Fred Cook is the current Chairman of Golin, one of the largest and most successful public relations firms in the world. Golin has its mark with 50 offices around the globe. Fred has advised companies like Nintendo, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, BP, and Toyota, and has worked personally with Jeff Bezos, Michael Eisner, and Steve Jobs. He is the guy that introduced the world to Pokémon, the teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the seedless watermelon.
Improvise: Unconventional Career Advice from an Unlikely CEO is an inspirational book of how Fred Cook followed an odd yet captivating route from young adulthood to becoming the CEO of one of the best PR firms “Golin” in the world.
In his book, he shares his different vivid experiences from which he learned to where he is now. He talks about his various adventures starting from the bottom where he was on the Norwegian cruise ship sailing for Japan working as a cabin boy, Working in Italy as a salesman of leather goods, a doorman at a four-star hotel, traveling around the world to ending up having a successful corporate career, and many other experiences. His narration proceeds to make you keep going in life, improvise and learn from each experience. Because there is never a chance to not learn. Fred emphasizes on the importance of improvisation. He is telling his audience through his experiences how putting yourself in unpredictable or difficult circumstances shows you to think outside the box, come up with solutions and solve problems. Fred has never graduated from college, completed a business course, never had business connections, didn’t own a suit, experienced riding a motorcycle, was bullied constantly and arrested but he never stopped learning and improvising the skills he acquired from various encounters that ultimately directed him to achieve his goals. With so many qualified young professionals entering the marketplace you must build a better understanding of people to become a good communicator, carrying the right attitude and understand different perspectives. Fred has seen college students steadily under pressure on how to enter and survive the real world and completely understands the stress the students face to aspire professional goals, but according to him you should just worry less and experience more. It is a must-read for one who is starting their career. He explains that you should never dream small and if you aspire anything in life you must ask for it because life is simply not that easy. This book is for the people who don’t know the path they are following but to keep the faith and have the courage to figure out your journey.
Here We Go Again 