BARRY J GIBBONS retired from big company life in 1994 after five successful years as Chairman/CEO of Burger King Corporation. Having retired from big business (his choice) he is now a successful author, speaker, consultant and entrepreneur on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the author of If You Want To Make God Really Laugh Show Him Your Business Plan, and Chronicles from the Planet Business. His business interests include being co-founder of Y Arriba (a latin themed restaurant that opened in Disneyland early 2001) and a gourmet coffee business in the US and the UK.

The stories of the people captured on the pages within are anything but ordinary. Like you, they had to start somewhere. But it's not what you do or where you start, but how you do it. It wasn't through maintaining the daily grind (for themselves or others) that got them to the top. It was by building their dreams and doing business in a way that no other had done before them. These Dream Merchants and Howboys live in the Business Icon Hall of Fame in the Sky (ok so maybe one day this will exist). But before they got there they lived somewhere very different. They lived in the land of complete Nutterdom. Retired CEO of Burger King and Fortune turn-around champion, Barry Gibbons, introduces you to this world.
Gibbons brings together some of the most famous names in business today. He takes us on a whirlwind tour of the careers, lives and crazy decisions of nutters - from Walt Disney and Michael Dell to Luciano Benetton and Anita Roddick. All of them made decisions that seemed odd, crazy or downright weird. But they worked. Gibbons, a distinguished madman himself, keeps you hooked with his humour and wit, but never straying from the point of it all. That we can learn from these mavericks. That we can put a little madness into our daily grind. Heck yeh. Steal their ideas! Why should they be famous and not you?
Dream Merchants and Howboys may just be the most unconventional business book ever written and firmly cements Gibbons' reputation as the P.J. O'Rourke of business.

Preface.
Introduction.
Genesis.
Genesis Too.
What Should Leaders Do?
Dream Merchants.
Howboys.
DREAM MERCHANTS & HOWBOYS.
1. Luciano Benetton.
2. James Dyson.
3. Michael Dell.
4. Anita Roddick.
5. Inspiration.
6. Walt Disney.
7. Steve Case.
8. Tribute to the Unknown Nutter.
9. Jürgen Schrempp.
10. Richard Branson.
11. Roberto Goizueta.
12. Steve Jobs.
13. Herb Kellegher.
14. Howard Schultz.
14. Conclusion: Can it Work for You?
Sources and Further Reading.
Index.