Front Row Seat
Greed and Corruption in a Youth Sports Company
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Griffin
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By:
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Stephen Griffin
About this listen
A portion of the proceeds from Front Row Seat will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease research and the Positive Coaching Alliance to help coaches lead and develop America’s future leaders.
America's youth sports industry has changed dramatically over the past two decades. The days of playing for your town or local YMCA team, be it baseball, soccer, basketball or lacrosse were coming to an end. There would soon be an arms race - how do I get my child on the best travel team, should I hire a personal trainer, which college showcases should my child attend, should I subscribe to a recruiting service, and so on. Youth sports had become big business.
An opportunity presented itself to me to invest in a sports event business and, soon, other opportunities followed. Over the next five years or so, I was invested; personally and financially in the industry.
My view and approach to the youth sports market was pretty simple - first and foremost, exceed customer expectations; deliver great experiences and value; and reinforce positive values and sportsmanship. With the advent of social media, our customers became our marketers; moms, dads and kids sharing our branded content on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, respectively.
The founder of a youth sports company reached out to me and told me that he had heard good things about me and said he would like to get together and tell me more about his company. He seemed to know a fair amount about my investments and activities in the sports space. He was a bit vague about why he was contacting me, however, it felt like a good networking opportunity and you never know where meetings like this can lead.
I had strong opinions about the youth sports market and a fully developed investment thesis - I was confident that there was tremendous opportunity both from an investment perspective and to provide customers with better-quality experiences. Perhaps this company would prove to be a good opportunity, a platform to execute the strategy. I agreed to meet with him.
I could never have imagined what the next two years of my life would be like. I quickly found myself wrapped in a web of lies, cover-ups, and dealing with individuals driven by ego and greed. Never in my life did I think I would be dealing with an international criminal investigation led by the US Department of Justice. I was fearing for my family's safety and fighting for the rights of our employees and customers all at the same time.
If that wasn’t enough, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
I had a front row seat to dozens of real-time business case studies; accounting issues; civil and criminal litigation; and my own path to acceptance and rediscovering what matters most.
©2020 Stephen Griffin (P)2020 Stephen GriffinListeners also enjoyed...
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- Two Years at Harvard Business School
- By: Philip Delves Broughton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2004 Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join 900 other would-be tycoons on the Harvard Business School's plush campus. With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the school's success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in business: leadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, and work/life balance.
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On one breath.
- By Atkins on 05-17-22
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Alibaba's World
- How a Remarkable Chinese Company Is Changing the Face of Global Business
- By: Porter Erisman
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In September 2014, a Chinese company that most Americans had never heard of held the largest IPO in history - bigger than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined. Alibaba, now the world's largest ecommerce company, mostly escaped Western notice for over 10 years, while building a customer base larger than Amazon's and handling the bulk of ecommerce transactions in China. How did it happen? And what was it like to be along for such a revolutionary ride?
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Not bad
- By Daniel on 09-12-15
By: Porter Erisman
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Exposure
- Inside the Olympus Scandal: How I Went from CEO to Whistleblower
- By: Michael Woodford
- Narrated by: Michael Woodford
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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When Michael Woodford was made president of Olympus - the company to which he had dedicated thirty years of his career - he became the first Westerner ever to climb the ranks of one of Japan’s corporate giants. Some wondered at the appointment - how could a gaijin who didn’t even speak Japanese understand how to run a Japanese company? But within months Woodford had gained the confidence of most of his colleagues and shareholders.
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Starts off great, then gets stupid
- By Happy Mountain on 10-21-21
By: Michael Woodford
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The Lost Bank
- The Story of Washington Mutual - The Biggest Bank Failure in American History
- By: Kirsten Grind
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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During the most dizzying days of the financial crisis, Washington Mutual, a bank with hundreds of billions of dollars in its coffers, suffered a crippling bank run. The story of its final, brutal collapse in the autumn of 2008, and its controversial sale to JPMorgan Chase, is an astonishing account of how one bank lost itself to greed and mismanagement, and how the entire financial industry - and even the entire country - lost its way as well. Kirsten Grind’s The Lost Bank is a magisterial and gripping account of these events.
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Sad and Angry by Turn
- By Johnnie Walker on 07-24-12
By: Kirsten Grind
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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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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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Worthwhile, informative, and just short of inspiring
- By Preston on 11-17-21
By: Bob Benmosche
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The Intelligent Entrepreneur
- By: Bill Murphy Jr.
- Narrated by: Fred Berman, L. J. Ganser
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1998, three Harvard Business School graduates - two men and one woman - turned down six-figure salaries at big corporations, bet on themselves, and launched their own new companies. By their 10-year reunion, their audacity had paid huge dividends. They'd made many millions of dollars, created hundreds of jobs and left their mark on the world. The Intelligent Entrepreneur tells the compelling and instructive story of how these three young founders did it.
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Terrible waste $ and a lot of time
- By David on 01-23-11
By: Bill Murphy Jr.
