An enterprising kid from the Bronx, Howard had one simple – but smart – idea that revolutionized international telecommunications. He pioneered what is now an over-a-billion-dollar-a-year industry, successfully fought off AT&T's aggressive attempts to pull the plug on his operation – then took his own start-up company public, to net over $100 million for himself. And it all began with a hot dog stand, as Jonas relates in this effervescent account of how he became the millionaire next door.

In that modest start in a hospital parking lot, Jonas learned some of the crucial life lessons fro a successful businessman: diversify (he sold flowers on Sundays); be open to employees from strange origins (he used methadone patients as waiters to run food to the local tavern); and always attend to quality (he cooked his own onions). From hot dogs Howard moved on to travel brochure distribution, business-to-business directories, mail-order bonsai Christmas trees, and soon ran one of the country's largest direct mail businesses out of his dorm room at Harvard. When one of his employees moved overseas, he backed into the international telephone callback business – and changed the face of worldwide telecommunications by saving people millions of dollars in international phone calls (and making a small fortune for himself).

Howard's company, IDT, is a model of upstart entrepreneurship, continually reinventing what it is and how it markets itself, pushing through new ideas in telecommunications while never losing sight of the importance of good service and satisfied employees. His down-to-earth and opinionated approaches to business have made headlines and inform every page of this energetic autobiography. He's a terrific storyteller, full of wry wit and iconoclastic wisdom, and his book conveys the basic principles he's never let go of. Lead, but also listen. Learn when to take chances – an other people's capital – and when to retrench. And above all, stay turned on to what you're doing.

Howard Jonas' vitality and innovative style havee caught the eye of other businesspeople around the world; now all of today's (and tomorrow's) entreprenuers, large and small, can find out how ssomeone got from here to there, with flair – and a little mustard on the side.