"In recent years many management gurus have been speaking glibly of the virtues of failure. Silicon Valley has adopted mantras such as Fail better," "fail fast" and other variations.This book suggests that good leaders must go deeper. The path to success represents a conundrum: Ultimate success often requires failures along the way, and fear of failure often blocks ultimate success. But the wise leader needs to know when he or she cannot afford to fail.It examines why some great leaders were able to recover from spectacular failure--mainly George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman, as well as some more contemporary figures. And it explores and assesses which leadership skills are nonnegotiable for any leader who seeks to avoid lasting failure and to attain ultimate success.This manuscript was a collaboration by the late Dr. Warren G. Bennis and his longtime colleague, former USC President Steven B. Sample. It is a fully developed manuscript of about 29,000 words. It was begun in February 2014 and was polished to its current state in the weeks following Dr. Bennis' passing"--