The world is suffering a crisis of leadership, and the author's analysis of the problem rests on a fusion of management commonsense and an understanding of the darker world of the subconscious mind. He pursues the leader-to-be from the womb to the foothills of adult power, showing why disastrous people sometimes rise inevitably to the top and demonstrating the mischief they cause. On the way, we meet the mother-dominated entrepreneur (Ronald Reagan), the socially-risen ideologue (Margaret Thatcher) and a host of religious, military, business and sporting heroes - including the Ayatollah Khomenei, Jim Slater, General Haig and Mike Brearley.