For Krim, who had the vision and trusted her instincts, it
was a very simple kind of work to do. But it had never been
done before.
The leaders I spoke with believed also in the importance of
luck, but they put a particular spin on it, one reminiscent of
Vince Lombardi’s dictum that luck is a combination of prepara-
tion and opportunity. Former Johnson & Johnson CEO Jim
Burke is best known for how ably he dealt with the discovery
that bottles of Tylenol had been tampered with. Burke, who
described himself as an “intuitive, instinctive person” with an
overlay of logic, said of leadership positions, “A lot of luck oc-
curs to get people to these places. A lot of what happened in
my life was an accident. You wouldn’t be here talking to me if it
hadn’t been for Tylenol. I happened to be exquisitely prepared
for that problem—by accident, though.”
Then Boston prosecutor Jamie Raskin also spoke of luck and
preparation. “The general advice I would have for people
about leadership is to find out what’s truest in yourself and stick
to it. But I really believe in the role of luck in human affairs.
Machiavelli said that fortune favors the bold. I think the pre-
pared mind is basically the same thing as the bold, but fortune
is in there. Napoleon said that of all the qualities his lieu-
tenants had, the one he most favored was luck. Luck continues
to intervene at every point in your life.”
Sydney Pollack described right-brain leadership best, when
he said that it comes out of “a certain kind of controlled free
association. All art comes out of that. We say daydreams, we
say inspiration, but scientifically what it is, is free association.
It’s the ability to be in touch with that. That’s where you get
the ideas. And then it’s the ability to trust the ideas once you
have them, even though they may break certain rules. And then
On Becoming a Leader