Know What Matters

Ron Shaich, founder and former CEO of Panera Bread, built a life creating mega-successful restaurant chains, inventing a whole new category of restaurant - fast casual - in the process. Now he shares his principles for success in work and life by discovering what will matter tomorrow and building toward it today.

How did Ron Shaich, the visionary founder of Panera Bread, build a little bakery in St. Louis into 2,400 restaurants with $6 billion in revenue and annual returns of 25%, outperforming Starbucks, Chipotle, and all others? By seeing the future and clearing a path to it, leading and innovating from the future back.

Now, Shaich shares his story, starting with its humble entrepreneurial beginnings: the college-campus convenience store he opened to compete with one he was ejected from when the clerk wrongly assumed he and his scruffy friends were shoplifting. He takes us through his successful turnaround of Au Bon Pain and how that led to his creation of a new category of restaurant, fast casual, and the mega-success of Panera. He also shares the lows, the defeats, and the uncertainties along the way and how he persevered through them.

In each chapter Shaich brings to life a principle for success that has guided his career - and his life. Sometimes practical ('Make smart bets'), and often challenging ('You don't own the business, the business owns you'), Shaich's principles combine to form a blueprint for innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs set on success, and on making a difference.

When you know what matters, you can build transformative businesses while leading a life you respect, and leaving a positive impact on the world.