Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus were both fired in 1978 by corporate raider Sandy Sigiloff. Blank, a CPA, and Marcus, an ex-pharmacist, were devastated. Bernie, heartbroken and virtually broke, fell into a deep funk. Arthur considered becoming a private CPA. Both thought a former associate was crazy when he told them: You've just been hit in the ass by a golden horseshoe.

They proved him right. Blank and Marcus both recovered from their professional downturn to found The Home Depot, a phenomenally successful business with 1,000 locations, 200,000 employees, and $30 billion in sales. The Home Depot story is one of the great entrepreneurial tales of the last twenty years -- how incredibly determined and creative people built a business empire from nothing. It's an inspirational tale of two people who had to beg for capital to begin and grow their business but never forgot their principles.

The Home Depot today is one of America's toughest, most growth-oriented companies, but one with a huge sense of responsibility to its employees and to the communities in which it operates. Well over 1,000 Home Depot hourly associates are millionaires (from stock options and other benefits) who continue to work at the store level. When disasters like the Oklahoma bombing or Hurricane Andrew hit local communities, Home Depot employees don't call central headquarters for permission to do something. They close the store and take personal action.

The Home Depot is a category killer -- but one you can love. It is Toys 'R Us for adults and the founders, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, are the Ben and Jerry of the retail world.

A candid, rollicking business memoir from the Home Depot cofounder, filled with personal stories, savvy business advice, and timeless lessons for a life well lived

A classic Cinderella story of the American dream fulfilled, told with humor and honesty. -- GARY SINISE

An extraordinary story. ... [Tells] Marcus's version of the American dream, from tenement to boardroom, homespun into lessons for readers wanting to make it in business or philanthropy. -- Financial Times

The start of Home Depot sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: Two Jews and an Italian decide to build a new kind of hardware store... In 1978, Bernie Marcus's livelihood depended on just such a scenario. Having been fired at the age of forty-nine, he teamed up with Arthur Blank and Ken Langone on a bold new endeavor. Their first day in business was so disastrous that the next morning, Marcus's wife wouldn't let him shave because she didn't want a razor in his hands. But the last laugh would be theirs, as the business partners grew Home Depot into the world's largest home improvement retailer, empowering millions of Americans to do it yourself.

Doing it yourself has been the theme of Bernie Marcus's entire life. By the time he was fifteen, he had held more than a dozen jobs, joined a gang, and worked as a hypnotist in the Catskills. The son of a cabinetmaker and garment worker who survived the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Bernie overcame a hardscrabble upbringing to author one of the best entrepreneurial stories in American history. Today, Home Depot employs 500,000 associates at 2,300 stores and is one of the most recognized and admired companies in the world.

The same energy that made Home Depot successful has helped Bernie give away more than $2 billion and pioneer a new model for philanthropy, transforming millions of lives. There is no single, winning formula for trying to make the world a better place, but Bernie shares what he's learned--that the skills needed to build a Fortune 500 company are the same ones that can help cure cancer, treat veterans with PTSD, and transform autism treatment. And it doesn't take a fortune to make a big difference in your community.

Kick Up Some Dust will inspire you to dream, build, and give--and, maybe, change the world.