Leaders biography
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“The proper method for the study of politics is biography,” wrote a distinguished academic. Yet the lives of eminent statesmen, though often the subject of great (and popular) books, are rarely the subject of college syllabi. This virtual fellowship will use the rigorous study of great biography to investigate a wider set of questions about geopolitics, leadership, and human character.
Guest speakers will participate in the seminar, as well, including both scholars and national security leaders. Fellows will have the opportunity to reflect on the role of individual personality in history and what makes for great leadership—and also great biography.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
William Inboden
UT-Austin
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Ronald Reagan: The Peacemaker
Examine how Ronald Reagan confronted the Soviet Union and won the Cold War.
Julian Jackson&#;s De Gaulle
Study Charles de Gaulle, the mythic general who rallied the Free French during World W
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Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies
in a Silicon Valley Startup
John Carreyrou
Trust me, after you’re halfway in, you won’t put this book down for dinner. Published in mid, Bad Blood is a compulsively readable account of Theranos Inc., a Silicon Valley unicorn that truly was a fairy tale. Its charismatic young founder persuaded an A-list of wealthy people to invest hundreds of millions of dollars on a pipe dream: her spurious claim that a small, portable machine could accurately, speedily diagnose hundreds of diseases from a drop of blood.
At one point Theranos was worth $9 billion, and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford University dropout with no medical or scientific training, was briefly worth more than $ billion. She was hailed as the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg all rolled into one; in a nod to her hero Jobs, she even wore the same brand of black turtleneck sweaters that Jobs wore, and she got around Palo Alto in a black Audi sedan lacking license pla
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Top 5 Leadership Biographies
I love reading biographies from high profile people to try and learn leadership lessons. I read about successful business people, politicians, football managers, explorers, journalists and ministry leaders, all to pick up leadership lessons. Here are the top five leadership biographies I’ve learned most from, and recommend to you:
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. This is the authorised and standard biography of Jobs, though other biographies since his death in are now starting to komma out. Jobs is credited with being one of the most creative and brilliant entrepreneurs of his generation, who transformed anställda computer, mobile phone, music and desktop publishing industries through his products. The book reveals a creative genius with a våldsam attention to detail, but also a ferocious temper that can only tolerate other ‘geniuses.’
- Scott & upptäcktsresande by Roland Huntsford. The first book I read in I’ve already written about my major takeaways f