In considering the nature of leadership, Irving Thalberg and the attitude encapsulated in that quote immediately came to mind. There is no doubt that Thalberg was hard-working, sometimes to the detriment of his fragile health and his family life, yet it is also clear that he was able to see the craft and beauty of movie-making as something greater than himself. The film critic Carol Lejeune wrote about him: “He had the quality, rare among showmen, and precious among men, of standing back after an achievement and letting the other fellow take the credit…he never wanted to be known as the big promoter. He just saw a little farther than most of the others, and trusted in his vision, and worked like a laborer until it came true….What he also had was a great kindliness, a love for his workers, friends and audiences.” Without a doubt Thalberg had something of the genius about him, but he never tried to fool himself about his abilities or self-sufficiency, and while he got a lot of things right, he got a number quite, quite wrong; he didn’t initially believe that talking picture would take off, and he completely missed Clark Gable’s star quality on first meeting him. However, in each of those cases and in many others, when he realized he’d gotten the wrong end of the stick, as it were, he didn’t dig in his heels, but got on board with the judgement of others. In fact, his initial impressions notwithstanding, he produced the very first all-talking, all-singing Hollywood musical, The Broadway Melody (1927), and he is the one who groomed Clark Gable into “The King of Hollywood.” But, again, little of it was about him. It was about the work, about the workers, about the audiences. In 1929 he produced Hallellujah!, one of the first (if not the first) all-African-American film by a major studio and intended for a general audience. It was a huge risk on his part as well as the studio’s, and the film lost $120,000 (almost 2 million today). Nevertheless, he felt it an important film to make in part to present some very fine African-American performers to the general cinema-going public. Equally, toward the end of his life he produced one the first screen adaptations of Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. That too lost money – almost one million dollars at the time – yet he still believed it worthwhile and an important artistic contribution. For Thalberg it was the project that mattered, not the accolades or the criticism.

I have come to admire Thalberg tremendously, and I think his attitudes about work and leadership and engagement translate into the lives of many of us.   If I were to write a book called All I Ever Needed to Learn about Leadership I Learned from Irving Thalberg I would list four things as essential: 1) It’s about the work, not about you. If you are looking for accolades and strokes, real leadership is probably not for you. 2) Don’t get caught up in either personal praise or criticism. Both pull you down in one way or another, while at the same time they are somehow both equally meaningless. It’s the fruit of the work that has any significance, and that’s not immediately discernible. For example, few people realized at the time the significance of Hallelujah! and its importance. 3) You’ll get a lot of things wrong, but once you realize you’re wrong get onto the right track…and wholeheartedly, with gusto. 4) And of course, “Credit you give yourself is not worth having.” Don’t ever buy your own publicity…no matter how “successful” you may be (or think you are). I try to remember these especially during our present trying times when I just might be a little more critical and self-conscious about my life and work, and little more inclined to lose objectivity and perspective. Ultimately, so little is actually about me. Thalberg’s life and outlook remind me of that.

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