How should we lead our lives? Talk to any of us Baret Scholars, and you’ll hear a palpable desire to leave our mark on the world. And as we come to the end of our time in New York City, the end of a beginning, we are considering not only what we want to achieve, but how we want to achieve it. 

On the first day of the Baret Scholars Morning Program, a global conference featuring leaders from all walks of life, we heard from preeminent biographer Walter Isaacson. In a candid discussion with Baret’s founder, Chris Whittle, Isaacson marveled at the willpower of two of his subjects, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. He quoted Musk, who said he “wants to die on Mars–but not on impact!” 

What we took away from their conversation was that great success requires a confidence so unrelenting it is almost indistinguishable from delusion–until, of course, the idea is willed into reality. We understood the importance of believing in ourselves. But nothing is ever so simple, and Isaacson also brought our attention to the other side of these men: how their incredible creativity and confidence is sometimes wedded to a demanding and imposing personality.

We reflected: how do we want to approach leadership? How can we balance the pursuit of our goals with empathy and generosity? Reading Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, we stumbled across this advice: “There’s an old Hindu saying that goes, ‘In the first 30 years of your life, you make your habits; for the last 30 years of your life, your habits make you.’” We’re considering what habits we can make in our formative years. This journey we are on, the Baret Scholars program, is our chance to build those habits–to decide who we want to be and to strive with passion and compassion.