The Art of Being Unreasonable Lessons in Unconventional Thinking

by Broad, Eli; Bloomberg, Michael R.

• ISBN13: 9781118173213
• ISBN10: 111817321X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-08
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

"There's one common theme in all my activities: I run away from conventional wisdom at every opportunity. That's why "unreasonable thinking" is the subject of this book. It has helped me build two Fortune 500 companies, and give away $6 billion to endow some of the greatest contemporary art museums, scientific research centers, and K-12 education initiatives in the world. Of course along the way, I've been celebrated and condemned. I've been called all kinds of names, some of them accurate. You've got to be ready for that if you're going to do anything big. By contrast, most people and institutions take a "reasonable" approach to problems, which I call "Of Course Not" thinking. When faced with the prospect of a new or different approach, they will come up with all the reasons something can’t be done and conclude, "Of course not" because, after all, no one else is doing it that way. This book hopes to explain the "unreasonable" methodologies that got me to where I am, with the hope will be of use to you."

Author Biography

Eli Broad is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the founder of two Fortune 500 companies, KB Home and SunAmerica. He is an internationally known art collector and museum patron and has been profiled on 60 Minutes, in Vanity Fair, and in the New York Times for his role in the creation of Los Angeles cultural institutions, including the Frank Gehry–designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Broad, a new contemporary art museum he and his wife Edythe are building in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. He and his wife have been the driving force behind a genomic medicine research powerhouse—the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT—and three stem cell research centers in California. He is a life trustee on the boards of MOCA, LACMA, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and is regent emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
The Art of Being Unreasonable	p. 1
Why Not? The Powerful Question	p. 7
Forget Conventional Wisdom	p. 14
Do Your Homework No Matter How Much Time It Takes	p. 23
The Value of Being Second	p. 31
How to Work 24/7 and Still Get 8 Hours of Sleep	p. 38
Bright and Young Is a Winning Combination	p. 44
Risk	p. 53
How to Get Results	p. 58
Leverage	p. 64
Marketing	p. 71
Investing	p. 79
Negotiation	p. 85
The Logic of Being Logical	p. 94
I Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog	p. 100
Is That the Best You Can Do? Motivating People by Challenging Them	p. 109
Competition	p. 116
It's Better to Be Respected Than Loved	p. 124
Giving Back	p. 133
Education: Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste	p. 139
The Unreasonableness of Art and Artists	p. 147
Reflections and Second Thoughts	p. 156
Appendix Eli Broad Career Highlights	p. 166
Index	p. 178
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