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Key Moments: Experiences in a Dedicated Life - Hardcover

Mohn, Liz

 
9780770436018: Key Moments: Experiences in a Dedicated Life
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0770436013 ISBN 13: 9780770436018
Verlag: Currency, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

"You always saw the world as your workplace."

In 2009, this was how Reinhard Mohn--the man who turned Bertelsmann AG from an unremarkable, postwar German business into a successful, international media conglomerate--described the professional dedication of his wife, Liz Mohn. Born into a seemingly hopeless world, this girl from Wiedenbrück, Germany, grew into a proactive woman who, following her late husband's death, now represents the fifth generation of Bertelsmann's ownership. She sits on the company's supervisory board, where for decades she has brought unconventional ideas to a traditional media empire, and she also serves as vice chairwoman of the Bertelsmann Foundation's executive board.
     In her new book, Key Moments, Mohn tells her remarkable personal history, recalling with great candor the difficult early years in Gütersloh and how she grew into her role at the side of her influential husband. She met challenges with curiosity and a desire to learn from her mistakes. Through it all, she followed her life's motto: Try it. You can do it.
     An active philanthropist, Mohn highlights the importance of every individual being accountable to a greater good while appealing to the social responsibility of the political and economic sectors as well. She makes the case that each of us is called to contribute his or her part toward creating a successful future. This, of course, is what Liz Mohn has done all of her life. In light of her efforts and successes, she is often asked, "How do you do it all?" Key Moments gives readers a fascinating insight into the answer.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Following the death of her husband, Reinhard Mohn, LIZ MOHN represents the fifth generation of the Bertelsmann and Mohn founding families. She is the vice chair of the Bertelsmann Stiftung board. In addition, she has served as president of the Spain-based Fundación Bertelsmann since October 2005.  

Her other activities at the Bertelsmann Stiftung focus on the annual Carl Bertelsmann Prize, the International Cultural Forum series, work/life balance issues, and initiatives concerning corporate leadership and culture.

At Bertelsmann AG, she is a member of the supervisory board, where she represents the founding Bertelsmann and Mohn families. In 1999, she joined the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG), which exercises the voting rights held by the Mohn family and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. She has been chair of the BVG executive board since 2002.

She is also involved in the Bertelsmann Relief Fund, the Medical Information Service, the German Stroke Foundation, and the Liz Mohn Foundation for Culture and Music, both of which she founded.

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Intuition as Opportunity

I've met countless numbers of people over the past decades, and I've always been curious about how they acquired their skills, talents, and abilities, and how they recognized these qualities, especially attributes that were not immediately apparent. My greatest passion has always been to work with others. Whether I'm hiring new employees at Bertelsmann or meeting young people all over the globe, one thing fascinates me: What makes a person unique? How does someone attain inner strength? Why do some of us not only accept life's challenges but use them for personal growth? And last but not least: What does it take for someone to become a leader? And by leader, I don't mean just someone with a high position within a company. Being a leader means leading by example--whether working in an honorary position or managing projects in social, cultural, or other fields.

Of course, having expert knowledge is a must. To be at the top of your profession, you need to have an excellent education as well as substantial professional knowhow. But that's not all. I have met many extraordinarily talented and well-educated people who become insecure when dealing with others, who won't discuss controversial subjects, and who avoid taking a personal stand. In short, they retreat just when it's their time to step up. They don't trust their own instincts, and they won't take a stand. But a keen intellect and proven capabilities are not enough to be successful. We know today that our brain's subconscious can process much more information than our rational, conscious mind can.1 Contrary to what we in the West have been taught for generations, feelings or intuition do not stand in opposition to intelligence. Rather, they are a type of intelligence.

Until just a few years ago, it was frowned upon for women of my generation to discuss the impact of their feelings on their decision making. If you showed your emotions, you were considered intellectually weak. And if, furthermore, it was a woman who drew on her intuition, her friends and family would humor her, but her colleagues would certainly not take her seriously. For a long time, concepts like "emotional intelligence" and "intuitive judgment" were considered feminine or female-oriented. Any old-school, traditional manager would have just laughed at them.

This has now all changed, with a special impact on the women of my generation. Today we know that qualities like intuition contribute to making a great leader. If we trust our feelings, we can grow as human beings. We can be open to new possibilities, take unexplored paths, develop new ideas, and launch new projects. We can bring individuals together who otherwise would have never met, and tap into unknowable potential. Believing in the power of your own intuition makes way for endless opportunities. I have seen innumerable examples of it.

Of course, intuition isn't everything. Our emotional knowledge still needs an intellectual framework, including professional expertise and analytical thinking--just as intellect without intuition has its limits. Together, however, intellect and intuition are unbeatable. The more I learned to trust my feelings, the more courageous I became. Suddenly I was going forward with projects that I hadn't dared dream of before. These are the opportunities that I want to talk about here, the key to many of my projects and initiatives. At first, I often just had the sense that something needed to be done, and so I would reach for the phone. An idea was born, and then others followed. A spontaneous initiative grew into a network, which many people then joined. An intuitive decision unleashed great creative force--what began small grew big. And yet in today's schools, students' creative potential is still not nurtured nearly as much as rational and academic learning.

Anyone who wants to make changes in our society needs to step off the well-trodden path. We must dare to try new things. We must question and rethink that which is familiar, to make sure we're really on the right track. We must be allowed to make mistakes. And we must become curious again, to want to learn our whole lives long.



Between Fear and Hope: A Childhood During Wartime

The world into which I was born was not a safe one. My life began on the eve of Germany's declaration of war on the Soviet Union. The adults were fraught with worry. Today we know that a mother's fear, along with the anxiety and hardship she experiences during the first weeks of her child's life, can have a profound impact on that person's subconscious. As adults, we carry our mothers' worries with us, perhaps for all our lives. But early life lessons are also what made the women of my generation strong. We learned that life is not a cakewalk, and that survival not only demands great strength but can even make you stronger.

The changes in society that we children of the war have witnessed are immense, especially we women, who had to fight hard for our chance at an education and a career, and for a voice in society. For the women of my generation, none of the above were givens. Today, whenever I give a lecture and see so many well-educated young women in the audience, I am overcome with joy. And vice versa: these young women are often astonished at the scope of my duties and my many interests. "How do you do it all?" they ask. "What gave you such strength and courage? What made you the woman you are today?"

What, indeed, makes us who we are? At what point do we discover our personal strengths? How do we unearth our specific talents? And what gives us the courage never to give up, no matter how many setbacks and mistakes we encounter? How do we stay true to ourselves and to the goals that we've set?

It was a long journey from being a little girl from Wiedenbruck to being a head of Bertelsmann AG and the Bertelsmann Foundation. I had the great fortune to be at my husband's side on his many travels and to meet extraordinary personalities from all over the world. These experiences were priceless. They also led to greater self-knowledge. Today I know my strengths and my weaknesses, but most important, I have learned to continually reexamine what I do: Was that the right thing to do? How can I improve? What do I have to change?

In the process of being continually pressured by new challenges and demanding situations, I, like many women, have learned to listen to my inner voice. It wasn't always so. But fortunately, as women's accomplishments in leadership positions have grown, the large role that intuition plays in our daily decision making is getting its due notice.

My personal life and the growth of my professional responsibilities have consistently been marked by turning points. Those were those moments when I knew, This is it! This is what I want to do! This could be successful! And more often than not, the only way to achieve success was through hard work, tenacity, discipline, and perseverance. Numerous national and international projects, as well as the different topic areas of the Bertelsmann Foundation, were created this way. Small initiatives grew, pushing forth against all resistance. All this has given me a wealth of experiences that I share in this book.

The two conflicting emotions of fear and hope informed my entire childhood. Because Wiedenbruck, where I was born, is very close to the Ruhrgebiet and to Bielefeld, we experienced heavy bombing. Countless times my mother grabbed me from my childhood bed and carried me to a bomb shelter. Those years of fear, hunger, cold, and hardship are seared into my memory. But even in the darkest hours, my mother was there, reaching for me. I cannot praise her optimism and courage enough.

My father had many serious health problems. As an invalid, he was not drafted, but for a man of his generation, this was a grave dishonor. He suffered...

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Verlag
Currency
Erscheinungsdatum
2012
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0770436013
ISBN 13 
9780770436018
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
208
Kontakt zum Hersteller
CROWN
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