Michael Ellsberg

We would like to think that the best ideas and the best technology always rise to the top--within an organization, and within a marketplace. However, we know the real world unfortunately doesn't work this way. In the nitty-gritty of office politics and fiercely competitive marketplaces, the best ideas *combined with the best persuasion* rise to the top.

Michael Ellsberg spent the past two years interviewing some of the world's most successful people who did not complete college. These self-made successes are some of the world's most street-smart entrepreneurs, and they get this point intuitively. They understand that--love it or hate it--persuasion, and pitching well, are just as much a part of tech adoption and dominance as are good ideas.

In your undergraduate and graduate education, you learned how to formulate brilliant ideas. In this presentation at the World Technology Summit from Forbes blogger and Penguin author Michael Ellsberg, come learn about the other side of the equation: how to persuade others (in your organization, and in the marketplace) to adopt your brilliant ideas.

Ellsberg is the author of The Education of Millionaires: It's Not What You Think, and It's Not Too Late, out Sep. 29th, 2011 from Penguin/Portfolio. Ellsberg also collaborated with Dr. Marc Gerstein on Flirting With Disaster: Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental.

The Education of Millionaires is a bootstrapper's guide to investing in your own human capital. Ellsberg interviewed some of the most successful people on the planet who didn't complete college and who educated themselves in the real world, to deconstruct their secrets and create a "Syllabus for a Successful Life" based on what he learned from them.

The book features interviews with self-educated billionaires Phillip Ruffin and John Paul DeJoria, Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Sean Parker, WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg, fashion designer Marc Ecko, Pink Floyd lead guitarist David Gilmour, and marketing experts Eben Pagan, Frank Kern and Joe Polish. It also features the insights of experts including Seth Godin, "Rich Dad" Robert Kiyosaki, and PayPal co-founder and Facebook angel investor, billionaire Peter Thiel.

The Education of Millionaires has been sold into Korea pre-release, and The Power of Eye Contact has been sold into China, Russia, France, Korea, Vietnam, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Brazil. The latter was featured in the Washington Post, and on Tim Ferriss's Four-Hour Workweek blog.

Ellsberg's work has also been featured in the Harvard Business Review online and on Digital Book World.

Ellsberg was born in San Francisco in 1977, grew up in Berkeley, and graduated from Brown University in 1999, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He lives in New York with his wife Jena la Flamme.