“I believe and hope that my stories will inspire readers to look for a purpose in life, to seek happiness and success for themselves and their loved ones.”
– Jacques Sardas
In this conversation with Jacques Sardas, we explore his fascinating journey from a successful career in global manufacturing leadership to becoming an acclaimed author. Sardas, who transitioned from the corporate world to writing, shares insights into the life lessons he has gathered through decades of experience across different countries and industries. We discuss his motivations, challenges, and the creative process behind his latest work of fiction, Taking Flight, a book that recently received the BREW Fiction Book Excellence Award 2024 and the BREW Seal of Excellence. Sardas also reflects on the power of storytelling, the importance of adaptability in life, and his enduring commitment to both personal and professional growth.
Q: Jacques, thank you for joining us! To begin, could you share a little about yourself—your background, career, and what inspired your journey from executive leadership to becoming a writer?
A: I was born on a Saturday morning in September of 1930 in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Greek father and a Turkish mother raised in France. I was the youngest of four children in our Sephardic Jewish family. My childhood in Alexandria was marked by financial struggles and the loss of my mother a week before my tenth birthday. In 1941, to shelter us from the advancing German military forces, who were a few hours away from Alexandria, our family moved to Cairo. During the following fifteen years, I attended middle and high schools founded by the Jewish community, worked at a Jewish-owned department store, and was very lucky to marry my wife, Etty Pesso, in July of 1956.
It was a year of turmoil in Egypt because of the Suez War. To flee from life-threatening attacks and persecution directed against the Jews, Etty and I decided to immigrate to São Paulo, Brazil. There I quickly found a job at Goodyear, where I worked for the ensuing thirty-three years, rising from file clerk to president of Goodyear’s worldwide tire business. My trajectory included stints as president of Goodyear France, president of Goodyear North America, president of Goodyear International, and president of Goodyear’s global tire business. After spending five years as the second-in-command of Goodyear’s global operations, I decided to run my own show in smaller companies. I served as chairman and CEO of Sudbury, Inc., a Cleveland-area holding company involved in a variety of manufacturing businesses; chairman and CEO of Dal-Tile, a manufacturer and distributor of ceramic tile based in Dallas; and vice chairman of AEA Investors, a New York City leveraged-buyout firm.
After three retirement attempts, I finally decided to hang up my business hat and spend more time with my family. Etty and I traveled widely, visiting many countries that she had heard me talk about but had never seen. I especially enjoyed spending time with my grandchildren, who showed a keen interest in the stories I told them about the events of my life.
It was my grandchildren who insisted that I write my memoirs, which I did, publishing Without Return in 2017. I am not a writer, but after finishing the book, I thought that I was not so bad at it! As a matter of fact, I mentioned to Etty that I was thinking of writing another book, this time fictional—a collection of short stories. Etty, who is hugely influential in my life, encouraged me, and the result is Taking Flight, published in July of 2024.
Q: Jacques, you’ve had an extensive career in executive leadership across different continents. How has your professional journey influenced your writing, especially in Taking Flight?
A: My personal life and professional career allowed me to interact with many different kinds of people and come to know some very exotic and unusual locations. Some of the people and events in my life could rival those in popular novels. In addition, people have always told me that I have a sharp mind and a good memory and that I am an engaging storyteller. So writing my memoir, Without Return, felt easy. It was just a matter of putting down on paper the life experiences of someone I knew very well—myself! The book received some good reviews and seemed to please many readers, which was encouraging. However, I did not think I would write another book.
But a few years later, several of the events I had lived through in the past began to surface and expand in my head. They were taking up so much space that the only way to clear my mind was to write them down. However, this time around I wanted to write a different kind of book, one that relied heavily on the imagination. I wanted to present the events—the people and the places and the situations—in an incongruous way, sometimes leaving the outcome to the reader’s imagination.
