Real Leadership: 9 Simple Practices for Leading and Living with Purpose

CHAPTER 1

First Things First

Decide Who You Are

Be true to yourself. Help others. Make each day your masterpiece. Drink deeply from good books. … Make friendship a fine art.

—JOHN WOODEN

As a teenager, Benjamin Franklin spent hours studying editions of his brother’s newspaper, The New England Courant, outlining the essays and then rewriting them in his own words. This was the same kid who as an adult would become the publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanack, coauthor of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most famous Americans of his, or any, generation. That was years in the future for the teenaged Ben. He knew his older brother would ...