Catherine M. Lewis - Böcker

Michael J. Coles, the cofounder of the Great American Cookie Company and the former CEO of Caribou Coffee, did not follow a conventional path into business. He does not have an Ivy League pedigree or an MBA from a top-ten business school. He grew up poor, starting work at the age of thirteen. He had many false starts and painful defeats, but Coles has a habit of defying expectations. His life and career have been about turning obstacles into opportunities, tragedies into triumphs, and poverty into philanthropy.In Time to Get Tough, Coles explains how he started a $100-million company with only $8,000, overcame a near-fatal motorcycle accident, ran for the U.S. Congress, and set three transcontinental cycling world records. His story also offers a firsthand perspective on the business, political, and philanthropic climate in the last quarter of the twentieth century and serves as an important case study for anyone interested in overcoming a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Readers will also discover practical leadership lessons and unconventional ways of approaching business.

A powerful underdog story, Soaring delivers practical leadership advice, business lessons, and tips for success mined from the real-life strategies of Lee E. Rhyant’s forty years as a corporate leader. Born into poverty in the postwar South, Rhyant was the fourth of eight children raised by a family of African American sharecroppers struggling to survive the last decades of segregation. Soaring combines compelling storytelling with practical lessons to demonstrate the transformative power of perseverance. In the trajectory of his life, Rhyant has achieved many goals considered beyond his reach. Here he shares compelling stories of growing up in the segregated South, working at an early age, graduating from the HBCU Bethune-Cookman University and Indiana University, and ultimately excelling at leadership roles at General Motors, Rolls Royce Aeronautics, and Lockheed Martin Marietta. Rhyant’s life reveals a great deal about the economic, business, and racial climate in the South in the last quarter of the twentieth century and has much to teach students, business leaders, and interested readers about resiliency and determination.