The Ride of a Lifetime

Doing Business the Orange County Choppers Way

By: Paul Teutul

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Since founding Orange County Choppers in Upstate New York in 1999, Teutul has grown the business from a hobby into a 70-person-plus operation that produces and sells 150 custom bikes a year at retail prices starting at $30,000 and quickly escalating to six figures.

Teutul and his team not only sell their choppers from their world headquarters in Newburgh, New York, but throughout a multicountry dealership network in the US and abroad. Paul and his sons build the best one-of-a-kind choppers in the world with unrivaled passion, creativity, and honesty.

In The Ride of a Lifetime, Teutul elucidates the business principles that have made Orange County Choppers a household name. His smart commonsense business wisdom works for businesses both big and small in any industry.

Here, listeners will learn firsthand how Teutul built a uniquely successful business by working hard and demanding it from others; encouraging and embracing unfettered creativity; establishing well-defined roles for every team member and demanding they support each other; and using honest conflict and confrontation to solve problems and constantly innovate.

The Ride of a Lifetime is a smart, tough-as-nails guide to business success that every entrepreneur should hear. Do what you love. Work hard at it. And never give up. Running a business isn't easy, but it IS The Ride of a Lifetime.

©2009 Paul Teutul (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"Tough, smart business advice on what it takes to run a successful business." ( American Chopper)

Not a bio, Business management book

I was slightly disappointed while I was reading this because I was expecting a bio/memoir of this really interesting man, instead I got a "how to" on business management. Luckily it was relevant to me as I run a motorcycle business but as a business book it didn't really give me anything new. I really wanted to discover more about "Senior". And while there were a few interesting revelations about himself and his family, he primarily wrote this book as a guide to running a successful business. Not what I wanted, and it wasn't written very well. Every now and then he tries to throw in a really obscure word to try and give us the impression that he's a writer, but it doesn't work. He should have written this the way he talks, that would have been a fascinating read. If you want a business book, the market is flooded and this one will tell you that passion is key and looking after good employees is important. But I was expecting the "Ride of a lifetime" and I didn't get it.
Would have much preferred a book about Paul Teutul instead of his ideas on how to run a business. He doesn't say anything wrong, I must admit, and he did build a global brand name from the ground up. But I really wanted the story of his life, only 20% of this book was about him. The rest was quite repetitive on how to be a business success.
Sorry.

Too short - really a rehash of Sr.'s life

I'm a fan of American Chopper - and of course, that means that I enjoy hearing backstory about the Teutul's. This book is not what I'd expect - it contains a mix of biography and business lessons - that - well - frankly should be obvious to anyone who has been in business. Not a bad book, but not a how-to guide on building a business. A few jewels of wisdom, but not a blow by blow guide.