When Katharine Graham took over the Washington Post in 1963, she was a shy socialite who'd never run anything. By retirement, she'd taken down a president, ended the most violent strike in a generation, and built one of the best-performing companies in American history.
Graham had no training, no experience, not even confidence. Just a newspaper bleeding money and a government that expected her to fall in line.
When her editors brought her stolen classified documents, her lawyers begged her not to publish. They said it would destroy the company. She published them anyway. Nixon came after her, attacking her with the full force of the executive. Then Watergate. For nearly a year she was ridiculed and isolated while pursuing the story that would eventually bring down the president.
Graham proved that you can grow into a job that initially seems impossible and no amount of training can substitute for having the right values and the courage to act on them.
Approximate timestamps: Subject to variation due to dynamically inserted ads:
(02:19) The Making of an Unlikely Heiress
(10:15) The Education of a Publisher’s Wife
(22:16) Learning to Lead
(30:46) Becoming a Media Titan
(44:12) Legacy
(47:59) Reflections + Lessons
This episode is for informational purposes only and is full of practical lessons I learned reading her memoir, Personal History and watching Becoming Katharine Graham. Check out highlights from this book in our repository, and find key lessons from Graham here: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/outliers-katharine-graham/
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