Book Description: Heroes Alongside Us

In high school, Eric Rieseberg’s parents were advised their son should pursue a trade rather than go to college. Eight years later, at age twenty-six, he became the youngest-ever CEO of a community hospital. How? Eric sums it up in one word: “heroes.”

Eric grew up in a dysfunctional family with a military dad and a mom who suffered from mental illness. By the time his family moved to Manhasset, New York, a hamlet on the north shore of Long Island, Eric had moved seven times. He never particularly cared for textbooks, wasn’t a studious kid, and never brought home a report card with an A on it. Manhasset High School has always ranked in the top one hundred high schools in the country, and the year Eric entered Manhasset High, it was ranked in the top ten. There he was: a non-academic young man who was suddenly injected into one of the best high schools in America.

At Manhasset High School, Eric was introduced to lacrosse, and played on the school’s championship team. As a lacrosse player, he endured the first of many “face plants,” (literally and figuratively) he would have throughout his life. And it was also through lacrosse that Eric met his first hero. Throughout his life, Eric has been blessed to have five men in his life, his heroes, to whom he attributes his ability to recover from his many face plants. Each of his heroes came along at a tipping point in his life, and helped him overcome the odds and change the outcome that might have been.

Heroes Alongside Us is both a tribute to the men who were the key to his success and a case for the crucial role of heroes. Written for guys and the women who love them, this book is both hilarious and heartbreaking, as Eric shares his story to exemplify how heroes help foster success—sometimes against all odds.