Understanding life is actually the key to understanding leadership, and doing so begins with understanding oneself. Traditional management strategies that are based on "scientific" study are not very helpful in understanding leadership. This book demonstrates how masterworks of literature from around the world can be read, analysed, and related to leadership issues in order to better understand leadership. The first chapter of the book is Don Quixote, a classic by Cervantes whose central figure declares, "I know who I am" and has confidence in himself. Other works that emphasise significant concerns come after this, including Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo, Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, Girish Karnad's Tughlaq, the ancient Sanskrit play Mudra Rakshasa, and the play about ambition and purpose in the universe.