I got this audiobook after it was recommended by Ali Abdaal (1) and Bill Gates (2), two people I have great respect for. Iger’s book certainly lived up to the recommendations- it is excellently written, entertaining, captivating and most of all, teaches some great lessons about business, life and leadership that profoundly impacted me. Here, I wanted to share my thoughts on the book, explore what I took from reading it and how I will apply the lessons into my own life. At the end of my review, I have attached the notes I took from the book if you’re interested.
Robert Iger is an American businessman who is executive chairman and ex-CEO of the Walt Disney company. He took over as CEO in 2005 and stepped down last year after an highly succesful tenure- Iger oversaw the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm and many others as well as expanding the company’s theme parks in Asia. In the book, Iger runs through his life experiences and shares the lessons he learnt over his career.
Some of the key lessons I took from Iger’s work were as follows:
(1) The concept of ‘innovate or die’. This refers to the practice of constant innovation and adapting to changes in the world to keep your business or product relevant and successful. It appears to be one of Iger’s guiding principles and helped him to make several key decisions as CEO of Disney.
(2) The value of integrity and core values– Iger clearly holds some fundamental values that will not change for anything; including respect, optimism, fariness and authenticity. He explains that having these underlying values is like a ‘secret weapon in leadership’ as the company you lead will reflect your values. On integrity, Iger says ‘The way you do anything is the way you do everything.’
(3) The importance of failure. Iger says that ‘creativity is impossible without failure’. I definitely agree with him here- so often in school we are taught that failure is terrible and we should avoid it as much as possible, but in actuality, failing is how we learn and explore new ideas. This is a concept I really want to integrate into my creative work in the future.
(4) On decision-making, Iger says ‘If something doesn’t feel right to you, it probably isn’t right for you’. This is something I want to keep in my head over the next few years as I make decisions about what I do post-6th form and the future in general.
(5) The importance of being humble: Be humble and hold on to your awareness of yourself’. Despite Iger’s high-flying corporate lifestyle, he still recognises the importance of family and where he came from. This is definitely something I want to remember in later life.
As a standalone book, the Ride of a Lifetime was excellent. It is short, readable, entertaining- and most of all it was compelling. Iger shows you the inner-workings of the company and intersperses this with valuable insights which are widely applicable across many fields of life. 5*
Book Notes and Insights
Prologue
- Look at bad news as a problem to be solved instead of something happening to you
- Trust in your systems during bad times
- In the corporate world, you become inclined to give legalistic, corporate answers to people- but when speaking to Matt Graves (his 2 year old son was eaten by an aligator), this became irrelevant
- This book is about a set of principles to help nurture the good and manage the bad
Qualities of good leaders:
- Optimism- people aren’t motivated by pessimists
- Courage- risk taking and innovation is essential in business. Fear of failure destroys creativity
- Focus- allocate time/resources/ energy to things of highest importance. Communicate priorities
- Decisiveness- collect diverse opinions, need to make decisions in a timely way.
- Curiosity- enables discovery of new people, places, ideas. Path to innovation begins with curiosity
- Fairness- need to treat people fairly. Empathy/accessibility is essential. Give people 2nd chances for honest mistakes
- Thoughtfulness- gain knowledge to improve decision making
- Authenticity- be truthful
- Pursuit of perfection- refusal to accept mediocrity or making excuses for something being good enough. If something can be done better, do it. If you make things, make things great.
- Integrity- high ethical standards. The way you do anything is the way you do everything
Part 1: Learning
Chapter 1: Starting at the bottom
- Woke up early to get more hours in (4:15)- think/read/exercise
- Became an avid reader as a teen
- Discussed world events over dinner
- Liked seeing how things worked and taking things apart
- Never worried about the future/about failure
- Had several jobs in his teens
- B/A student- academics was never his passion
- He was determined to learn and to not be disappointed in later life
- Being a weatherman taught him to give bad news
- Started career at ABC in 1974 as studio supervisor
- Learned work ethic through long hours at ABC
- Travelling experience- went to the developing world (communist countries) and seeing how they lived
- Idea of ‘innovate or die’
- ‘Do what you need to do to make it better’
- The relentless pursuit of perfection
- Japanese concept of ‘kaizen’
- Instinct towards perfection combined with work ethic
- Take responsibility when you mess up
- Hear people out, be emotionally consistent and give 2nd chances for honest mistakes
- When it came down to it, he could outwork anyone else
- Excellence and fairness do not have to be mutually exclusive
Chapter 2: Betting on Talent
- Genuine decency and competitiveness are not mutually exclusive
- True integrity- knowing who you are and following internal values is a secret weapon
- Decentralised corporate structure- hire smart and hardworking people and put them in high positions, then allow them autonomy
- Events cancelled at Olympic Winter Games- need optimism and look at situation as a puzzle
- Stay focused and exude calmness
- He said yes to every opportunity
- Do things which you are unfamiliar with
- Value ability over experience
- If you don’t choose the most adventurous path, you’re not really living
Chapter 3: Know what you don’t know
- Be humble and keep learning
- Do not fake knowledge you do not possess
- Own your own failures and be comfortable with them
Chapter 4: Enter Disney
- Disney had a very centralised corporate structure- different to ABC
- Do not put resources and time into projects that will not give you much in return
- Managing your own time and respecting others’ time is one of the most important qualities of management
- If you’re not sure about something, ask yourself what’s the problem, does your solution make sense, why is there doubt, what are the reasons for this?
