What Does It Take To Be A Leader?
Learning From Steve Forbes
Ep 3. Question Everything, CITR Radio 101.9 FM, Vancouver, BC
This week on Question Everything, we learn from the chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, Steve Forbes. Forbes is America’s leading business magazine and Forbes.com reaches nearly 70 million users each month. Mr. Forbes is also the author of a number of books and was a presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1996 and 2000.
In today’s episode, Mr. Forbes shares his experiences in college and talks about how he started his first magazine as a student. We also discuss what it takes to be effective communicator, and how to deal with criticism and pressure in leadership roles, whether as a politician or entrepreneur.
Here are the top 10 insights that Mr. Forbes shares for young leaders
Today you are most prominently known as the editor in chief of America’s leading business magazine, but what people may not know about you is that you actually started your first business magazine when you were in college called Business Today. Could you tell us more about the publication and what inspired you to start it?
Well, I think probably I have media or publishing genes. When I was growing up, I liked to do news sheets for classmates at school. I once did one grading my teachers. I felt that if they could grade me then I could return the favour. It did not go over well. In college, with two others, we helped start a magazine called Business today to bring a balanced perspective of commerce and business to the student world published by undergraduates and still going on today. It’s the largest student publication in the US, and each year they do a couple of international conferences bringing together students from around the world. It’s a thriving concern which is a source of pride that they’ve been able to continue it all of these years.
What do you think is the key to being a good writer?
The key to being a good writer is having a clear mind. What are you trying to say? Say it simply. Like many things, there are few natural born writers. You learn through practice. Constant, constant doing. There is no substitute. You may have heard some people say you must do 10,000 to learn the violin, or that The Beatle’s did 10,000 hours so when they emerged they were really superb. I’m not sure about the 10,000, but the idea that you have to keep doing it to get it is absolutely true. One of the failings of university in this country (I’m not sure what it’s like in Canada) is not focusing enough on writing. When you sit down, what point are you trying to make? Or, if you don’t want to make a point, know that you’re not trying to make a point. Know what you are doing.
You studied history in college. Did you do a lot of writing before that or throughout college?
In college I did writing of papers, which I hated to do like most students and I did some writing for Business Today magazine, but not nearly on the scale that I do now. Again, one of the keys to successful writing is [thinking about] what audience you are trying to reach. An essay is different from an article is different from a Tweet is very different from a book. You don’t have to master all of those mediums, but you do have to know who you are trying to reach and what point you are trying to get across.
When you were in college, what was your favourite thing about studying history?
Truth be told, I probably didn’t spend enough time in the classroom. I spent more of it doing the magazine, which was a graduate course in and of itself. You can say it but until you do it you don’t realize the nitty gritty detail that goes into making things happen. Things just don’t show up, things just don’t get written, things just don’t get produced. It takes a lot of detail scut work. It’s a good lesson to learn.
What advice would you give to young people who are interested in writing or starting their own publications?
In terms of starting a publication or starting a blog or website, ask yourself: what is it you are trying to do? Are you trying to brand yourself? Are you trying to establish an area expertise where people will migrate to you? Are you just using it to get exercise? Do you want to combine with original content from other sites? A good discipline would be to take a thought and get it across in 140 characters. With Twitter you’re under pressure these days, but in the old days they had telegrams. Since you paid in those days by the word, which was very expensive, you learned to be concise.
How do you think you developed such a clear vision?
Part of it is curiosity and part of it is how do I convey it so that people understand it in a way that I understand it. Most things we don’t know; most things we have to learn. You go through your mind. What hammers home the point? That’s why some of these metaphors are so powerful. People say “Ah, yes! I get it!” Trying to find that “I get it” phrase that brings it home to people. Academics make the mistake of thinking that if people actually understand what they’re saying that they are not being profound. If you can use 100 words instead of 2 use the 100. Communication should have respect for the person you want to reach.
You took over Forbes Media when your father passed away. I can imagine that would have been a really difficult time for you. What was the hardest part of making that transition?
