The mission of Harvard Business School is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. As you prepare to leave HBS, you are likely asking yourself, “How can I make a real and sustainable difference?”

To answer this question, we will study—and learn from—the lives of a variety of remarkable people who created a lasting legacy (see list of protagonists below). Each week, we will analyze case-length biographies to understand the choices that these high-impact individuals faced and the paths they chose.

In the first part of the course, you will discover the recipe for making a substantial difference in the world: the personality traits that must be acquired, the building blocks of success, how to navigate life’s important decisions, and how add purpose to your life.

In the second part of the course, you will learn how to apply these principles to develop a personal strategy: how to tailor an approach to reflect your interests and capabilities, how to develop mentoring and support systems, and how to identify high-payoff areas to focus your time and attention.

In the final part of the course, you will consider the extent to which you should (or should not) emulate and draw lessons from the lives of the exceptional people we have studied.

For the final paper, you will apply what you have learned by either interviewing someone you admire or analyzing a biography of your choice.

If you want to (1) be inspired by the lives of exceptional individuals who changed the world and (2) think deeply about your own life and the choices you will confront, you will find this course interesting, unique, and invaluable.

Individuals We Will Study:

Business: Mary Kay Ash, P.T. Barnum, Sarah Breedlove (Madam C.J. Walker), Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Katharine Graham, Steve Jobs

Government: Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher

Humanitarian: Mahatma Gandhi, Helen Keller, Nelson Mandela, Bill Wilson

Science: Marie Curie, Albert Einstein

Sports: Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson

Writers: Ayn Rand

Entertainment: Leonard Bernstein

Education: James Conant

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