Tales and Tactics From an Entrepreneur's Life of Winning Deals, Succeedinng in Business, and Creating a Fortune from Scratch

At the tender age of 19, Donahue Peebles entered the business jungle with no resources beyond his native smarts, a decent education, and a powerful drive to succeed. Seven years later, he became a multimillionaire. Today, with a net worth of more than a quarter-billion dollars, he commands a real-estate empire.

How did this determined young entrepreneur achieve such spectacular success so quickly? Can others learn his secrets and emulate his accomplishments? Can you?

Part The Art of the Deal and part Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun, The Peebles Principles distills the lessons Mr. Peebles has learned on his journey from congressional page to CEO of the largest black-owned real-estate development firm in the nation. These crisp, straightforward principles can help any motivated entrepreneur go from dirt poor to filthy rich in a hurry.

Some lessons are motivational and inspirational; many are hardball business how-to's that apply in any industry and any type of transaction. Key Peebles Principles include:

• Make your money going into the deal
• Control of the deal is more important than cash
• Being lucky means being ready
• If the key doesn't fit, change the lock
• Be a bulldog on details
• Listen to your first instinct
• Respond quickly to attacks
• Find out what the other side really wants and give it to them
• Turn vinegar into wine; setbacks are opportunities in disguise
• Seeing value is everything
• Be the last man standing

Colorful and detailed behind-the-scenes accounts of each transaction provide a real-world business context for each principle and show you how to apply them in practice.