Mark Bernstein and Yadin Kaufman put their heads together to publish the new survival guides
צילום: קרי רוג'רס
Put your heads together
Israeli businessman Yadin Kaufmann has seen success with a series of survival guides
Yadin Kaufmann is a founding partner of Veritas Venture Partners, co-founder of MainXchange Ltd., and founder of Tmura, a not-for-profit, public-service venture fund that donates to education and other youth-related charities in Israel.
He is also one of the publishers of the new "Hundreds of Heads" survival guides, which provide anecdotes and advice for people facing different life challenges, like marriage, moving and more. The first Hundreds of Heads book, "How to Survive Your Freshman Year," has sold more than 40,000 copies since it was published in April 2004, making it the top-selling college guide in the U.S.
Ynetnews caught up with Kaufmann his Herzliya Pituah office in Israel to learn about what inspired him and his colleagues to put their heads together.
1. You're a businessman and a lawyer. What made you decide to become a publisher?
A few years ago, my son was applying to colleges, and he needed advice. I realized that I could tell him what I knew, and my wife could tell him what she knew, but we were quite a few years past college age.
It got me thinking about taking a new approach to a college guide. Since no two experiences are the same, the more experiences you hear about, the more relevant information you receive about the challenges you are facing. If two heads are better than one, then hundreds of heads are better than two.
It became a business idea for a series of books to help people face the milestones in their lives. The series would offer the insights, experience and advice of lots of people that had been through it before. My friend Mark Bernstein joined me to work on the idea, and we've been busy running things since then.
2. How do you find your sources and where do you get your ideas?
There is no principal author; there are hundreds of authors. Several dozen journalists go out and talk to people for each book. They compile the information, and keep the best stories and advice. An editor selects the stories and edits them for publication.
You can also submit your stories on our website. Our editors will take a look at them and perhaps publish them. We encourage people to submit, because everyone has a story to tell, and the more people that tell the stories, the better the experiences that we have to draw from.
3. How are your guides different from other popular guides?
Our series is about the multiplicity of views. No two experiences are the same, so we have more relevant ideas.
Some books like the "Chicken Soup" series feature long, inspirational stories, but this is easier to just pick up.
The Hundreds of Heads books have short entries, anecdotes and factual sidebars. You don't need to read more than a few pages at a time.
4. Your website is interactive and features content online. What other ideas do you have for taking the content of your guides beyond the pages of a book?
Knight Ridder Tribune Information Services is syndicating our content in various newspapers. They are taking a chapter a week and doing a piece on it, including some of the best stories that they find.
We'd also like to have more forums on our website so we can reach out to as many people as possible.
5. So far you've covered college, dating, marriage, moving, babies and teenagers. What other survival guides to you foresee?
In the next year or so, we'll be publishing guides to retirement, pregnancy, divorce, debt and volunteering.
What's nice about Hundreds of Heads is that it has unlimited potential: you're writing about life's major challenges, and there are a lot of them.
6. Did you think about focusing on any Jewish themes?
After Passover, someone suggested that we do a guide for how to survive a seder. We could also do other events, like bar or bat mitzvahs.
7. You haven't yet written your guide to survive in business. What are your tips for entrepreneurs?
Don't get discouraged by obstacles along the way. Every success requires a lot of work in different phases. You need to be persistent and dedicated to your goal.
Be careful of who you partner yourself with. The wrong partner can make your life difficult and the right partner will help you achieve your goal.
8. Do you think Israel offers an up-and-coming business environment?
We don't try to predict where markets are going. When Veritas decides what to invest in, we are more influenced by the quality of the people than the "next great thing."
Israel's strength is developing new technology and products with a lot of added value, like homeland security, software, communications and healthcare.
There are a lot of great things coming out of here. We have a unique concentration of engineering talent and entrepreneurial spirit. As long as we keep people involved in Israel and its business world, we will do well as a country.
