Little Giant: The Award-Winning True Story

“Oddly resonant. I couldn’t put it down.” -Book Club Member

Little Giant surprises readers, defying easy categorization. Is it an entrepreneurial story about two triumphant underdogs? An escapist page turner tracing two decades of a Caribbean life experiment? A case study about the overlooked value of friendship and fun in a loud, commercial, attention-stealing world?

Yes, yes, and yes.

The book follows David and Yair from their early identity crises, as a lawyer and a marine scientist, to starting over as idealistic rookie retailers. Weaving together biography and memoir with threads from philosophy and social science, Little Giant investigates how David and Yair’s unconventional choices led to a quality of life they never imagined.

David and Yair found their answer on one small island. Readers find their own answers in the chapters of this quietly remarkable true story.

What readers are saying

“This beautiful book is a fountain of inspiration about living adventurously and on your own terms.”

William Parkhurst, New York Times bestselling author of True Detectives

“The characters and their stories moved and delighted me, and the book itself is gorgeous.”

Shelley Sperry, author of What’s the Big Idea?

“…a beautiful story of two men chasing their dreams, but not in the default ‘more is better’ way. The flow of the book reminded me of Tuesdays with Morrie. I wish there were more books like this.”

Paul Millerd, author of The Pathless Path and Good Work

“This compelling exploration…enlivens our understanding of our own dreams, lives, and work.”

Elizabeth Garber, author of Sailing at the Edge of Disaster

“This is a very human book about choices and what can happen when people truly love each other. It depicts a different way of life and doing business, where you can have your cake and eat it, too.”

Mickey Green, award-winning filmmaker

“Little Giant offers wisdom on business and friendship from an improbable venture in the Caribbean.”

Murray Carpenter, author of Caffeinated

If you’re skeptical about this book, I understand.

I never wanted to write a book about two “surfer dudes” running an Aruban surf shop. My dream was literary fiction, launched with fanfare at the Strand Bookstore in New York City.

I’m a former Manhattan book editor turned communications executive. I don’t surf. Midcoast Maine, where I live, is as far from the Caribbean as you can go without leaving the continent.

Then, one sunny afternoon under a mango tree in Aruba, my stepson made an off-hand remark about choosing a simpler, truer life. That seed of an idea became Little Giant.

On the surface, my book recreates what happened when two brilliant friends made the audacious leap from stable careers to starting an underdog surf shop. As I dug into their story, deeper themes kept surfacing.

I got fired up to write a more personal and universal book about finding the courage to live truer to ourselves in a world that shouts contradictions at us: scale up, stay safe, dream big, avoid risk.

Two decades ago, Bula Surf Shop was born of an excess of idealism and a passion for ocean sports. No one thought Yair and David would last a year. Even they had their doubts.

Most books close a chapter. This one became a film.

Thanks to two initial funders in Aruba and an outstanding filmmaking team, Why a Lawyer and a Scientist Risked It All for a Surf Shop is now streaming on YouTube. The 11-minute film immerses you in the people, the setting, and the story behind Little Giant.

Emmy-winning executive producer Amanda Pisetzner kept saying, “Don’t overthink it. Just be yourself.” As a lifelong over-complicator and spotlight avoider, I didn’t want to listen. But listen I did, and we screened the film in my hometown to an enthusiastic overflow crowd.

I loved making it, so that wasn’t where the story ended.

And now, a new interview series

B–Side Tales: Unruly reinventions

I’m excited to introduce B-Side Tales, conversations with quietly remarkable people like David and Yair who aren’t content with conventional success. As the podcast host, I get to interview B-Siders about why they took a leap, what they risked, and what they found on the other side of the record. Watch the trailer to find out why I became fascinated by B-Siders after suffering a rare case of transcient global amnesia.

Bonus Q&A: A cartoonist’s midlife leap from ink to fire

Some conversations are so mesmerizing, they call for a longer take. As a companion to the first B-Sides video podcast, I put together a bonus Q&A with David Jacobson, a New Yorker cartoonist turned glassblower at 51. He opens up about how he wrestled the inner demons that held him back as an artist and small business owner.

Click here to find out what came of his “stupid” decision to quit his coveted New York career and start over in rural Maine.