MBA1543 Must Read: The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Allen Iger

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Hey O welcome to the $100r show business lessons on the Daily Every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online and Today's Episode is a Must Read Episode on our Must Read Episodes. I share with you a book that I've read that has influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways, its insights and why you should read it too. Today's Must Read is the Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Allen Iger Robert Allen iger was the CEO of the Walt Disney Company for 15 years from 2005 to 2020 and this book details his journey to the top of that organization from his early days at ABC, which is owned by Disney, to his 15 year run as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. Now, Robert Alleniger. He's not perfect and he admits this at the beginning of the book. But the point of the book is to show his imperfections and show you the things he learned through the mistakes he made along the way. That's what I want to share with you in today's Must Read. Also, some of the great insights and quotes that really resonated with me and how they can help you and your business today. Disney, especially in the last 15 years, has done incredibly well. They've become the standard for customer support and experience. They've become a media juggernaut, purchasing Pixar, Marvel and Star wars, and of course, the launch of Disney, recently competing with Netflix. This is all under the leadership of our author for today's must read, Robert Allen Iger. I'm going to share with you my favorite parts of this book, my favorite lessons, the things that surprised me, and why you should read it as well. Can't wait to get into this one. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Disney as a company and the experience they create for their customers, whether it's in their theme parks or through their movies or their merchandise, have really interested me for years, really since the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. They're often used as an example for those traits, for those experiences, for customer satisfaction. At the start of the book, Robert Iger actually tells you who would really benefit from this book. He says, if you run a business or manage a team or collaborate with others in pursuit of a common goal, this book might be helpful to you. And it's really true. He shares a lot of great insights from his experiences. And throughout today's lesson, I'm going to be sharing with you some quotes that really encapsulates the lessons that I learned. Quotes directly from the book, and I'll start with this quote. Do what you need to do to make it better. One of the early themes in this book is the idea of striving for perfection, is trying to make things better every single time you work on it. Making your product better, making your experience better, and figuring out how to get through obstacles to make it happen, to do what you need to do. And there's always going to be obstacles, whether you're a small business or a big business like Disney. One of my favorite things about this book is that it starts out with a great prologue. It actually throws you in recent history where Bob is actually opening up Shanghai, Disneyland, which is a huge project that cost him billions of dollars and a decade of work. And he's cutting the ribbon in a few days. In those few days, the amount of problems and issues and dramas he's got to deal with from all parts of his responsibilities as CEO, things going on back in the States, things going on in China, things happen at the theme parks. It's absolute mayhem. And you realize how much responsibility is on his shoulders and what real problems look like. In business and what you have to do in terms of managing these problems, how are you going to stay calm and take care of it? So it kind of throws you into, like, almost like an action scene in a movie. And not only is he dealing with problems, he's actually doing a lot of things to just do his job, like, do work. He. He's plotting a growth strategy with investors. He's looking at the design of a new theme park with great attractions and imagineers. He's giving notes on a rough cut of a film. He's discussing security measures and ticket pricing and pay scale. You're almost, like, physically exhausted for him after reading just the first few pages. But I like the way the book starts because it gives you a reality check. This is what it looks like to be a CEO of a company like Disney. He's not just on a private jet, sipping some cocktail, pre screening some Disney movies. No, the dude is stressed and he doesn't hide it. And I love the fact that they give you a reality check at the start. This is what success looks like. Okay, yes, he has earned a lot of money. He's earned a lot of respect, but this is what his life looks like. Immediately from that opening chapter, which is like, again, like an action sequence, he jumps into the past, the beginning of his journey working for abc. And basically he is an assistant, an assistant producer on a set. He's working in sports. So he literally started from the bottom. And he really learned a lot along the way. During each year, he moved up in the company. And the book keeps you along on the journey, on the ride. One of the things that Robert does in the book is that he kind of pauses and he actually teaches you some lessons about the things he's learned along the way, whether it's through the leaders he worked for or the things he experienced as a leader himself. And he has a list of the top 10 principles necessary for true leadership. And I love these principles because if you don't do these things on the regular all the time, you're asking for trouble. You are asking for trouble from your company and from the people that work for you. So I'm gonna go through these ten principles really quickly. Number one is optimism. Number two is courage. Three, focus. Four, decisiveness. Five, curiosity. Number six, fairness. Seven, thoughtfulness. Eight, authenticity. Nine, the relentless pursuit of perfection. And ten, integrity. I actually think these are really, really good principles to go by as a leader of any company, big or small. It's even worth writing down these 10 and posting them on a post. It Note or on your wall next to your computer and asking yourself every morning or meeting you do with your team, am I exercising these principles? And I find it very interesting. He explains in the book why Optimism Is number one. He says, in order to be a great leader, you have to be a pragmatic, enthusiastic person. These people are not motivated or energized by pessimists. Your job as a leader is to lead, to inspire, to get people on board. That's how people take action. And sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we allow our mood, which might not be perfect at every given moment, seep into our meeting, seep into our communication with our team. It's our job to make sure we're always optimistic and positive in front of our team. Chapter one is a big chapter. It goes into detail, starting from the bottom and those 10 principles I just shared. Chapter two is a short one. It's about betting on talent and understanding who you are and really believing in yourself. Chapter three is all about knowing what you don't know, understanding you don't know it all. You need help. You need to understand. You need to seek guidance. It's not a weakness to say, I need help or I don't understand. And I love that. He outlines this in chapter three, and the book goes on and on with other chapters as he moves on from ABC to Disney, when he moves up the ranks and becomes second in line. But about midway through the book, chapter eight, he talks about the power of respect. This is a great chapter. Understanding that people need to feel respected. If you can give them that, you can meet them halfway. You can negotiate, you can get what you need out of the situation. Robert didn't have the best relationship with Roy Disney. He really felt like they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. They disagreed, but he learned to bury the hatchet and respect him for his legacy and the legacy, of course, of Walt. He also learned how to salvage relationships, like with Steve Jobs from Pixar, because eventually they bought Pixar from Steve Jobs. And also understanding he's got to respect the people that are in place in the company before he needs to start strategizing on how to change things in the company. Here's a great book from the book. He says, don't let your ego get in the way of making the best possible decision. Sometimes we let emotion get into it, and I don't like that when that happens, I'm talking about myself. You got to be rational. You got to make sure that you're not doing things to protect your ego, you got to do what's best for the company. I always got to see your company as an individual, as another person, like a child. What's best for the company? Not for you.

