Finding Purpose in Sports
Five years ago, Nike CEO John Donahoe was a man in search of a purpose. He had already done two major CEO gigs -- at Bain & Co. (1999-2005) and then at eBay (2005-2015.) At age 55, he was burned out, and decided to take a year's sabbatical to explore what to do with the rest of his life.
His "wisdom tour" included a stay at a Buddhist retreat and visits with some 50 people, most of them 65 and over, to learn their secrets for remaining happy and vital later in life.
Donahoe shared the life lessons he learned on this vision question with Fortune's Ellen McGirt and me in this week's episode of our podcast, Leadership Next. I won't give away his secrets here, but I will say it led Donahoe to return to his life as a CEO for two more rounds, first running ServiceNow starting in 2017, and then at Nike starting in January of this year. Listen to the podcast to get the full story.
Why did he end up at Nike? “When Mark Parker and Phil Knight and the Nike board came to me and said, ‘Would you consider being our next CEO,’ what struck me was this: The world is more polarized than at any time in my adult life," Donahoe said. "Polarization is in. Division seems to be in. Sport is one of the few things that still brings people together. Sport brings people together within countries, sports brings people together across countries, sport brings people together on the ultimate level playing field…I feel like the world needs sport more today than at any time in history.”
By the way, here's one of the secrets Donahoe discovered to fulfillment later in life: “Find things in your life for which you have accountability and there’s consequence. It doesn’t have to be one big thing, but find meaningful things in your life.”
Do you have things in your life which are consequential, for which you have accountability, and which give your life meaning? If so, share them here. And sign up for future episodes on Leadership Next on Apple or Spotify.
Educator philosopher: Wisdom for children aimhigtips.com
4 年Nike should help all children grades 5-12 by distributing and encouraging them to learn easy free wisdom for equality so they have better lives - aimhighteentips.com https://bradberger29.wordpress.com/2020/09/11/ten-reasons-kids-need-wisdom/
M&A Advisor, Board Advisor, Executive Committee Member
4 年Thanks Mr. Murray... Good vision declared by Mr. Donahoe against the Zeitgeist tendency. We need this kind of leadership thought to improve humanity in safe, liberty, happiness basis.
Philosopher. Yale PhD. UNC Morehead-Cain. I bring wisdom to business and to the culture in talks, advising, and books. Bestselling author. Novelist. 30+ books. TomVMorris.com. TheOasisWithin.com.
4 年Alan. Great job, Cousin. Like always, dude. I just shared it to my stream here with the comment: This is SO good, like every Leadership Now podcast that Alan and Ellen do. But I found this particularly engaging along the lines of personal purpose and engagement as we age. It's taken me a couple of days to get to it because, well, you can imagine the hectic life of a philosopher, right? A swarm of ideas, concepts, principles, and arguments to be addressed and adjudicated daily, even hourly. Thousands of years of wisdom demanding attention. And right now, Aeschylus is calling me to read the Agamemnon. And there's Rutger Bregmann whose great "HumanKind" led me to grab his "Utopia" as well and I'm 20 pages in and loving it too. And I just got done with one of the best books in 10 years, "Everything is Spiritual" by Rob Bell. Now, finally, Alan and Ellen once more, and it was SO SO good. Give them a listen. Business and life wisdom await. #leadership #inspiration #happiness
Associate Real Estate Broker?? breath- the source of life and light. ??
4 年Mr Alan Murray I’m afraid I have to agree with Mr. Joe Donahoe, sports and I will add music are the only things that still bring people together ???? have a great week ???? “The toughest test of good judgment is to know when to withhold your better judgment.” R. Breault