What I'm going to
do in this class
is talk about all the
fundamental skills of what
is needed to be a great leader.
As Teddy Roosevelt
said, human nature
is the most important thing to
understand if you're a leader.
So I will use examples
from the four presidents
I know the best, Abraham
Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt,
Franklin Roosevelt,
and Lyndon Johnson.
Each one of these
presidents was a leader
during a time of great crisis.
We can learn from
their failures,
and their ability to
acknowledge those failures
and learn from their mistakes,
to use the lessons of history
to apply to your daily life.
And I'd love to just
transport them into you.
The most important thing
for a leader to develop
is the ability to grow.
All of us in our lives are
going to suffer difficult times.
And the question is,
can you get through it?
Can you grow through it?
Can you learn from it?
I think about Abraham Lincoln,
as he scoured the countryside
for books, and he
read everything
he could lay his hands on.
He understood that he
was a work in progress.
Nobody's going to be perfect.
The most underappreciated
leadership strength
is the ability to relax
and replenish energies.
In our world today,
so many of us
feel we don't have time
to take off to relax,
but that was important
for all these leaders.
There's something about the
creativity of the mind that
through quiet and
serenity can break through
from the struggles that
you're having every day.
That's what I love
about history.
It can really give you
perspective, solace,
and give you hope.
Think of what we learned
from parents, from people
who have experience.
You're learning from generations
that lived before us.
It makes you feel you're
part of a continuum.
You're not just here alone, so
it makes you a deeper person
and maybe even gives you that
great thing called wisdom.
I'm Doris Kearns Goodwin,
and this is my MasterClass.
