Career Memoirs

There is only one CEO in recent times who has faced ¿ and succeeded at ¿ the extraordinary challenges of leading three major companies ¿ Gillette, Nabisco, and Kraft ¿ into prosperous futures by doing what matters on the fundamentals. That CEO is Jim Kilts. In this vivid first-person account he reveals his system for success that is both cutting-edge and back-to-basics.

Here are 21 inspirational stories about role models and counting your blessings. The stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive will encourage listeners to stay upbeat, because there's always a brighter way to look at life. This book continues Chicken Soup for the Soul's focus on inspiration and hope, reminding us that each day holds something to be thankful for.

Dive headfirst into the urban symphony of "Smelling the Taste of Sound", a riveting memoir of a newly diagnosed, neurodivergent trainee lawyer. Her sensory issues are compounded by the sirens that punctuate the daily grind of a tough, inner-city law firm. Amidst encounters with eccentric characters and surreal personalities, our protagonist navigates the chaos and unorthodox office dynamics with comical observations and resilience.

Jennifer Romolini started her career as an awkward 27-year-old misfit, navigated her way through New York media, and became a boss - an editor in chief, an editorial director, and a vice president - all within little more than a decade. Her book, Weird in a World That's Not, asserts that being outside the norm and achieving real, high-level success are not mutually exclusive, even if the perception of the business world often seems otherwise, even if it seems like only office-politicking extroverts are set up for reward.

Learn how to be a leader in your own life and career with expert advice from one of the Navy's elite TOPGUN instructors.

In life, moments arise when you have to decide your next move. When choosing whether to accept a new job, purchase a house, attend a school, or start a relationship, how do you settle on which direction to take? Trey Gowdy has found that most consequential decisions boil down to three simple options: start, stay, or leave.

In this disquieting cyber thriller, Joseph Menn takes readers into the murky hacker underground, traveling the globe from San Francisco to Costa Rica and London to Russia. His guides are California surfer and computer whiz Barrett Lyon and a fearless British high-tech agent. Through these heroes, Menn shows the evolution of cyber-crime from small-time thieving to sophisticated, organized gangs, who began by attacking corporate websites but increasingly steal financial data from consumers.

One of his biographers called him "a complex man: a born leader, a brilliant soldier, a devoted husband, a proud father; intelligent, instinctive, brave, compassionate, vain, egotistical, and arrogant." As that description suggests, every account of Erwin Rommel's life must address what appears to be its inherent contradictions.

Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist. The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution.

Catching Lightning in a Bottle traces the complete history of Merrill Lynch and the company's substantial impact on the world of finance, from the birth of the once-mighty company to its inauspicious end. Throughout its 94-year history, Merrill Lynch revolutionized finance by bringing Wall Street to Main Street, operating under a series of guidelines known as the Principles.

For aspiring chefs, seasoned cooks, or anyone with an appetite for personal growth and leadership insights, Chef's PSA: Bad Sous, Good Chef is a must-listen. It's more than just a story—it's a journey towards becoming your best self, served up in a delectable narrative that will leave you hungry for more.

What is the purpose of your life? Is it to be rich in things or experiences? At the end of the day, it is the amount of balance you have between the four pillars of the good life: health, wealth, love, and happiness that can give you the fulfilling life that you need. Listen to YouTube's Mike Vestil's origin story and how he became the person he is today and how you too can get the body you want, the income you want, the relationships you want, and ultimately, the happiness that eludes us all.

Joy Behar, comedian and cohost of ABC's The View, offers a follow-up to her Joy Schtick with this compilation written by 100 of her friends, associates, and role models, including Barbara Bush, Donald Trump, and James Earl Jones. Behar asked her celebrity friends to share whatever picks them up when they're down in the dumps, and as each celebrity offers his or her advice on how to cope with the blues, it soon becomes clear that most of us are driven to find solace in similar activities.

We all want the same things. We want to live a life of purpose and meaning. We want to leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren. We want to leave the world a better place. And yet, we spend so much time wringing our hands over what’s wrong and not nearly enough time fixing those things within our control.

Geared toward women who are considering getting into tech, or those already in a tech job who want to take their career to the next level, this book combines practical career advice and inspiring personal stories from successful female tech professionals Brianna Wu, Angie Chang, Keren Elazari, Katie Cunningham, Miah Johnson, Kristin Toth Smith, and Kamilah Taylor. Written by a female startup CEO and featuring a host of other successful contributors.

Few organizations solve as many impossible problems as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and nobody knows more about leading rocket scientists to unlikely breakthroughs than Adam Steltzner. As the phase lead and development manager for EDL (entry, descent, and landing) of the Curiosity rover to Mars, Steltzner spearheaded the creation of one of engineering's wackiest kluges - the sky crane, which allowed the heaviest rover in the history of space exploration to land on Mars unscathed.

Much more than a showbiz memoir, Hot Pants in Hollywood tells of a baby boomer's life on steroids. Susan Silver was one of the first female TV comedy writers with credits like the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, Bob Newhart, among others. From Milwaukee, Susan went on to fame and fortune in Hollywood, had a successful career as one of the first women in TV sitcoms, and reinvented herself in different prominent arenas in New York. Though her story is unique, her life is relatable to all women looking for advice in work or love.

After a number of years of being chronically ill with Lyme disease, Jenny Rush had a momentary realization that she was overlooking a lesson that was resulting in continued ill health. As she went into her last year of dealing with chronic illness at a physical level, Jenny shifted her primary focus from the illness itself to addressing the multitude of experiences that the illness was provoking.

Sophie Cachia had her white picket fence life. By the age of 25, she was a mother and happily married, and had also built a very successful business by documenting her every move online. But Sophie and her comfortable existence were thrown a curveball when she met a woman who prompted her to ask herself the questions: What more can I do? What more can I learn? What more can I be?

The youngest of her parents’ combined 21 children, Sarah Frey grew up on a struggling farm in southern Illinois, often having to grow, catch, or hunt her own dinner alongside her brothers. She spent much of her early childhood dreaming of running away to the big city - or really anywhere with central heating. At 15, she moved out of her family home and started her own fresh produce delivery business with nothing more than an old pickup truck. Two years later, when the family farm faced inevitable foreclosure, Frey gave up on her dreams of escape and took over the farm.