The world is no doubt full of self-improvement books. What sets Toshio Egawa's book apart is that its focus is more about being at The Top than about getting there. Of course, the traits that get you there and the traits that keep you there overlap in many cases. One could go further to say that it is not always clear whether one is on the way to the top, is at the top or is on the way down from the top. But there are ethical goals and self-reflections; social attitudes and pragmatic shrewdness, as well as a sense of time passing, which should be cultivated in any case if one is to live a full and meaningful life. The Top may not be a place that we can easily locate. As Egawa-san puts it: ""Being alive, we should, at least until we have aged too much, recompense and respect our situation by undertaking responsible work as human beings. Before we know it, we would have reached a certain age beyond which daily quietude, good health and physical safety become paramount. All the rest power, position, business results, assets, lust, et cetera are but brief moments, simply passing scenery."

1. leadership. 2. Executives - Japan. 3. Management - Japan.