The River - Sixty Years of Navigating Businesses
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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
60 Years of Real Business Lessons: Carl Powell Launches "The River" — A Memoir for Entrepreneurs
Huntsville, AL — Carl Powell, serial entrepreneur and author of six published books, today announces the launch of The River: 60 Years of Navigating Businesses, a candid memoir documenting four decades of ventures, failures, and hard-won lessons from the frontlines of entrepreneurship.
Available now for $16.99 on Stillstanding.biz, Amazon, Amazon Kindle($12.99), Books.by/carlpowell
Presale and Introductory price $14.99 through August 31st at stillstanding.biz
The Book
The River chronicles Powell's journey across 40+ business ventures — from early experiments in monogrammed letters and direct mail to founding Bricks & Minifigs Huntsville, a thriving franchise now in its fourth year. Rather than a success-story fantasy, the book is an unflinching look at what entrepreneurship actually requires: resilience, systems thinking, and the willingness to fail.
"Most business books tell you how to win," Powell writes. "This one tells you what winning actually looks like — including the parts where you don't."
The memoir opens with a river metaphor drawn from Joel Weldon's The Winding River story: a young man navigating a river with high cliffs, sharp turns, and unpredictable rapids, not knowing that calm waters await at journey's end. Powell uses this framework to explore how each business venture — successful or failed — taught him something essential about navigation, timing, and the long game.
Key themes:
· The difference between cash flow and profit (and why it matters)
· When to pivot, when to persist, and how to recognize the difference
· Systems before scale: building sustainable operations
· The myth of the overnight success
· Real stories from 40+ ventures, with names changed to protect the innocent
About the Author
Carl Powell is a 71-year-old entrepreneur, author, and franchise owner based in Huntsville, Alabama. Over 60 years, he has started, run, and sold businesses across retail, services, direct mail, and e-commerce. He is the author of Still Standing — How to build businesses that endure, and four other published works. Powell is also the owner and operator of Bricks & Minifigs Huntsville, a successful LEGO® retail and buy-sell-trade franchise with a loyal customer base of over 12,000.
Powell lives in Huntsville, AL with his wife Susan and is actively involved in his community and family. The River is his most personal and comprehensive work to date.
Availability
Amazon Kindle: $12.99 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2SB6WSM
Amazon Paperback: $16.99 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCSMCYP6
Books.by: $16.99 paperback — https://books.by/carlpowell/the-river
Author website: stillstanding.biz — https://stillstanding.biz/theriver
Media Contact
Carl Powell
Email: carl@stillstanding.biz
Website: stillstanding.biz
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