How do you become a successful leader?
To answer that question, consultants worldwide charge princely sums, educators offer boatloads of courses, military organizations teach, train, and mentor relentlessly, and countless books offer their take. Some of these sources help. Some don’t.
My recent book, Invent Reinvent Thrive: The Keys to Success for Any Start-up, Entrepreneur, or Family Business (McGraw-Hill, 2014), discusses how leaders drive personal and professional success through reinvention.
One of the stories in the book is of the current Mayor of Jerusalem, who has reinvented himself several times, including as the principal early backer of Checkpoint, a highly successful computer firewall security company.
This week, Mayor Barkat made worldwide news by providing a different kind of security: He tackled and detained a terrorist who had just stabbed a man on the streets of Jerusalem. The incident made news—and even led to people posting pictures of Barkat dressed as Batman and other superheroes on social media—because such behavior is unexpected of political officeholders, who are generally the objects, rather than providers, of protection.
But if you’d read my book and the story I tell there about Barkat, you wouldn’t have been surprised by his actions this week. Indeed, you’d have more insight into how he and other successful people in business, politics, and other domains reinvent themselves incrementally and continually to achieve ever-greater success—and how you can do the same.