Subtitle: A career story that is hard to imagine.
Like many other programmers, I never developed the habit of writing documentation. I like to draw diagrams, take notes, and write pages of bullet points. However, I also enjoy reading. I take lots of notes on every book I read, and all those notes have piled up over the years. I’ve never thrown them away, so it seems the only thing to do with these pieces of writing is to put them into essays, and then they will live forever.
To explain, I don’t take notes to summarize the books I read. Instead, I am always looking for things, ideas, or twists that surprise or inspire me. Sometimes, I write more about my own thinking rather than what the author says. As a result, my book recommendations may not seem like the typical reviews found online.
At the top of my pile of notes are five pages of comments about a recent book I read, The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger, the Walt Disney Company’s former CEO. The memoir describes Iger’s personal journey of climbing the corporate ladder and successfully leading a massive media company for 15 years. Through his many candid stories of emotional and challenging decisions, Iger tells an exciting story about his career. Along the way, he shares the lessons he learned and many untold stories behind Disney’s successful acquisition of Pixar, Lucasfilm (Star War), Marvel, and a big part of 21st Century Fox.
It’s a memoir full of leadership lessons. What really sticks with me is Iger’s description of a humble guy who worked for the same company for 45 years, had 20 jobs, and 14 bosses, and who started at the bottom and rose to the top as the CEO of a well-established brand.
That sounds nearly impossible!
To make this happen, Iger’s book makes me realize that you need to nurture your ambition to move up but not to let it get too far ahead of the opportunity. Such high goals take true integrity—you must always know who you are and maintain a sense of right and wrong. More importantly, you need to step up at the right moment, helping those who think they know you to look to the future instead of the past. It’s easy to get caught up in personal emotions or rumor mills if you stay in a workplace for a long time. This is particularly true for Iger in Hollywood. You can easily get overwhelmed by the glamour or critics and lose all perspective.
Iger’s story is full of reflections about his journey. The most noticeable development I recognized during his transition from employee to leader was his growing focus on people. At the beginning of his career, Iger worked for a top-notch sports producer who chased product perfection and demanded the best out of his team. They are bold and relentless. They stretch and score until it stops.
This reminds me of my own story. I worked for leaders who are obsessed with product success. They were willing to push through all organization boundaries, challenge everyone surrounding them and demand full commitment from every team member. The experience of working for such a demanding leader is often rewarding afterwards and reveals potential you never imagined before. However, a leader like this often comes with ego and lack of empathy. As Iger earns promotions, he recognizes the power of respect, saying, “If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real,” He shares stories about interactions with his ex-boss Roonie Arledge, Steve Jobs, George Lucas, and many others to clarify his insights about people.
I read reviews online that criticized Iger for being more like a politician rather than an entrepreneur, but I completely disagree. I find him capable of keeping his ego in check as he works to align his people on the strategies and priorities he has identified. That’s real leadership. You don’t need to have the right answer yourself, as long as you find the right people to come up the right answer.
The strategies Iger developed during his bid to become Disney’s CEO were extremely visionary. They included three main priorities: 1) own and create high-quality branded content; 2) embrace technology to the fullest extent; and 3) become a truly global company. These ideas seem obvious when we look back now, but without Iger’s vision, Disney would not be where it is today. The company owns some of the most popular brands in content, such as Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel. The company’s video streaming service, Disney+, is also a big success with 54.5 million subscribers, but it was considered a bold move for Disney at the time.
“One of the things I’ve always instinctively felt—and something that was greatly reinforced working for people like Ronne and Michael—is that long shots aren’t usually as long as they seem.”
Iger’s quote from the book stays with me.
Overall, The Ride of a Lifetime is a fascinating memoir, and I wish it would have been longer. There are many great quotes and dramatic stories that center around historical moments. It will certainly interest people who like to read about the history of tech and media.