Charles "Chuck" W. B. Wardell III has lived an extraordinary life-in fact he wasn't supposed to live at all¿ Born weighing just two pounds, the doctor tells Chuck's mother, "Don't even think you had a kid." Against all odds, Chuck survives-and those are pretty much the same odds that govern the rest of his amazing life. In school, Chuck is always struggling with dyslexia and doesn't make the grade. He is later tossed out of Hamilton College altogether only to be snagged up in the Vietnam War draft. Here of all places, in thr U.S. Army, Chuck's disability doesn't hold him back as he rises up the ranks to become a First Lieutenant, admired by his soldiers and highly decorated by the brass. Back home, he tries again to get into university but he is reviled for his part in the war and suffers from PTSD, and only manages to get into one university-Harvard. Graduating cum laude, Chuck lands a job at the White House as General Haig's aid- but it is 1973 and the Watergate scandal is breaking. Chuck manages to rise above it all and keeps on rising upward for the next 30 years to be CEO of six major international companies, revered as a trusted, generous and inspiring leader. Here, his life story, told with raw honesty and self-effacing humor, is an inspiration to all who have been counted out. Read Come Up Big and count yourself in!