Legends Of Sport revisits a 2018 interview with the legendary Peter Guber. Peter’s Golden State Warriors will start the NBA season as defending champions, his Dodgers are entering the postseason with their eyes on another World Series and his LAFC team is also in the hunt for an MLS championship. Learn more about Peter’s career trajectory and thoughts on what makes a top-tier team.
“I had no original vision for my life in sports, no original vision for my life in the entertainment business. I just had a survival mechanism,” Peter said. “Growing up with the youngest of three brothers, every day was an act of daring to survive.”
From humble beginnings in Boston, Peter made a name for himself in the entertainment industry. He produced movies that have earned fifty Academy Award nominations and over three billion dollars at the box office. Peter is also the co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Dodgers, MLS’ newest franchises, LAFC, and one of the most successful eSports franchises, Team Liquid.
“You do what you need to do. You delegate what others can do better than you and you try to bring your best intellectual, emotional, and creative qualities to the issues that you can make a difference in. Otherwise, you’re answering fire drills at every company and sport and movie and television show and that’s not the best and highest use of your talents,” Peter said.
Peter describes his leadership style toward managing sports teams, movie productions, and more.
“When you have a president or chief operating officer or chief executive, you have to believe that they can execute, you have to believe that they can drive the process successfully, they can collect the folks that are necessary to make the engine work. And you deliver both inspiration and perspiration to them so that they follow the course of action. You have to believe that that’s what you really do. You have to give support. They have to feel that they know they’re in charge. But that doesn’t mean that it’s a monologue. It’s a dialogue if people have faith in you, faith in your judgment, and respect for your experience and background.
“You can earn your way into the heart and mind in a way that’s very effective and positive. The idea is I can’t be Steve Kerr or Rick Welts or Dave Roberts, or Andrew Friedman, or Bruce Stein already the people in our esports business, I can’t be them. What I have to be able to do is play pitch and catch with them I have to be able to bring ideas that aren’t easily accepted ideas and thoughts that aren’t necessarily fully formed but I feel safe bringing them and then helping them with resources and resourcefulness to execute them if they believe them. And if they want to, we shape it in a different way. Leadership isn’t just pointing in a direction and saying, ‘Go get him’, leadership is getting them.”
Tune in to hear about Peter’s enduring commitment to higher learning and get the scoop on his New York Times Best Seller, Tell To Win, a book about creating purposeful stories that can become powerful calls to action.
