Forbes® Best Business Mistakes: How Today's Top Business Leaders Turned Missteps into Success

Chapter 10. DAVID NOVAK

CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc.

Author of The Education of an Accidental CEO

Former top-level executive at PepsiCo

A lot of successful people are smart, driven, and have a sense of urgency. While those are all great traits, I think what separates them, and helps people be all they can be, is to be an avid learner," says David Novak.

And the Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands has done a lot of learning over the years. Most of it, though, has been in hands-on roles, making critical decisions while talking to people face to face in the marketplace (after all, Yum! is a fast-food—excuse me, quick-service—restaurant company). It didn't come in the halls of Ivy League institutions where the pedigrees of business knowledge are traditionally bestowed. He proudly touts his modest roots, growing up in 32 trailer parks and living in 23 states by the time he was in the seventh grade. He says:

I actually think I got a Harvard MBA. I got the training, without the education. I had raw talent, but I was blessed enough to work with people who could pass on their learning, and I was a sponge for it.

Now he runs the world's largest restaurant company with more than 37,000 units and 1.4 million team members in over 110 countries. The household names include Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, and A&W All-American Food. Yum! revenues were nearly $11 billion in 2009. This is a big company.

"I was fortunate enough to be in a field and get into a career where I actually loved what I do," ...