COPY THIS!, Paul Orfalea's inspiring personal story of turning lessons into lemonade, may be the most unusual business memoir ever published.
Paul Orfalea struggles mightily to read, to write, and to sit still through business meetings. So what's the problem? By working with the obstacles life dealt him–he call his dyslexia and ADHD "learning opportunities"–he grew a 100-square-foot shop named Kinko's into a $1.5 billion-a-year company that Fortune named one of the best places in America to work.
The is the story of a boy who flunked out of second grade–a boy who was fired by a gas station for writing illegible receipts. But it's also the story of a boy who learned from the world directly, who was brave enough to fail, who knew he had to rely on other people. When Paul Orfalea first looked out on the worried, hopeful faces of his customers, he knew that he was in the problem-solving business–at four cents a page. Kinko's doesn't much handle paper as it handles dreams.
Paul Orfalea really did do it his way. With humor, wisdom, and compassion, he shares his invaluable experiences and unorthodox business lessons with the millions of those who are just a little bit "different," and who wonder if there's a place for them in the world. There is: at the top.
In an unusual acknowledgment, the author, the founder of Kinko's, admits he's dyslexic and didn't write his book. What follows purports to be a guide to his professional success, but it seems more like a mishmash of personal anecdotes, recountings of illnesses, and stories from company picnics. Paul Michael injects himself into the narrative so well that he sounds as though he were telling his own life story. Using cues from the text, he varies his expression and pace to keep the interest level elevated. His clear speech and comfortable pace make every word easy to understand as he renders a disorganized businessman's autobiography into something more pleasing than he started with. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
