A dynamic business biography packed with great stories and practical lessons from one of the most successful figures in the entertainment industry today

How does a working-class kid from Queens, New York, transform a lifelong fascination with the Goodyear blimp into an aviation empire by the time he's 21? How does that young aviation entrepreneur then quickly become one of the most powerful forces in the entertainment industry--a modern-day Louis B. Mayer, as the press has dubbed him? Find out in "Bands, Brands, and Billions.

Now, for the first time, in "Bands, Brands, and Billions, Lou Pearlman reveals the secrets behind his uncanny success. Writing in an engaging and dynamic style, he describes his "10 Practical Principles" for business and entrepreneurial success and offers prescriptions for everything from team building to risk taking, and from savvy marketing to raising capital and financing new ventures. While his lessons are both instructive and inspirational, his anecdotes are classic object lessons in thinking out of the box. Among other things, he shares how he: Turned a college business class project into a halfbillion-dollar industry Used mink coats to rescue a failing charter service that flew between New York and Las Vegas Deployed a blimp on the desk of a McDonald's executive to win a major contract Made more than a half-billion dollars with a baffling business about-face from blimps to boy bands, even though his closest friends thought he'd lost his mind