What Makes Great Leaders & How to Live an Extraordinary Life | Dr. Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and UCLA professor emeritus, explores how chance, charisma, courage and organization shape leaders from Hitler and Harry Truman to religious founders and cult figures. He discusses why leaders cling to power, his lifelong journeys through languages, birds and history, global risks, exercise, mentorship, John Wooden and Yvon Chouinard. He closes with a practical vision for an extraordinary life.
Top snips
There Are 37 Ways to Lead
17:06 – 17:39
The biggest leadership myth? That every effective leader must be charismatic.
Jared Diamond rejects that idea. Stalin and Augusto Pinochet were not charismatic, yet they held enormous power.
Leadership can come through persuasion, organization, courage, fear, expertise, or many other paths.
There are about 37 ways to be an effective leader of which charisma is one.
— Jared Diamond
When One Person Changes History
6:55 – 11:41
Diamond uses natural experiments to ask whether leaders truly shape history.
Hitler narrowly survived a 1930 car crash and a 1944 assassination attempt. Without him, Diamond argues, the Holocaust probably would not have happened.
But historians disagree—even when using the same evidence. Individual leaders matter most when circumstances give them unusual power.
That's why my book uses a different method, the method of natural experiments.
— Jared Diamond
A Movement Needs More Than a Vision
28:39 – 30:32
Successful movements often require different kinds of leaders.
A religion may need:
- A charismatic founder with a universal message
- An organizer who builds institutions
- Sometimes, a general who protects the movement
Jesus had the message; St. Paul helped organize Christianity. Joseph Smith founded Mormonism; Brigham Young supplied organizational strength.
Build a Career Around Curiosity
57:03 – 59:45
Jared Diamond refused to spend his entire life studying one narrow subject.
He built three careers: physiology, New Guinea birds, and history and geography. When his twin sons were born, he realized their future would depend more on history and geography than gallbladders.
Curiosity became a compass—not a distraction.
Your Remaining Time Is Finite
1:21:15 – 1:24:12
At 89, Diamond thinks differently about time. He is focused on finishing work that only he can complete—including synthesizing decades of New Guinea bird research.
He also began listening to all 210 Bach cantatas, one per week.
The lesson: choose deliberately. Your most meaningful projects may require years, so begin before “someday” disappears.
The Extraordinary Life Formula
1:47:04 – 1:49:34
Diamond’s advice is simple—but demanding. Choose work that combines three things:
- Something you enjoy
- Something you are good at
- Something that is good for the world
He pursued science, birds, history, conservation, and public education. Not every dream fit his abilities—but he kept following meaningful curiosity.
Do something that you enjoy. Do something that you're good at. Do something that makes a difference in the world.
— Jared Diamond