4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which the limits of your mind and body’s stamina were tested? Well, that was a burn zone. Burn Zones: Playing Life's Bad Hands by Jorge P. Newbery is a nonfiction book that posits as a biography of an entrepreneur. I would describe it as inspirational and also memorable.
The book begins with Jorge’s childhood and follows him through to adulthood. He is different from other children. At only seven years old, he got employed as a paperboy and delivered newspapers along the streets of Brentwood Glen. At the age of eleven years, he bought an ice cream tricycle from his friend, Chris and became an ice cream vendor. Afterwards, he became a cyclist and later on, he joined the real estate business. He had a lustrous career in real estate and amassed great wealth.
But as fate would have it, in December 2004 a severe ice storm occurred and brought down Woodland meadows, a one thousand unit apartment owned by Jorge. The storm reduced him from a net worth of tens of millions to a debt of over 26 million dollars. He had gotten into a crippling burn zone! As if that wasn’t enough, he ran into problems with the city officials, friends betrayed him and the print media published nasty things about him. Of greater value is Jorge’s account of how he rose from the shambles.
Burn Zones was truly enlightening. Hard work, far-sightedness, resilience, and determination are some of the virtues readers can learn from Jorge. His life’s story also demonstrated that the ability to endure burn zones is what separates winners from losers.
What I liked most was the various pictorial illustrations used throughout the book. Case in point, the pictures of his ice cream tricycle, cycling tour of Mexico 1988 et cetera. Conversely, what I disliked was the way Jorge threw in a couple of side stories into the main story this drew attention away. Also, the book progressed very slowly.
All in all, I absolutely enjoyed reading this book. It was flawlessly edited and to be sure, I only came across a single grammatical error. I, therefore, rate this book at 4 out of 4 stars. Lastly, I would recommend it to start-up entrepreneurs, especially those in the real estate business. Also, it will be a great read for anyone out there who is going a burn zone of whatever nature.
******
Burn Zones
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