In real life, many of the situations I wrote about could have ended in disaster. But I faced each of them with determination and hard work. And in each of them there was something that saved me, be it a person, a book, or a force more ephemeral—call it luck, divine intervention, happenstance, or whatever you prefer. The fact is that in each one of my darkest moments, when all the doors were closed, a new door opened with even better and wider opportunities. I believed in me; I knew I would overcome.
I wanted to convey these thoughts through stories. In fact, I would say that two-thirds of the stories in Taking Flight are based on true events. Others were inspired by my own dreams and wishes. As these stories were taking shape in my mind, though, one thing was missing: the will to write them!
Finally, my granddaughter Rachel Wikman persuaded me to set pen to paper. She was my good-luck charm and motivator! And I’m glad she succeeded.
Q: Many of your stories reflect diverse life experiences. Can you share how living and working in places like Brazil, France, and Ohio shaped your worldview and storytelling?
A: As I mentioned above, throughout the course of my life and career, I have met all kinds of people from many different social, economic, racial, and religious backgrounds. I lived in four different countries (Egypt, Brazil, France, and the United States) on four different continents, and I traveled to and spent extensive time in more than forty countries. In fact, the only continent I haven’t been to is Antarctica. Everywhere I went, I made an effort to respect and appreciate the local culture and way of life and to communicate with the people there using one or more of the seven languages I speak with varying degrees of fluency. All this was floating around in my head, ready to be written about—somehow, someday!
Q: Taking Flight recently received the BREW Fiction Book Excellence Award 2024 and the BREW Seal of Excellence. What does this recognition mean to you as an author, and how do you think it validates the messages in your stories?
A: To be honored with the BREW Fiction Book Excellence Award 2024 and the BREW Seal of Excellence was a pleasant surprise. Receiving such acclaim from a respected and well-regarded enterprise gave even more value to these awards, especially because they will motivate readers interested in short fiction to read the book. In addition, Taking Flight was my first attempt at fiction writing. I was testing my capabilities in a field new to me, so the awards have had and are still having a very positive impact on me. Now I believe I can claim that besides having had a successful professional career, I am also a good author! And who knows? These awards may encourage me to write a third book.
Q: After spending so many years in leadership roles, what motivated you to start writing books, particularly fiction, later in life?
A: I was eighty-seven years old when I wrote Without Return and almost ninety-four years old when I wrote Taking Flight. In both cases, I needed to face new challenges. I needed a purpose in life, an objective—one that would add even more happiness and meaning to my existence. Fortunately, my family supported me in these efforts all the way.
Q: Your previous work, Without Return: Memoirs of an Egyptian Jew 1930–1957, was based on your life. How did the transition from memoir to fiction change your approach to storytelling?
A: Without Return got good reviews. It was my first attempt at writing a book, and it proved to be a successful one. But after a few years, I needed another challenge, a tougher one. Fiction was unexplored territory for me. I had all the raw material in my head; I just needed to remain open to this new adventure. I needed encouragement and help, and I got it from my family and editor.
Q: With your background in business, what parallels do you see between leading a company and crafting stories? Are there any common principles that apply to both?
A: My professional career taught me that when you really want to achieve a dream or an objective, you can do it. The important part is to have a purpose, a meaning to what you want to attain. If you know “what” you want, the “how” will take care of itself. The method will be the easy part; it will come naturally. These lessons apply to writing as well as to business.
In addition, a person’s character and DNA remain the same no matter what he or she does. In my case, I tackled my writing project with the same determination and hard work I used successfully in my professional career. I did not have the structure I used to have in a corporate setting, nor did I have a secretary to assist me and type my manuscripts, but on the other hand, I didn’t have to lead several groups of people at the same time as I was trying to write and achieve a personal goal of my own. However, the determination was the same—maybe even greater—because the whole project depended on me. I was the one who had to motivate myself. I had to think, to create, to put my ideas down on the page.
Q: You’ve mentioned living through significant global changes throughout your career. How did these historical and cultural shifts influence the themes you explore in your writing?
