Autobiographies of business leaders are a bit different from the autobiographies of political leaders or scientists or economists in the sense that business leaders often narrate their experiences and give you a formulae and nuances of business that led to their success for business leaders in waiting, such is usually not the case otherwise. It is also observed that there is eagerness in such successful leaders to see a new crop of leaders that doesn't make the same mistakes as they did..although the formulae for success may not get repeated they can refrain from making "silly" mistakes that had blocked the road for them.
I often found business autobiographies interesting not sure how much I learnt from them because just reading and understanding them didn't turn me into a globally recognised business leader. Some of the interesting ones in the past were " My years with General Motors" by Alfred Sloan, "Iacocca, an autobiography" by Lee Iacocca, "Odyssey: From Pepsi to Apple" by John Sculley etc.
In late October I was listening to a CNN interview of Robert Iger, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company in which he was talking about his forthcoming book " The Ride of a Lifetime". The interview, his persona and the subject was so interesting that soon after the interview I decided to pre-order the book that was yet to be launched and couldn't lay my eyes off from start to finish when the book arrived a couple of weeks later. This was perhaps the first autobiography that I was in a rush to read that was not recommended by a friend, and I was not disappointed.
Bob Iger who comes from a humble background kept getting opportunities initially by chance and later by his hardwork, sincerity, guts to take risky decisions and defended them and put his life at risk to make them succeed. It's rare that an officer of a company that gets acquired gets a chance to run the merged entity and it's even rare that this phenomenon gets repeated.
Often successful leaders don't talk much about their mentors who have not been successful themselves but Bob Iger keeps describing and giving credits for his success to his mentors, who not necessarily were at a higher position than himself, throughout his working life ( by the way he is still the CEO of Walt Disney and has some more steam to demonstrate)
This book is quite an inspiration for not just corporate executives but also anyone who wants to understand the meaning of success in any walks of life. He describes the lessons to be learned that are gems of his life, as follows:
a) to tell great stories, you need great talent.
b) innovate or die. There can be no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new.
c) the relentless pursuit of perfection.
d) take responsibility when you screw up.
e) be decent to people.
f) excellence and fairness don't have to be exclusive.
g) true integrity is a kind of secret leadership weapon.
h) value ability more than experience.
i) ask the questions you need to ask, admit without apology what you don't understand.
j) managing creativity is an art, not a science.
k) don't start negatively.
l) don't be in the busines of " playing it safe".
m) don't let ambition get ahead of opportunity.
n) micromanaging is underrated, sweat for the details.
o) pessimism leads to paranoia, which leads to defensiveness, which leads to risk aversion.
p) if something doesn't feel right to you, it won't be right for you.
q) in any negotiation, be clear about where you stand from the beginning.
r) projecting your anxiety onto your team is counterproductive.
s) if you are in business of making something, be in the business of making something great.
You will get to learn more such pearl's of success when you read the book.
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