By the time one reaches my age, you have often been asked the question: "What is it that gives you the greatest joy?" My immediate and first answer is "being wherever my wife, Francie, and my children and now grandchildren are.” But invariably following that, I call out my love of reading.
What accounts for this love of reading? The honest answer to that question when I was very young would have been that reading was a source of escape for me. In truth, I sought refuge in books. In words I wouldn't have chosen then but which ring true today, "Reading let me know I wasn't alone.”
Why was I seeking that refuge and escape? Why was I seeking the companionship which books brought me?
For a couple of reasons. I wasn’t popular. I wasn’t a member of the “in” group. What’s more, my family life, as I experienced it, although lifted by the love and positive expectations of my parents, was troubled and unsettled by my father’s alcoholism.
So I immersed myself in books, every chance I could get. In the life of Robinson Crusoe, the adventures of the Hardy Boys or, a bit later, the story of Lincoln. As I read, I felt a sense of peace and adventure and belonging and accomplishment.
If my love of reading was initially a form of escape, before long it became a form of exploration and discovery. I found myself discovering worlds and ideas and people beyond those I knew. Even more, I found great books were teaching me about myself and shaping my vision of who I aspired to be.
As the years and decades have unfolded since then, reading great books has helped mold my life, shape my values and inspire me to be my best.
Reading has:
· Illuminated for me the complex reality and tension of human motivations, fear, hopes and dreams, of frustration, hate and love.
· Helped me understand the dual existence of the best and worst in human nature and has helped me strive to pursue what is best.
· Afforded me the joyful experience of a writer's relentless probing for the truth through deep analysis and balanced interpretation.
· Built my appreciation of the wonder and beauty of the perfectly chosen word, the eloquently turned phrase and the perfectly constructed sentence.
· Treated me to an author's fresh and penetrating analysis of various factors—economic, political, social and individual—that have helped me understand certain outcomes in major events or trends.
· Introduced me to a piece of writing that impacts me with such force that I think: "How could the writer ever say it that clearly or that beautifully?” It’s akin to my reaction to a great painting or sculpture or film.
· Helped me understand the root causes of events and the relative role of context, circumstance, sheer luck and individual agency.
· Taught me that personal leadership makes things happen. That while there are trends that are inexorable, the difference that the individual makes in shaping these trends can be and often is decisive.
· Has given me inspiration from the lives and character of great leaders and the recognition that it takes wisdom, courage and persistence to make a change in anything that is important. That has had everything to do with how I’ve tried to lead and encourage others to lead.
· Has shaped my recognition that there is great goodness in the world, but also evil and that if good people don’t stand up courageously and persistently for the good, we’re going to suffer more evil.
· Has fueled my deep respect and appreciation for different societies and cultures as I learned about their unique histories and belief systems, their unique features and accomplishments and the challenges they have and continue to face. This recognition has fired my determination at Procter & Gamble and later at The Walt Disney Company to respect national and regional identities as we operate globally.
· Has made it crystal-clear that great achievements and change are never achieved without setbacks and the wisdom and courage to make course corrections to one’s original strategy. This has been of enormous help to me as I thought about how to pursue some of the biggest challenges of my career.
· Has cemented my belief that in order for any institution to survive and grow--a matter that is in no way foreordained--its leaders must achieve that fine balance of preserving the most important core values fundamental to success while being prepared to take action to change everything else.
Summing it all up, reading has fired my love of learning, my curiosity, my desire to understand cause and effect, to seek truth, to understand the difference an individual can make, and that "everyone counts.” Above all, it has helped me see and appreciate the importance of family and love and the beauty in people, in nature and in the world around us. This has inspired and challenged me to try to do my best in contributing to their betterment.
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