Learn, Love, Lead

An embattled son becomes a patriarch. An untested employee becomes a CEO. A husband becomes a caregiver. A student becomes a teacher, and ultimately a student. Spike Yoh’s life story paints a vivid picture of the profound and very human forces that shape leadership. From a troubled childhood that would have propelled most into a cycle of broken relationships and self-doubt, he rewrote the rules of his own life, and in the process built his father’s company into a billion-dollar enterprise. 

Through self-determination and a commitment to see the glass as more than half full, Spike Yoh became a loving family man, a business leader, and a philanthropist whose keen intuition and unmatched ability to connect with others have inspired individuals and organizations to achieve unprecedented levels of success. 

Drawing on interviews spanning eight decades of relationships; more than one hundred years of research, correspondences, and family diaries; as well as personal perspectives, Spike’s youngest son Bill Yoh creates a candid and emotional journey of love and grit, of business and blood, of admiration and imperfection that covers the drama, the comedy, and the tragedy of a life well lived.

From the deep-rooted influences of American ancestry to the complexities of modern family dynamics, the Spike Yoh story offers readers a rare glimpse of a life that bridges the divide between the twentieth-century industrialist and the twenty-first-century man. His journey is both energizing and relat able, regardless of one’s background or beliefs.