The ride of a lifetime ebook

Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and he is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our era. Even in the face of difficulty, an optimistic leader will find the path toward the best possible outcome and focus on that, rather than give in to pessimism and blaming.

Leaders have to be willing to take risks and place big bets. Fear of failure destroys creativity. All decisions, no matter how difficult, can be made on a timely basis. Indecisiveness is both wasteful and destructive to morale.

Treat people decently, with empathy, and be accessible to them. Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jan 24, Kobe Bryant rated it really liked it Shelves: big-ideas. Jun 16, Ali Abdaal rated it it was amazing. Finished it in 2 days. Made me tear up in many parts. A few highlights: - Wakes up at - Good enough isn't good enough - If you want innovation, you can't be afraid of failure - 'The way they conveyed their faith in me made all the difference' - Great is often the result of the - Can't recommend this highly enough - Listened to this at 2.

A few highlights: - Wakes up at - Good enough isn't good enough - If you want innovation, you can't be afraid of failure - 'The way they conveyed their faith in me made all the difference' - Great is often the result of the little things - No one wants to follow a pessimist - To continue to create the same things for the same loyal customers is stagnation - Its important not to let blows to the ego as real as they often are from occupying too great a space in your mind and sapping too much of your energy.

It's easy to be optimistic when everyone's telling you you're great. It's a lot harder, and much more necessary, when your sense of self is being challenged, and in a very public way. View all 16 comments. Sep 28, John Katsanakis rated it it was amazing. I really enjoyed how candid Iger chose to be here.

Not a lot of sugarcoating at all. The narratives of the Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm acquisitions were all fascinating. View 1 comment. Nov 02, Vaidotas Juknys rated it liked it. Interesting but somewhat shallow read. This book is an autobiographical victory lap Iger wrote about his career. He frames the book as a set of leadership lessons with the focus of the book being his work at Disney. However, I found the book be underwhelming on a more personal side. For an autobiography there seems Interesting but somewhat shallow read.

For an autobiography there seems to be a surprising lack of openness. And at the times he did offer candidness it felt more like calculated PR than true honesty. He has a full chapter about firing of Roseanne due racists tweets. Iger details on how you must stick to your guns, lead by values and prioritize integrity instead of bottom line. This is all very nice and welcome but it contrasts jarringly Disney's involvement with China as there is a healthy chunk of the book devoted to describe expansion over there with zero mentions of any moral qualms about the censorship China extorts over Disney.

View all 7 comments. Part business lessons, part personal journey, and part the rise of today's dominant entertainment empire, this book is endlessly fascinating and consistently engaging. Chapters such as the acquisition of Pixar are written with the sort of nail-biting edge of your seat intensity that would make thrillers envious.

Who knew board room meetings and phone calls could be so exciting? I think Bob Iger struck the perfect balance of personal and professional. A genuinely interesting and surprising person Part business lessons, part personal journey, and part the rise of today's dominant entertainment empire, this book is endlessly fascinating and consistently engaging. A genuinely interesting and surprising personal touch was his relationship with Steve Jobs, I had no idea how close the two were.

His personal journey chronicling his 45 year rise to the most powerful man in entertainment was also a marvel and came with some valuable insights, lessons and exciting "how will he make this happen" moments. I loved this book and only wish it were longer and even more detailed.

Nov 22, Ross Blocher rated it it was amazing. This is his first, much anticipated book, authored as the more formal "Robert Iger".

He's perceived as a fair and wise decision maker, has made a string of successful large-scale acquisitions, and his thoughts on leadership are naturally relevant. I've seen him speak at studio events, but wanted additional insight into what makes Bob Iger tick.

At the same time, I expected a buttoned up, public-image-friendly narrative that wouldn't reveal much, make headlines or worry shareholders. Any hesitation was curtailed when my boss's boss kindly bought me a copy her boss's boss's boss being Bob , and I started reading right away.

