If you don't want to go to Fuqua School of Business to learn how to succeed in the business world, the school's namesake has released a new book detailing just how to do that.
Atlanta businessman J.B. Fuqua's book, "Fuqua: How I Made My Fortune Using Other People's Money," which was released last December, is becoming increasingly popular.
Scott Bard, publisher for Longstreet Press, said the book has already sold 100,000 copies and is preparing for a second printing.
"I knew it was going to be a strong regional book," he said. "You never really know if it's going to break out nationally."
Fuqua's memoirs detail his rise from a poor Virginia farm to become one of the Southeast's most successful businessmen, first through radio and television and then in other industries. The book also offers several financial strategies, such as borrowing money and developing a credit reputation.
Fuqua said he has been pleased with the reaction to the book.
"It's a recording of my life for my grandchildren and for my friends," he said. "I have had an unusual life."
Fuqua, who acknowledges for the first time publicly that he suffered from depression during most of his adult life, gives an important account of this battle, Bard said.
"Depression is an insidious disease," Fuqua wrote in the book. "I have had a chronic struggle over the years with severe depression." Fuqua began electroconvulsive treatments in 1995 and has been mostly free of depression ever since.
Fuqua also details his experience in Southern politics in the book. A close friend of President Lyndon Johnson, Fuqua served as chair of the Georgia Democratic Party throughout the 1960s and served in the state legislature, where he was known as a progressive on racial issues, such as integration.
"I have always been considered a liberal in race relations in the South," he said, adding that the issue is important because it is "right."
Bard said he hoped for the book to break into some bestseller lists and added that Fuqua has upcoming interviews with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Jim Gray, associate dean of marketing and commerce at the business school, said the book has garnered interest at Duke and has been featured in a number of the business school's publications.
Fuqua's original $10 million gift to the business school in the 1970s launched the school; he has since given a total of over $37 million to Duke.
"I became involved because I was on the Board of Trustees," he said. "Then-president Terry Sanford kept pushing me to make a grant to the business school because the University was not complete without a business school."
Although he never had a formal college education, Fuqua, in his new book, recalled sending away to Duke's library for books through their lending program as a child in Virginia.
The 83-year-old Fuqua, who is still active in business as chair of The Fuqua Companies, said he has no plans to author any more books.
"That's my three books--my first, last and only," he said.
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