Lessons of Leadership (Audio)

Not since Dwight Eisenhower in World War II has a military man won the affection of the American public the way General H. Norman Schwarzkopf did during the 1991 battle to oust Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait. As commander of Operation Desert Storm, he gave the American people the satisfaction of seeing their armed forces triumph in a decisive confrontation with a hated enemy. After the frustration and heartbreak of the Vietnam War, this victory helped many Americans regain an almost-forgotten pride in our men and women in uniform. Credit for this must go in large part to General Schwarzkopf, a visionary commander who won and kept the undying loyalty of his troops. General Schwarzkopf is a second-generation West Point graduate. His father was also called General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. (The "H" stood for Herbert, a name Schwarzkopf senior hated so much he only gave his son the initial.) From West Point, the younger Norman Schwarzkopf served his country in Europe and all over the United States. He spent two separate tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded twice and repeatedly decorated for bravery. He saw action again as Commander of U.S. ground forces in Grenada and capped his career with the triumphant expulsion of the Iraqi army from Kuwait. He returned home to the hero's welcome he and so many other Vietnam veterans had missed after their first experience of war. Although he is now retired from the army, General Schwarzkopf remains, for many Americans, the ideal of the American fighting man. This podcast was recorded during the 1991 International Achievement Summit in New York City shortly after his historic victory in Kuwait. In this segment of the podcast, General Schwarzkopf discusses his four leadership rules.

Not since Dwight Eisenhower in World War II has a military man won the affection of the American public the way General H. Norman Schwarzkopf did during the 1991 battle to oust Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait. As commander of Operation Desert Storm, he gave the American people the satisfaction of seeing their armed forces triumph in a decisive confrontation with a hated enemy. After the frustration and heartbreak of the Vietnam War, this victory helped many Americans regain an almost-forgotten pride in our men and women in uniform. Credit for this must go in large part to General Schwarzkopf, a visionary commander who won and kept the undying loyalty of his troops. General Schwarzkopf is a second-generation West Point graduate. His father was also called General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. (The "H" stood for Herbert, a name Schwarzkopf senior hated so much he only gave his son the initial.) From West Point, the younger Norman Schwarzkopf served his country in Europe and all over the United States. He spent two separate tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded twice and repeatedly decorated for bravery. He saw action again as Commander of U.S. ground forces in Grenada and capped his career with the triumphant expulsion of the Iraqi army from Kuwait. He returned home to the hero's welcome he and so many other Vietnam veterans had missed after their first experience of war. Although he is now retired from the army, General Schwarzkopf remains, for many Americans, the ideal of the American fighting man. This podcast was recorded during the 1991 International Achievement Summit in New York City shortly after his historic victory in Kuwait. In this segment of the podcast, General Schwarzkopf answers questions from the students in the audience about leadership, his career, and the Gulf War.

Wendell Castle is an American furniture artist and a leading figure in American craft. He is often credited with being the father of the art furniture movement.

In 1958, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in industrial design, and in 1961, he received a Master of Fine Arts, both from the University of Kansas.

From 1962-1969, he taught at Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Craftsmen, in Rochester, NY, and is now an Artist in Residence. In 1980, he opened the Wendell Castle School in Scottsville, NY.

He has garnered a number of awards, including a 1994 'Visionaries of the American Craft Movement' award sponsored by the American Craft Museum, a 1997 Gold Medal from the American Craft Council and a 1998 Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Comfort Tiffany Foundation. In 2001 he received the Award of Distinction from The Furniture Society.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Siskel was raised by his aunt and uncle after both his parents died when he was ten years old. He attended Culver Academies, graduated in Philosophy at Yale University in 1967, where he studied writing under Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Hersey, who helped him land a job at the Chicago Tribune in 1969. In 1975, Siskel teamed up with Roger Ebert, film reviewer for the Chicago Sun-Times, to host a show on the local Chicago PBS station WTTW which eventually became Sneak Previews. Their "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" system soon became an easily recognizable trademark, popular enough to be parodied on comedy shows such as In Living Color and in movies such as Hollywood Shuffle and Godzilla. Sneak Previews gained a country-wide audience in 1978 when it was carried on PBS.

Siskel and Ebert left WTTW and PBS in 1982 for syndication. Their new show, At the Movies, was produced and distributed by Tribune Broadcasting, the parent company that owned the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV. Sneak Previews continued on PBS for 14 more years with other hosts. In 1986, Siskel and Ebert left Tribune Broadcasting to have their show produced by the syndication arm of The Walt Disney Company. The new incarnation of the show was originally titled Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, but later shortened to Siskel & Ebert. At the Movies also continued a few more years with other hosts.

He spoke to students at the 1990 Academy of Achievement Summit in Chicago.

Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz is a retired football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker in the United States. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969’Ŭ1971), North Carolina State University (1972’Ŭ1975), the University of Arkansas (1977’Ŭ1983), the University of Minnesota (1984’Ŭ1985), the University of Notre Dame (1986’Ŭ1996), and the University of South Carolina (1999’Ŭ2004), compiling a career record of 249’Ŭ132’Ŭ7. Holtz's 1988 Notre Dame team went 12’Ŭ0 with a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and was the consensus national champion. Holtz is the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Holtz also coached the New York Jets of the NFL during the 1976 season.