While The Ride of a Lifetime is guarded in many respects, I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging and personal the storytelling was. It starts off with a story of things going terribly wrong. The Pulse Nightclub shooting which had a surprising Disney connection and the death of a child in an alligator attack both happened in Florida as Iger was in China preparing to inaugurate Shanghai Disneyland. This was a project he'd worked on for 18 years, and he shares his conflicted reactions, the organizational structure he'd set up, and how he tried to maintain a sense of humanity and connection from afar.

He then unpacks the pillars of his leadership philosophy: optimism, courage, focus, decisiveness, curiosity, fairness, thoughtfulness, authenticity, the relentless pursuit of perfection, and integrity. None of these sound revolutionary or controversial, but are illustrated as Bob leads you, like the Ghost of Christmas Past, chronologically through his career. Almost the entirety of Bob Iger's work life has been with Disney or companies eventually acquired by Disney.

He has a brief stint as an Ithaca weatherman, but in starts as a factotum at ABC television. He tells memorable stories of working under intense sports TV producers, getting a lighter from Frank Sinatra, covering the winter olympics, seeing a workplace jerk expose himself He eventually rises into the ranks of management, and when ABC is acquired by Capital Cities, he wins the favor of the new owners.

As he shares these stories, he talks about the lessons that have stuck with him, such as the value of taking big risks, accepting blame, rewarding well-intentioned failure, not letting good-enough ever be good enough, and letting acquired companies maintain their culture.

Bob is quickly catapulted a little too quickly, even by his lofty expectations to EVP of the combined companies shortly before they are in turn acquired by Disney under the leadership of Michael Eisner. This sets off a rocky decade as Bob tries to find his place. He advocates for his newly-subsumed division of the juggernaut, and tries to maneuver himself into the number two position under Eisner, who alternately trusts and pushes Iger away, only letting him see certain parts of the whole picture.

Eventually Eisner's leadership begins to falter, the company suffers, and an intense board battle with Roy E. Disney Walt's nephew rocks the company. At this point, the stories gain added interest for me as they overlap with my own outside recollections. I was an animation student in Burbank at the time, and remember meeting Roy and reading his Save Disney website and its bitter missives about the misguided leadership of animation, the parks, merchandising, and the shattered relationship with Pixar.

When the board begins its search for a new CEO, Iger is the only internal candidate. He details the frequent interviews, intense grillings, public scrutiny and press coverage. Bob works hard to focus on his vision for the future without throwing Eisner under the bus or defending his role in the past decade of bad decisions.

Eventually he is chosen as CEO spoiler alert , and sets about acting on his three-part vision for the company: high-quality branded content, embracing technology, and becoming truly global. From this point forward, the book is largely structured by major acquisitions that Iger negotiates and executes.

It's fascinating to contemplate just how much our global business landscape is driven by the personalities and gut feelings of the people at the top. I'm intentionally avoiding the masculine pronoun, but virtually all the players in this story are men. Iger rightly recognizes Animation as the heart of the company, from which all other divisions flow: "As Disney Animation goes, so goes the company.

Steve Jobs ends up on the board, and we learn a lot about their friendship. Next comes the Marvel acquisition Steve didn't like the idea, but acquiesced to Iger's passion. Then Lucasfilm. Then Twentieth Century Fox. For each massive, multi-billion-dollar deal, we learn how the conversation was initiated, how Bob convinced the board, and how he guided the pieces to make something seemingly impossible move inexorably toward reality.

Each could have gone horribly wrong, but ends up as a massive success the Fox acquisition is too fresh to judge, but signs look good.

We are treated to a single counter-example, when Iger gets cold feet about acquiring Twitter. The pieces and approvals are all in place, but his gut tells him Disney isn't in the business of monitoring online communication. Probably another good call. Finally, Bob talks about seeing the writing on the wall with traditional content delivery cable, broadcast and theatrical being subsumed by direct-to-customer streaming. It's a move that will involve cannibalizing some of Disney's own hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars revenue streams, but with a path toward future profitability.

This portion of the book is a peek into the future, and a pitch for the new platform I'd already pre-bought 3 years' access, so mission accomplished.

Iger concludes with a helpful chapter of bullet points in which he extracts the various leadership lessons from the book. To pick a quick example that could double as a Yoda quote: "Pessimism leads to paranoia, which leads to defensiveness, which leads to risk aversion.

