Tom Black is an American author, entrepreneur and wine collector.
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Early life
Black was born in Nickerson, Kansas in 1951 in a converted train boxcar. Black attended Southwest Missouri State Teachers College where he sold books door-to-door during summer breaks for booksellers Southwestern Company of Nashville, Tennessee.
Business ventures and writing
Black became sales manager of Southwestern Company of Nashville, Tennessee, then National Sales Manager for Windsor Publishing where he took the firm’s revenue from $10 million to more than $350 million. In 1990, Black founded and was the CEO of accounts receivable company, Private Business, Inc. The company went public in 1999. That same year, Black co-founded bank mission-critical equipment and maintenance company, Tecniflex, then its sister company, Imagic Corporation.
In 2007, Black published his book, The Boxcar Millionaire, in which he tells the story of his impoverished childhood and his rise to corporate and business success. Black is a regular columnist for The Tennessean, a USA Today newspaper.
Black is an international motivational speaker, giving seminars on ethical sales techniques for audiences worldwide. In 2008, Black partnered with Chicken Soup for the Soul author, Mark Victor Hansen, to give a series of one-day seminars on sales throughout the U.S.
Wine
Black is an avid wine collector, with a personal wine cellar containing more than 30,000 bottles, one of the largest personal collections in the United States. His collection has been featured in international wine magazines such as Decanter and Wine Spectator.