Determined to make it on his own, Bush did not tell his father that he
was applying to Harvard Business School. (2)The "West Point of
Capitalism" was not inundated with applicants in tile anti-business early’ 70s,
so Bush got in, despite mediocre grades that kept him out of his first choice of
grad schools, the University of Tex- as Law School. Bush posed as a redneck
rebel at Harvard, wearing his National Guard flight jacket and cowboy boots and
chewing tobacco as he sat at the back of the class, spitting into a paper cup.
(3)But he showed early signs of the self-discipline that would become more
characteristic as time went on. He kept up with the grueling ease- work,
particularly in a course called Human Organization and Behavior. Here were
formal lessons in organizing and managing people that Bush had only intuited as
an Andover cheerleader. He developed his basic approach to leadership at
Harvard’s training ground for future CEOs. The essence was to think Big Picture,
don’t get caught in the details, delegate and decide. (4) Bush whizzes
through briefing books today, prefer- ring to listen rather than read, but his
friends say he has an ability to cut to the chase. If Bush seems less
substantive than a Bill Clinton--or an Al Gore--he can blame a Harvard
education. (5) Bush hardly mentions Harvard today. He loathed
what he saw as the university’s liberal, intellectually pretentious
atmosphere. On weekends at the home of his aunt Nancy Ellis, who lived in
Boston, Bush railed against the "smugness" of Cambridge. He pined to get back to
Texas. While Bush’s classmates headed for Wall Street, Bush went to look for a
job in the oil Patch, again following his father whose portrait hangs in
Midland’s Petroleum Hall of Fame.