Rare Breed

June 24, 2019
This brash and determined ode to the nonconforming entrepreneur from founders of branding agency Motto Bonnell and Hansenberger aims to encourage anyone with a dream and an asymmetrical haircut. The authors, eager to prove their outsider bona fides, discuss how they dropped out of college and built their business by “breaking rules and vandalizing traditions,” and encourage readers to see setbacks as just more proof that they’re special and destined for great things, just as Bonnell and Hansberger were. The book is framed around the seven characteristics specific to “rare breeds” traditionally considered “dangerous and counterintuitive”—rebellious, audacious, obsessed, hot-blooded, weird, hypnotic, and emotional. Each gets its own chapter, which concludes with advice on how to exploit these characteristics to succeed. There’s quite a bit of self-congratulation and reader-congratulation—“nobody ever called you compliant or predictable”—and the resulting execution comes across a bit too much like teenage posturing, since comparing entrepreneurs to Harriet Tubman, or to people who worked to save Jews from the Holocaust, strains the bounds of credulity. Readers who can get past the pandering, however, will draw some inspiration from this shame-free goad to outside-the-mainstream budding creators with a laptop and a dream. Agent: Joy Tutela, David Black Literary Agency.

August 1, 2019
In their first book, Bonnell and Hansberger, the founders of branding agency Motto, share the seven adjectives that they consider to be virtues for personal growth and professional success: rebellious, audacious, obsessed, hot-blooded, weird, hypnotic, and emotional. They explore these characteristics by providing anecdotes from their personal experiences and from other successful entrepreneurs in business, including the fashion, food, and entertainment industries. They explain how these personality features should be embraced to add tremendous value to one's strategy for career success. Throughout this quick read, readers will feel that Bonnell and Hansberger are coaching them personally to redefine their limits, skillsets, talents, and comfort zones in the workplace, and to help them dismantle status-quo practices. Readers interested in business leadership, self-development, and entrepreneurship will find this work motivating and helpful in overcoming internal and external barriers to career success.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)