The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

The subtitle of this book promises “Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO Of the Walt Disney Company.” You’ll get those, but there’s a lot more. The lessons learned go all the way back to Bob Iger’s childhood and his time at college. They include his time at ABC, which began in 1974. In other words, there’s a lot more to this book than the title would imply, and the title implies a lot. Bob Iger shares his goal for the book in the Prologue. “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. My experiences from day one have all been in the media and entertainment world, but these strike me as universal ideas: about fostering risk taking and creativity; about building a culture of trust; about fueling a deep and abiding curiosity in oneself and inspiring that in the people around you; about embracing change rather than living in denial of it; and about operating, always, with integrity and honesty in the world, even when that means facing things that are difficult to face.”There’s a lot for you in this book, if you’re a leader, someone responsible for the performance of a group. You’ll learn some lessons by reading Iger’s story. Other lessons are written out more explicitly. It’s a great combination.You get to watch Bob Iger develop. His core values stay essentially the same as his skills develop and his challenges increase. He learns from many mentors. He takes good things from each one and gives them all credit. The story makes it all easy and compelling reading. And he shares explicit lessons in two places in the book. Iger sketches “10 principles that strike me as necessary to true leadership” in the Prologue. After the end of the book, there’s a section titled “Lessons to Lead By.” This is a great book. You will learn from the story and from Bob Iger’s life and example. And you’ll learn from explicit lessons that he lays out. I highlight interesting things and important learnings in every book that I read. Good books have lots of highlights. Great books have mind-jarring highlights. They’re the kind where you stop reading the book, put it down, and ponder what you just read. There was at least one mind-jarring highlight for me in every chapter. Bottom LineIf you’re a leader or you want to be, buy The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO Of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger and read it. You’ll absorb lessons from the interesting story that is Bob Iger’s life. You’ll also learn from the explicit lessons.

I usually start my reviews from the CONs, but there is little to be choosy about here.The only drawback is there are not a lot of business lessons in the book. It's a great read, but I have only 11 highlights and notes. So, I didn't learn a lot.Oh, and despite all the challenges, the whole story felt a bit lukewarm. Maybe Mr. Iger always calls every a**hole a "strong personality", or maybe he is just nice to the core? Well, it didn't feel very authentic.On the other hand, maybe the life in the 0.01% earners in the world is so nice, how would I know?PROS1. Great Read."The Ride of a Lifetime" reads amazingly well. I wolfed it.It reads like a fast-paced thriller, but a one that actually happened and described from the first-person perspective.My guess is Mr. Inger had a world-class ghostwriter ;) If not, then hats off to him; he would probably made more money as a writer than the CEO of Disney.I haven't enjoyed a book to this degree in a long time. I read it like I read the best fiction- almost in one sitting, and putting my whole life on hold to finish the book.2. A Sneak-Peek into the Billion-Dollar World.I've lived on this planet over 41 years and I haven't bumped yet into a person who earns billions of dollars, or the one who signs billion-dollar deals. This book was my next-to-best experience.I appreciate the author let me into his world and showed me around a bit. Steve Jobs, George Lucas... Now, I feel like I interacted with them.3. Business Lessons."The Ride of a Lifetime" reads as a thriller, sprinkles some celebrity's names along the way, but it still is a business book.My takeaways were few and far between, yet each time they were significant. Let's go over a few of them:"Don't let your ego get in the way of making the best possible decisions."We are emotional beings and most of emotions are related to our ego. It's enough to just take a step back and assess the situation to notice extraordinary solutions.It applies as to life decisions as aptly as to business decisions."Long shots aren't usually as long as they seem."You never know till you try. NEVER!"What people think of you, they will think of your company."It was the hurdle between Disney and Pixar in the first place. The two CEOs didn't think of themselves too high. So, there was no space for doing business. The shift of the relationship was possible only with the personal changes."Each deal depended on building trust with a single controlling entity."Well, in plain English: with a single person. Relationships are paramount in business. In fact, it's the 80% of the business. And the fabric of each relationship is always the mutual trust.And a couple of lessons from between the lines:1. "Stay humble; be persistent."Just being humble and making decisions with a clear head would've been worthless without perseverance. The grit of Robert Inger demonstrated throughout his career is simply superb.2. "Emotions, emotions, emotions."When the author described the biggest deals which build the power of Disney as it is now (Pixar, Marvel, LucasArts), he was all about navigating the emotions of the other man. There are some business considerations sprinkled over his narration, but the main thing was always considering the other person's emotions.LucasArts was the legacy for George Lucas. It couldn't be treat as a common business decision. Yes, Inger had to consider the financial aspect, but even the price Lucas obtained was the result of how much George identified with his universe than an effect of logical calculations.Once Robert built a rapport with Steve, the deal between Pixar and Disney was almost seamless.Emotions are paramount, too.Summary"The Ride of a Lifetime" is a fascinating read AND you can learn something from it in the by-the-way manner.The insight into the lives of the most powerful people in the world was an icing on the cake.During my lecture, I really liked the author as a person. Reading his story I appreciated how he found a balance between remaining a human being and becoming the top corpo official at the same time.

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger offers invaluable insights into leadership, business strategy, and personal growth. Robert Iger shares the lessons he learned over his 15 years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at how he led Disney through incredible challenges and transformed the company into the entertainment giant it is today.What I found most inspiring was Iger’s emphasis on the importance of innovation, integrity, and trust in leadership. He reveals how staying true to your values and taking calculated risks can lead to monumental success. The book is filled with personal stories and practical advice that can be applied in any leadership role, whether in business or other fields.The Ride of a Lifetime is a must-read for anyone interested in leadership, business strategy, or the entertainment industry.

It’s really easy for someone in their early career to see CEOs as figments of the imagination, like Big Brother at your current role. Reading this book brought a completely different perspective to how one moves through their career, balances life, and does so without losing their sense of self. It was a somewhat inspiring read! Interesting to see how this new era of Disney played out on the backend and what motivated them to do so.

This book was such a fascinating and interesting story its hard not to recommend. If you like Disney at all or business from an executive perspective, this book is very much worth getting. Highly entertaining and very intersting.