Retail Pride: The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career

by Ron Thurston

When will you get a real career? When will you stop working nights and weekends? When do you plan to use your college degree? If you work in retail, these are questions you often hear.

Does this make you feel like the career you love was all just an accident? You're not alone. The retail industry employs millions, yet most people don't end up there by design.

Ron Thurston wrote Retail Pride as an indispensable guide for every retail employee, manager, and multi-store leader looking to accelerate their potential and grow their career. It's filled with straightforward, practical tips for developing your talents, connecting with customers, and building your leadership skills.

Based on more than twenty-five years of Ron's retail leadership experience, you'll discover a sense of belonging in the words of someone who has been a champion for the industry and shares your journey.

Genres: Business

208 pages, Paperback

Published October 2, 2020

About the author

Ron Thurston | Inspiring Human-Centered Leadership in the Future of Work

Ron Thurston is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and visionary leader dedicated to helping businesses and professionals thrive in an era of rapid transformation. His upcoming book, Human Pride: Optimizing Your Human Potential in a Digital Job Market (May 2025), delivers bold, actionable strategies for navigating the evolving workplace, while his new podcast on the topic (coming soon) continues his mission of amplifying frontline leadership and human-centered innovation.

With over 30 years of leadership experience, Ron has built and led teams for Apple, Gap, West Elm, Tory Burch, Bonobos, and Saint Laurent, transforming how businesses engage their people and customers. As the bestselling author of Retail Pride: The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career, he has inspired thousands to embrace their careers with confidence, resilience, and purpose.

Ron’s groundbreaking Retail in America tour and podcast took him across 30 states in an Airstream, spotlighting the extraordinary professionals shaping the industry. Through his advisory work with leading retail tech firms like Ometria and YOOBIC, he helps companies bridge the gap between technology and human connection to drive innovation without losing the power of people.

A sought-after keynote speaker, Ron has spoken at global conferences, executive leadership summits, and corporate events, delivering high-impact, results-driven presentations that challenge, inspire, and empower audiences. His message is clear: human potential is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Reviews

[Peter P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a feel-good book from a seasoned retail professional and should fill many a Christmas stocking this season. I confess, however, that I found the whole to be greater than the individual parts, which is to say the overall message of positivity and pride was great, even as there were no profound takeaways from the individual chapters. The two main misses for me, was not putting much if any emphasis on the ability to actually drive sales; believing instead that a great commitment to teamwork and customer engagement would, in and of itself, provide the requisite end results. The second miss was the author not using his expanded network - and his own considerable experience - to share some great stories of successes, both people and sales. It might also have been helpful to hear a few takeaways from how COVID-19 changed things in retail, given that the pandemic was mentioned. That said, I enjoyed the book and I think it'll be a fun read for the many people who work in retail.

[Craig Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you work in the Retail sector or not, Ron has written a book that celebrates every retail employee that has worked nights and weekends at some point in their life. Ron brings to life the passion that great retail team members possess along with their ability to improve the day of any customer walking through their front doors. I've always wondered why some retail stores make you want to come back week after week, while others make you want to turn around within 5 minutes of walking in. Find out why and so much more in this outstanding book. Ron Thurston is a Pro. Learn from him.

[Sabreez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ron is authentic and does an incredible job normalizing and celebrating an accidental retail career. From the very first page, Ron gripped me and took me on the journey of understanding the exquisite life of retail. I can’t recommend this book enough. It will help you learn and appreciate retail every single time you purchase anything. It’s a must read, especially in 2020!

[Nicole Bonfante · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is 12 years into their “accidental” retail career which has taken many twists and turns, this book hits close to home on so many levels. I finished it quite quickly as I found myself always wanting to turn to the next page. Ron’s passion shines through. I have gifted this to several of my coworkers as well!

[Victoria (hotcocoaandbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a required read for me at my job for all the leaders. I am in the retail world and think that the book had some good pointers throughout it about teamwork, making goals, and how you can lead through inspiring ways.

While I love working in retail, have always had a cheerful attitude, have been great with customer service, am a team player, etc, I am also a minimalist who doesn't really want people to buy more and more and more. It is a tug of war for me to want my company to do well, but wanting people to be content with what they have and not spend money they probably shouldn't spend. Therefore I am probably not the best person to have read this book.

It did read at times like one of the life coaching books I have read, so that's pretty cool. Therefore, I didn't really learn anything new. I think this book is good for people just getting into management, or just starting in the retail world or want to climb a ladder of sorts. My company will be having a meeting with the author soon, and I am trying to figure out if there is a question I can ask.

[Jenna Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on the fence about this one. It felt a little too inspirational for me, like a self-help book for people in retail who might otherwise feel ashamed of their chosen profession. It's hard to really put into words, but this one didn't really click for me. I preferred Retail B*tch by Elizabeth Bedlam instead, but that's just my managing/sales style. Different things work or resonate with different people, and I can see why this book has such high reviews, but it just wasn't for me.