It's amazing that people like Bob Iger exist, stepping confidently into roles in which their decisions will influence the careers of thousands and whose taste-making affects the lives of millions.

It's a strangely parallel world to politics, and it's not surprising that Iger admits his own political aspirations, having contemplated a direct run for the presidency. He just happens to have the right combination of intelligence, good looks, self-assurance, and drive to make these kinds of massive deals happen. I'm still not entirely sure where Iger's compass comes from, but I'm glad he has it. There's not a lot about Walt Disney here beyond a stated sense of admiration, but the drive to expand while showcasing the best in art and technology is clearly alive.

Disney as a company has always balanced on the tightrope between creating art and selling product, and has endeavored a proof-of-concept that good money can be made while leaving the world a better, happier place. It's easy to point to instances where the company has fallen short of that goal, but there's a lot it gets right. Iger's legacy furthers that funambulism, measuring success in stock price and shareholder approval while insisting upon quality and integrity.

Right as I was finishing the book, MasterClass announced a new series with Bob Iger on business strategy and leadership. It's a good corollary to this book, and you can hear these same management philosophies outlined, illustrated and told in Bob's own comforting monotone. View all 3 comments.

Feb 19, Whitney rated it it was amazing. Overall: This book is amazing! Not the typical leadership book I expected but an amazing story of perseverance, passion, focus, forward thinking, and drive. So inspiring and well written, and he narrates the audiobook himself. Highly recommend this to all, it is an incredible story and will leave you inspired in more than one way. One of the most important qualities of a good leader is optimism, a pragmatic enthusiasm for what can be achieved.

Even in the face of difficult choices and less than ideal outcomes, an optimistic leader does not yield to pessimism.

Simply put, people are not motivated or energized by pessimists. Be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness. In fact, true integrity, a sense of knowing who you are and being guided by your own clear sense of right and wrong is a kind of secret weapon. They trusted in their own instincts. They treated people with respect. And over time, the company came to represent the values they live by. People will often focus on little details as a way of masking a lack of any clear, coherent, big thoughts.

If you start petty, you seem petty. May 23, posthuman rated it liked it Shelves: business , biography. The Ride of a Lifetime is an inspiring and optimistic yet largely colorless account of Bob Iger's year career in television and media. Disclosure: Bob was my boss's boss for several years, and it was probably a lot more entertaining to read due to personal memories of some of the office politics.

A potentially fascinating subject for this sort of book, perhaps the greatest entertainment industry leader of our time, shares insight into how he tackled impossible challenges coming up in the busi The Ride of a Lifetime is an inspiring and optimistic yet largely colorless account of Bob Iger's year career in television and media. A potentially fascinating subject for this sort of book, perhaps the greatest entertainment industry leader of our time, shares insight into how he tackled impossible challenges coming up in the business.

In the course of reading it, however, it felt like he glossed over a lot of the character flaws and personal demons that make a good memoir great. The book opens with an electrifying account of a hour period in which Iger kept multiple balls in the air dealing with Chinese officials and all the complex moving pieces of launching Shanghai Disneyland, while simultaneously responding to the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando where Disney cast members counted among the victims.

Just before the ribbon cutting ceremony in Shanghai, he learns Disneyland House of Blues was the terrorist's original target. Then he is told an alligator has killed a 2 year-old boy at the park in Florida and immediately reaches out to the parents. He compartmentalizes in order to deal with these simultaneous dilemmas, and this habit of compartmentalization might have made for a much more interesting lens through which to view his personal and career setbacks.

Unfortunately, the rest of the book doesn't explore any of this, nor does it live up to the frenetic pacing of the opening chapter.

It's a largely aseptic narrative that reads like his publicist and his lawyer went over everything with a fine-toothed comb. Of course Bob Iger is no Walter Isaacson, but there are a number of riveting, raw business memoirs like Horowitz's The Hard Thing About Hard Things that dare to expose some of the author's worst shortcomings and as a result feel more authentic and exhilarating. I found it a delightful read, but perhaps this has more to do with knowing some of the people described and having been present at some of the events.

