The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

by Robert Iger

Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena” speech,

Our path to the future starts right here, tonight.”

Perlmutter, was a mystery to us. Ike was a legendarily tough, reclusive character,

penurious

Ike at the Marvel offices in midtown Manhattan.

They were spartan.

small desk, some chairs, small tables and lamps. No expensive furniture or sweeping view, very little on the walls.

You’d never know that it belonged to the CEO of an ente...

Costco,”

Post House,

Israel

by virtue of his own smarts and tenacity had become wildly successful.

someone who was being authentic and straight

who spoke a language he understood.

when I think back on my time as CEO—at the things I’m most grateful for and surprised by—my relationship with Steve is one of them.

He was quick to judge people, and when he criticized, it was often quite harsh.

“This is crap. You’re not faking anybody.”

I was a little mad at his snobbery, but I also knew that was just who he was.

built things of the highest quality, not necessarily affordable to all, but he never sacrificed quality in order to attain affordability.

“He said you were true to your

word,”

Marvel is going to lose its edge! Disney is going to lose its innocence!

“Why would anyone want to buy a library of comic book characters for $4 billion?”

making bet after bet based on nothing but instinct.

Everything is a risk.

a great idea and the right team assembled, and things can still get derailed for a whole host of reasons that are of...

You have to do it in person, not over the phone and certainly not by email or text.

normally say something along the lines of: “I’ve asked you to come in here for a difficult reason.”

And then I try to be as direct about the issue as possible, explaining clearly and concisely

THE ACQUISITION OF Marvel has proved to be much more successful

than even our most optimistic models accounted for.

Marvel films so far had been built largely around characters who were white and who were

those old “truisms” were actually true,

Black Panther,

The experience of watching Black Panther with the crowd of people that packed the

Dolby Theatre for the premiere will remain one of the most memorable moments of my career.

Afterward, I received more calls and notes than I’d ever received about anything I’d been associated with in my career. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington and Gayle King reached out. I’d had a production assistant deliver a copy of the film to President Obama, and when I spoke with him after, he told me how important he believed the film was. Oprah sent a note calling it “a phenomenon in every way” and adding, “It makes me tear up to think that little black children will grow up with that forever.” There may be no product we’ve created that I’m more proud of than Black Panther.

Dear Fellow Employee, It’s hard not starting with “Wakanda forever,” as we share great news about Black Panther! Marvel’s Black Panther is a masterpiece of movie making, a film that succeeds on multiple levels, touching hearts and opening minds…all while entertaining millions of people and far exceeding the loftiest box office projections. This groundbreaking movie opened to a record-breaking $242 million in domestic box office over the holiday weekend,

outpouring of genuine excitement, praise, respect, and

gratitude as I’ve seen

when I think, I wish Steve could be here for this.

All four of us teared up. This was Steve at his warmest and most sincere.

“I asked him if we could trust you,” Laurene said. “And Steve said, ‘I love that guy.’

were six movies already

Pixar also came with a big group of world-class engineers, seasoned directors,

pure conjecture. We guessed we could produce and release

You have to be clear about where you stand

from the beginning.

So I said right away, “There’s no way this is a Pixar deal, George.”

“I’m not going to come in low and negotiate toward the middle. I’m going to do it the way I did it with Steve.”