Books
My Land
Everyone always asks why I came to Finland. No one asks why I’m still here.
Everyone has dreamed of leaving everything behind and starting a new life in another country. Few have gone beyond daydreaming and actually done it, but what happens when you take the risk and it all goes wrong?
This is the story of a man who did exactly that. He left behind friends, family and a career in America and married a woman in Finland. The marriage failed. He had bet his entire life on this relationship and lost.
He believed he was lost and abandoned in the darkest country on Earth, but came to realise he was not lost at all. In fact, he was finally found.
Reviews:
This book resonated with me deeply. I’ve made similar choices to the author at one time or another. While my path has not been as dark it’s because I’ve been luckier I suspect. You can be smart and motivated and still have things go wrong through chance or lack of perspective. You can also be lost and find your way again with effort and the kindness of others. Read this book. It might make you sad and then happy on a cold dark night. It did me. Amazon
Really great book! Very well written and interesting. I recommend it if you like to read a fascinating true story. Amazon
Read the entire book in one sitting. And cried like I’ve not cried in many, many years. Fabulous story! Bravo! Amazon
just fantastic. Most brave and honest stuff I’ve read in 15-20 years! Instagram
Instead of answering the question “why come to Finland?” the author tells why he stayed in Finland despite cultural, financial and personal issue and ultimately how he reconciled and overcame these. Deeply personal and intimate in its telling and content. Amazon
The Decline and Fall of Nokia
Nokia’s fall from the pinnacle of the mobile phone industry was unprecedented in both its rapidity and its extent. Now for the first time the true, comprehensive story is told of the decline and fall of Finland’s greatest company.
The Decline and Fall of Nokia details Jorma Ollila’s retirement, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo’s new role as CEO and the final years of unqualified success. Nokia’s strategy is to drive digital convergence through their expansion into personal electronics as well as into content and services. It works well – at first.
Weaved throughout the narrative are explorations of Nokia’s structure and culture, the company’s relationship with Finland, and reflections upon successes and mistakes.
Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and low-cost competitors disrupt the market, and Nokia’s attempts to correct their worsening situation are increasingly futile. Stephen Elop’s choice of the Windows Phone operating system is a catastrophe which results in the sale of the handset business to Microsoft. Yet there is still a future, both for the devices business and for the new, slimmer Nokia.
The Decline and Fall of Nokia is based upon exhaustive research and dozens of interviews. Journalists, financial analysts, competitors, politicians, union leaders, technology experts and Nokia insiders – from modest engineers to the highest executives – have told their stories, given their private insights and expressed their opinions for the book.
Dead Romans
The Shepherd’s Story…
Daphnis knows he is the best shepherd in his beloved countryside, even if he is only a little slave boy. But when he fails to meet the demands of his cruel master Pericles, his sister is sold into a life of depravity. Distraught, Daphnis escapes to Ephesus in search of her but finds someone else who might aid him: Panthea, the Roman emperor’s mistress.
The Mistress’ Story…
Despised by the rich and powerful as nothing more than the emperor’s low-born plaything, beautiful Panthea has endured a lifetime of abuse and manipulation. The emperor’s wife threatens her. A brutal businessman blackmails her. Panthea finds relief from her hellish existence only through the pastoral poetry written for her by the baker Aristides.
The Writer’s Story…
Although Aristides’ poetry has charmed the emperor’s mistress, what he truly desires is to acquire a literary patron and become a successful writer. His chance comes when he is asked to write a glowing biography for the businessman Pericles. But as Aristides discovers the dark truth about his patron, his conscience torments him. Aristides hesitates to write such lies, but the dream of fame beckons. Besides, what is a little slave boy or the emperor’s mistress to him, anyway?
A city under siege…
As the social fabric of Ephesus frays under the onslaught of a killer plague, their lives hang in the balance. Love and honor will be tried in one final, anguished crucible. One woman may hold the key to all their salvation: the ship that will be the last to flee the dying city.
Mohamed 2.0
What do Muslims do online? Plot suicide bombings and complain about presumptuous women who demand the right to vote? Mohamed El-Fatatry knew better. An Egyptian national who grew up in the United Arab Emirates and came to Finland to study technology, Mohamed knew that most young Muslims were like anyone else in the Western world. To demonstrate, at the age of twenty-two he created Muxlim, which became the largest Muslim lifestyle network in the world.
Mohamed is a charismatic visionary who wanted to build a bridge between the metaphorical Muslim island and the Western mainland. The domestic and international press wrote glowing articles about his ideas. Finnish politicians fawned upon him, bestowing honour after honour. He was a hero of the high-tech community.
Yet away from the glittering halls of the Presidential palace and the bright lights of the television cameras, Mohamed had to fight for his ideas. Immigration sceptics scoffed at his company. Investors rebelled against his plans. Business partners left him. Struggling against the torrent of the global recession, he sometimes wondered how he would pay his employees. Even his own marriage disintegrated under the oppressive shadow of Muxlim.
Now a fork in the path has been reached; Muxlim is going one way while Mohamed is going another. He has no desire to settle into the cosy Finnish economic and social system. Instead, he wants to cause as much disruption as possible.
Mohamed 2.0: Disruption Manifesto is his story of what happened in the private corridors of Muxlim, Inc. and what Mohamed plans for the future.
The Finnish-Swedish publishing house has published, in English, a great book for any start-up entrepreneur or business angel as an educational resource. For the rest of us Mohamed 2.0 works as quality entertainment, drama that even Hollywood would never have come up with. Muxlim’s story might have been a glorious failure, but David J. Cord’s book is, even in its idealising, simply brilliant.
Tommi Aitio, Muxlim’s Glorious Failure, Kauppalehti