'Why are you interested in investing in Heroic?' Over 1,500 Heroes have responded. (Wow.)

Try 14 Days Free

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Doris Kearns Goodwin

A world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times #1 best-selling author.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s interest in leadership began more than half a century ago as a professor at Harvard. Her experiences working for Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House and later assisting him on his memoirs led to her bestselling Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize–winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for the runaway bestseller Team of Rivals, the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award–winning film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, the New York Times bestselling chronicle of the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. She lives in Concord, Massachusetts. Visit her at DorisKearnsGoodwin.com or @DorisKGoodwin.

PhilosophersNotes on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Books All PhilosophersNotes

Leadership

In Turbulent Times

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Doris Kearns Goodwin has been studying presidential history and leadership for five decades since she first became a professor at Harvard. She has won a Pulitzer Prize and her bestseller Team of Rivals was the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award–winning film Lincoln. In this book, she walks us through four case studies in leadership: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. If you enjoy studying leadership like I do, I think you’ll love this book as much as I did. Big Ideas we explore include the one quality all of our very different leaders possessed (hint: FIERCE AMBITION), Lincoln's commitment to growth ("I must die or be better"), the importance of a growth mindset, acquiring virtue Teddy Roosevelt style and the importance of finding ways to relieve stress.

Pack:

Best of Optimize Biography leadership

+1s Inspired by Doris Kearns Goodwin All +1s

(Heroically) Fierce Ambition
#694

Get instant access to all +1's!

Join nearly 10,000 members in the
1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge
and start optimizing your life today.

Join Now

What Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR Had in Common

The other day I received a nice little gift from Cal Newport. In fact, it was one of my favorite gifts ever. A book. But not just any book. It’s the fantastic new book by Pulitzer Prize-win...

+1 inspired by Note: Leadership

Packs:

Leadership & Modern Hērō

commitment greatness Inspiration leadership modern-hero Power service soul Spirit

Lincoln’s Response to (Epic) Failure
#695

Get instant access to all +1's!

Join nearly 10,000 members in the
1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge
and start optimizing your life today.

Join Now

“I must die or be better.”

In our last +1, we talked about the wonderful little book-gift I received from Cal Newport and we reflected on a particular passage from that book (Leadership: In Turbulent Ti...

+1 inspired by Note: Leadership

Packs:

Antifragility & Modern Hērō

antifragility Best of Optimize big-picture Mindset mis-take modern-hero Power Work

Ambi vs. Heroic Valence
#715

Get instant access to all +1's!

Join nearly 10,000 members in the
1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge
and start optimizing your life today.

Join Now

Multi-Faceted Strength for Two

Continuing our time with my dear friend Katherine Collins, let’s talk about another micro-moment of Divine wisdom from our recent chat. Quick context. As you know if you’ve been following along, I’ve spent half of the last 20 years in Founder/CEO mode and the other half in Philosop...

+1 inspired by Note: Leadership

Packs:

Modern Hērō & Purpose

barbell big-picture courage modern-hero purpose self-awareness soul Spirit

Planting Trees with Kennedy
#1156

Get instant access to all +1's!

Join nearly 10,000 members in the
1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge
and start optimizing your life today.

Join Now

It’ll Take 100 Years? So... Start TODAY!

The other day I was chatting with our Head Coach Michael Balchan and he mentioned Kennedy’s quote about a tree taking decades to reach maturity; therefore, we should plant it NOW! I knew I wanted to do a +1 on it, so this morning I Googled “Kennedy Quote Tree.” I found ...

+1 inspired by Note: Leadership

Packs:

Conquering Procrastination & Leadership

action commitment Conquering Procrastination Hope leadership productivity Work