3 out of 4 stars
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Jorge demonstrated immense work ethic from an early age. At seven he ran a paper route, at fourteen an ice-cream delivery bike, and by sixteen he had dropped out of school and was running a punk rock record company. His desire to learn skills while working pushed him to try new things and take chances. This seat-of-the-pants style eventually led to becoming mired in millions of dollars in debt.
Burn Zones: Playing Life’s Bad Hands is the autobiography of a man obsessed with working hard and winning. He was a self-professed real estate mogul before he was 30, but his lack of formal training and overly pessimistic attitude resulted in mounting headaches within his holdings. He maintained positive attitude however, and soon the entrepreneurial spirit took over, and Jorge was back to learning how to beat the system while helping others.
Jorge Newbery presents his tale of how he worked through adversity with a positive attitude and had to continually push himself through the roughest times, known as burn zones. The book is often made out to be self-help, though I found few pieces of advice. It was a detailed, though short, autobiography of the author’s early years in life and business. I did not find the story particularly thought provoking or emotional, but it had many elements that others may connect with more.
I think this book is a 3 out of 4 stars. Burn Zones: Playing Life’s Bad Hands was detailed throughout, but I found many of the details made it hard to focus on the larger story or message. I will admit that memoirs are not usually my genre of choice, so many of these minor complaints may be usual fare for personal story telling. Despite fussy style complaints, the content of the book was interesting and at times enlightening.
The least impressive part of this book was how the author often brought up names the reader had not been introduced to yet, only to leave a further definition until later. This occurred mostly with people he did business with, but also people he was close to. This left the reader wondering at points. I thought the best part about this book was the details about some early years in the punk rock music scene in LA. This book should appeal to those interested in early punk rock or the mortgage industry. Yes, those two topics seem disconnected, but all of us have a diverse set of interests, and Jorge Newbery is no exception. This book was well edited throughout, though I found the organization to be somewhat choppy.
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Burn Zones
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