How To Enhance Your Life - Dean Amory

The Story of Marty Edelston: How Second-Level Pride Hobbles the Critics of Successful People
This is the story of a successful businessman with no shortage of critics. But his critics were at
level one and level two. Marty was at level three. That's why the critics were working for Marty,
instead of the other way around.
I first heard the story of Ed and Fred from Marty Edelston, the founder of a company called
Boardroom, Inc. Boardroom publishes the newsletter Bottom Line/Personal, a title that has at
times had more than one million paid subscribers. I first went to work for Marty when I was
nineteen, and the experience was tremendous. It was a glimpse into big-time publishing and also a
fantastic exposure to a successful entrepreneur just hitting his stride as his company was reaching
sales of about $35 million a year. Marty is something of a legend in the publishing business, an
idiosyncratic man with an iron grip on all the details of his company, requiring personal approval
of every word published in his newsletters and books and signing off directly on just about every
dollar spent. Throughout the day, secretaries bring Marty healthy snacks of sliced fruit, which he
generally eats in the middle of meetings, with his fingers.
One of Marty's great talents is hiring bright and hungry people for key jobs. Many have publishing
experience in more traditional firms and some are put off by Marty's highly personal approach and
his total control of management at every level in the company.
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