Shoot for the Stars and You Will Land on the Moon

Book excerpt: In Shoot for the Stars and You Will Land on the Moon, Leopoldo Fernández Pujals, the only Spanish entrepreneur who has led two companies into the prestigious Ibex 35 index on the Madrid Stock Exchange, shares his life experiences and shows how students, executives and those with ambition can achieve their dreams. Fernandez guides readers with wit, theory and real life examples to show how anyone with tenacity, effort and desire can become successful by overcoming the two great impediments to realizing their goals: fearitis and excusitis. Along the way, Mr. Fernandez shares many secrets to success including basic but often overlooked strategies for selling, keys to successful personnel management and detailed thought processes to ensure an executive stays on mission. Most important, Mr. Fernandez explains through stories and analysis why the most important goal for any company is to grow, with examples of how to overcome bumps in the road and recognize the difference between a legitimate need and an excuse. Shoot for the Stars is a life journey beginning with Leopoldo's hurried departure as a youth from Cuba to Miami, his education and starting a family before enlisting in the Army for the Vietnam War. Upon his return from war, Fernandez both stood out and struggled with corporate office politics as a young executive in Latin America and Spain. All this time, he dreams of opening his own business. This leads to the founding of Telepizza, the amazing stories behind its meteoric growth and struggles for control. The story concludes with lessons from the purchase of Jazztel: its rescue from insolvency amidst fierce competition from an industry giant, its growth from just 5,000 ADSL customers to one of the biggest telecommunications firms in Europe and its ultimate merger with Orange. Readers learn the keys to success as an entrepreneur and are equipped with knowledge so they too, can realize their dreams.