For What Its Worth, Les Gold
For What Its Worth, Les Gold
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For What It's Worth
Business Wisdom from a Pawnbroker

Author: Les Gold

Narrator: Walter Dixon

Unabridged: 3 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 06/18/2013


Synopsis

Businesses these days talk a lot about figuring out what the customer wants. Well, here’s your first lesson: the customer doesn’t know what he wants. This book is going to show you how to convince him he wants the thing you’re selling.

Les Gold has been in business since age twelve, when he started selling used golf clubs from his dad’s basement. Now he owns Detroit’s biggest pawnshop, American Jewelry and Loan, and is the star of the hit reality TV show Hardcore Pawn.

As a third-generation pawnbroker, Gold grew up in the business, dealing with cus­tomers who could be unruly and violent as often as they were friendly. He became good at selling just about anything and at buying items for what they were worth. Although he started at his family’s small pawnshop, he has now expanded into a fifty-thousand-square-foot former bowling alley, making a thousand deals a day.

On any given day, he could be taking a vin­tage car in to pawn or chasing down a thief who’s just stolen a gold chain from the store. No business school in the world can teach you as much about buying, selling, negotiating, managing employees, dealing with customers, advertising, tracking trends, and predicting the economy’s ups and downs.

In this entertaining, honest book, Gold takes you inside some of his weirdest, wacki­est deals and steals. From the monkey his dad once took in to pawn to the deal Gold made for a stripper pole, he has no boundaries for what he considers to be part of his business—and neither should you.

You will learn:
How to tell an emotional story when you’re selling—and take emotion out of the transaction when you’re buying
Why judging your customers before you know them can kill a potential deal
How to deal with risk, both mental and physical
How to communicate with employees (even if they’re your own kids)
Why investing in relationships with your community is time well spent
Why your business should never be limited by what others tell you it should be

No place in the world prepares you better for the working world than a pawnshop, and Les Gold takes you inside his shop to share what he’s learned from fifty-five years in the most interesting job in the world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Madi on June 13, 2023

i binge watched hardcore pawn so i decided to try les’ book out and im not usually a big nonfiction/advice/motivational type book person but this was well done and it gave some more insight into his life and the show.......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on March 29, 2020

I really enjoyed this book. I've watched some episodes of 'Hardcore Pawn' and Les Gold is a real character. I love the way all the family and staff interact with each other. Les Gold writes his book as though he were in the room telling you about his life in person. He's straight and I like the way he......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on August 14, 2019

Audiobook: good advice and an interesting look at pawn broking......more

Goodreads review by Darren on August 30, 2013

For What It's Worth, Les Gold reveals more than just practical advice-he gives solid action steps to creating a better life (if you want to), through emotional mastery, living with and pushing past fear and finally, shows how real success comes through compassion and service. A cross between Neville......more

Goodreads review by Copa on April 07, 2014

A simple read, redundant but still good advice all around. Les opens up about his childhood, his competitive father and ever loving grandfather Popi and his own transition to being a father. He talks about the show hardcore pawn and explains how he always had the passion to flip the negative image o......more