Audiobooks by Alan Deutschman

Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life

"CHANGE OR DIE. What if you were given that choice? We're talking actual life and death now. Your own life and death. What if a well-informed, trusted authority figure said you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think, feel, and act? If you didn't, your time would end soon, a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change mattered most?" This is the question Alan Deutschman poses in Change or Die, which began as a sensational cover story by the same title for Fast Company. Deutschman concludes that although we all have the ability to change our behavior, we rarely ever do. In fact, the odds are nine to one that, when faced with the dire need to change, we won't. From patients suffering from heart disease to repeat offenders in the criminal justice system to companies trapped in the mold of unsuccessful business practices, many of us could prevent ominous outcomes by simply changing our mindset. A powerful book with universal appeal, Change or Die deconstructs and debunks age-old myths about change and empowers us with three critical keys, relate, repeat, and reframe, to help us make important positive changes in our lives. Explaining breakthrough research and progressive ideas from a wide selection of leaders in medicine, science, and business (including Dr. Dean Ornish, Mimi Silbert of the Delancey Street Foundation, Bill Gates, Daniel Boulud, and many others), Deutschman demonstrates how anyone can achieve lasting, revolutionary change. Change or Die is not about merely reorganizing or restructuring priorities; it's about challenging, inspiring, and helping all of us to make the dramatic transformations necessary in any aspect of life, changes that are positive, attainable, and absolutely vital.

Alan Deutschman (Author), Brian Keeler (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma

When acclaimed journalist Alan Deutschman came to the California wine country as the lucky house guest of very rich friends, he was surprised to discover a raging controversy. A civil war was being fought between the Napa Valley, which epitomized elitism, prestige and wealthy excess, and the neighboring Sonoma Valley, a rag-tag bohemian enclave so stubbornly backward that rambunctious chickens wandered freely through town. But the antics really began when new-money invaders began pushing out Sonoma's poets and painters to make way for luxury resorts and trophy houses that seemed a parody of opulence. A Tale of Two Valleys captures these stranger-than-fiction locales with the wit of a Tom Wolfe novel and uncorks the hilarious absurdities of life among the wine world's glitterati. Deutschman found that on the weekends the wine country was like a bunch of gracious hosts smiling upon their guests, but during the week the families feuded with each other and their neighbors like the Hatfields and McCoys. Napa was a comically exclusive club where the super-rich fought desperately to get in. Sonoma's colorful free spirits and iconoclasts were wary of their bohemia becoming the next playground for the rapacious elite. So, led by a former taxicab driver and wine-grape picker, a cheese merchant, and an artist who lived in a barn surrounded by wild peacocks, they formed a populist revolt to seize power and repel the rich invaders. Deutschman's cast of characters brims with eccentrics, egomaniacs, and a mysterious man in black who crashed the elegant Napa Valley Wine Auction before proceeding to pay a half-million dollars for a single bottle. What develops is nothing less than a battle for the good life, a clash between old and new, the struggle for the soul of one of America's last bits of paradise. A dishy glimpse behind the scenes of a West Coast wonderland, A Tale of Two Valleys makes for intoxicating reading.

Alan Deutschman (Author), Michael Cerveris (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

From the acclaimed Vanity Fair and GQ journalist-an unprecedented, in-depth portrait of the man whose return to Apple precipitated one of the biggest turnarounds in business history. With a new epilogue on Apple's future survival in today's roller-coaster economy, here is the revealing biography that blew away the critics and stirred controversy within industry and media circles around the country.

Alan Deutschman, Alan Deutshcman (Author), Charles Stransky (Narrator)

Audiobook

Walk the Walk

Most leaders focus too much on what they say and not nearly enough on setting an example. This audiobook shows what happened in those unusual cases of true leaders-in business, education, the military, and nonprofits-who always walked the walk, especially when times got tough. In a skeptical world, their actions gave them more credibility than even the best possible speeches. Consider how • Herb Kelleher and Colleen Barrett of Southwest Airlines were serious about putting employees first, and proved it by sticking to a no-layoffs policy while other airlines made major cuts. • Sony founder Masuro Ibuka, who stressed originality over profits, waited for years while his competitors made color televisions-and then released the Trinitron, a breakthrough product that blew the other sets out of the water. • Martin Luther King Jr. was so committed to nonviolence that he let a racist detractor beat him up in front of a crowded auditorium rather than raise a hand against him. Ultimately, leadership doesn't depend on who you are, what you say, or how you say it, but only on what you do. The eye-opening examples in Walk the Walk will inspire leaders at all levels.

Alan Deutschman (Author), Jim Bond (Narrator)

Audiobook