Recently I finished reading The Ride of a Lifetime, in Disney World, in fact. I was there just days before it shut down due to the coronavirus. The book was incredible. I’ve read just about every book there is that talks about the founding of Pixar, so I was delighted that there was a whole chapter devoted to Pixar. The details surrounding the Lucasfilm and Marvel acquisitions were equally fascinating. Here are some of my favorite passages from the book.
To this day, I wake nearly every morning at four-fifteen, though now I do it for selfish reasons: to have time to think and read and exercise before the demands of the day take over. Those hours aren’t for everyone, but however you find the time, it’s vital to create space in each day to let your thoughts wander beyond your immediate job responsibilities, to turn things over in your kind in a less pressured, more creative way than is possible once the daily triage kicks in. I’ve come to cherish that time alone each morning, and am certain I’d be less productive and less creative in my work if I didn’t also spend those first hours away from the emails and text messages and phone calls that require so much attention as the day goes on.
Luckily, I’m a morning person. I can appreciate that quiet time each morning that he mentions here. I just wish I could pull it off on a consistent basis.
It was a big job, and a big title, but it wasn’t my life. My life was with Willow and my boys, with my girls back in New York, with my parents and my sister and my friends. All of this strain was ultimately still about a job, and I vowed to myself to try to keep that in perspective.
This is a huge philosophy of mine and it’s inspiring to see Bob share the same one. I wrote earlier how this philosophy steered me toward PA over physician.
“A few solid pros are more powerful than dozens of cons,” Steve said. “So what should we do next?” Another lesson: Steve was great at weighing all sides of an issue and not allowing negatives to drown out positives, particularly for things he wanted to accomplish. It was a powerful quality of his.
Bob is quoting Steve Jobs here. They are talking about the Disney / Pixar merger. Throughout the book, Bob talks about some pretty intimate details about what it was like working with Steve throughout his career.
There’s a passage from Ed Catmull’s Creativity Inc. that I think pairs nicely:
When I advocate for protecting the new, then, I am using the word somewhat differently. I am saying that when someone hatches an original idea, it may be ungainly and poorly defined, but it is also the opposite of established and entrenched—and that is precisely what is most exciting about it. If, while in this vulnerable state, it is exposed to naysayers who fail to see its potential or lack the patience to let it evolve, it could be destroyed. Part of our job is to protect the new from people who don't understand that in order for greatness to emerge, there must be phases of not-so-greatness.
Here’s more from Iger:
...there’s not much to be gained from putting additional pressure on the people working on it. Projecting your anxiety into your team is counterproductive. It’s subtle but there’s a difference between communications that you share their stress—that you're in it with them—and communicating that you need them to deliver in order to alleviate your stress.
I’ve seen this countless times in my lifetime. Self-awareness is too important to have a manager without any.
All in all, The Ride of a Lifetime is an enlightening read outlining one of the most interesting careers of our lifetime. As far as leader and CEO, and overall human being, Bob Iger gets it right.