cover image Business Is Personal: The Truth About What It Takes to Be Successful While Staying True to Yourself

Business Is Personal: The Truth About What It Takes to Be Successful While Staying True to Yourself

Bethenny Frankel. Hachette Go, $29 (272p) ISBN 978-0-306-82703-7

“Get in the game,” coaches Real Housewives of New York City star Frankel (A Place of Yes) in this braggadocian guide to achieving success through hard work. The self-described “idea hamster, addicted to innovation” purports to explain “what it takes to be successful in business while balancing the rest of your life,” and her primary argument is that persistence and hard work are more important than anything else. She holds up her own experience relentlessly pitching TV shows, content deals, and products as examples of her theory in practice, and opines that business success is dependent on living one’s values and maintaining one’s integrity. The execution is snappy enough, though it’s weighed down with clichés—“you’ve got to be in it to win it,” “trust the process”—and self-congratulatory descriptions of her own wins. Many readers may also find her scorn for “everybody [who] complains about the fact that their identity holds them back” off-putting. It all winds up feeling like a conversation with someone who never asks a single question. This one’s only for fans. Agent: Andy McNicol, AMStudio. (May)