Happy Monday!
I hope you had a fruitful weekend.
If you read my previous newsletter then you might have noticed how I messed up! (The header was Ben Horowitz but my newsletter was about Marc Andressen, Sorry about that!)
Anyway, you can’t undo the past so moving on today I want everyone to know about and learn from Bob Iger. Also today I have a fun fact at the end so hang in there!
Let me give a brief about him before I share 1 interesting story, 2 quotes to think about and 3 short lessons from him for you to read this week.
Bog Iger (@RobertIger), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, is the steward of one of the world’s largest media companies and some of the most respected and beloved brands around the globe. Since becoming CEO in 2005, Iger has built on Disney’s rich history of storytelling and innovation with the acquisitions of Pixar (2006), Marvel (2009), Lucasfilm (2012) and 21st Century Fox (2019), and the landmark opening of Disney’s first theme park and resort in Mainland China, Shanghai Disney Resort in 2016.
Always one to embrace new technology, Iger has created an ambitious direct-to-consumer strategy that leverages Disney’s unparalleled creative content across new platforms, including the new Disney+ streaming service, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar.
1 STORY FOR YOU
Disney and Pixar Deal
I called Steve Jobs with a crazy idea, the idea being that Disney should buy Pixar. And one of the things I learned: when you mentioned to Steve you had a crazy idea, he needed to hear it right away. So even though I wanted to wait and tell him in person, he forced me to tell him on the phone. But instead of either laughing me off the phone or rejecting it summarily, he invited me up to meet him at Apple to discuss it further. And some time after the phone call that I had made, I found myself sitting in the boardroom at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, alone at a long, long table with a whiteboard on the wall that was almost as long as the table itself, so many, many feet.
And Steve said we needed to have an exercise to discuss the pros and cons of Pixar being bought by Disney. As I probably should have expected, Steve was the one that held the writing instrument and stood at the board. So he was kind of the conductor of the session in more ways than one. And he said something like, “You go first,” and I didn’t really have the guts to go first. I said, “No, you go first,” and he wrote pros and cons, just as you expect, and started listing a set of cons that seemed like a mile long to me. They were so numerous, so much so that I said to him at some point when he had said to me, “Why don’t you name a few pros?” I said, “It hardly seems worth it. You’ve listed so many cons that I don’t really see how we go forward.”
And he said, “No, no, you’ve got to come up with a few,” and I did. I suggested a few. Actually to his credit, as I recollect, he had a couple as well, but by the time we were done with the exercise, the list was still far more tilted in the con direction than the pro direction. So I reiterated to him my pessimism about doing anything, basically saying, “Given the fact that the cons are so more numerous than the pros, maybe this is just futile.” And he said, “No, not at all. Just sometimes a couple of really big pros far outweigh many, many cons,” which I thought was quite interesting. He was able to look at this list and not count the sheer number of items, but tally up the kind of the relative importance or lack thereof of the items.
And that led to him saying something like, “Let’s keep the door open. We should continue to talk about this. What do we need to do next?” And that led to me saying, “I think I need to visit Pixar. I think the way I put it, “To see what’s under the hood,” suggesting that I look under and take a really close look at the engine that was Pixar, and see where I could get at, whether the value was there for us to buy.
P.S a few of the cons Steve Jobs listed were - “Disney’s culture will destroy Pixar.”. “Your board will never let you do it.” & “DISTRACTION WILL KILL PIXAR’S CREATIVITY,” (yes the last one was all caps)
2 QUOTES FROM HIM
“You have to ask the questions you need to ask, admit without apology what you don’t understand, and do the work to learn what you need to learn as quickly as you can."
“Optimism. 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.”
3 LEARNINGS FOR YOU
Rule of Three
The human mind is only capable of holding three or four big ideas in short-term memory. Don't overwhelm your listener with more than three--three features of a product, three reasons to invest in your startup, or three things you'll do after you're hired.
Over Iger's successful career, the rule of three has also given him a tool to focus his time and energy and the company's resources.
In a famous line from Disney/Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn says, "Your focus determines your reality."
Don't try to tackle too many things at once. Stick to three.
(Maybe this is why I only tell you three lessons from one person! Just kidding I did not know about this rule until I read about Bob Iger.)Long Shots Aren’t as Long as They Seem
People sometimes shy away from taking big swings because they assess the odds and build a case against trying something before they even take the first step. One of the things I’ve always instinctively felt—and something that was greatly reinforced working for people like Roone (President of ABC) and Michael Eisner (Predecessor of Bob) — is that long shots aren’t usually as long as they seem. Roone and Michael both believed in their power and in the ability of their organizations to make things happen—that with enough energy and thoughtfulness and commitment, even the boldest ideas could be executed.
Relentless pursuit of perfection
In practice, this can mean a lot of things, and it’s hard to define. It’s a mindset, more than a specific set of rules. It’s not about perfectionism at all costs. It’s about creating an environment in which people refuse to accept mediocrity. It’s about pushing back against the urge to say that “good enough” is good enough.
Excellence and fairness don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Strive for perfection but always be aware of the pitfalls of caring only about the product and never the people.
Fun fact - He has never quit his job before! Though there were times he wanted to leave, he still stayed on. The company he started working for gets bought over by other companies and eventually Disney. (1974 to present wow)
That’s it from me, until next Monday! Also, share with your friends and grow together :)