Master of the Game: How Steve Ross Rode the Light Fantastic from Undertaker to Creator of the Largest Media Conglomerate in the World Paperback – February 4, 2020

For years, Steve Ross was the mastermind behind the very successful warner communications enterprise. It’s fascinating to see how he got there, how it was during the glory years, and how it wound down for him. this is an excellent autobiography, and doesn’t shy away from telling the good the bad and the ugly. highly recommended.

Connie Bruck, along with Joe Nocera is probably American's best living business writer and this is another great work from her.A good story about a man who starts off running his father in law's funeral palor and winds up the head of one the world's biggest companies.Bruck spends a lot of time discussing the charm and the personality of Ross and admits that Ross is someone that she really likes. The book does not have the balance of her previous book, The Predators Ball, but does not Michael Milken as subject matter like that book did too.I would definitely recommend owning a copy of this book.Don McNay...

Great story about an impressive deal maker / businessman / entrepreneur. He ran a lot of interesting companies that I was interested in learning more about and did so in an exciting way.

I knew him when I was a kid. And I knew a bunch of the "characters" in his circle. But as a kid, I couldn't possibly understand the swirling mess that was the reality of who Steve was. I feel sorry for Toni, my senior prom date and friend for a New York minute. And for Carol, always elegant. I see Albert in a new, and somewhat glaring light. And can only laugh remembering "Cunning Stunt" every time Caesar is mentioned. Good read, especially if one knew the players.

Interesting book about a very interesting man. How may I serve you was Steve Ross's greeting to the family of the departed when he was a funeral director. He used that keen awareness and ability for empathy expand his funeral company into NYC parking garages, rental cars, music business, movies, cable and finally into the largest media company in the world - Time Warner. The book was a biography and well written by Connie Bruck. My 3 stars are mainly because I was more interested in the business side rather than Ross's personal life. The latter part on the Time Warner merger provided a lot of details from her original New Yorker articles and new intererviews for the book. At times she was very enamored of Ross but that was his strength. However this was balanced in the end where Ross's light seemed to have diminished.

One of the best biographies I have read with great insight on how to sell the invisible. .

It's an ok read. Lots of details about stuff that didn't really matter from a long time ago before the Internet. Interesting to note that this guy probably set in motion the process of CEO's looting the corporate treasury for their own personal gain with total disregard for the shareholders, a practice that became de figure with CEO's in the 90's. Some interesting tidbits in here about how they planned to buy Turner away back in the early 90's. Wish there was more about Ross and what made him do things he did. Guy spent money like a drunken sailor. Read it and you will know how David Geffen and Speilberg became so rich.

This man is not the sort of person you want as a friend or neighbor. I stopped reading before I was very far into it.

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This is one of my favorite "businessman" autobiographies of all time. I read it for the first time around 1994 when I was a young man starting out on my business career. Steve Ross was one of my original business heroes. Interestingly, I just finished reading it for the second time in 2015 and I realize that he had so much genius in addition to so many flaws. I draw many parallels with Steve Ross and Steven Jobs, whose autobiography I read three times last year. They are both products of the era in which they thrived, and of course in completely separate industries, but their creative genius, relentless deal-making skills, ability to focus when necessary, and their tenacious belief in melding others to see a future they saw as plain as today are very similar. Interestingly, they both died relatively early at the peak of their respective careers. It really makes you think about the concept of; "The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long". This book is set in a business landscape of days gone past, and I am not sure if there is much to emulate from Steven Ross's character (in the same way I do not choose to emulate much if any of Steven Job's character), but the inspiration from their genius is what makes me read the life stories over and over.