This course will teach you the principles and practices needed to make a difference in the world. Each week, we will analyze case-length biographies of remarkable individuals who created a lasting, world-changing legacy (see list of protagonists below) to understand the life choices they made and the paths they followed.

In the first part of the course, we will use these case studies to uncover the personality traits that must be acquired. Next, we will introduce the Building Blocks used by these prominent people to achieve success and learn how they navigated life’s forks-in-the-road decisions. Then, we consider how and when our protagonists found purpose in their life.

You will learn how to apply these principles to develop a personal strategy that works for you, and how to increase your odds of success in making a difference in the world.

In the final part of the course, we will consider what lessons to draw from the lives of the exceptional people we have studied.

Grading: class participation (40%), polls and short hand-ins (30%), and a final paper that will ask you to apply course concepts to analyze an HBS case study (30%).

If you want to be inspired by the lives of exceptional individuals who changed the world, and think deeply about the choices you will confront in your own life, 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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