Massive Income

Professional Education

When Graham took over the Washington Post in the wake of her husband’s suicide in 1963, it was not the powerful institution it would become. It was dowdy, parochial, and, except for its being in the nation’s capital, inconsequential. In a way it was a mirror of Graham’s self-assessment of her abilities. Although she had been a reporter in her twenties, she certainly was no businessperson. She took the helm out of family duty; her father, Eugene Meyer, had owned the paper, and Graham wanted to keep it in the family.

Despite her role as publisher and owner of the Washington Post Company, Graham was very much a creature of her upbringing. She did as she was taught; she deferred to men: first her father, then her husband, and later the male executives in her own company. She illustrates her naiveté in quotes taken from a Women’s Wear Daily profile of her written in 1969, in which she admits, “I guess it’s a man’s world. . . . [M]en are more able than women at executive work and in certain situations. I think a man would be better at this job I’m in than a woman.”^[9]

Taken From : Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders