.

In blunt, perfectly logical terms and through clear examples, Stevens shreds modern marketing and provides practical advice on how to fix the problems.
Among his pearls of wisdom are, “Be a skeptical SOB about every dollar you are spending,” and, “Get someone who can sell–and he doesn’t need to have
‘salesperson’ in his title.” In no time, listeners will know how to spend their marketing dollars wisely and get a good return on their investment.

Whether you work for a small store or an international manufacturing conglomerate, Your Marketing Sucks. may be the most important book you ever read.