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.

(81)