The Gray Choice
Lessons on My Journey from Big-Time Banking to the Big House (and Back)
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The Gray Choice
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Narrated by:
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Shaun Hayes
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By:
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Shaun Hayes
About this listen
Learn hard-won lessons from a millionaire who risked and lost it all—and learned to move forward again.
At 29, banker Shaun Hayes was on his way to his goal of becoming a millionaire. Guided by hustle and ingenuity, he purchased his first bank and was CEO of one of the largest publicly held bank holding companies in Missouri. For years, he was lauded as one of the Midwest’s top entrepreneurs and riding high as a business leader and family man. He took the risks and made the sharp decisions others wouldn’t....
Until those decisions led him to his downfall...and prison.
Learn the true story of entrepreneur and multimillionaire Shaun Hayes’ rise to the highest levels of corporate banking, his subsequent fall that led to 37 months in federal prison, and the ultimate costs: his family, friends, freedom, and fortune. A cautionary tale of great success and failure, this thrilling business memoir is your guide to staying on course through life’s ethical gray areas.
You’ll discover:
- The story of turning a small Missouri bank into one of the largest publicly held banks in the Midwest and the dangers of the morally ambiguous roller coaster Shaun took to get there.
- How to define your ethical moral compass when it comes to building a business, wealth, or your reputation.
- The real-time consequences of pushing the ethical envelope in business decision-making when the risk isn’t worth the monetary reward.
- The critical value in building a team you trust to guide the effective thinking and choices companies make to succeed.
- How to redefine security and success apart from how much money you have in the bank.
The Gray Choice is an honest account of one man losing his ethical footing and the inevitable fallout that reshaped his life forever. Don’t miss this compelling look at the decisions that can make or break your life and the vital lessons to find your way back.
©2023 Shaun Hayes (P)2023 Shaun HayesListeners also enjoyed...
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The Liar's Ball
- The Extraordinary Saga of How One Building Broke the World's Toughest Tycoons
- By: Vicky Ward
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Harry Macklowe is one of the most notorious wheelers and dealers of the real-estate world, and The Liar's Ball is the story of the gamblers and thieves who populate his world. Watch as Harry makes the gutsy bid for midtown Manhattan's famous GM building and puts almost no money down, landing the billion-dollar transaction that made him the poster child for New York's real-estate royalty. Listen in on the secret conversations, back-door deals, and blackmail that put Macklowe and his cronies on top - and set them up for an enormous fall.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent. Hope Biden Gets Covered Next
- By greenemann on 07-29-21
By: Vicky Ward
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Glass House
- The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town
- By: Brian Alexander
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world's largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster's society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster's citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st century, and wrecked the company.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What really happened to the American Dream?
- By Bill on 05-10-17
By: Brian Alexander
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Play Nice but Win
- A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader
- By: Michael Dell, James Kaplan
- Narrated by: Michael Dell
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 687
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 584
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 581
In 1984, soon-to-be college dropout Michael Dell hid signs of his fledgling PC business in the bathroom of his University of Texas dorm room. Almost 30 years later, at the pinnacle of his success as founder and leader of Dell Technologies, he found himself embroiled in a battle for his company’s survival. What he’d do next could ensure its legacy — or destroy it completely.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not perfect, but worth a listen
- By James S. on 11-09-21
By: Michael Dell, and others
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The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 932
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 799
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Story4 out of 5 stars 805
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
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Good for the Money
- My Fight to Pay Back America
- By: Bob Benmosche
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
In 2009, at the peak of the financial crisis, AIG - the American insurance behemoth - was sinking fast. It was the peg upon which the nation hung its ire and resentment during the financial crisis: the pinnacle of Wall Street arrogance and greed. When Bob Benmosche climbed aboard as CEO, it was widely assumed that he would go down with his ship. In mere months, he turned things around, pulling AIG from the brink of financial collapse and restoring its profitability.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Worthwhile, informative, and just short of inspiring
- By Preston on 11-17-21
By: Bob Benmosche
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Iceland's Secret
- The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Con
- By: Jared Bibler
- Narrated by: Jared Bibler
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
Born in Massachusetts, Jared Bibler relocated to Iceland in 2004 only to find himself in the middle of an unprecedented financial crisis a handful of years later. Personally wiped out and seeking to uncover the truth about a collapse that brought the pastoral country to its knees, he became the lead investigator into some of the largest financial crimes in the world. This work helped Iceland to famously become the only country to jail its bank CEOs in the wake of the 2008 crisis.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent description of Icelands finacial crash
- By CJF on 08-19-24
By: Jared Bibler
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Bad Paper
- Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld
- By: Jake Halpern
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper" - the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadow land, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Examination of Bad Debts; its Buyers & Sellers
- By Darwin8u on 08-22-16
By: Jake Halpern
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Pesos
- The Rise and Fall of a Border Family
- By: Pietro La Greca Jr., Rebecca Paley - contributor
- Narrated by: Tony Dalton
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Pietro La Greca Sr. was an intimidating Napolitano con man dubbed “Mexico’s real-life Don Corleone”. He ran Mexico’s biggest money-laundering scheme during the worst economic period in the country’s history. His was a world of fast cars, mansions on the water, and VIP treatment at Las Vegas casinos. His exploitation of Mexico’s financial free fall made him a wealthy man. But while he was running his criminal empire, his son, Pietro Jr., a.k.a. Picho, was learning his father’s tricks—if only to bring the man down.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Must Read Story
- By April Wells on 11-04-22
By: Pietro La Greca Jr., and others
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The Asylum
- The Renegades Who Hijacked the World's Oil Market
- By: Leah McGrath Goodman
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
They were a band of outsiders unable to get jobs with New York's gilded financial establishment. They would go on to corner the world's multitrillion-dollar oil market, reaping unimaginable riches while bringing the economy to its knees. Meet the self-anointed kings of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In some ways, they are everything you would expect them to be: a secretive, members-only club of men and women who live lavish lifestyles; cavort with politicians, strippers, and celebrities; and blissfully jacked up oil prices to nearly $150 a barrel while profiting off the misery of the working class.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A far better book than its come-on implies
- By Philo on 01-05-14
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Red Roulette
- An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China
- By: Desmond Shum
- Narrated by: Tim Chiou
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,045
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 900
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 893
As Desmond Shum was growing up impoverished in China, he vowed his life would be different. Through hard work and sheer tenacity he earned an American college degree and returned to his native country to establish himself in business. There, he met his future wife, the highly intelligent and equally ambitious Whitney Duan who was determined to make her mark within China’s male-dominated society. Whitney and Desmond formed an effective team and, aided by relationships they formed with top members of China’s Communist Party, the so-called red aristocracy.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Desmond Shum is not a rube! He knows about wine, ok?
