Saturday, December 14, 2019

Power Ambition Glory: The Stunning Parallels Between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today...and the Lessons You Can Learn

Steve Forbes read a book by John Prevas and eventually got together with him to a write a book combining biographies of ancient leaders with business leaders of today. The ancient leaders had many positive traits as well as weaknesses that led to their downfall. In some cases, the traits made them good for building an empire, but not so great at running it. The stories of modern leaders include some born in the 1800s, though have had their heyday in the past few decades. Some of the contemporary cases are intriguing. The positive leadership empire building of GE and Chrysler don't look so great right now. This does show that even great "empires" can crumble shortly after the tenure of the seemingly great leaders. The impenetrable foundation that was set up may not be so great after all.
Corporate leaders also feel like better comparisons than political leaders. The "path to the top" of many of the ancient leaders seemed to more closely resemble what is needed to get to the top of a major corporation. Empire building and conquests was also a key part of the activities of ancient leaders. This is done much more in business than in countries these days. The important of "employees" vs. mercenaries is also a key concern. (However, you can also see many similarities between Agustus and pandering to the masses and current populism and Trumpism.)

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