Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.
0:00 /
LIST PRICE $14.99
PRICE MAY VARY BY RETAILER
Digital products purchased on SimonandSchuster.com must be read on the Simon & Schuster Books app. Learn more.
Get 25% off with code SPRING25, plus free shipping on orders of $40 or more. (Discount on physical product only, terms apply.)
Buy from Other Retailers
Table of Contents
About The Book
“The defining account of an era in business history.” —Evan Osnos, National Book Award–winning author of Age of Ambition
The unputdownable first Western biography of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, financial disruptor and personification of the 21st century’s addiction to instant wealth, from the former editor of the Financial Times.
As Wall Street swooned and boomed through the last decade, our livelihoods have—now more than ever—come to rely upon the good sense and risk appetites of a few standout investors. And amidst the BlackRocks, Vanguards, and Berkshire Hathaways stands arguably the most iconoclastic of them all: SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son.
In Gambling Man, the first Western biography of Son, the self-professed unicorn hunter, we go behind the scenes of the world’s most monied halls of power in New York, Tokyo, Silicon Valley, Saudi Arabia, and beyond to see how Son’s firm SoftBank has defied conventional wisdom and imposing odds to push global tech and commerce into the future.
From the dizzying highs of Uber, DoorDash, and Slack to the epic lows of WeWork and tech-infused dogwalking app Wag Son and SoftBank have been at the center of cutting-edge capitalism’s absolute peaks and valleys. In the process, Son, son of a pachinko kingpin who grew up in a slum in Japan, has been a hero, a villain, and even a meme-ified hero to the internet tech- and finance-bro set all at once.
Based on in-depth research and eye-opening interviews, Gambling Man is an unforgettable character study and alarming true story of twenty-first-century commerce that will stick with you long after you turn the final page.
The unputdownable first Western biography of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, financial disruptor and personification of the 21st century’s addiction to instant wealth, from the former editor of the Financial Times.
As Wall Street swooned and boomed through the last decade, our livelihoods have—now more than ever—come to rely upon the good sense and risk appetites of a few standout investors. And amidst the BlackRocks, Vanguards, and Berkshire Hathaways stands arguably the most iconoclastic of them all: SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son.
In Gambling Man, the first Western biography of Son, the self-professed unicorn hunter, we go behind the scenes of the world’s most monied halls of power in New York, Tokyo, Silicon Valley, Saudi Arabia, and beyond to see how Son’s firm SoftBank has defied conventional wisdom and imposing odds to push global tech and commerce into the future.
From the dizzying highs of Uber, DoorDash, and Slack to the epic lows of WeWork and tech-infused dogwalking app Wag Son and SoftBank have been at the center of cutting-edge capitalism’s absolute peaks and valleys. In the process, Son, son of a pachinko kingpin who grew up in a slum in Japan, has been a hero, a villain, and even a meme-ified hero to the internet tech- and finance-bro set all at once.
Based on in-depth research and eye-opening interviews, Gambling Man is an unforgettable character study and alarming true story of twenty-first-century commerce that will stick with you long after you turn the final page.
About The Author
Lionel Barber
Lionel Barber is the former editor of the Financial Times. As editor, he interviewed many of the world’s leaders in business and politics, including US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Barber has cowritten several books and has lectured widely on foreign policy, transatlantic relations, and economics. He also served on the Board of Trustees at the Tate and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He graduated in 1978 from St Edmund Hall, Oxford University, with a joint honors degree in German and modern history and speaks French and German fluently.
Product Details
- Publisher: Atria/One Signal Publishers (January 21, 2025)
- Length: 368 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668070765
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
“A meticulously researched, balanced, thoroughly readable, utterly dizzying insider’s account.”
—Booklist (Starred review)
“This real-life rags to riches story enthralls.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Not only a first-rate biography of an elusive billionaire… an analysis of the recent age of tech-driven globalization.”
—Bloomberg
"The defining account of an era in business history.”
—Evan Osnos, National Book Award-winning author of Age of Ambition
“Patient detailing of the labyrinthine financial path that led (Masayoshi) Son from the margins of Japanese society to a place at the very pinnacle of the global plutocracy."
—Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and author of The House of Rothschild and The Ascent of Money
“With literary flair and stunning revelations, Lionel Barber delivers one of the very best biographies of a business titan to appear in years."
—Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Ghost Wars, The Achilles Trap and Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
"Penetrating analysis of one of the most important and least understood figures in global finance today... A must read."
—Gillian Tett, best-selling author of Anthrovision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life, and Saving the Sun: Shinsei and the Battle for Japan’s Future.
“Fascinating... Masa's story has the makings of an Ian Fleming novel. Lionel Barber cracked the code in helping us all understand this remarkable individual."
—Steven A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder, Blackstone
"A definitive biography [that] tells us a lot about the world we live in, how the intersection of technology and finance has created enormous fortunes and changed lifestyles everywhere."
—Peter Tasker, Nikkei Asia
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Gambling Man eBook 9781668070765
- Author Photo (jpg): Lionel Barber Lionel Barber(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
