All the world's CEOs started their first 'journey of a thousand steps' to the top when they were young - sometimes in their teens and never later than in their 20s. Hence, taking in their accumulated wisdom - and applying it - at a relatively tender age is likely to help your career enormously.
There is no guarantee you will end up in the CEO's corner office yourself. However, clever career-minded individuals will swiftly see just how useful Adam Bryant's first book is.
This is a well-researched and valuable work, which compiles insights and pearls of wisdom from more than 75 CEOs and other Big Potatoes, from companies of all sizes.
A journalist for more than two decades, Bryant is no ordinary hack - he is a New York Times business columnist. Three years ago, he started his weekly column, The Corner Office, which has become hugely popular.
For this book, Bryant studied the transcripts from dozens of interviews with business leaders and executives that he had used for his column. And the outcome is impressive.
Bryant's large group of interview subjects is actually more diverse than the executive community itself. For instance, a third of the executives he talked with are women, a much higher proportion than in the real world. Nevertheless, a great deal of common ground is established.
As Bryant explains: 'Many of the CEOs who I interviewed resembled one another in their approach. They listen, learn, assess what's working, what's not and why, and then make adjustments. They are quick studiers and they also tend to be good teachers, because they understand the process of learning and can explain what they've learned to others. They seem eager to discuss their hard-earned insights, rather than holding on to them as if they were proprietary software.'