Ro's Recz

Bob Iger is the CEO of Disney, and he is considered one of the best CEO’s in the world today. He has worked his way up from the bottom of a news station (that was eventually acquired by Disney) to Disney CEO over the course of his 30+ year career.

The Ride of a Lifetime is Bob Iger’s book about the lessons he’s learned over the course of his career, and I found it a very interesting read. I had always seen it on Amazon’s best books list, as well as the New York Time’s best sellers list, but it wasn’t until one of my friends recommended it to me that I actually read it.

Iger does a great job of using examples from his personal life to illustrate the lessons that he is trying to teach. Some of the most interesting examples were his thought processes behind Disney’s acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilm; these are some of the greatest acquisitions of all time, and without them, Disney would not be the company it is today. In the book, Iger talks about why he thought these 3 companies were so essential for Disney to acquire, and the long processes he and the Disney board went through to make them a reality. I have taken Iger’s MasterClass, so I am somewhat familiar with the stories, but The Ride of a Lifetime does a good job in going further into detail about key parts of his life.

Another part of the book I found interesting is how Iger handled what he described as one of the most challenging days of his life, when he learned that an alligator had killed a kid in one of Disney’s parks. This was on the same day that Iger was set to unveil Shanghai Disneyland, which was a momentous occasion for Disney. While the kid being killed was one of the most horrific stories ever, he had to balance this with the enthusiasm he needed to show for opening the new park. It is a crazy situation he had to handle, and he does a good job of walking through what exactly he did that day.