Swimming Lessons for Clayton

Who needs swimming lessons the most? Someone who's drowning. Who has the least time for swimming lessons? Someone who's drowning. Clayton Thomas Jr. runs OptiGuard, the Indiana glass-film factory his father built thirty years ago, and it is sinking. Cash is tight, the floor is restless, and a well-funded competitor is circling. Clayton is in over his head, and he knows it. Then Mr. Gi appears. A South Korean industrialist with a boxer's patience and a teacher's instinct, Mr. Gi walks Clayton through what it takes to build a great business, lesson by lesson: who to hire and who to let go, how to price, when to borrow, how to sell, and how to lead the people who depend on you. His reason for helping reaches back decades and across an ocean, to a secret between the two families that Clayton's father has never told. Swimming Lessons for Clayton is a business fable with real teeth. Every chapter carries a practical lesson that any owner of a small or mid-sized company can put to work on Monday morning. It is also a story about fathers and sons and the loyalty that holds a family and a company together when the water rises. Lewis Schiff is the chairman of Birthing of Giants, a school for business owners, and the author of Business Brilliant and The Middle-Class Millionaire. This is his first novel.