Most Unlikely Leader eBook

For the first time ever, Roger Smith, the former President and CEO of AmericanIncome Life Insurance and Liberty National, takes readers on an unflinching journeythrough his remarkable life; a life that includes astronomical business successalongside family struggles and a life-threatening battle with addiction. Written ina fast-paced, no-holds-barred style, The Most Unlikely Leader is a tour-de-force.Why ''unlikely''? By the time Smith was a teenager he was living on the streets ofSanta Monica and addicted to drugs. He dropped out of high school, ran into troublewith the law, had his best friend shot right next to him while running away from afailed robbery attempt and, at one point, was so down and out and desperate for afix in his early thirties that he walked into the Pacific Ocean expecting never tocome back. While the first third of Smith''s story deals with his life as afunctional addict, The Most Unlikely Leader reveals how he got clean, got his mindright, got his career back and ascended to the highest role in a massivecorporation. From Smith''s first foray into entrepreneurship as a young boy sellingcomic books on the streets of New York City, to his first sales job in Compton,California, to his taking over American Income Life, this book shares thephilosophy, the decisions (both good and bad) and the grit that resulted in a manwithout a high school diploma being put in charge of one of the largest lifeinsurance companies in the world. Oklahoma City. Arkansas. Baltimore. Chicago.Dallas. Washington, D.C. These are just a few of the stops we''ll visit as Smith rosethrough the ranks of American Income relying on nothing but his wit, work ethic andhis evolving understanding of what it takes to build teams and lead nationalorganizations. Part leadership manual, part business manifesto and part memoir, TheMost Unlikely Leader is the rare leadership book you won''t be able to putdown.