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Wisdom for a Young CEO
At 14 years of age, author Douglas Barry started wondering what to do with his life. That's when this precocious teenager began writing to CEOs of major companies to seek their advice on how to reach the top of the career ladder. The honest, heartfelt replies on finding success in the business world, from the CEOs of Eastman Kodak, McDonald's, Intel, Sprint, UPS, Viacom, and many other companies, provide inspiring life lessons for everyone. Wisdom for a Young CEO includes pithy tidbits, longer essays, sidebars, tips, quotes, and reminiscences from more than 100 of the country's business leaders, focusing on such character issues as honesty, hard work, being true to oneself, integrity, leadership, and interpersonal skills. In surprising detail, many describe turning points in their own careers, outlining difficult moral and ethical decisions they've faced. Douglas Barry is sure to garner publicity from widespread media.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published April 13, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 20, 2009
There is some interesting insight in this book.
Unfortunately, I find the way the information is presented to be a bit tedious. If you actually read the letters from the various CEO's (which I recommend you do) you can skip all of the quotes that are printed between the letters. They are quotes from the letters -- so you end up reading stuff twice.
Unfortunately, I find the way the information is presented to be a bit tedious. If you actually read the letters from the various CEO's (which I recommend you do) you can skip all of the quotes that are printed between the letters. They are quotes from the letters -- so you end up reading stuff twice.
April 3, 2013
A very precocious young teenager wrote to CEOs all over the world to ask about what it takes to have that career. Here are their answers, with his commentary here and there. It gets a bit repetitive at times.
September 21, 2014
Probably meant as a coffee table book.
If you're going to read it straight through, only read the letters (and the author's essays if you must).
If you're going to read it straight through, only read the letters (and the author's essays if you must).
April 29, 2021
Wow! This books exemplifies motivation by young people. This was a great idea by the author to find out what the "big bosses" are thinking. It takes a lot of time and patience to write 150 CEO's and most remarkable is Mr. Barry received over 100 responses and was able to transcribe his letters in this easy to read book.
I think what the Kellog's CEO said sums up how we look at our boss from the employee perspective;
"Your fellow employees need to believe that you are the best person for leadership and that you are the person that they want to willingly follow. What gains support of your fellow employees is hard work, fairness, good listening ability, courage, and being right on the issues."
A fun and fast read! Definitely an important reference for the professional development library.
Check it out!
I think what the Kellog's CEO said sums up how we look at our boss from the employee perspective;
"Your fellow employees need to believe that you are the best person for leadership and that you are the person that they want to willingly follow. What gains support of your fellow employees is hard work, fairness, good listening ability, courage, and being right on the issues."
A fun and fast read! Definitely an important reference for the professional development library.
Check it out!
August 8, 2023
i don't know how much this still applies since this was before 2008 and the 2020's era but here's what gets repeated the most. Be humble, being CEO shouldn't be the goal but doing work you love, and be honest. Being CEO is about listening and being a servant to the community.
November 26, 2018
Interesting book! It was nice to see all these letters from successful CEOs and identify the "themes" in the letters. A lot of the CEOs had similar advice, so that really enforced it.
July 19, 2020
The letters that Douglas Barry received from the CEO's was quite interesting. Douglas's commentary between the letters wasn't as insightful.
April 29, 2025
Really great reminders and reading advices from major companies CEO gave great insights on the challenges I am facing.
November 26, 2012
Title: Wisdom For A Young CEO
Author: Douglas Barry
Genre: Informational/Nonfiction
# Of Pages: 175 Pages
Summary: The book Wisdom For A Young CEO by Douglas Barry is an information-full book about what qualities someone needs to become a good CEO. First of all, CEO stands for chief executive officer. The qualities mentioned in this book are passion, respect, vision, humanity, curiosity, integrity and pragmatism. All the CEO's who wrote letters to Douglas said that to be successful, you have to have passion for what you do. To be a successful CEO, you have to show respect for your employees. Going with that statement, you also have to be a team player. Another quality talked about in this book is that you have to have a vision for your companies future. You have to be able to take risks or chances. To be a good CEO, you have to be humane and remember that it is not just about the paycheck. Successful CEO's are capable of being part of their community and are making it a better place for others. You have to be curious or have a desire to know and learn to be a good CEO. Most CEO's are pragmatic leaders. So again, the main qualities you should have to be a successful CEO are passion, respect, vision, humanity, curiosity, integrity and pragmatism.
