Most of us spend our lives talking ourselves out of things. But what
could you accomplish if you never held yourself back? What if, despite
your fears, you went for broke every time? You might live a life as
extraordinary as the one Stanley Weiss has lived for nearly a century. A
skinny Jewish kid from Philadelphia training to fight and likely die in
the U.S. invasion of Japan in 1945, Stanley Weiss came home to the death
of his loving but weak father, who left his mother penniless. Inspired
by a Humphrey Bogart movie, Weiss moved to a foreign country to hunt for
treasure--where Rule Number One was ''Don't Die.'' Along the way, his
zest for living has taken him from the company of legendary artists and
poets in Mexico, to writers and beatniks in 1960s San Francisco and
Hollywood; from drunken nights with a notorious spy to friendships with
three of the men who played James Bond; from glamorous parties in Gstaad
and Phuket to power politics in London and Washington, DC. For those who
believe the world is shaped by ordinary people who push themselves to do
extraordinary things, Stanley Weiss's story will inspire and surprise
while reminding us all that being dead is bad for business--and being
boring is bad for life.
