Golden apples - Bill Cullen

Bill Cullen, legendary head of Renault Ireland, went from selling apples on the streets of Dublin to owning a company with an annual turnover of over $400 million.



He credits much of his success to the women in his life: his mother, Mary, and his grandmother, Molly Darcy, whose fierce intelligence and homespun wisdom were a constant motivation and whose stories he told so vividly in his bestselling memoir, IT'S A LONG WAY FROM PENNY APPLES.



Now Bill shares those memories, and interprets them for the twenty-first century. Under his inspirational guidance, you can transform your career and your life.

Bill Cullen was born in Dublin in 1942 and grew up in the inner city slums of Dublin's Summerhill tenements. A street seller from the age of six, Bill left school at thirteen to make a living. In 1956 he got a job in a Dublin Ford car dealership and by 1964, as a twenty-two-year-old, he was appointed director general of the dealership. In 1986 he took over the troubled Renault car distribution franchise and turned it into a success. Bill Cullen is a director of the Irish Youth Foundation and in 1998 was a recipient of the Lord Mayor's Award for his work with the disadvantaged young people of Dublin and the inaugural Princess Grace Kelly Humanitarian Award in 2004 for his work with children.

'This book will have a hugely positive impact on everyone who reads it'
Sir Richard Branson

'Laced with anecdotes and written in simple and compelling prose. He is a natural writer.'

'Can Bill Cullen's book change the lives of those who read it? For my money, the answer is yes . . . a charming, down-to-earth guide to getting on in life'
Feargal QuinnIrish Times Weekend Review/>

'A distillation of his mother's homespun utterances, and those of his more philosophical grandmother, with business and fitness principles of his own soldered on. If there is a "secret" to his success, it seems to be no more complicated than having seized opportunities to impress and been prepared to work harder, faster and for longer than anyone else.'

'A self-help book with that little something special which Cullen brings to all his projects . . . He is an inspiration.'