I originally knew about Carlos Ghosn as a high-flying executive of two disparate car companies, his arrest in Japan and subsequent escape straight out of a spy movie. This book goes into a lot of details on the life of this enigmatic car executive, from childhood to the height of his power as the leader of Renault and Nissan, and his subsequent downfall from that perch.

Ghosn is such a complex character and what fascinates me most is the leadership traits that make him such a superstar but that also heavily contributed to his downfall. He possessed 5 paradoxical traits according to the book:

• Charisma and introversion: He can really turn on his charm but harbors a lot of self-doubt
• Bombast and restraint: His image-consciousness drove him to be both outward going but keeping a lot to himself
• daring do and conservatism: Entrepreneurial and has the ability to bend the rule to his will but 
• Grand generosity and petty obsessions: He can be generous to those under him but is also known to be unrepentent, aggressive, indignant and prone to jealousy
• analytical excellence and irrational moods: He’s decisive and analytical but is prone to making calls that reflected his inner demon

Some of what defines him as a leaders and lessons to me are:

• Attachment to material target: Growing up, money matters to him and he measured his success by assets (salary, target, yacht). This drove him to great heights but left him always wanting for more. Better to search for an inner achievement
• Entrepreneurial: He saw opportunity and took it throughout his life. Being able to push the boundary and bet on yourself is admirable
• Global perspective: He sees himself as a global citizen. Having lived in many continents, he’s able to absorb different cultures and perspective and broadens his horizon. We should all not stay comfortable in one area
• Industriousness: Tireless work ethics, pushing himself a lot to succeed. 
• Egotistical: He feels entitled. Always assumed he’s worth it and let his deified status in Japan especially got to his head. Leaders need to learn to keep the ego in check and make things about the team and not himself

Adorned with twists and turns of a good drama-thriller, this is a good book to learn the many dichotomies of this one leader, how crossing the boundary too far and too often can come with its own consequence and lessons we can all learn.