Common Sense on Mutual Funds: Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition

Chapter 21. On Leadership: A Sense of Purpose

Whether the vision and boldness of the entrepreneur were responsible for the creation of Vanguard or, far more mundane though it may be, the new firm sprang from a mere "uncanny ability to recognize the obvious" does not really matter. Once the struggles of 1974 to 1981 were over and the firm's full scope and structure had been developed, there remained the far more difficult challenge of implementing the strategy entailed by that structure. What attributes of leadership would be required? And what direction would that leadership take?

Creative leadership is often required to give a new venture, above all, a sense of purpose. What kind of leadership it should be relates not only to the nature of the enterprise, but to the nature of the leader. What manner of human being is the leader? Here, I will try to speak with special candor. I am, like all human beings, a peculiar balance of contradictions: a large ego and a deep humility; a decent intelligence (no more than that), albeit with periodic blind spots and stupidities; a strong presence along with a profound insecurity; an astonishing confidence, but one that is often punctuated with doubt; an intellectual bent that lacks an academic depth; an aspiring, passionate leader, but without the skills—or, for that matter, the interests—of a manager.

I mention this litany to suggest that I'm no more, nor less, than any other person. I am just another human being. Yet, with some examples based ...