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It feels good to save big. It feels good to Geico. The ride of a lifetime then goes on and with chapters on explaining how they acquired Pixar and Star wars and all that negotiation, how they are able to do that. And he also talks about how they acquired Fox from Robert Murdoch. I personally found the first eight chapters of the book the most powerful. It was okay the the other following chapters. The last chapter is also very good which talks about core values, the core values of Disney and the core values of Robert himself. But one of my favorite parts of the books is the appendix Lessons to lead by. And he has some really great tips here about how to be a great leader. Like to tell great stories. You need to have great talent. Innovate or die. Take responsibility when you screw up. Be decent to people. Be comfortable with failure. Managing creativity is an R, not a science. Allowing time in your day for your mind to wander and be creative and much, much more. Guys, I really enjoyed today's must read book the Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Allen Iger. It's a little bit of a long read, but I thought it was well worth the read. I learned a lot. He's very humble in the book. His tone is very, very welcoming to the reader. It's also very calming and it really gave you a snapshot of what life really is like for somebody to be where he was as the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world, the journey to get there, as well as the reality of that job. So many lessons learned. I highly recommend you pick up this book, Today's Must Read the Rite of a Lifetime by Robert Allen Iger. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe right now. By hitting subscribe on whatever app you like to use, whether it's Spotify or Stitcher Radio or Apple Podcasts, you'll get our next episode automatically so you don't have to search for it. It's right there on your device. Also, by hitting subscribe you get access to over 1500 business lessons in our archives. It's the only way to get access to our archives. So hit subscribe right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I've said this so many times on this podcast, but I want to say it again. One of the best things you can do as an entrepreneur is read the biographies of other entrepreneurs. Learning what it takes to to become successful is a great use of your time. Understanding who you got to become, the things you got to do, the things you have to correct in yourself. The perspective is priceless that you get from these types of books. So highly recommend you check them out and I'll check you out tomorrow. I'll see you in tomorrow's episode. Until then, take care. Foreign.

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