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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.

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Best of Optimize Biography leadership

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(Heroically) Fierce Ambition
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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-winning presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. It’s all about how Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Frankl...

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Leadership & Modern Hērō

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Lincoln’s Response to (Epic) Failure
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“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 Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin) that really jumped out and grabbed me. The essence of that passage? O...

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Antifragility & Modern Hērō

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Ambi vs. Heroic Valence
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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 Philosopher/Lover-of-Wisd...

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Planting Trees with Kennedy
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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 the quote. Then I...

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Conquering Procrastination & Leadership

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