My Distant mentor

David Novak;

I am a big fan of this personality who is Chairman & CEO of Yum Brands Inc.
He has authored a book 'The education of an accidental CEO'

He has written his heart out in this book and I suppose he has been dead honest in that.
Once he graduated out of college, he got a job of selling encyclopedias. He manage to sold some on day one.
He honestly admits that, he was not a good salesman but its the old women who bought this just for a chat. Probably in that age she don't need an encyclopedia but needs someone to
share his loneliness.

He was unhappy after the transaction and quit that job and later became an account executive for Frito lay.

The second instance where he has shown intense courage is when Taco Bell was in news for all the bad reasons before an investors meet.
There was a store located in New York metro station and New York is famous for big rats. The store was undergoing some pest control activities and the team worked till 3 in the night.
They left a hole in the wall to come back tomorrow and fix it up.

The big rats came in the store and some passer by filmed a clipping through the front glass door. This was one of the top ten watched video on you tube next morning; right before the investors meet.
The top management wanted to postpone the meeting. David said no and started the meeting with a rock solid confidence. He said let me appreciate the media for making us realize where we are going wrong and then he declared to cancel the store license because of location issues.

The investors responded well and nobody raised a single question about the sensitive issue.

I get huge inspiration from him.