Episode 6 The Ride of a Lifetime

Hello and welcome to Episode 6 of Metamorphosis, featuring New York Times Bestseller, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company Bob Iger.

I reminisced my 10-year-old self, soaking in the adulation of the world of Disney. Thoroughly eager to learn more about a man who led the company that impacted and shaped my childhood experiences of wonder and imagination.

Reading through the bits and pieces of his collected wisdom you are welcomed to a trail of the last 45 years, as he maps what he was taught and what he learned from people around him. Truth be told, his book unravels the secret behind gargantuan success not by following anodyne maxims but by relying on one’s taste, judgement, integrity, and courage. His illustrious career is notable for his balance, not only of his amiability and ruthlessness, but stability and risk-taking.

My first takeaway stems from the distillate of his career, “Don’t be in the business of playing it safe. Be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness.” Which alludes to the fact that even in mercurial and paranoid situations one can by win by taking calculated risks where the upsides are monomaniacally greater than the downsides.

Carefully split in two parts, “Learning” and “Leading”, his journey is stitched succinctly in rhythm and practice. Revealing the principles that strike as true creative leadership he echoes the importance of respect for others, where lies my next takeaway, “A little respect goes a long way and the absence of it can be very costly”, he impressively crafts his hard-earned lessons in tenacity and perseverance, while iron cladding blows to the ego and armoring one’s mind to stay rooted.

Stressing on the need to steer clear of anger and anxiety over things you can’t control. He says – “If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.”

His account of working his way to the top of the Walt Disney Company and leading it through thick and thin is based on a litany of clever acquisitions and virtuoso level negotiations- acquiring Pixar (2006), Marvel (2009), Lucasfilm (2012), and 21st Century Fox (2019). He forged relationships and his most telling descriptions are of lessons learnt in deal-making and forming rapports with trailblazers like Steve jobs and George Lucas.

Always being one to embrace technology he created an ambitious consumer strategy, leveraging Disney’s unparalleled creative content across new platforms, including Disney+ streaming services, ESPN+, Hulu and Hotstar.

My final takeaway is inspired from the fact that “Great is often a collection of very small things. There is immense pride in completing small actions consistently to eventually end up achieving gargantuan results.” The lessons and key takeaways are not only for aspiring CEO’S and leaders of the world but for anyone wanting to be less fearful and more confidently; themselves.

Segueing into the final bits of this episode, like always leaving you with essential words to live by-

“Have both the instinct toward perfection and the work ethic to follow through on that instinct.”
An idea captured by the Japanese word, shokunin, “The endless pursuit of perfection for some greater good.”