Longaberger: An American Success Story

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Although many businesspeople may not yet be familiar with Dave Longaberger and the hugely successful basket company that bears his name, they probably should be. The story of the man and his enterprise, as told in Longaberger: An American Success Story, is as informative and inspiring as any likely to pass their way. In fact, this plainspoken memoir--prepared with business writer Robert Shook shortly before Longaberger's death from cancer in 1999--ought to be required for all entrepreneurs who think they really know what makes the business world go round.

In its pages, Longaberger candidly relates how he first learned to share and do his part as one of 12 children in a small house in tiny Dresden, Ohio--and how seemingly major drawbacks like epilepsy, stuttering, learning disabilities, and lack of a college education never deterred him. He tells how he kicked off his entrepreneurial career with a restaurant and grocery-drugstore before opening the basket company in 1973 as a part-time family affair, and how its workforce ultimately grew to 8,000 while revenues hit $1 billion. Longaberger fully explains overcoming his difficulties and learning the real secrets of business by shoveling snow and toiling in a grocery store as a youngster, and then selling baked goods and working in a factory as a young man. He also shows how this knowledge, and his penchant for the unconventional, became invaluable when he went into business for himself. The story includes Longaberger's rationale for the moves he parlayed into success, and offers his specific management principles along with advice on how and why to implement them. At its heart, though, Longaberger's message is deceptively simple. "If you remember nothing else about this book," he writes, "I hope you realize that if a small-town boy like me can make it, anyone in America who's willing to work hard should be able to earn a darn good living." --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Dave Longaberger was one of the most remarkable entrepreneurs of his generation. His vision, his unorthodox business methods, and his belief in people resulted in the creation of one of the largest and most successful private companies in America.

Longaberger: An American Success Story is Dave's fascinating firsthand account of how he created and grew his company into the largest basket manufacturer in the United States, employing thousands of people, revitalizing his community, and inspiring everyone involved with a commitment to quality, craftsmanship, and a unique management philosophy.

As Dave himself admits in this moving and compelling memoir, he was an unlikely success story. In addition to having epilepsy and a stutter, Dave suffered from a learning disorder, finally graduating high school at the age of twenty-one. Yet, he ran two profitable businesses, a restaurant and a grocery store -- which, to the horror of bankers and friends, he then sold in order to finance his struggling basket company.

Dave was a business maverick who only let adversities make him stronger and more versatile. He became renowned for his managerial skills -- and his sense of humor. More than once he started a food fight at a company event or launched a wild idea -- like the basket-shaped headquarters building -- that just happened to work perfectly.

This engaging story shows how Dave Longaberger shared his life and unconventional business sense to create what is now the $1 billion-in-sales Longaberger Company. Join him on his journey as he takes his own unique route to success. Learn about the many original and highly unusual management practices that not only contributed to the strength of the Longaberger enterprise but can make any business run more profitably. Follow Dave's example and develop the entrepreneurial skills necessary for business success.

Longaberger: An American Success Story is an affirmation of the American values of independence, hard work, and business ethics. Inspirational as well as informative, this is a moving portrait of an enterprise and an entrepreneur, both of whom are loved and revered by the thousands of people whose lives they have enriched.

About The Longaberger Company

From a bare-bones beginning with a handful of part-time employees in 1972, Longaberger today, under the leadership of president and CEO Tami Longaberger, employs some 8,700 people and inspires some 70,000 independent sales associates across the United States. The Longaberger Company has a sprawling campus of office facilities, production plants where basket makers create more than 40,000 high-quality baskets every day, and tourist attractions in and around central Ohio.

Customer Reviews:

Not A Very Helpful Book!.......2004-05-28

As stated by another reviewer, this is a book for "Longaberger fans" (pretty much a waste of time and money for anybody else). The wholesome, made-in America image that the Longaberger family is trying to convey seems ironic to me now, since the company is outsourcing a large amount of their products in China. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone except the die-hard Longaberger enthusiast!

Have you ever had a dream that was draining you dry?.......2003-04-08

That was Mr.Longaberger's problem. He knew that handcrafted baskets had a place in Americana, but he didn't know how to make it profitable. But he never gave up. While it was running in the red, he was taking money from his business that was running in the black.

Those entrepreneurs that are working full time jobs, as well,know the feeling.

I picked up this book to gain perspective on how to not get discouraged in my own business. It worked.

