When I was a child I never said, "When I grow up, I want to be a CEO," but here I am. When I look back on my career, I realize the road to becoming a CEO isn't a straight, clearly clarified path. In fact, no two paths are the same. But whether you want to be a boss one day or not, there's a lot to learn from how leaders rise to the top of successful companies.           As this series of stories shows, the paths to becoming a CEO may vary, but the people in that position share the qualities of commitment , work ethic  and a strong desire for building something new. And every CEO take risks along the way--putting your life savings on the line to start a software company or leaving a big business to be one of the first employees at a startup.          I grew up in Minnesota, and learned how to be an entrepreneur from my father, who has run a small business for almost 30 years. I went to Georgetown University and tried a lot of business activities in college with varying degrees of success. And I always had a dream job pattern: to walk to work, work for myself and build something for consumers.           I'm only 29, so it's been a quick ride to CEO. Out of college, I worked for AOL as a product manager, then moved to Revolution Health and ran the consumer product team. In mid-2007 I left Revolution Health and started LivingSocial with several other colleagues, where I became a CEO.          Career advice: Don't figure out where you want to work, or even what industry you'd like to work at. Figure out what makes you do so. What gives you a really big rush? Answer why you like things, not what you like doing...and then apply it to your work life. Also, just because you're graduating , don't stop learning. Read more books than you did in college. If you do, and they're not, you're really well in a position to succeed in whatever you do. What can we know about the author from the passage?
He started LivingSocial when he was still a student of Georgetown University. He used to run the consumer product team for Revolution Health. His business activities at college ended up in more failure than success. His father had little influence on him.