by Joe Garner
First published 2025
John P. Calamos Sr. chronicles his journey from working as a stock boy in his parents' Chicago grocery store to commanding a financial empire worth over $35 billion. The narrative reveals how a teenage discovery of stock certificates in the family basement sparked a lifelong passion for investing. Calamos details his military service flying over 400 combat missions in Vietnam, including five years piloting B-52 bombers and twelve years with A-37 fighters in the Reserves. He recounts launching his investment firm and pioneering early convertible funds in 1985 and liquid alternative funds in 1990. Each chapter weaves together personal anecdotes with business insights gained through decades of risk-taking and resilience. The book demonstrates how service, entrepreneurship, and calculated risks transformed a working-class Chicago kid into a billionaire investor and American success story.
Genres: business, biography-memoir, military-history, finance, entrepreneurship
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: rags-to-riches
Setting: Chicago, Vietnam
Period: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s
208 pages · Hardcover · Wiley