Review: I thought this book wasn't very good–but it was not terrible. Some parts of the book were dull and boring, while other parts were interesting. I think the author should have put less letters and more of his thoughts. He could have also just made the book longer as long as he added what he had to say about them. I realized that some of the letters are more personal than others. Some CEO's took the time to write out all the answers to the questions he asked while others just sent him an article about themselves or answered the questions with little or no detail. I probably would not recommend this book to other people in my age group because it was kind of boring. The author didn't do a good job adding detail, he just relied on the letters that were written to him to explain everything. I understand that the book was his first, so I did not really expect it to be amazing. Hopefully when he writes his next book he will put more of his thinking in it. In my opinion, some of the letters were very interesting! I chose to give this book three stars for all the reasons I just explained. In conclusion, though a bit dull, this book was packed full of (some) interesting letters and important facts for anyone aspiring to be a CEO.
Author: Douglas Barry
Genre: Informational/Nonfiction
# Of Pages: 175 Pages
Summary: The book Wisdom For A Young CEO by Douglas Barry is an information-full book about what qualities someone needs to become a good CEO. First of all, CEO stands for chief executive officer. The qualities mentioned in this book are passion, respect, vision, humanity, curiosity, integrity and pragmatism. All the CEO's who wrote letters to Douglas said that to be successful, you have to have passion for what you do. To be a successful CEO, you have to show respect for your employees. Going with that statement, you also have to be a team player. Another quality talked about in this book is that you have to have a vision for your companies future. You have to be able to take risks or chances. To be a good CEO, you have to be humane and remember that it is not just about the paycheck. Successful CEO's are capable of being part of their community and are making it a better place for others. You have to be curious or have a desire to know and learn to be a good CEO. Most CEO's are pragmatic leaders. So again, the main qualities you should have to be a successful CEO are passion, respect, vision, humanity, curiosity, integrity and pragmatism.
Review: I thought this book wasn't very good–but it was not terrible. Some parts of the book were dull and boring, while other parts were interesting. I think the author should have put less letters and more of his thoughts. He could have also just made the book longer as long as he added what he had to say about them. I realized that some of the letters are more personal than others. Some CEO's took the time to write out all the answers to the questions he asked while others just sent him an article about themselves or answered the questions with little or no detail. I probably would not recommend this book to other people in my age group because it was kind of boring. The author didn't do a good job adding detail, he just relied on the letters that were written to him to explain everything. I understand that the book was his first, so I did not really expect it to be amazing. Hopefully when he writes his next book he will put more of his thinking in it. In my opinion, some of the letters were very interesting! I chose to give this book three stars for all the reasons I just explained. In conclusion, though a bit dull, this book was packed full of (some) interesting letters and important facts for anyone aspiring to be a CEO.
March 19, 2013
WISDOM FOR A YOUNG CEO
Douglas Barry
Nonfiction Informational
173 pages
This book is about what a kid can start doing if they want to become a CEO when they are older. There a letters from CEO’s of big companies offering their advice and telling what they did to get to the position that they are in now. It has characteristics that you might want to look into or work more on. After the letters, Douglas gives some of his thinking and what he learned out of that section.
I liked this book because of all of the advice that it give a young person. What I didn’t like though was how boring it was. I liked what Douglas says after a section and I like the quotes from letters in between, but the letters were really boring. To me it seemed as though they went on and on and on. The letters were nice, but some of them were really long. The letters gave nice advice that I can use in my future, but most of them said the same thing and I really didn’t need to read the same thing ten times. I also didn’t really care about how they got to their position that they are now in, but it was a very nice little addition. Overall, I didn’t really like this book. Even though it gave lots of advice, to me it was boring.
Douglas Barry
Nonfiction Informational
173 pages
This book is about what a kid can start doing if they want to become a CEO when they are older. There a letters from CEO’s of big companies offering their advice and telling what they did to get to the position that they are in now. It has characteristics that you might want to look into or work more on. After the letters, Douglas gives some of his thinking and what he learned out of that section.
I liked this book because of all of the advice that it give a young person. What I didn’t like though was how boring it was. I liked what Douglas says after a section and I like the quotes from letters in between, but the letters were really boring. To me it seemed as though they went on and on and on. The letters were nice, but some of them were really long. The letters gave nice advice that I can use in my future, but most of them said the same thing and I really didn’t need to read the same thing ten times. I also didn’t really care about how they got to their position that they are now in, but it was a very nice little addition. Overall, I didn’t really like this book. Even though it gave lots of advice, to me it was boring.
March 29, 2013
A should-read book on executive ability in managing your career.
July 26, 2024
My main takeaway from this book has been to be more open to reaching out to others for advice as many people are more than happy to offer it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews