The Ride Of A Lifetime

Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. He shares the lessons learned as he successfully reinvented the company by focusing on three clear ideas:

1. create the highest quality content Disney could produce
2. embrace and adopt technology instead of fighting it
3. think bigger - think global - and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets.

Favorite quotes from the book:

The way you do anything is the way you do everything.

Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested.

You can’t rase your mistakes or pin your bad decisions on someone else. You have to own your own failures. You earn as much respect and goodwill by standing by someone in the wake of a failure as you do by giving them credit for a success.

At its essence, good leadership isn’t about being indispensable, it’s about helping others be prepared to possibly step into your shoes - giving them access to your own decision making, identifying the skills they need to develop and helping them improve, and, as I’ve had to do, sometimes being honest with them about why they’re not ready for the next step up.

Don’t let your ego get in the way of making the best possible decision.

People sometimes shy away from taking big swings because they assess the odds and build a case against trying something before they even take the first step.

Surround yourself with people who are good in addition to being good at what they do.

The moment you start to believe it all too much, the moment you look yourself in the mirror and see a title emblazoned on your forehead, you’ve lost your way.