Morrie the Toupee Salesman

It’s shining out from two sources:

An HBS article on narcissism and leadership, commented on by various people. Unfortunately the article is just an abstract and when I clicked on “Order the Full Article” I got an error.

and I can’t quite parse this phrase from the two people commenting on the original paper - “If self diagnosis is allowed, I am a narcissist.” The original HBS article says “relatively few narcissistic leaders are interested in looking inward.” I think Fred Wilson is saying that he is one of those relatively few (How narcissistic of him!).

Also today — an NYT article that says “narcissism is much more prevalent among people born in the 1980s than in earlier generations.” and refers to “an epidemic of narcissism.”

There must be some kind of take-away from the two stories together. I’m reminded though of an old National Lampoon poster showing what the world would be like if we all grew up to be what we wanted to be when we were kids. Lots of cowboys and ballerinas…