Leader books

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." John Maxwell

The good news? We don’t have to figure out what it means to be a leader. We have great examples of leaders and leadership from human history.

Below are a few of my favorite biographies, autobiographies, and leadership stories. It starts with the book I give the teenagers in my life. You think Lindbergh had it hard? The British-born Beryl Markham grew up in Kenyan with tribesmen, elephants, and lions. She was one of the first bush pilots, an adventurer, racehorse trainer, and author. Markham did what others thought impossible - a solo transatlantic flight against the wind East to West. Her life story is well-told and an inspiration to young women or young men, and the rest of us. Ernest Hemingway says on the back cover, “She has written so well, marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer.”

Or Endurance, the story of a leader and expedition members that after having their boat crushed in the ice flows, before they even started the the planned trek to the South Pole, spent 2 years stranded with few provisions in the most difficult conditions on the planet. Shackelton didn’t lose one man; crossed over a thousand miles in a small sailboat in the most challenging water in the world to land at the closest inhabited island to Antarctica in order to rescue the rest of his crew.

Please consider several selections from Walter Isaacson, the preeminent biographer of past leaders, and David McCullough, American history Pulitzer Prize author. My Dear Hamilton from the authors that wrote First Daughter not only gives us a powerful historical fiction representation of one of our Founding Women, but also a view of the founding fathers that illustrates that the tension in our current political drama has been there all along. In that vein, don’t miss RGB’s autobiography.

Or look at others of my favorites below… Got a favorite of your own? Send me the title to me. I will read it and add it to the list Jim's Email.

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