Chapter 5: Second in Line
- As a leader, you should nurture those with ambition, as long as it doesn’t distract from their current role
- You can’t let ambition get the better of opportunity (ambition can be counterproductive)
- Do the job you do well and be patient
- Look for opportunities to pitch in, expand and grow- make yourself one of the people through attitude, energy and focus that your bosses feel they have to turn to when an opportunity arises.
- As a boss, these are the people to nurture. The ones who are proving to be indispensable day in day out.
- Work hard to absorb as much as you can
- Good leadership is about preparing people to step into your shoes, giving them access to your decision making, helping them improve and being honest with them about where they are in their careers
- Disney did not have an international structure- Disney International was created and he was made chairman
Chapter 6: Good things can happen
- The struggles of Michael Eisener in his last years as Disney CEO
Chapter 7: It’s about the Future
- Leaders need to have clear priorities and be focused on them
- CEOs should provide the company with a roadmap
Bob’s priorities:
- Heavy investment into content
- Embrace technology to make the company more relevant
- Make the company more international
- Stay calm under public scrutiny (do not let those who don’t know you get to you)
- Became CEO of Disney in 2005
Part 2: Leading
Chapter 8: The power of respect
- Don’t let your ego get in the way of making the best possible decision
- A little respect goes a long way, and it ultimately costs very little
Chapter 9: Disney-Pixar and a new path to the future
- Decisions you make should have long term value
- Long shots are not as long as they first appear
- Do not allow negatives to drown out the positives for things you want to accomplish
Chapter 10: Marvel and Massive risks that make perfect sense
- Surround yourself with people who are good as well as being good at what they do
- Demand honesty and integrity from everyone
- Old preconceptions are just that- old and out of date
Chapter 11: Star Wars
- In negotiations, be clear about where you stand from the start
- Each deal he made depended on building trust with controlling entities
Chapter 12: If you don’t innovate, you die
- If something doesn’t feel right to you, it probably isn’t right for you
- Be there for your people during times of change
Chapter 13: No price on Integrity
- There is nothing more important than the quality and integrity of your people and your product
- Everything else depends on this
Chapter 14: Core Values
- Wherever you are along the path, you are the same person you have always been
Appendix: Lessons to Lead by
- To tell great stories, you need great talent
- Innovate or die
- The relentless pursuit of perfection- creating an environment in which people refuse to accept mediocrity (it’s good enough)
- Take responsibility when you screw up- you will be more respected, it is ok to get things wrong sometimes as long as you learn from them
- Treat people with respect and decency
- Excellence and fairness do not have to be mutually exclusive
- True integrity- a sense of integrity and being guided by internal moral values- is a secret weapon in leadership. If you trust your instincts and value people, the company will reflect your values
- Value ability more than experience- put people in roles that demand more of them than they know exists
- Ask the questions you need to ask, admit you don’t understand without apology and do the work you need to do as quickly as you can
- Managing creativity is an art, not a science. When giving feedback, respect how much effort has gone into it from their side
- Don’t start negatively, don’t start small. People will focus on little details as a way of showing they don’t have a greater vision for the company
- Be comfortable with failure- creativity is impossible without failure
- Don’t play it safe, be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness
- Do not let ambition get in front of opportunity. Do the job you have well
- Do not invest in small projects that won’t give you much back
- When the people at the top of a company have a dysfunctional relationship, it affects the rest of the company
- If you don’t do the work, the people around you are going to know. You have to be attentive
- Do not cling to the notion that you are indispensable
- A company’s reputation is the sum of the integrity of its people and the quality of its products
- Micromanaging can be good, to an extent
- Be bold to face the changes coming
- Do not communicate pessimism to colleagues. Pessimnism- paraonia- defensivenss- risk aversion
- Optimism emerges from having faith in yourself and colleagues
- Long shots are usually not as long as they same
- Convey your priorities clearly and articulately
- You can do a lot for morale by taking the guesswork out of their days
- Technological advancements will make old business models obsolete. It is about the future, not the past
- You need to be optimistic when your ego is on the line
- Treat people with respect
- Be prepared when making big decisions
- If something doesn’t feel right to you, it probably isn’t right for you
- In a creative business, the people are the value
- As a leader, you embody the business
- Be direct when delivering bad news
- When hiring, surround yourself with people who are good as well as being good at what you do
- Be clear about where you stand in negotiation
- Projecting your anxiety onto your team is counter-productive
- Most deals are personal, especially with something someone has created
- If you’re in the business of making something, be in the business of making things great
- Do not hold power for too long
- Be humble and hold on to your awareness of yourself
Credits:
The book: The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger
(1) Ali Abdaal- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w47z_wz6XBA
(2) Bill Gates- https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Ride-of-a-Lifetime
Image credits: https://ericlbarnes.com/2020/03/05/the-ride-of-a-lifetime-by-robert-iger/
Hi Harry – interesting reflections thanks. I don’t read much non fiction so it’s helpful to have a summary of the main points! Lots of useful stuff – sounds like you really enjoyed the book.