Executive #Bookshelf : American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane - Walter Isaacson @WalterIsaacson
Synopsis
In this collection of essays, Walter Isaacson reflects on the lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and various other interesting characters he has chronicled as a biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, in most cases, but that is not the secret of their success. They had qualities that were even more rare, such as imagination and true curiosity.
Isaacson reflects on how he became a writer, the lessons he learned from various people he met, and the challenges he sees for journalism in the digital age.
He also offers loving tributes to his hometown of New Orleans, which both before and after Hurricane Katrina offered many of the ingredients for a creative culture, and to the Louisiana novelist Walker Percy, who was an early mentor. In an anecdotal and personal way, Isaacson describes the joys of the "so-called writing life" and the way that tales about the lives of fascinating people can enlighten our own lives.
Tom’s Take:
This book is a fascinating look into a number of the world’s leaders, business titans and civic leaders. This is a great start to get a glimpse into leadership styles and the struggles that leaders face at the highest levels. I’ve used this as a jumping point to read other biographies and learn the secrets of success of characters throughout history. Walter Isaacson has a remarkable way of bringing these figures to life and give a poignant look into the personal side of fascinating leaders.