Verne Harnish quite literally wrote the book (or, in his case, books), on being an entrepreneur and CEO running a small to medium sized business.

Verne is the founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs’ Organization ("EO"), a global network of entrepreneurs and CEOs that boasts over 16,000 members worldwide. For the past 15 years, Verne has chaired EO’s premiere CEO program, the “Birthing of Giants” held at MIT, a program in which he still teaches today.

Verne is also the Founder and CEO of Scaling Up, a global executive education and coaching company with over 200 partners on six continents.

Verne may be best known for being the author of multiple global bestselling books including Mastering the Rockefeller Habits; The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time (for which Jim Collins wrote the foreword); Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) (which has been translated into 23 languages and has won eight major international book awards including the prestigious International Book Award for Best General Business book); and his latest book, Scaling Up Compensation.

In our chat today we cover a wide range of topics starting with compensation, and then moving to hiring, managing one’s self, and a bit of a mixed bag at the end. We also conclude with the 3-5 books that Verne would put on his Mount Rushmore of business books, so if you’re a reader, be sure to stay tuned for that one.