I have never had to work in a building that had no roof. I have never had to pay employees with IOUs. I have never had to go into a store and see my handmade baskets tossed in the back of a shelf collecting dusts while cheaper made, inferior baskets go whizzing by.

What I took away from this book is to constantly persist and innovate. The cliche "Where there is a will there is a way" readily applied to Mr.Longaberger. He gained my utmost admiration as a businessman and as a philanthroper.

From day one he shared is wealth, with his employees, with his community, and with strangers. I am shopping around to purchase one of his baskets, solely as an inspiration piece, and if you do the same, after reading this book, you will find out what I found out, they are expensive and you have stiff competition among the collectors. He created a $7billion company from an abandon building. Could you do the same.

Do you have what it takes to get through your hard times, up beat, to really see your business blossom? I do. I look forward to seeing you at the top.

Wonderful Business Tips If you are a real businessman.......2003-04-03

If a book's name is success story it will not be a business textbook to explain business strategy or corporate finance. In this book you can see the optimism (which we need right now), persuasion(every entreprenuer needs), and a soft touch to people ( key element to create successful business). So as you understand this book do not make you understand hard business issues but make you understand that the realization of dreams are not restricted to business educated people... It shows you a person who has learning disabilities can create a company of 1 billion dollar worth... it shows you the importance of caring customers and touching customers and caring their families...

So people who needs business books they need to go text books not success stories... ... if i need a screwdriver and if i get a hammer, hammer will be useless for me but this does not change the effectiveness of the hammer for the person who needs it... so only problem is the person who selects it...

thanks

This is not a business book.......2002-05-10

If you are looking for a book celebrating the life and times of David Longaberger, this is the book for you. If you are looking to learn more about how he built his businesses, look elsewhere. I was very disappointed in this book. Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, not wear rose colored glasses.

I'm surprised at all the ultra positive reviews here for this book, but I guess they are all "Longaberger Fans". I enjoy reading about successfully business people and looked forward to reading about how Longaberger built his unique marketing method.

Ask any entrepreneur and they'll tell you that they learned far more from their failures than their successes. Either Dave Longaberger is the luckiest business person ever or he has really selective memory. The history of the Longaberger company and his earlier businesses is written as a series of successes with no discussion of any failures.

The working conditions of the early basket production were horrible. Unpaid employees working in a dilapidated building without even bathroom facilities. While this may sound like something out of the turn of the century, this OSHA nightmare happened in the mid 70's. Still, Longaberger writes lovingly about it recalling his "devoted" employees, even patting himself on the back for allowing these workers flexible time.

The "business tips" other reviewers have referred to are nothing new or interesting nor are the anecdotes on how practices like "listening to your employees" contributed to the success of the company.

After reading this book I do understand the cult-like following that Longaberger enjoys. The selective history, overly positive attitude, and constant emphasis on a team attitude that Longaberger runs his businesses with are very similar to methods used by religious and other cult leaders.

Longaberger - An American Success.......2002-01-24

This is such a great book. If owners and managers of companies had the same knowledge that Dave had with no college education, there would be a lot more people with better morale in the workplace. His techniques prove to be successful. This was a very touching book too. He went from nothing to something.

Cowboys and Cave Dwellers: Basketmaker Archaeology in Utah's Grand Gulch

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Vindication for Wetherills
Detective story on finding "lost" archaeological collection

Cowboys and Cave Dwellers: Basketmaker Archaeology in Utah's Grand Gulch
Fred M. Blackburn , and Ray A. Williamson
Manufacturer: School of American Research Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0933452470

Book Description

The tortuous canyon country of southeastern Utah conceals thousands of archaeological sites, ancient homes of the ancestors of today's Southwest Indian peoples. Late in the nineteenth century, adventurous cowboy-archaeologists made the first forays into the canyons in search of the material remains of these prehistoric cultures. Rancher Richard Wetherill (best known as the "discoverer" of Mesa Verde's Cliff Palace) and his brothers; entrepreneurs Charles McLoyd and Charles Cary Graham; and numerous other adventurers, scholars, preachers, and businessmen mounted expeditions into the area now known as Grand Gulch.

With varying degrees of scientific rigor, they mapped and dug the canyon's rich archaeological sites, removing large numbers of artifacts and burial goods to exhibit or sell back home-whether "home" was Durango, Chicago, New York, or Helsinki. During a trip in the winter of 1893-94, Richard Wetherill unearthed convincing proof that a previously unrecognized group of people had lived in Grand Gulch before the so-called Anasazi, or Cliff Dwellers. Wetherill named these people the "Basket Makers" and inaugurated a new era of understanding of the region's prehistoric past.