My father was very flamboyant. He was a public persona. He would have done very well in this day in age of reality TV. I think they key is, as my father said (I’m glad he emphasized this with us) “Develop your own style. Don’t try to imitate.” You can use others as models, but learn. You don’t arrive full blown. That’s one of the things that people sometimes mistake that when they go out in the world and aren’t a roaring success by the age of 30, somehow they aren’t measuring up. Steve Jobs is the classic example. By the age of 30 he had been fired from his own company, even though he had a genius in certain areas he was a failure as a leader. He learned painfully over the next few years how you bring people together, how you get things done. It was never easy for him but he mastered it and became a great leader. But he was not born that way. So recognize when you go out of school, (one of the things I wish they would tell you when you graduate) is that up until now, your whole life has been structured. At certain periods of time you do certain things. You are constantly being evaluated. In the private sector you get an evaluation about every six months or once a year, but it isn’t the same as getting a report card. So a lot of people feel at loose ends. It’s the first time you go away from home you get home sick. It’s normal. So don’t feel at a loss. Put it into perspective. Sadly, the best teachers are making mistakes, and the key thing is what you learn from them. Contrary to what Scott Fitzgerald said, you can do second acts. People are open to that idea if they are older, but young people can have second acts too. You can make a mess of things in your twenties or thirties and still put it together and even pursue a totally new career. One example, our publisher wrote a few months ago about a man in Florida, very successful, ran a hospital, huge success, and at the age of 65 he decided to become a commercial pilot.
What were some of the things you did when you were younger to discover your passions?
Just doing it, whether it was the magazine at college. In terms of economics, being curious. Why did certain things going wrong? Do the explanations provided to us in the textbooks hold up? Searching. Going beneath the surface of things. If you have curiosity your mind will be fine. Never take things as they are, and know that sometimes things are as they are for a reason. But you learn these things.
You’ve started your own magazine, you’ve managed a media company, and in 1996 and 2000 you ran in the presidential race. That is something that takes a great deal of courage that most people don’t have. I’m wondering how you found that courage and what motivated you to run.
In entrepreneurship (whether in business or in the political arena) sometimes it’s best not to know everything in advance. You learn as you go. Mine came by happenstance. I’d not intended to go into elected politics. Back then I was heading up an organization called “Empower America,” a reform group that had been founded by Jack Kemp who was a noted figure at the time in American politics. Bill Bennett who is still with us today and Jeane Kirkpatrick who had been the U.S. Ambassador to the UN. We all thought that we were really doing work to lay the groundwork for Jack Kemp to run for president in 1996. He had run in 1988 and had been in the Bush cabinet and he seemed the natural. He called us in in December of 1994, just before Christmas, and stunned us when he told us he wasn’t running. So the question became “Whoa, who do we back?” And I didn’t find candidates who had the Kemp or Reagan optimism, pro-growth platform. So I guess I took a page from my grandfather and instead of complaining “Go do it yourself” My grandfather, who started Forbes magazine, was a writer. He wrote about entrepreneurs and decided to become one himself.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when you made that decision?
Aside from learning to get back to sleep at night was learning to be in a whole different environment 24/7. Learning that everything you say will be held against you. Having and organization put together. Knowing how to delegate. You’re in a whole new world. Most people are not wishing you well, especially if you establish credibility. The media, especially on my side, does not like people of a conservative bent. So you have to adjust to that world and taking what Peter Drucker said, remind yourself, why are you doing this? I had some ideas that I wanted to get done, and if I couldn’t do them at least I would get them out there and get the ball rolling.
Policy aside, what do you think are the most vital characteristics leaders must have to be successful and to get people to engaged in what they are saying?
What are you trying to do? What is the goal? Establishing trust with people. There are various ways to do it so that they will go along with you. Learning how to delegate authority. You may be able to do a certain job better job than somebody else, but is that the best use of your time? Recognizing what people are good at and what they’re not, and recognizing that in one situation they may be perfect and in one situation they might be not good for it at all. Also recognizing that no matter how bright you are, no matter how good you are, no matter how on top of the game you are, you will make mistakes. You’re going to face crises. Sometimes there’s going to be no playbook and you’re going to have to draw inside to deal with this thing with no guarantee of success. You’ve got to have the fortitude to face that. You have to be an innovator. And that too is risky. Most new businesses fail and it’s not an easy thing to have that smacked at you. So if you have the temperament for it, great. If not, recognize it. We’re not all the same. You have to understand who you are and may have to change in the face of circumstance. One of the things of a leader too is that you have to sometimes go into a situation where you aren’t fully prepared, but it’s the opportunity and if you don’t take it now it’s probably not going to come back again and you just have to go in and do the best you can. You will be thrown in the water, so to speak. You have to learn how to swim.
Listen to the full replay of this episode from July 1 on CITR Radio 101.9 FM, Vancouver, BC
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This interview has been condensed and edited.
