How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers by David Rubenstein.

4/5 rating. 397 pages.

Book #13 of 2021. Read February 6, 2021.

This is an incredibly interesting compilation of interviews by David with some of the great leaders of today (as of mid-2020).

There are 31 different leaders in here, split into categories of visionaries, builders, transformers, commanders, and decision-makers. If you are looking for advice and some backgrounds on these incredible people, then this book is absolutely for you! I think the best way to sum up this book is to include some of my favorite quotes from it:

• “Nothing focuses the mind like a well-written book.”
• “With your loved ones, you bet on them. You’re not betting on the idea. You are betting on the person.” – Jeff Bezos
• “Your legacy is every life that you’ve touched. We like to think that these great, philanthropic moments are the ones that leave the impact, or will make the huge difference in the world, but it’s really what you do every day. It’s how you use your life to be a light to somebody else’s. And it’s how you use your work as an expression of your own art, whatever that is.” – Oprah
• “I get to do every day what I love, with people I love. It doesn’t get any better than that.” – Warren Buffett
• “‘There’s a bunch of former investment bankers in my class. I don’t like any of them. They think they know everything, and they’re pretty arrogant.’ I said, ‘I’m an engineer. We do know everything. It bothers us.’” – Robert F. Smith
• “I always thought I’d have a better life if I could help somebody else have a better life too.” – Bill Clinton
• “I really believed that it was most important to be together – that their home was with the people who loved them.” – Renée Fleming

Additional Quotes:

“Sometimes lightning strikes for those who take chances.”

“When you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out in life that your most important decisions are always made with instinct, intuition, taste, heart.” – Jeff Bezos

“It’s one of those decisions I made with my heart and not my head. I basically said, ‘When I’m eighty, I want to have minimized the number of regrets that I have in my life.’ Most of our regrets are acts of omission. They’re things we didn’t try. It’s the path untraveled. Those are the things that haunt us.” – Jeff Bezos

“You don’t realize, until you look back, how parents are so important. It’s just a really big deal.” – Jeff Bezos

“I don’t think it’s important for me to be remembered specifically.” – Bill Gates

“I never go into a venture with the idea of making a profit. If you can create the best in its field, generally speaking you’ll find that you’ll pay the bills and you’ll make a profit.” -Richard Branson

“I realized a couple of years in that you run your own race better than anybody. If you take the time to see what everybody else is doing, you lose your ground. I could be a better me than I could be anybody else. No need to try to compare myself to other people.” – Oprah

“What we all want is to be able to live out the truest, highest expression of ourselves as a human being.” – Oprah

“That’s true for everybody who’s watching or listening, that every argument that you ever have, every encounter, the person just wants to know, ‘Did you hear me? Did you see me? And did I say anything that mattered?’” – Oprah

“[I]n a country this rich, anybody willing to work forty hours a week should have a decent life.” – Warren Buffett

“But I really do feel that anybody that’s making millions of dollars a year should have a combined payroll-and-income tax that is at least 30 percent.” – WB

“Look for the job that you would want to hold if you didn’t need a job.” – WB

“Whether you make x or 120 percent of x isn’t remotely as important, in most cases, as whether you marry the right person and you also find something that you would do if you didn’t need the money.”

“Like all things, you look for areas that you can bring a unique solution to and solve a problem.” – RFS

“Swing for the fences. You are taking on the things that society has left behind. To do that, you are going to have to take risks, and I expect you to take risks.” – Warren Buffett

“What I’ve seen in twenty years of work with the foundation is that if we can help lift up all women, we will change the world.” – Melinda Gates

“Bill [Gates] and Warren [Buffett] are really clear that they could not have founded their businesses if it had been, say, in Malawi or Mozambique. We benefit from what society gives us, the infrastructure, so at least half [of their wealth] should go back to society.” – MG

“In discussing what makes a leader, Eric emphasizes the importance of mastering one skill or area before branching out to other areas. I echo that advice. At the outset of a career, it is essential to become an expert in something, so that others will come to you for help and guidance.”

“Families eat dinner together, and [Sergey Brin] wanted the company to be a family. If you made sure people had proper, good food – breakfast, lunch, and dinner – they would literally work as teams.” – Eric Schmidt

“We view the stock price and revenues and profits as a result of doing things right on the innovation side, on the creativity side, focusing on the right products. Treating customers like they’re jewels and focusing on the user experience.” – Tim Cook

“Very simply, I think if you could wave a wand and everybody in the world would treat each other with dignity and respect, there are many problems that would go away.” – TC

“But the lesson I learned from my mother is to never let other people define who you are.” – Ginni Rometty

“It’s hard to dream to be something if you don’t see other people like you.” – GR

“I have always had the viewpoint that every situation is a learning opportunity…” – GR

“The most important thing is to keep both ears open, because you never know if a nugget of an idea can actually translate to a big success in the company.”

“[My great-uncle] taught me that everybody’s got a story and most people can’t tell it, and that’s sad.” – Bill Clinton

“That’s what leadership is all about – inspiring followers.” – General Colin Powell

“Whether you’re the commander in Iraq or Afghanistan, or the CEO of The Carlyle Group or KKR or Amazon, you have to get the big ideas right. You have to communicate those big ideas effectively through the breadth and depth of your organization. You have to oversee their implementation. And you have to determine how to refine the big ideas – and then do it all over again.” – General David Petraeus

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena;…and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” – Teddy Roosevelt

“My parents were people who had me convinced that even if I couldn’t have a hamburger at Woolworth’s lunch counter, I could be president of the United States if I wanted to be.” – Condoleezza Rice

“[M]y father once said to me, ‘If somebody doesn’t want to sit next to you because you’re black, that’s fine, as long as they move.’ In other words, don’t take somebody else’s prejudice on you. It’s their fault, their problem, not your problem.” – CR

“Your power is the reason your opponents come after you…”

“Seventy to 75 percent of all the new infections that humans get infected with come from an animal.” – Anthony Fauci

“You don’t dictate to people. But if you let them know what your vision is, hire the best people,and then don’t get in their way, those are the qualities of a good leader.” – AF

“Power walk means I’m trying to catch up with my wife, who’s walking faster than I am.” – AF

“‘Dear, I’d like to tell you the secret of a happy marriage.’ ‘I’d love to hear it. What is it?’ ‘Every now and then,’ [my husband’s mother] said, ‘it helps to be a little deaf.’ I’ve followed that sage advice assiduously to this very day, in dealing with my colleagues. If an unkind or thoughtless word is said, I just tune out.” – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“If the fire dies in the hearts of people, no constitution and no judge can restore it.” – Judge Learned Hand

“You’ve got to believe in what you can do. You’ve got to learn to play within yourself – in all walks of life.” – Jack Nicklaus

“The other thing is that you’re not going to get there alone. Be on a team. Surround yourself with good people and learn how to listen. You’re not going to learn with you just talking. And when you do talk, converse. Don’t make excuses. Figure out the solution. You don’t have to figure it out yourself.” – Mike Krzyzewski

“I don’t have a wish list. What I do have is an open mind, and a belief in the future. I absolutely believe that things come to us if we work hard, we’re dedicated, we love what we’re doing, and we’re passionate.” – Renee Fleming

“The most important thing I can do is to be totally present and totally engaged. There’s nothing more important.” – Yo-Yo Ma

“Music, live music, is a communion.” – Yo-Yo Ma

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