Dr.
Goertzel published his first book on the childhoods of eminent
people, Three Hundred Eminent Personalities: A Psychosocial
Analysis of the Famous, in 1979. The book was co-authored
with his parents, Mildred and Victor Goertzel, who had authored
the classic book on the topic, Cradles of Eminence, in 1962.
In 2004, Dr. Goertzel and his niece Ariel Hansen published
a revised an updated edition, Cradles
of Eminence, Second Edition. The last chapter reported
on a new sample of people who had become eminent since the
previous books were published.
The
subjects of the earlier books were selected because they
were the subjects of biographies available in selected public
libraries. This provided excellent research material, but
the sample overrepresented literary and political figures,
and underrepresented business leaders and scientists. Currently,
Dr. Goertzel is researching the childhoods and educational
experiences of the entrepreneurs who have shaped our modern
economy including: Steven Jobs of Apple Computer, Ray Kroc
of Mc Donald's, Fred Smith of Federal Express, William Levitt
of Levittown, Tom Monaghan of Domino's, Nolan Bushnell of
Atari, William Gates of Microsoft, William Lear of Lear
Jet, Soichiro Honda, Akio Morita of Sony, Ted Turner of
CNN, Donald Trump, and many others.
The
biographical information on these leaders may be helpful
in developing programs to nurture entrepreneurial creativity,
as well as enriching our understanding of how the creative
personality differs in various fields of achievement.
