Q Picture this situation. You’re born into a family living in poverty in Philadelphia’s violent Tasker Street Projects, subject to your alcoholic father’s fits of temper as you try to earn money for yourself by selling tomatoes from the back of a truck.

A freak injury causes you to be discharged from the military in your first week. Your real estate ventures collapse; your businesses fail one after another. And just when you think you’re on your feet at last, another freak injury leaves you at the mercy of doctors who predict, before your thirtieth birthday, that you’ll never work again. Over and over, life knocks you down. What do you do?

A If you’re George A. Santino—you get back up.
With rare humor and the instincts of a born storyteller, Santino tells the story of his rise from humble beginnings through a series of adventures—opening a sports bar with no walls, cursing out a drill sergeant, battling a hiring manager to get a job offer that he intends to turn down, and more—that culminate in a long and successful career with Microsoft, building a family and losing (and regaining) a small fortune along the way. Throughout, Santino shares his business insights and perspectives on mentorship, and stresses by example his central lesson: no matter what life throws at you, always remember to get back up.