Title: Can’t Is Not an Option: Benny the Book’s BookAuthor(s) Gerald Leberfeld
Published by: Aviva Publishing
What exactly is the American dream? Jerry Leberfeld began as a poor Jewish kid in Rockaway Beach and ended up as an entrepreneur who counts politicians, business icons, and celebrities as the same kind of friends as the guys he grew up with.
For him, living the American dream is striving to reach your potential without forgetting your roots. He paints an entertaining picture of growing up in Rockaway Beach during its glory days, falling in love and marrying Aviva (his life companion and a Holocaust survivor), graduating from college as the first in his family to do so, and entering the corporate world at a time when anti-Semitism was still rampant.
After 18 years in corporate America, Jerry walked away from security to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. He founded four successful companies over the next decades, including Art Expo, the largest and most successful fine arts fair ever. He enjoyed special relationships with celebrity artists including Andy Warhol, Peter Max, Tony Bennett, Marcel Marceau, Luciano Pavarotti, Donna Summer, Salvador Dali, Erté, and famous politicians, including New York City Mayor Ed Koch and New York Senator Jacob Javits.
Even after being stricken with the debilitating autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis at age 73, Jerry focused on what he could still do, not what the illness took from him. Today, Jerry acts in local theater, consults with future entrepreneurs, and fortunately for us, he picked up his pen.
Woven throughout the book are instructive details and fascinating anecdotes on how to survive the bureaucracy of government and union pressures as well as Jerry’s lists of guidelines and rules of how to start and succeed in a new business.
Jerry believes that the times we live in now aren’t as bright as they were when he was growing up, and he is far from certain about the future of his grandchildren’s generation. In Can’t Is Not an Option, he shares Horatio Alger-type stories to help keep this current generation’s dreams alive and offers advice gleaned from his almost 80 years of hard work and living the American dream.
Jerry Leberfeld is a former executive with Olivetti-Underwood and Prentice-Hall who decided to leave the security of corporate America to pursue his dream of entrepreneurial success. Perhaps best known as the creator of Art Expo, the largest fine-art exhibition in the world, Leberfeld pursued the American Dream while staying close to his roots. He is proud to be known as “Benny the Book” by friends he's had since the 1950s, “Jerry” by celebrities such as Peter Max, Tony Bennett, and Ed Koch, “Dad” by his son and daughter, “Grandpa” by his two beautiful granddaughters, and “Best Friend” by his wife of 55 years, Aviva.
ISBN13: 978-0-615801841
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