Build an A-Team

INTRODUCTION

BEING THE KIND OF BOSS PEOPLE LOVE TO WORK FOR

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt

In San Diego, California, in 1953, a new startup set its sights on the Space Age. The Rocket Chemical Company had a small lab and just three people, but they could see a major opportunity in front of them. The aerospace industry was producing incredible new technology—missiles and rockets that could fly farther than any had before—but that technology had a major weakness: it was all made of metal, and metal rusts.

Norm Larsen, the chief chemist, had an idea. He thought he could come up with a chemical compound that would keep the newly invented ...