James Babb

Leadership is about setting an exciting team vision and serving and supporting others to achieve it through action and by example.

Success is a journey, not an outcome. You have a series of achievements and learnings along the way, and as long as you don’t quit, you won’t lose.

There is not one example for me. I consider myself a student of leadership and seek to learn from every experience and observation. The worst leaders are selfish people because they make decisions in their best interests first rather than the group of people that they are responsible for leading. The best leaders are like successful sports coaches because they can inspire and unite people to achieve more than they believe possible.

I have experienced it many times. As I mentioned earlier, there is only loss if no learning exists. I have always sought to learn from my setbacks. A case in point was back in college; I failed the introductory accounting course twice in a row. It was like a foreign language to me. But I did not give up, and for that, I went on to earn an MBA degree with an accounting specialisation and passed all four parts of the CPA exam on my first attempt, something in those days only 25% of people achieved. What at first seemed to be my weakness was later proven to be a strength because I refused to give up — an important early lesson for me in failure.

I led the global external audit of the Olayan Group for several years. I was able to observe first-hand the achievements of the founder, the late Sulaiman Olayan, a Saudi born into very humble beginnings and limited formal education who went on to build an international investment company with tremendous, sustained success. I admire many of his attributes, both personal and professional.

Take your responsibility seriously, do your homework and come prepared to meetings. Do not compromise on matters of ethics. Seek further learning and development, the duties of a director call for knowledge and familiarity with a variety of business topics. In a rapidly changing world, one should focus on something other than their subject matter expertise.

I am a lifelong Raiders fan (an American football team). Growing up, I always dreamed of owning the team. I love the team culture and spirit and the business of football. The team’s founder Al Davis was a maverick, and his legacy extends beyond the team to the NFL and its operations. While I didn’t end up owning the team with their move to my home city of Las Vegas, I did manage to own personal seat licenses in their new stadium and season tickets into retirement. Not a bad consolation.