Great leaders have a great deal to teach those of us who aspire to leadership. But their lessons are as diverse and sometimes contradictory as the leaders themselves; we have to pick and choose among them, matching our own talents, temperament, and shortcomings with those of the models we aim to copy. Here are studies of six business titans of the recent past who offer a wide range of precepts for leadership: Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in history, who combines vast wealth with honesty, unfeigned modesty, and self-deprecating wit; Walt Disney, the great entertainer, who promoted family values but was also a tyrannical micro-manager; Thomas Alva Edison, the world’s most prolific inventor, who gave us the phonograph, the incandescent light, the electric generator, and motion pictures; Katharine Graham, who earned world fame as the courageous publisher whose Washington Post led the fight to uncover the Watergate scandal that drove Richard Nixon from the White House; Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder and genius who dazzled the world with the revolutionary iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad; and Ray Kroc, the late-blooming entrepreneur who built McDonald’s into the world’s biggest fast-food restaurant chain. No reader will follow all of their precepts, but all six offer vital lessons for anyone who wants to be a leader.

伟大的领导者有很多东西可以教给我们这些渴望成为领导者的人。但他们的教训和领导人本身一样多样，有时甚至相互矛盾；我们必须从中挑选，把自己的才华、气质和缺点与我们要模仿的模特相匹配。以下是对最近六位商界巨头的研究，他们为领导力提供了广泛的指导：沃伦·巴菲特，历史上最成功的投资者，他将巨额财富与诚实、朴实的谦虚和自嘲的智慧结合在一起；华特迪士尼，伟大的艺人，提倡家庭价值观，但也是一个暴虐的微观管理者；托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生，世界上最多产的发明家，他给了我们留声机、白炽灯、发电机和电影；凯瑟琳格雷厄姆，谁赢得了世界声誉作为勇敢的出版商，他的华盛顿邮报领导的斗争，以揭露水门事件，使尼克松离开白宫；史蒂夫·乔布斯，苹果公司的联合创始人和天才，他用革命性的iMac、iPod、iPhone和iPad让世界目眩；以及将麦当劳打造成全球最大快餐连锁店的已故企业家雷·克罗克。没有一个读者会遵守他们所有的戒律，但这六条戒律都为任何想成为领导者的人提供了重要的教训。