Over the years, the slender, bespectacled Holtz has become known for his quick wit and ability to inspire players. He is often found as a guest on the popular Richmond, Virginia based Kain Road Radio. In 2005, Holtz joined ESPN as a college football analyst. On May 1, 2008, Holtz was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

He spoke to students at the 1990 Academy of Achievement Summit in Chicago.

As a child, Maya Angelou was traumatized by abuse. For five years, she was silent, but in time, she found her voice, and that voice has been heard around the world. A single mother at age 16, she embarked on a remarkable career as an actress and entertainer, as a journalist, educator and civil rights activist, and finally, as one of the world's most eminent authors and poets.

Her autobiographical work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, created an international sensation when it was first published in 1970. Since then her books and poems have made her one of the world's favorite authors and one of America's best-loved public speakers. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem for his first inaugural in 1993; she read that poem, "On the Pulse of the Morning," to an audience of millions on live television.

One of the most admired men in American history, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) enjoyed a successful career as a motion picture actor, appearing in 53 feature films, before serving two terms as Governor of California. His landslide election to the presidency in 1980 revived the Republican Party and brought a conservative philosophy of limited government to a dominant position in American politics. As President, he won the admiration of supporters and adversaries alike for his courage and resilience in recovering from an attempted assassination. When he ran for re-election, President Reagan carried 49 of the 50 states. His resolute opposition to the Soviet Union is widely credited with weakening the communist regime and bringing about the liberation of Central Europe. In this 1990 address to the Academy of Achievement, President Reagan discusses his early life and engages in an uninhibited discussion of current events with the Academy's student delegates.

The discussion topics include the budget deficit, taxes, line-item veto, presidential term limits, and gerrymandering.

Oprah Winfrey's public speaking career began in 1957. At three, she was speaking in church, by her teens she was touring the churches of Nashville, reciting the sermons of James Weldon Johnson. Other children sang, Oprah talked. And she's still talking -- but to much larger audiences. The path that led from her grandmother's farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi to becoming the first African-American woman billionaire is a story of unwavering focus and unrelenting determination.

Taught to read by her grandmother at an age when most children are only learning to talk, Oprah became a voracious reader -- a habit she retains to this day. Books became her outlet to the world and the basis of her passionate belief in education. An actress of uncommon talent, her first feature film, The Color Purple, brought her an Oscar nomination. Some call her lucky, but Oprah Winfrey doesn't believe in luck. She believes "luck is preparation meeting opportunity." Her rise from reading the news on a small radio station to being the first woman in history to own and produce her own television talk show proves her point.

A seeker of truth in herself and in others, her empathy, honesty, and love of people have made her one of the most beloved women in America; a teacher who educates a devoted audience about subjects as varied as sexual abuse, divorce, children's issues, and countless other important subjects; a close friend who visits over 20 million homes a day.

America's leading designer in the classic tradition, Ralph Lauren grew up in the Bronx, son of a Russian immigrant mural painter. He showed a flair for fashion while still in his teens and earned his first commission at age 15, designing warm-up jackets for his baseball team. He dropped out of college at 22 and became a tie salesman. In 1967 he broke with the prevailing fashion for dark, narrow ties and launched his own line, Polo, introducing unprecedented color and variety to men' s fashion. He quickly progressed to a complete line of Polo menswear, and moved on to womenswear, boyswear, girlswear, fragrances and home furnishings, all part of a unified vision, exemplified by his flagship store, a sumptuously restored mansion on New York's Madison Avenue. He has built hundreds of Polo stores around the world, and continues to defy trends and fads to remain true to his own vision of freedom, comfort and timeless elegance.

The arrival of Wynton Marsalis on the music scene in 1982 could not have been more unexpected. Barely out of his teens, this trumpet prodigy from New Orleans recorded jazz and classical music with seemingly equal facility. Even more startling was his dedication to a self-defined mission to restore jazz music to a central place in American life, and with it, the values he believes jazz embodies: freedom and discipline, romance and responsibility, pride and respect for both the African and the European components of our musical heritage.

In the following decade, Wynton Marsalis almost single-handedly initiated a revival of interest in mainstream jazz tradition among young musicians. In 1987 he co-founded Jazz at Lincoln Center to sponsor jazz performance and educational programs at New York's premier performing arts center. In addition to his busy schedule of composing and performing, Marsalis produces music education programs for public radio and television. His four-part, Peabody Award-winning TV series "Marsalis on Music," introduces young viewers to the adventure of making music. In 1997, he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, for his epic oratorio on the subject of slavery, "Blood on the Fields."

Wynton Marsalis continues to compose, to tour, and to bring his message to a new generation as Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and leader of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. When Hurricane Katrina devastated his native city in 2005, Marsalis swung into action, organizing benefit concerts in both New York and New Orleans to raise money for relief and reconstruction efforts. Beyond his achievements as an artist, Wynton Marsalis has matured into a public figure of courage and conviction.

This podcast was recorded at the 1988 International Achievement Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, shortly after the founding of Jazz at Lincoln Center.