Running any large organization is an imperfect, messy endeavor and The Walt Disney Company is no exception. Iger's account is far too neat and tidy. There is a lack of personal crises depicted here and to make matters worse, the prose is watery and limp. I doubt The Ride of a Lifetime would be a particularly enjoyable read for most unless the author's lessons have some relevance to your own experiences.

Jan 24, Truman32 rated it really liked it. As hard to believe as it is, there are many aspects of my life I could probably improve upon. To name just a few: I eat way too many pies. The pies I eat do not contain enough fruits or vegetables.

Many folks are shocked at the overabundance of whipped cream topping my pies. And often times I will eat my pie extremely quick sometimes even without breathing so I do not have to share pie with my family or close friends.

But like most people I see the New Year as a chance to start over and correc As hard to believe as it is, there are many aspects of my life I could probably improve upon. But like most people I see the New Year as a chance to start over and correct some of these deficiencies.

So I have been reading a bunch of improvement books. Ride of a Lifetime reads more like a memoir than an actual self-improvement book. It is a quick interesting read if you take it on this level. Those looking for little nuggets or gems on bettering their lives will be disappointed as all of his advice seems to relate to corporate big-shots succeeding by acquiring successful companies. Iger shows me that if I want to get better all I really need to do is spend a few hundred million dollars and buy Pixar.

Or if that is not the strategy for me, I can always spend a few million dollars and buy Marvel. I mean I like The Simpsons. So if you are a regular shmoe without hundreds of millions of dollars laying around to buy up hugely successful and innovative companies as you construct the mother of all monster conglomerates then there is not a whole lot of practical advice here. It is enjoyable, especially when eating pie.

View all 6 comments. Oct 07, Noah rated it liked it. I was really hoping for more insights into how Disney was run and his leadership style. Was a light version of both. Some cool stories about buying Pixar but would have preferred way more details.

The leadership components of this life story are enlightening and applicable. But what I picked up this book to learn was in-depth insight into managing the creative process, negotiating difficult personalities, and creating a unique creative culture at Disney and subsumed companies. Although the book told a coherent, clear storyline with interesting vignettes, it ultimately glossed over key moments in the general sense, rather than diving deep and mining their emotions.

Some examples: 1. Charac The leadership components of this life story are enlightening and applicable. Characters -- A story involves interesting personalities and the dynamics between them. Some of them -- like Steve Jobs -- required no introduction, but others did, and they often popped into Bob Iger's story without the proper introduction or backstory.

He spends a lot of time on his father, and later his most successful hires, like Alan Horn, but I wanted to know more about his wife, his closest colleagues, John Lasseter, and his relationship with Disney's lifeblood animators. Give them a name and a face for us! Where do they come from, and how did they influence you? The most emotional scene with the most well-painted character -- Roone -- touched me not because Roone was dying, but because of all they had been through together.

Roone's relentless pursuit of perfection, and his extravagance in getting there, provided memorable scene after memorable scene, and it was because Bob described his character and their shared journey -- from the early day on-calls to the Olympics to the New Year's coverage -- so deeply, through so many moments. But then "highly confidential" dynamics like the John Lasseter relationship were handled within a single paragraph, with no insight into John's background or their shared experiences.

I found myself mixing up all the Toms, Johns, and Michaels as the book went on, because their motivations, character quirks, and backgrounds hadn't distinguished them in my mind. Much of what has made Disney such a well-known brand in storytelling is its characters. I expected more complete characters. Depth -- Disney is, at its heart, a creative company. Their acquisitions, like Pixar and Marvel, are also creative companies. Show us more of the creative side! What makes their artists and animators tick, and how do you manage creative souls into a large corporate culture?

The book goes into some of the challenges, especially early on with the ABC show ideas Twin Peaks et al , but as the story continues, it increasingly takes a high bird's-eye view, rather than a deep-down look in the trenches with the creative minds. It captivated me discussing George Lucas' struggles with creative control, including meetings on the script, but many of the later events came from the media, like interviews, and few were dramatized in-scene, moment-by-moment conflict, as was so skillfully done in the Olympic coverage.