- By Peter L Hansen on 10-06-21
By: Desmond Shum
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Richistan
- A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
- By: Robert Frank
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 207
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4 out of 5 stars 89
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through Richistan entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists". They're also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
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The Zeroes
- My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane
- By: Randall Lane
- Narrated by: Randall Lane
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4 out of 5 stars 52
Magazine entrepreneur Randall Lane had a prime seat at Wall Street's biggest greed fest. The Zeroes is a memoir about the excesses and bad behavior of an outsider who got pulled into a crazy, self-contained world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A very entertaining tale
- By andy on 11-03-13
By: Randall Lane
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Homewreckers
- How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream
- By: Aaron Glantz
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 195
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 166
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 165
In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class - among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing book - I hope it changes things and mobilizes people to take action!
- By WeaverDreams on 10-20-19
By: Aaron Glantz
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Chronicles of a Fashion Buyer
- The Mostly True Adventures of an International Fashion Buyer
- By: Mercedes Gonzalez
- Narrated by: Mercedes Gonzalez
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story5 out of 5 stars 22
Fashion is a business of smoke and mirrors, notorious for crushing the souls of most who dare to be part of the industry. Go on a global expedition with New York City-based fashion buyer, strategist, and consultant, Mercedes Gonzalez, as she learns that there is no glamour in fashion and that only cutthroat corporate espionage prevails. From politicking with blood diamond dealers and Russian kingpins to living in indigenous villages, she has relied on her street smarts and fear of her uncle in order to outwit the industry tyrants at their own game.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very Enagaging
- By Rainbow on 07-31-23
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Mentor to Millions
- By: Kevin Harrington, Mark Timm
- Narrated by: Kevin Harrington, Mark Timm
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
Kevin Harrington, one of the original "sharks" of the TV hit Shark Tank, and serial entrepreneur Mark Timm take you on a journey that radically redefines what it means to truly succeed - at work, at home, and in every area of life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Listen at 1.4x
- By Mark Fry on 09-26-20
By: Kevin Harrington, and others
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The King of Content
- Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire
- By: Keach Hagey
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Sumner Murray Redstone, once feared as the “mad genius” of media who would dump his CEOs for mere wobbles in his companies’ stock price, had built one of the world’s greatest media empires through a series of audacious takeovers constructed to ensure that he always maintained control. Today he controls 80 percent of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS, meaning that on a whim he could replace the entire boards of two public companies with a combined value of $40 billion.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Feels biased. Well researched, but not engaging.
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-19
By: Keach Hagey
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Dethroning the King
- The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon
- By: Julie MacIntosh
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 143
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 143
How did InBev, a Belgian company controlled by Brazilians, take over one of America's most beloved brands after barely a whimper of a fight? With timing - and some unexpected help from powerful members of the Busch dynasty, the very family that had run the company for more than a century. From the very heart of America's heartland to the European continent to Brazil, Dethroning the King is the ultimate corporate caper and a fascinating case study that's both wide-reaching and profound.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good Story but Narration Can be Annoying
- By Ken on 10-21-11
By: Julie MacIntosh
What listeners say about The Gray Choice
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jennah Purk
- 03-02-23
Jennah
Times were different. The world was different. Thank you for writing this! Thank you Shaun!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Susan Hyde
- 04-12-24
Great Read!
Although I am not in the banking industry, this book is applicable to most people. Being in sales and an entrepreneur; Shaun’s story shows just how easy it is to get so sucked into winning, that you loose sight of the white line. And gray is a close neighbor to black. Hugging the line is next to crossing the line.
I think all of us deal with this, to some extent, in some category of our lives. Great content, great read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 07-04-23
😳
Eye opening experience into the world of bankers. Hayes does a great job at story telling and keeps your interest through it all. He has definitely been humbled. I enjoyed learning more of his story.
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