A Nose For Trouble: Sotheby’s, Lehman Brothers, and My Life of Redefining Adversity

This is the remarkable memoir of Michael Ainslie, a man who has always embraced the adventures and misadventures of business and life. In A Nose for Trouble, he describes his personal experience with several high profile events, including the 2008 bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers: He was one of ten people in the Lehman boardroom on the evening of September 14, 2008 who saw first hand the events that led to the largest bankruptcy filing in US history. And he offers readers an insider’s view of the situations surrounding the price-fixing scandal between Sotheby’s and Christie’s, a scandal that rocked the art world and sent the ex-chair of Sotheby’s to prison.

Ainslie also shares about his early beginnings in life; his career as president, CEO, and board member across numerous companies and institutions; and his work to transform kids’ lives through The Posse Foundation. Whether he’s being carried out of his high school graduation on a stretcher, escaping a riot in Vietnam, facing death threats in NYC, battling a worldwide oil embargo, meeting with First Lady Nancy Reagan on the day her husband was shot, or revamping the USTA, Ainslie’s memoir shows that sometimes, the greatest lessons in life are a direct result of the adversities we face.

A Nose for Trouble is about accepting a challenge, redefining misfortune, and rising above. In this fascinating life story of leadership and change, Michael Ainslie teaches readers that the best parts of ourselves often come out of our hardest moments.

© 2020 Greenleaf Book Group (Audiobook): 9781626348172

Release date

Audiobook: August 15, 2020