How did Disney animators and creative teams handle the new IP? What were their storytelling strategies? What kinds of challenges cropped up? What matters is the journey, not the result. Emotion -- The opening scene -- Disneyland Shanghai's opening and the Pulse shooting and alligator attack -- captivated me because of the difficult phone conversation the author describes, and how his wife supports him through that moment. The final conversation with Roone also elicited feeling, because of what the two had been through, and how close the author described their relationship.

The rest of the book didn't deliver those moments on a consistent basis. Descriptions of potentially emotional moments were couched too much in generals and facts, like Steve's confidance of cancer being viewed through the lens of the impending deadline, counting down minutes to a public announcement, or John Lasseter's departure. They were described too much in the general sense, as difficult moments, without diving into the specifics of what made them so complicated and emotional for the individuals involved.

As a result, it was hard to grasp the nature of the inner conflict, and feel the storyteller's emotion. Make no mistake: The book had meaningful conflicts -- like shareholder votes and phone calls -- but they didn't generate as much emotional payoff in me because they didn't have the buildup, depth, or detail into what was motivating or driving each individual in the battle.

It's hard to relate to people when they haven't received the introduction they deserve, but more than anything, I wanted to feel more emotion from happenings and events, rather than the cool, calm, collected recap: "This happened, then that happened" or the common "That was difficult, but after months of work, we persevered" type of narrative.

I enjoyed the story and devoured it quickly, but ultimately came away unsatisfied with how little I knew about the people involved, or their motivations. May 23, Ben rated it did not like it Shelves: economics , memoir. I found this very dull. I understand why Bill Gates loves it. So dry it is almost inhuman. Iger is probably somewhat aware of this, so he throws in as many Steve Jobs anecdotes as he can—which I think is also evidence of his creative insecurity.

The business part of the story is also rather dull. While Iger has a huge ego, and thinks his leadership skills would make him a great US President, the only details we get are how he negotiates deals I found this very dull.

While Iger has a huge ego, and thinks his leadership skills would make him a great US President, the only details we get are how he negotiates deals to purchase other big media companies Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Bamtech, Fox, … and nothing about how he worked on what Disney already had.

His main goal seems to be to make Disney as big as is legally possible, with no thought as to what this means. Besides negotiating takeovers, he also negotiates his compensation packages, but here he is very diplomatic—no details. Of course not. I don't know if Iger himself is one-dimensional, or if he just seems like it from this whitewashed, ghostwritten "memoir. View all 4 comments. Feb 17, Vlad rated it liked it. To be good, autobiographical memoirs require their authors to be vulnerable.

View all 5 comments. Jun 03, Greta rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction. Before the opening he got two calls: The first one told him that Omar Mateen walked into the pulse night club in Orlando and started shooting. He killed 49 people and 53 were injured - among them Disney employees. The investigation showed that he was in preparation of attacking the Disney Complex. The second one was about a two year old boy In Bob Iger was in China to open the Shanghai DisneyPark, supposedly one of the biggest accomplishments and happiest days in his career as CEO of Disney.

The second one was about a two year old boy called Lane who was building a sand castle on the Disney Resort beach, when he was attacked by an alligator that grabbed his head. His mother and four years old sister had to watch the unsuccessful attempts of his father to free him, before the gator pulled Lane underwater and both disappeared into the sea.

He died. What I found particularly remarkable is how he worked himself up, from the lower middle class and having a mentally ill parent, over succeeding at ABC to ultimately becoming a CEO at Disney and earning around 66 million US-dollar a year.

I appreciated that he spoke really open about office politics, how he felt mistreated and how that effected his self awareness. A decent part of the story is about the difficult relationship between Disney and Pixar that developed into a deep friendship between Iger and Jobs when Iger took over. The digitalization and services like Netflix also had major impacts and forced adjustments of course. Just as Trump proofs, economic billionaires obviously can easily become leaders of this country without raising questions of legal concerns like lobbying.

On the other hand I can understand the similarities between leading a multi million company and a country. I would have liked to learn more about his actual work, than office politics.