cover image Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today's Entrepreneur

Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today's Entrepreneur

Noah Alper, Thomas Fields-Meyer. Wolfeboro Press, $14.95 (167pp) ISBN 978-0-9840722-4-8

Alper, the founder of Noah's Bagels (recently sold to Einstein Bros. for $100 million), offers uplifting business wisdom from his own rocky path to success. After an early nervous breakdown and a failed business (selling Israeli products to born-again Christians), he found his way to traditional Judaism and started a small bagel shop in Berkeley, founded and run on the Biblical injunction to ""lech lecha""-to embrace one's journey while contributing to the community through volunteerism and ""tzedakah""-justice. Alper writes with fervor about the necessity of ethical business dealing and the power of integrating life experience and spirituality into one's path as an entrepreneur, and-especially in these trying economic times-honing the ability to innovate, adapt, and evolve. This earnest book shines with Alper's conviction, business savvy and decency; while he acknowledges the joys of a financial success, he ends with his eyes on the prize: ""What's important is providing for your family, conducting yourself with integrity and living a life of meaning.""