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A few months ago on his blog he mentioned the value found in reading The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger.

To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about it, but Brian recommended it, so I decided to read it.  

And am I ever glad that I did.

Let me help convince you… then I want to share one thing I’ve learned from that book this week:

First, there is a chapter at the end of the book where he just gives you eight pages of leadership nuggets that will serve you wherever you lead. It’s gold. 

Second, he shares story after story of his relationship with Steve Jobs.

You feel like you are privy to their private conversations and it is fascinating to read.  At the end of the day, these mega leaders are human beings with hearts, souls, and feelings, and you feel that while reading this story. 

Finally, you see that CEOs of billion dollar companies have the same struggle you and I do trying to lead smaller organizations or even leading yourself.  You have to have vision. 

Soon into the job, Iger was told to sum up what he wanted to accomplish. After listing six things without an end in site, he was told to shut up. “You’ve got to sum it up in as few things as possible”, they said.

So he did.

And as a result the things that we’ve seen over the past few years… like the success of Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney+ all came from that vision many years ago. 

But here’s my one thing to share this week from Bob Iger’s story: 

“The way you do anything is the way you do everything.”  

If you procrastinate in some things, odds are you procrastinate in most things..

If you over promise and underdeliver on what time you’ll be home, you’ll probably do that with your next project at work.

If you are kind to the barista at your local Starbucks, you’re probably going to be nice to clients. 

So, as we are all reseting our lives through COVID-19, it might be a good chance for all of us to consider making some small adjustments in our daily habits that might just yield HUGE returns in our careers.