“The Secret Red Book of Leadership” is a leadership book like no other.Rather than produce a typical guide that instructs us to be a positive person and cookie-cutter results will follow, in this book, the author pulls back the veil to reveal both the light side and the dark side of leadership. We are instructed that, in order to win the game of leadership we must learn to use all the means at our disposal.The author asserts that leaders must be good actors, and instead of running from evil they should use their vices as a source of power, yet publicly conceal them. Similarly, we must be skilled in the art of deception because our enemies will surely use it against us.Unlike other dry, unimaginative leadership books, this book is as fun to read as it is shrewd and practical. It is awash with countless insightful stories, quotes, and examples.Abraham Lincoln said, “People are more easily influenced & informed through the medium of a broad illustration than in any other way.” This is how the author wisely teaches us as well. The stories in this book, like the stories of the master storytelling President himself, paint pictures that speak a thousand words.For example, to elucidate one of the key points of the book, that the prime objective of leaders is to produce results, regardless of how you do it, the author told this story:“A cab driver reaches the pearly gates of Heaven. St. Peter looks into his Big Book and tells him to pick up the gold staff and silk robe and proceed onwards into Heaven.Next in line is a preacher. St. Peter looks him up too in his Big Book, furrows his brow and says, ‘Oh, we’ll let you in, but you take that cloth robe and wooden staff.’The preacher is shocked and protests, ‘But I am a man of the cloth. You gave that cab driver a gold staff and a silk robe. Surely I rate higher than a cabbie!’St. Peter responds matter-of-factly, ‘This is Heaven and up here, we are interested in results. When you preached, people slept. When the cabbie drove his taxi, people prayed.’ ”I liked that the quotes and illustrations were collected from leaders of many cultures from around the world. The rules of leadership are clearly applicable across international boundaries.How much did I relish the quotes in the book? They were so good that my approach to reading this book was to flip through and read all the quotes first, and then to read the rest of the text.I particularly enjoyed the chapter entitled, “Balancing the Masculine with the Feminine.” Like the balance of the Yin and the Yang, the personality pf the true leader must incorporate both male and female qualities. As Napoleon said, “I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion.”One of the outstanding features of this book is that it confronts us with ideas that seem counter intuitive to what we may have been taught in the past. For example, the necessity for leaders to use deception and the need to embrace one’s vices. Yet, upon careful reflection we gradually recognize the accuracy of the author’s subtle thoughts.This is a well written and vitally useful book for all who aspire to be leaders, or for those of us who wish to understand how real leaders achieve extraordinary goals.