Before I Was CEO

Conclusions

Whether they came from Brooklyn or Belgium, inherited their status, or started from zero, the people we got to know in this book turned out to have a lot more in common than their resumes and pedigrees suggested. Throughout the interviews, a pattern of common traits, decisions, and actions started to emerge. Discovering these commonalities was useful for a number of reasons, but for two things above all. First, it showed that yes, there is such thing as a “recipe for success.” While every story is different, you can get to know, copy, and apply the lessons from leaders. And second, it showed that what matters is not becoming CEO, but the journey to get there. But before turning to what the commonalities were, it is worth pointing out what they were not.

WHAT THEY DIDN'T NEED

As we discovered through the life stories recounted in this book, it is not necessary to come from a wealthy family, have an MBA from Harvard or Stanford, or even have the ambition to become a CEO. Of the more than 15 CEOs and leaders interviewed for this book, only a few had all—or even any—of these traits.

The person that comes closest to that classic image, perhaps, is Richard Edelman. His parents were the original founders of the company he now heads, he received his degree from Harvard, and when he was in his twenties, he began to understand that he could play a very prominent role in his family enterprise. In that sense, he represents the type of CEO who stands in a seemingly unreachable ...