A: The places you live in, the people you meet and deal with, the events and circumstances you’ve experienced form what you are. In my case, my childhood, during which I had to struggle with poverty and the loss of my mother, inspired the story “My Mother, My Hero.” Helping my father-in-law and his family emigrate from Egypt inspired the story “Gimme the Money.” The same real-life inspiration applies to most of the stories in Taking Flight.
I learned that I could overcome poverty, loneliness, depression, persecution, and life-threatening situations—not to mention smaller challenges such as office politics and writer’s block—with determination and hard work. I just had to keep my raison de vivre foremost in mind—my purpose, my meaning, the reason I wanted to survive and live, to be happy and search for a better future. Today, my raison d’être is my family. Their happiness is my happiness; their happiness is indistinguishable from my own.
I know that a large part of my success is attributable to hard work and determination. But I believe there was always an additional factor present in difficult situations—call it luck, opportunity, angels, good omens, providence, or something else. Maybe my will to find happiness attracted some person or some event that facilitated an outcome much better than the failed one. My mother; my father; my teachers; my wife, Etty; my children and grandchildren; my boss and mentor at Goodyear, Chuck Pilliod—all these people made a positive contribution to my life and shaped the person I am today.
Rising from file clerk to president of a large global company, along with the success I had afterward in turning around other companies, gave me a feeling of great accomplishment. And then, after my retirement, the publication and favorable reviews of my first book, Without Return, gave me considerable joy and encouragement. And now, with the awards I just received from Chrysalis BREW, I feel another sense of triumph. Now I can call myself an author.
Q: Many of the characters in Taking Flight face unexpected challenges. How do you think the lessons in your stories resonate with readers, especially those navigating uncertainty in their own lives?
A: I believe and hope that my stories will inspire readers to look for a purpose in life, to seek happiness and success for themselves and their loved ones. Even in their darkest moments, they should have faith. Never give up! I want my stories to motivate them to dream of something better, to find a purpose in life, and maybe even to write their first book.
Q: What advice would you give to others looking to transition into new careers or creative pursuits later in life, as you have done?
A: Keep busy; don’t fall into a rut. Find reasons to stay active and set new goals. Writing is a natural and convenient way to do this and to turn your experiences into a second career. It may seem like an impossible dream. That’s the way it seemed to me when everyone was asking me to write my memoir, and, later, when I began Taking Flight.
The best advice I can give the reader is to sit down in front of the computer and start typing the first few words. It took me a long time to do so, but after I wrote the first few lines, I could not stop. Ideas and events flooded my brain.
It may take a few tries: In my first attempt at my memoir, I wrote more than a thousand pages. Then, with my editor’s help, I condensed it to eight hundred pages and published it just for my family and friends. Finally, it was published as the 288-page Without Return and offered for sale on Amazon.
It took me some time to embark on the journey known as fiction writing. When I did, I decided to write short stories that would surprise the people who know me. I let my imagination run to the absurd, conjuring fantastical and strange worlds, creating stories without definitive, neatly constructed endings. Don’t let the desire to be perfect stop you. Don’t be afraid to “color outside the lines.”
Just start: Just do it, and you’ll be happy you did—I promise.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Just start: Just do it, and you’ll be happy you did—I promise.”
– Jacques Sardas
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Share Your Insights
Jacques Sardas’ journey from executive leadership to award-winning author demonstrates that it’s never too late to chase new dreams. What about you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
- Which part of Jacques’ story resonated with you the most?
- What’s a new challenge or creative pursuit you’ve always wanted to try?
- How do you find purpose and meaning in your life during uncertain times?
Alignment with the UN SDGs
- Goal 4: Quality Education – Highlights lifelong learning and creative expression, showcasing Jacques’ transition into writing as an avenue for growth and self-education.
- Goal 5: Gender Equality – Mentions the supportive role of Jacques’ wife, Etty, and family in his journey, promoting balanced relationships.
- Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities – Reflects overcoming social and economic challenges, such as persecution and poverty, to achieve success and inspire others.
- Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals – Emphasises collaboration between Jacques and his family, editor, and readers, fostering global cultural exchange and shared experiences.
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