Mike Leven, Can’t Do It Yourself: How Commitment to Others Leads to Personal Prosperity

Mike Leven, a storied hotel executive and respected Jewish leader, served at the helm of the Days Inn, Holiday Inn, Las Vegas Sands, and other noteworthy hospitality businesses and most recently as the CEO and chairman of the Georgia Aquarium. In his new book, Can’t Do It Yourself, Leven takes the reader on a journey through his life, from growing up in a multi-generational household with Russian immigrant grandparents in a close-knit Jewish community in Boston, through his time in Alpha Epsilon Pi at Tufts University, and then his career as an executive for some of the most noteworthy hotel chains. Each chapter ends with 11 different lessons to live by in business and life.

Part memoir, part business book, Can’t Do It Yourself recounts a range of fascinating stories from the late 1930s to present-day, from his family vacation to the segregated south as a teenager, his central role in founding the Asian American Hotel Association to support Indian immigrant franchisees overcome discrimination and build their businesses, his first job working as a social worker for civil rights leader John Moreland, and his time at the helm of the Las Vegas Sands in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.