Lives We Can Learn From

Conscientious leaders think long and hard about their legacies. They ask, How will I be remembered? What will I pass on? Which ideas and values will outlive me? These questions can feel so overwhelming that it’s tempting to just live your life and let others write the eulogy (or, as my favorite professor once joked, “leave it all to the cat”), but thoughtful memoirs have a way of wrestling with them. Three published this year, from big thinkers and doers writing late in their lives, provide valuable insights about what matters and what endures.