Almost one hundred years later, the modern-day adventure that became known as the Wetherill-Grand Gulch Research Project began. Intrigued by the poorly documented history of the Gulch, a group of avocational archaeologists launched a grassroots effort to recover that history and locate the many artifacts that had been extracted from southeastern Utah's arid soil. The Gulch, they found, contained its own invaluable clues in the form of dated signatures left on canyon walls by the Wetherills and others as they made their way from site to site. An effort to track the original explorers in the Gulch ultimately led the team to Chicago's Field Museum and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

In this book, Fred M. Blackburn and Ray A. Williamson tell the two intertwined stories of the early archaeological expeditions into Grand Gulch and the Wetherill-Grand Gulch Research Project. In the process, they describe what we now know about Basketmaker culture and present a stirring plea for the preservation of our nation's priceless archaeological heritage. Lavishly illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Vindication for Wetherills.......1999-10-27

I appreciated this book, not just for the fantastic illustrations and stories, but for improving the reputation of the Wetherills, long considered no-good cowboy pot hunters. A great companion to this books is In Search of the Old Ones by David Roberts, in which Fred Blackburn features largely as a revolutionary who shapes Roberts' thinking about the mess each generation of southwestern archeologists passes on to the next.

Detective story on finding "lost" archaeological collection.......1997-10-26

Undoubtedly the popular book of the year in Southwest archaeology, "Cowboys and Cave Dwellers" tells how a group of talented and dedicated "amateurs" found the missing links between nearly forgotten collections of artifacts stored in museum basements and their original sites in Utah's spectacular Grand Gulch. In the process they unearthed valuable information about the people called Basketmakers, the first farmers of the Colorado Plateau. The first explorers and untrained archaeologists who dug sites in Grand Gulch removed thousands of artifacts, often taking little care to record their locations. By carefully matching old photographs, diaries, newspaper articles and the signatures those adventurers carved on the canyon walls, the authors of this book, the members of the Wetherill-Grand Gulch Research Project, were able to locate many of the caves and cliff dwelling where the treasures were originally found. They solved one of the most puzzling mysteries of Southeastern Utah archaeology: the location of long lost Cave 7, where Mesa Verde discoverer Richard Whetherill dug up dozens of skeletons that seemed to show evidence of a massacre. A good story with extensive historial and archaeological background and beautifully illustrated, this book is essential for anyone interested in Southwest archaeology. A good companion piece is William Ferguson's "The Anasazi of Mesa Verde and the Four Corners Region," which gives a broader view of the entire Mesa Verde-San Juan region.

Southwestern Indian Baskets: Their History and Their Makers (Studies in American Indian Art)

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Southwestern Indian Baskets: Their History and Their Makers (Studies in American Indian Art)
Andrew Hunter Whiteford
Manufacturer: School of American Research Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Baskets | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Weaving | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0933452241

Book Description

The Indians of the American Southwest fashioned baskets for many uses vital to their daily lives, from collecting seeds to carrying heavy loads. This book is a comprehensive history of this oldest southwestern craft that is unique in focusing as much on the people who made the baskets as on the baskets themselves.

Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia

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Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia

Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia
John Rice Irwin
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Baskets | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0916838617

Book Description

This is perhaps the country's most authentic and colorful book on American baskets and the interesting people who made them. Although this in-depth people-oriented book is centered on basketry in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and the surrounding area, basketmaking in Europe, New England, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the country is examined as a means of comparing and contrasting forms, materials and designs. Indian baskets, especially Cherokee, are also included.

Customer Reviews:

Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia.......2001-03-03

This is the most inspiring book I have found about making baskets. John Rice Irwin covers the subject of producing hand made baskets from scratch with a minimum of tools, and materials found in nature. The author features a great variety of black and white pictures of high quality baskets and makers at work. The book is as much a historical perspective of the Southern Appalachian basket culture, as it is a guide for making your own baskets. The remote areas of the region and the abundance of white oak and other native plants dictate the evolution of making baskets. There are references that indicate the initial designs were adopted by the Cherokee people of the region for harvesting, storing, and marketing their crops. The author has taken great care to include many details about the basket makers, their methods, and reasons for weaving. I was most inspired by the personal stories behind each basket, and the fact that many of the baskets outlive their makers. It is not uncommon for a single basket to last through several generations, carrying the love and thoughtfulness of the maker to those that follow. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in hand made baskets, as well as those who are looking for ways to use materials found in the back yard to create a lasting, usefull, even market worthy product. I have adopted many of the methods, meterials, and designes in the baskets I now make.

