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

Enjoyed this read. Some solid words of wisdom on leadership and work ethic in general. Great behind the scenes look into some huge acquisitions: Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Fox. The appendix wraps with 6 pages of leadership principles that are discussed throughout the book. Regardless of your employment position there's something in here for you from one of the biggest and most celebrated brands in modern history.

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.

This is a fabulous book!Not only is it: “Lessons learned from 15 years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company”, it is his underlying philosophy which stood him well. And it includes the background of what was going on so you get the full flavor of the situation. Also, and extremely important, is the very human emotions (that we all have, but some people are able to delude themselves to believe that they don’t) that he had during several of the very stressful situations that he encountered.The book cover lists the eight “principles that are necessary for true leadership” and the book explores and documents how these principles guided him.For example, “thoroughness” is well illustrated in the preface, on pages x through xiv. On these pages are described the events, emotions, concern for his employees safety and well-coordinated efforts of the Disney World staff when a mass murder occurred June 12, 1998, just 15 miles from Disney World. In particular, when it was discovered that the original target of the mass murderer, was Disney World.“Focus” which also includes “find another way” was displayed on pages 18 & 19 when the 1979 World Table Tennis Championship would be held in North Korea, which was under “strict U.S. sanctions against doing any business with North Korea.” This was while he worked for ABC Sports and long before Iger worked at Disney. Robert Iger found a legal way to ENTER North Koreaand cover this sporting event.“Integrity” is illustrated one pages 19 & 20 where he failed to get coverage of a major sports event and the next morning, the boss (Mr. Roone) asked, “Who was at fault?”. Bob Iger raised his hand and you can read what happened on page 20.“Courage” on page 34 was displayed while he was still at ABC Sports when he was offered a significant promotion and he objected, saying “I don’t know that part of the business.” Those offering the position to him said, “You’ll be great.” And he was.He takes you through the mechanics of his success and the emotions and self-control including when on, pages xiv through xix also he relates that in Shanghai China, the night before Disney to open the Disney theme park and escort high Chinese officials through parts of the park and also meet with the press, Robert Iger was told that an alligator had attacked a child at Disney World. Read how he handled himself and how he and his staff handled this tragedy of the alligator attack and the good front he made in front of his Shanghai guests.There are more than 200 pages in the book. I hope you enjoy it and learn from it.I enjoyed this book as I continued to discover how his intelligence, integrity and very human philosophy, carried him to his success and how he handled setbacks.

As a business executive, I appreciate Iger’s candidness in The Ride of a Lifetime. The book contains many fascinating details about Iger’s career. Let’s remember that Iger succeeded Michael Eisner as Disney’s CEO. His tenure was characterized by a very active and transcendent M&A agenda that expanded the concept of what Dinsey is. Iger bought Pixar, Lucas Entertainment and Marvel. Perhaps the most memorable parts of the book are about these deals, their “behind-the-scenes”, and about the partnership with Steve Jobs.Iger also avoided to fall into the boisterous bravado of some business leaders, which sometimes try to tell their story as the most important business story of the century. Iger comes out as objective and humane.I recommend this book.

This is not an autobiography! I actually hate those books. This is written almost as a business leadership book. There are lots of great stories about success and failures, good leadership and bad. And as a Disney fan myself, it’s really cool to tie these stories back to the Disney Company. It can also be enjoyed as a modern history of the company as well. The insider perspective really shines some perspective into decisions made back then. Overall, it’s a pretty easy read and it’s hard to put down. I really enjoyed this read!

Couldn't put the book down. And it has a list of key points at the end of the book, which is a tremendous value and reminder of the messages throughout the book. Excellent reading. I would recommend this to others.

Excelente libro, gran ejemplo de lider en empresas, valentia, team work, liderazgo. Robert es un gran lider de nuestra epoca, vale toda la pena leer y aprender de sus aventuras.

Easy to understand- and super logical way of thinking. Thank you Bob for this wonderful book! I learned a lot from you.

Interesting histories about Disney CEO, how he got to this position and projects he led, even with Steve Jobs

If you wish to be one day CEO or any other high position then read this book. There is so much backstabbing, no private life and constant worry that it makes you rethink if you really want to give your life to some company. No, thank you! But book was good, well written and interesting!