CBS, Inc. also agrees. In 1984, the Corporate Council on
the Liberal Arts, representing twelve major companies, was es-
tablished with a $750,000 grant from CBS in association with
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The council’s
purpose, according to its then chairman, Frank Stanton, a for-
mer CBS president, is to “heighten awareness of a liberal arts
education—insight, perception, critical inquiry and imagina-
tion—and to understand the relationship between liberal arts
learning and leadership in the corporate world.”
That relationship is very real and very strong. This is not to
suggest, however, that if you majored in business or computer
science, you’ve fouled up. One of the marvelous things about life
is that any gaps in your education can be filled, whatever your
age or situation, by reading, and thinking about what you read.
FILLING IN THE GAPS
Author Ray Bradbury, giving advice to managers on how to
feed creativity, started his recipe with this:
Well now, when was the last time you ran to a library and took
home more books than you could read, like stacked loaves of
bread, warm in your arms, waiting to be chewed? When, for
that matter, was the last time you opened a book, placed it to
your nose, and gave a great sniff? Heaven! The smell of bread,
baking. When was the last time that you found a really great old
book store and wandered through it hour after hour, alone,
finding yourself on the shelves. With no list, no intellectual pri-
orities, just wandering, snuffing the dust, plucking the pigeon
books off the shelves to read their entrails and, not in love, put-On Becoming a Leader