The Modern Shepherd: Leadership Lessons from the Desert

There is no prophet who has not tended sheep. So goes a famous phrase in Islamic scripture, words that had long intrigued young MBA student AlBaraa Taibah. How does shepherding awaken one's wisdom? Empower one's leadership skills? Build one's character? Why was shepherding the starting point for great leaders like Mohammed, Moses and Abraham? There must be a reason and lessons in shepherding to take away, he reasoned.So AlBaraa made the decision to become a modern-day shepherd, to spend ten days alone with a herd of sheep in the Sahara Desert, attempting to learn what the scripture was talking about. Confronting the dangers of desert snakes, getting hopelessly lost in the dunes, and suffering from dehydration, on the first day he asks himself, 'Why didn't I just take that leadership course back in Boston?'What transpires is an adventure, a journey into consciousness, that is as poetic and funny as it is profound. The Modern Shepherd is a journal of personal discovery and a leadership textbook unlike any other. Learn and laugh with AlBaraa as he acquires the secret of being an effective leader from a stubborn flock of sheep.