How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers

by David Rubenstein

January 6, 2021 — January 14, 2021

Los Angeles, CA

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while since I’m a fan of David Rubenstein and his show. I had very high expectations and was very excited to read the book when its turn finally came in my reading queue. Unfortunately, my expectations weren’t fulfilled. It’s not that the book isn’t great, it’s pretty great. However, it’s not what I expected and the title is slightly misleading. The book is basically a written transcript of the interviews from the David Rubenstein Show (I’ve already watched most of them); I’m not against interview-based books, it’s just that nothing was new to me. The title “How to Lead” is slightly misleading, while it presents a great amount of wisdom from the inspiring people; none of them are talking about leadership, they’re sharing stories about how they personally became successful through their mindset, the book should be titled “The Mentality and Biography of Leaders” or “How to Become Successful.” I wanted to learn more about how these leaders actually plan, manage, delegate, and execute. But, I was still satisfied with the book and I’d recommend it especially if you haven’t watched the show. Additionally, the introduction is very powerful and well-written, this crucial and significant part of the book is new and has never been featured on the show.

The approach I took to ensure I’d make the most out of this read was annotating, outlining, and highlighting the parts and pieces of the written interview using the lens introduced by Rubenstein. To summarize the introduction, leaders create change or results that improve the lives of others, motivate others to become leaders, and can feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement that makes them happy and fulfilled. The 13 attributes that make leaders: Luck, Desire to Succeed, Pursuit of Something New and Unique, Hard Work/Long Hours, Focus, Failure, Persistence, Persuasiveness, Humble Demeanor, Credit sharing, The Ability to Keep Learning, Integrity, and Responding to Crises.

Below is a list of my 13 favorite interviews out of the 30 (based on what I learned and not specifically based on the actual person, for example, I admire Warren Buffet but his interview wasn’t that great in my opinion). I’ll link the video to each interview (If I can find the free version on Youtube).

• Visionaries

  • Jeff Bezos

  • Oprah Winfrey

  • Sir Richard Branson

• Builders

  • Robert F. Smith

  • Jamie Dimon

• Transformers

  • Eric Schmidt

  • Ginni Rometty

  • Indira Nooyi

• Commanders

  • Condoleezza Rice

• Decision-Makers

  • Nancy Pelosi

  • Christine Lagard

• Masters

  • Jack Nicklaus

  • Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski

  • Yo-Yo Ma