David Rubenstein is a successful (to put it mildly) hedge fund manager who has dedicated a large portion of his later life to philanthropy. One of his projects is interviewing influential people. How to Lead is a collection of thirty interviews he did, almost all between 2018 and 2020. Many of the people came to him through his philanthropic work and the organizations he’s involved in (a fact which he mentions frequently). The book is a who’s who of famous people – Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Jeff Bezos and more.
There are lots of good nuggets about life and leadership in this book. One of my favorites was when Rubenstein kept trying to push Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers in history, about what he’d still like to accomplish professionally or philanthropically. His answer: I want to continue to see my five kids and twenty-two grandchildren grow up. Basically, Nicklaus was saying – I don’t agree with the premise of the question! I loved it.
Yo Yo Ma was probably the more thoughtful interviewee. When he was seven, he met the world famous cellist Pablo Casals. What did he learn from Casals? He quotes Casals as saying, “I think of myself as a human being first, a musician second, and a cellist third.” What Ma took away from this interaction was an insight into, “Where do we place our identity?” He says, “for guys, often it’s what you do. What’s your profession? Most people think of me as a cellist. But the human being part for Casals was the most important thing.”
While I overall enjoyed the book, there were two areas in which I found it felt short. The book is framed as a book about leadership, but many of the people, and certainly the interviews, were not oriented around this theme, nor would I refer to them all as leaders. People of influence? Famous? Yes. But quite a few, like Nicklaus, weren’t leading anyone. It would have more rightly been titled by the book’s subtitle: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers.
The second is that Rubenstein doesn’t have great interview skills. He asked simplistic and superficial questions. He often asked them leading questions about their biographies, which are either well known or easily discoverable. If the interview was successful, it was often in spite of the questions asked, and because of the thoughtfulness of the interviewee rather than Rubenstein. It often felt more like a chummy conversation than a desire to discover something deeper. Mr. Rubenstein should feel free to listen and learn from Eleanor Wachtel, the now-retired host of Writers and Company (and my aunt)!
Just Because I Liked It:
- Elliott Ackerman is an incredibly talented novelist, whose work I stopped reading, frankly, because I found it just too painful. This Memorial Day, he wrote a powerful and beautiful piece in the Free Press which is so worth reading.
- Acquired is one of my favorite (see how I dropped the ‘u’?) podcasts. Just out of curiosity, and because I could never understand how to play the game, I listened to this episode about the “Indian Premier (cricket) League.” It was fascinating! I still have next to know idea how to play, but I am fascinated by the business side of the story.