Master Of The Universe

Anyone who believes in handwriting analysis should consider the case of Jean-Marie Messier. As a cash-strapped student in the late 1970s, Messier applied to the French oil company Total for a scholarship to Harvard Business School. But, as Messier tells it in his 2000 autobiography, j6m.com, one look at his cramped script convinced the company's experts that the young man "lacked the necessary drive and ambition" to make it in the rugged world of international business. Messier never got to Harvard, but he did go on to become France's most celebrated CEO, a major global entrepreneur and — in the language...