Five lessons from Reggie Fils-Aime's book
Colin Campbell
Wednesday 4th May 2022
Reggie Fils-Aime is one of the most successful executives in game industry history. In his new book, Disrupting the Game, Fils-Aime recounts his life in business -- around half the book covers his time at Nintendo -- offering tips and advice to would-be leaders and entrepreneurs.
While Nintendo fans, and budding business leaders, will find value in this book, I found its most revealing moments by reading between the lines. Reggie is an interesting man (though not always in exactly the ways he imagines).
Few gaming execs have a greater claim to be taken seriously as Reggie Fils-Aime. As head of sales and marketing, and then president and CEO of Nintendo of America, he oversaw the company during an era that spanned the Nintendo DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, and Switch.
His ability to connect with fandom and the media via bombastic presentations at live events such as E3 made him an internet celebrity. The lower-middle class child of Haitian immigrants, he is one of the very few people of color who have held senior positions in the world of entertainment.
He has managed to closely associate himself with the oft-touted business philosophy of "disruption" and "blue ocean thinking," even though they are fairly commonplace ideas lifted from business literature.
Following his retirement from Nintendo in 2019, Fils-Aime has been knocking around as a board member at various organizations, while helping students at alma mater Cornell University as a 'Leader in Residence.'
Disrupting the Game comes across much like a commencement speech. Its overt lessons are well-worn bromides that urge readers to believe in their own abilities, work hard, and show some grit when the going gets tough.
His anecdotes about
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