George Washington, Founding CEO (Spring/Summer 2008 | Volume: 58, Issue: 4)

George Washington, Founding CEO

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Authors: Richard Brookhiser

Historic Era: Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

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Spring/Summer 2008 | Volume 58, Issue 4

America’s greatest leader was its first—George Washington. He ran two start-ups, the army and the presidency, and chaired the most important committee meeting in U.S. history, the Constitutional Convention. His agribusiness and real-estate portfolio made him America’s richest man. He was as well-known in his time as any star actor, rapper, or athlete is now. Men followed him into battle; women longed to dance with him; famous men, almost as great as he was, some of them smarter or better-spoken, did what he told them to do. He was the Founding CEO.

Even at a time when entertainers and freaks commandeer so much of our attention, the most important men and women in society are its leaders, whether in politics, business, or war. In politics, the buck stops at their desks; in business, they are responsible for bringing in the bucks; in war, they plan the operations and command the troops. That is why it is always important to know how a great leader of the past navigated his life, and what a leader or aspiring leader of today can learn from him.

When George Washington died, one of his mourners called him “first in war.” He got his first taste of the military at age 21, when his in-laws got him a commission in the colonial militia. His superiors found him a bit of a pain in the neck; his junior officers adored him, calling him an “excellent commander,” a “sincere friend,” and an “affable” companion. He saw two debacles, in which hundreds of his comrades were killed, and one great victory in which not a shot was fired; he was assigned to defend an undefendable frontier. When he was 26, he resigned, went home, and got married.

When Washington was 43, he got a harder assignment. Congress named him commander in chief in June 1775; he had angled for the job by showing up to the sessions of Congress in his old uniform. The American Revolution had barely begun. The troops he was assigned to command were local militias that had been renamed the Continental Army; turning them into an actual army would be one of his many tasks. During his time on the job, he fought 10 battles in five states and oversaw operations from Canada to Georgia to Indiana (then the Wild West). Between battles, he solved a range of problems from smallpox to treason. Since there was not yet any such thing as a president, secretary of defense, or secretary of state—the government consisted only of Congress—his job as commander in chief embraced some of the functions of these jobs as well: negotiating with Indians and Frenchmen, buying shoes and food.

Although Congress had picked him unanimously, and backed him throughout the war, there were times when individual members schemed to replace him and when Congress as a whole simply couldn’t help him; he had to deal with that too. In December 1783, after the last skirmish had been fought and the last