What makes a great leader? Is it education, talent, or intelligence? Or could it be something deeper, rooted in childhood and strengthened by family?
As a young corporate executive climbing the ladder years ago, I often wondered why some people were successful in accomplishing things and others weren’t. As I studied this and watched the old-timers protect their hard-fought-for turf over time, and the emergence of the “young gunslingers” looking to stake their claims on that territory, I had a hard time figuring out why some people won and others lost.
Early on, I realized it wasn’t just about higher education and the qualifications that came with that, because I saw kids from blue-collar schools excel just as quickly as those from prestigious schools, as we were all scrapping to carve out our niche in this shiny new corporate world we were navigating.