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Boss Life
- Surviving My Own Small Business
- By: Paul Downs
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1986, fresh out of college, Paul Downs opened his first and last business: a small company that built custom furniture. With no idea how to run a business or how to build custom furniture, Downs spent a year teaching himself the business, and in 1987 he hired his first employee. That was when things got complicated.
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Just a story
- By Marsha on 12-31-15
By: Paul Downs
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Mastering the VC Game
- A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-Up to IPO on Your Terms
- By: Jeffrey Bussgang
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Finding the right venture capitalist to back your start-up is a challenge. Even if you manage to get backing, you want your VC to be a partner, not some dictator who will undermine your vision and take control of your life's work. Jeffrey Bussgang is one of a very few people who have played on both sides of this high-stakes game. Now he draws on his unique perspective to offer high-level insights, colorful stories, and practical advice. He reveals how to get noticed, perfect a pitch, and negotiate a partnership that works for everyone.
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slow in beginning but gets really good
- By Diana on 04-11-19
By: Jeffrey Bussgang
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Targeted
- The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
- By: Brittany Kaiser
- Narrated by: Brittany Kaiser
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In this explosive memoir, a political consultant and technology whistleblower reveals the disturbing truth about the multi-billion-dollar data industry, revealing to the public how companies are getting richer using our personal information and exposing how Cambridge Analytica exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to help elect Donald Trump - and how this could easily happen again in the 2020 presidential election.
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Heavy on Kaiser, Light on Cambridge Analytica’s Data Operations
- By Morgan H Hoban on 11-05-19
By: Brittany Kaiser
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The Bank That Lived a Little
- Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market
- By: Philip Augar
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on unparalleled access to those involved, and told with compelling pace and drama, The Bank That Lived a Little is the story of one of the most familiar names on the British high street since Big Bang in 1986. Philip Augar describes in detail three decades of boardroom intrigue driven by ruthless ambition, grandiose dreams and a desire for wealth. It is a tale of a struggle for long-term supremacy between rival strategies and their adherents.
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Global superstar bankers under light-touch gov
- By Philo on 12-21-18
By: Philip Augar
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Bait and Switch
- The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed goes back undercover to do for America's ailing middle class what she did for the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in Bait and Switch, she enters another hidden realm of the economy: the world of the white-collar unemployed.
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A terrible book - princess Barbara goes undercover
- By Peter on 11-07-05
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Great on the Job
- What to Say, How to Say It. The Secrets of Getting Ahead.
- By: Jodi Glickman
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Do you always get the assignments you want? Do you know how to ask for help without sounding dumb? How to answer a question you don’t know the answer to? All the while sounding smart, capable, and competent? If the answer is no, you’re not alone. Jodi Glickman founded the communication consulting firm Great on the Job to help rising stars of the business world with the same issues. Now, for the first time, the training program that Jodi uses with her top-tier clients is available in book form. Great on the Job teaches people how to talk to one another at work, every day, in every situation....
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Never thought about learning this…
- By Amazon Customer on 10-21-23
By: Jodi Glickman
What listeners say about Front Row Seat
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Muddy Spud Bug
- 06-30-21
Accounting Drama!
This book is a testament to the freedom of self-publishing:
Production: The production of this audiobook was amateur at best, but I found that the author’s passion towards ethical accounting came through in his voice and was infectious.
Story: No traditional artsy publisher would have allowed accounting irregularities to push a plot forward, but it did here. The accounting violations with layman explanations were very interesting to me as a financial professional with limited accounting knowledge.
Thanks to Stephen for writing this book instead of just trying to forget the events!
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- Dave Hemke
- 06-30-21
Great story - horrible performance
This was a great 'inspired by real life' story that touches on a number of the many problems connected to slick business men obsessed with shaking every last dollar out of youth sports.
The story was so good that I was willing to endure the amateur-sounding audio performance which suffers from objectively poor recording quality, numerous technical glitches, sudden and jarring volume changes, and a subjectively grating Northeastern accent.
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- Jim T
- 04-18-24
Incredible story, bad audio
Fantastic story that pulls you in right away. This is easily a 5 star story but the audio is 1 star. For the most part, the dictation is clear and comprehensible. However, between chapters there is a loud humming noise that makes using headphones impossible. There are times during the reading that you can hear the reader clicking a mouse in the background or the sound of their phone going off. The end credits chapter (very short) has an audible click track while it’s being played. Again, amazing story but the audio leaves a lot to be desired.
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- M. Addesa
- 05-20-21
Is Steve running a vacuum or standing on a jetway
This story is great. It is a lot of fun. I liked listening to the author reading it. This version I listened too had amateur production quality. There are several places where you can hear Outlook ding or a text message come in while the author is reading. At one point I am pretty sure there was an audible fart, if it wasn't, it sounded so much like it that it might as well have been. Between each chapter there is a god awful noise that sounds like a vacuum, so loud it hurts your ears if you have headphones on.
Great Story, well read by an interesting guy that is not a voice actor. That was refreshing. So far below the production quality I am used to as an Audible listener.
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