Most people starting businesses find there are course corrections along the way, and some of them are pretty significant course corrections. But the ability to change course, while never losing the commitment to the end-game, is actually pretty important.

Tom Staggs is probably the most conventionally successful person I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with. Tom was born in Minnesota and received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Strangely enough, Tom started his working career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, but for reasons we discuss, decided to completely change his course.

In 1990, Tom joined The Walt Disney Company, where he would be for the next two decades, climbing up the ladder. There are numerous fantastic stories about Tom’s experience in this time, but very simply, through ingenuity and hard work, Tom the Chief Finance Officer of Disney, he as chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, and was Chief Operating Officer of entire company. Although he recently resigned from his position, Tom was instrumental in the acquisition of both Marvel and Pixar.

Tom currently sits on a number of boards, including Spotify and The Forest Road Company, Weta Digital and PureForm Global Inc. He’s a strategic advisor, co-CEO and co-chair of Forest Road Acquisition Corp, he’s on the advisory board for InStirde, and advisor to Dreamscape Immersive.

• Growing up in Minnesota, going to public highs school
• Had a regular part time job all through high school
• Learned some important things as dishwasher in a hamburger joint
• Communication and socializing were completely different then
• Why working as a teen was a good experience
• Advice he’d give if asked to mentor a teen
• Thoughts on whether going to college is important
• Started out taking music in college and ended up in finance
• A failure he had early on that made him grow as a person
• Learning from and dealing with failure is important
• Tracing the route from high school to running The Walt Disney company
• On leading teams and leading people
• The funnest job in the world
• What things like look like 10 years from now

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Tom on LinkedIn and on Twitter
Tom’s entry in Wikipedia
Mark Twain quote
Frank Wells
Michael Eisner
Seven Summits (book)
Seven Summits on Wikipedia

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