Basket Tales of the Grandmothers: American Indian Baskets in Myth and Legend

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Basket Tales of the Grandmothers: American Indian Baskets in Myth and Legend

Manufacturer: Museum of Primitive Art & Culture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Basket Maker and the Spinner
Beatrice Siegel , and William Sauts Bock
Manufacturer: Walker & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0802766943

Baskets: A Book for Makers and Collectors

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This book is both an asset and inspiration
If you want to learn to do it right - Get this book!
A must-have book for anyone interested in basketry

Baskets: A Book for Makers and Collectors
Billie Ruth Sudduth
Manufacturer: North Light Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Baskets | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0965824845

Customer Reviews:

This book is both an asset and inspiration.......2002-04-08

To anyone embarking on the learning of the art of basket weaving, this book is a must have. As someone new to basket making, I wanted to make sure that I knew the various terms and techniques and exactly what they meant. This book fulfilled that desire for me. Since purchasing it about two months ago, I have made a number of baskets and cannot count the number of times that I referred to it for direction. Both the text and photographs of the various techniques leave very little to desire. In the last paragraph of the introduction, Ms. Sudduth notes that she hopes that one will discover the excitement and the extraordinary possibilities of baskets. That hope has been fulfilled. I thank her for sharing her incredible knowledge of this art.

If you want to learn to do it right - Get this book!.......2001-11-06

Ms. Sudduth is a critically acclaimed basket artist and some of her work is displayed in the Smithsonian Institute. Her work is excellent and her teaching skills are perfection! This (hardback) book is 144 pages of serious instruction with many beautiful color photos of baskets from very talented basket artists around the world. Not only will she have you making a wonderful variety of baskets from the start... she includes several tips to help make your work easier (esp. how to correct mistakes and get rid of that dreaded "hairy" look).

Inside you will learn (and also see colorful pictures of): Commercially available materials, found and collected materials, tools and equipment needed, preparation of materials, and storage. All of the weaving terms are well defined to be easily understood, and broken into sub-catagories of weaving variations, bases, ribs and random weaves. You will learn the basic techniques of start and stop weaving, continuous weaving, how to upset your stakes at the beginning and then how to bend and tuck them in at the end. How to add new weavers, carving and attaching a rim. All about adding rim and base fillers. Ms. Sudduth also teaches you everything you need to know about dyes from the equipment needed, safety precautions, the difference between natural, chemical, and fiber reactive dyes... plus how to store them.

The book continues on to teach you stop and start plaiting, continuous plaiting, twined construction, start and stop twill, continuous twill, and ribbed construction; How to add surface embellishments such as curls, painting, stenciling, whitewashing, and adding other attachments.

The remainder of the book discusses (but not instructs) the non-woven forms of construction: coiled, knotted, stitch, wrapped, and cast and mold. The back has a list of suggested reading, suppliers, Basket Association and Guilds, Craft Schools offering classes, metric conversion tables, plus the names of all the contributing artists.

A very complete book, easy to understand, that not only teaches you - but will continue to inspire your creativety time and time again.

A must-have book for anyone interested in basketry.......2000-04-05

Billie Ruth Sudduth's book is a masterpiece. The color photographs (and the baskets themselves) are amazing. She showcases some marvelous pieces made with both traditional and unusual materials. She explains every aspect of the craft remarkably well, in easy to understand fashion.Even a beginner could weave a basket using her instructions. I was pleasantly surprised that she included so many of her basket patterns for baskets that are on display at the Smithsonian. Now, I will be able to weave a piece of art with her easy instructions.

The Basketmaker's Art: Contemporary Baskets and Their Makers

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The Basketmaker's Art: Contemporary Baskets and Their Makers

Manufacturer: Lark Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Stout Hearts: Traditional Oak Basket Makers of the South Carolina Upcountry

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Stout Hearts: Traditional Oak Basket Makers of the South Carolina Upcountry
Gary Stanton
Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Textile & Costume | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0872499553

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About the Little Indian Basket Maker
Ann Nolan Clark
Manufacturer: Melmont Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MYUARM

Product Description

Children's book about various indian tribes and basket making.

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