Improvise (Unconventional Career Advice from an Unlikely CEO)

This year alone, 3.2 million US students will graduate from college and unprecedented percentages of them will be unable to obtain jobs in their desired fields. The key for young professionals to escape this cycle isn’t in the outdated tactics of climbing the corporate ladder, but rather in forging their own unique paths.

Improvise, by GolinHarris CEO Fred Cook, is an inspiring story of how Cook followed an unusual yet fascinating path from young adulthood to the corner office. Improvise combines Cook's lifetime of uncommon experiences with his insights from a successful corporate career, as a means to help recent graduates and young entrepreneurs uncover the professional skills that exist outside any traditional office.

Following college, Cook was initiated into the business world through a dozen lackluster yet enlightening jobs, including pool hustler, chauffeur for drunks, cabin boy, doorman, and Italian leather salesman. Now he provides counsel to blue-chip companies like Nintendo, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, BP, and Toyota, and has worked personally with Jeff Bezos, Michael Eisner, and Steve Jobs. Filled with colorful anecdotes and hilarious yet poignant moments, Improvise delivers practical tips on how people can change their perspectives, using unique life experiences as means to an end.