Just in Time for Thanksgiving, IDT Chairman Gives a Special Gift to Those Who Believe in the American Dream |
NEWARK, N. J. - November 21, 2001 - It isnıt often that an internationally renowned businessman gives away one of his most prized assets, but thatıs exactly what Howard Jonas has done.
In an unprecedented effort to share his experience and life views with others, Jonas, Chairman and Founder of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT, IDT.B), a leading multinational carrier and telephone company, today made his autobiography On A Roll available free of charge online at www.howardsbook.com.
On A Roll is Jonas's often amusing, always insightful story of his journey from a young teenager running his own hot dog cart to a young man in his mid 40s running his own billion-dollar telecommunications company. The book is full of colorful anecdotes and helpful - often surprising - advice for would-be entrepreneurs and managers, such as:
"If you have an idea, donıt overprepare, just go for it."
"What exactly is a great idea? Simply a way of reorganizing the assets you already have so you can accomplish something new. Praying or hoping that someone from any planet or someone you never met from the other side of the world will just appear and save you isn't a great idea. It's wishful thinking."
"Not every client needs you to give him your heart, liver, and kidneys. In fact, if you spend all your money delivering unnecessarily high levels of service to every account, you will be broke and will deliver service to no one."
"Show me a postman who, in his pare time, has organized and run a large Little League team and I'll show you someone who could be managing a large number of people if he weren't delivering mail."
"What better time to share what Iıve learned in business than the Thanksgiving season?" said Howard Jonas. "I've been incredibly lucky, but a lot of that luck happened because I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they presented themselves. And no one has a better chance to find great opportunities than someone doing business in the United States."
"This may be the first time so much invaluable business advice has been made available so widely for free," said IDT Telecom board member and former congressman Jack Kemp. "But then thatıs what youıd expect from the Chairman of a company that successfully took on international telephone monopolies and reduced the cost of foreign calls by more than 50 percent."
People who wish to read On A Roll can simply go to www.howardsbook.com and either read the 14-chapter book online or download and print it. When they go to the site they will be able to link directly to the IDT corporate home page to see just how the Jonas business philosophy has created one of the leading telecommunications companies in the world.
And what message would Jonas like everyone to take away from reading On A Roll? Perhaps itıs this thought from Chapter 6, "Gold in the Sewer":
"By all means use logic and borrow my rules. But keep your eyes open because you just never know where the gems will be found."
IDT CORPORATION
IDT is a leading facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to its wholesale and retail customers worldwide.
Through its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, IDT provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. The Company's Ventures division is developing several innovative telecom and Internet related businesses. Through its IDT Investments subsidiary, IDT has equity interests in several telecom and Internet-related companies.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and assumptions contained in the foregoing are forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, involving risks and uncertainties. These statements refer to our plans to implement our growth strategy, improve our financial performance, expand our infrastructure, develop new products and services, expand our customer base and enter international markets. The forward looking statements also include our expectations concerning factors affecting the markets for our products, including the demand for long distance telecommunications, and Internet access services. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results that we anticipate. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those risks discussed in this release. In addition to the factors specifically noted in the forward looking statements, other important factors that could result in those differences include (a) general economic conditions in the telecommunications and Internet markets, including inflation, recession, interest rates, and other economic factors; (b) casualty to or other disruption of our facilities and operations; (c) those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10K for the period ended July 31, 2001 and (d) other factors that generally affect the business of telecommunications, Internet and other communications companies. We assume no obligation to update these forward looking statements or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward looking statements. |
Nov 21, 2001 |
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