Autobiography of a leader
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The Autobiography of a Self-Proclaimed Leader &#;
&#;The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.”
~Voltaire
Once upon a time there was a man who believed he was a great leader. Once a week he would gather his people and extol all of the things that he did that made him a great leader.
One day he began &#; &#;I am kind and helpful, in fact I am so helpful that when you get stuck and don&#;t know what to do I step in and tell you what to do! In fact, sometimes I am such a great leader that I actually do the task for you because I want to help you so much!&#;
One of his people replied, &#;You&#;re so right, you make my job so much easier and I never get frustrated or have to think too hard!&#;
He went on to tell them, &#;I am a great leader because I shield you from any information that could make you feel uncomfortable because I want you to feel good about y
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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 come out. Jobs is credited with being one of the most creative and brilliant entrepreneurs of his generation, who transformed personal computer, mobile phone, music and desktop publishing industries through his products. The book reveals a creative genius with a ferocious attention to detail, but also a ferocious temper that can only tolerate other ‘geniuses.’
- Scott & Amundsen by Roland Huntsford. The first book I read in I’ve already written about my major takeaways f