After three years in the making, the much awaited biography by Phil Young, the award winning former CIO of Amtrak launched. Entitled ‘2 much 2 young’ the book provides a fascinating insight into the ups and downs of the successful entrepreneur, business angel and family man.

Drawing on Phil’s personal and working life experiences, ‘2 much 2 young’ is a stark but intimate reflection on an amazing life which has included battling pneumonia, parental divorce, leaving school with no qualifications, being kidnapped, his own divorce & remarriage, through to reaching the highest accolade to date in his career when he was awarded the CIO Innovator of the Year for the UK.

And whilst ‘2 much 2 young’ isn’t a ‘how to....’ book as such, it illustrates how courage, perseverance and a desire to succeed can carry people through the darkest of times. In fact, Phil describes the book as a safety blanket for people who are facing the similar challenges in both their personal and working life.

“2 much 2 young has a subtitle of ‘simplicity’ and I now use this term as a constant reminder to myself to keep things simple, and this has helped me to deliver my work in some very testing and cost constrained environments” says Young, who founded his own consultancy Johnson-Young in 2007 after a successful career in senior IT management.

The book also covers valuable insight into Phil’s professional expertise in a number of areas including innovation, change management, business troubleshooting, interim management and capability assessments of people and technology.

“The book is essentially a self-taught lesson on how far I’ve come and what I have learnt along the way. It has been very therapeutic for me in terms of helping me to see how I have become the person I am today and I hope that it will help others to see that the only barriers to happiness and success are within themselves and how they can overcome any obstacles to take charge of their own destiny’ adds Young.