A memoir of grief and leadership

The hardest road he ever walked made him a better leader

Six weeks after losing his wife to cancer, Peter Rice walked the Camino de Santiago with his two young sons. What began as survival became a new understanding of leadership.

Cover of Break or Become: How Hard Roads Make Better Leaders by Peter Rice.

What it is about

A raw and human story about the year everything changed

Break or Become is not another leadership book built on business theory. Step by step, across mountains and villages and long empty stretches of road, Peter found that the hardest moments do not only test us. They remake us.

Three miles of the road

What readers take away

1

Endurance over control

Real leadership is not about titles or authority. It is what you carry, and how you keep moving, when everything is hard.

2

Presence in grief

How to stay present for the people who depend on you, at work and at home, while grieving in private.

3

Humility on hard roads

Why the best lessons come from your worst year, and how faith and family can be tested and deepened by loss.

The hardest moments do not only test us. They remake us.

From Break or Become
Portrait of Peter Rice, author of Break or Become.

About Peter

A sitting CEO who lived his argument the hard way

Peter Rice is President and CEO of Hanscom Federal Credit Union, a 1.8 billion dollar institution. He holds a master's in finance from Harvard and testified before the Senate Banking Committee as the sole credit union representative. He wrote this book after walking the Camino de Santiago with his two young sons, one of whom has a disability.

Read Break or Become

Break or Become, Hard Roads Make Better Leaders

Available now in paperback and for Kindle.