{"id":2588,"date":"2026-07-01T04:18:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2588"},"modified":"2026-07-01T04:18:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:18:48","slug":"kkr-cofounder-once-impressed-roy-disney-with-a-habit-most-analysts-skipped-it-turned-a-1-hour-meeting-into-all-day-mentorship-i-thought-id-died-and-gone-to-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2588","title":{"rendered":"KKR cofounder once impressed Roy Disney with a habit most analysts skipped\u2014it turned a 1-hour meeting into all-day mentorship: \u2018I thought I\u2019d died and gone to heaven\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Long before he had $16.5 billion to his name by cofounding KKR, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, Kravis was a college graduate trying to find his footing on Wall Street. In the 1960s, while working a summer trainee job at the Madison Fund, his boss sent him to meet alone with Roy O. Disney, the brother of Walt, and then the CEO of Walt Disney Company. Kravis was intimidated\u2014but he decided the only thing he could control was how prepared he was.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2586\">America added more than 1,200 millionaires per day in 2025, but the heyday of the \u2018everyday millionaire\u2019 is already over<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI read everything I could read, believe me,\u201d Kravis recalled to students at Columbia Business School\u2014his MBA alma mater\u2014earlier this month. \u201cI read annual reports, research reports, you name it, footnotes, and filings.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When he arrived for their 9 a.m. meeting, Kravis admitted he was so \u201cscared to death\u201d that he hoped Disney would only spare him 15 minutes. Instead, Disney blocked off an hour\u2014and was impressed enough that, halfway through, he decided Kravis should spend the entire day with him: sitting in on meetings, then capping things off with a studio tour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, I thought I\u2019d died and gone to heaven,\u201d Kravis said. \u201cHe never once asked me was I a partner at the Madison Fund or was I a summer trainee\u2026 And he never asked me how old I was. Nothing. All he cared about was that I knew a lot about his company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To Kravis, the lesson was simple: show up prepared, and people stop caring about your resume or age. Disney told him most analysts who visited never even bothered to read his annual report\u2014they just wanted him to hand them the answer. Kravis had come with real questions instead.<\/p>\n<p>The lesson has stuck with him throughout his career, and can be used by Gen Z today: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to reach out to people older than you. Don\u2019t be afraid to reach out and ask questions. There are no dumb questions. You\u2019re going to learn a lot from just questioning people and asking.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>\u2018Arrogance kills\u2019: KKR\u2019s billionaire cofounder says curiosity matters more than confidence<\/h2>\n<p>That meeting with Disney became one of the defining moments of Kravis\u2019s early career, but he said the lesson extends far beyond a single conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Now 82, Kravis said the best investors\u2014and the best leaders\u2014never stop learning. In fact, there\u2019s a sign behind his desk at KKR bearing one of the firm\u2019s guiding principles: \u201cArrogance Kills.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve just seen more people blow up because they were really arrogant. We all put our pants on the same way every morning, and we\u2019re all human beings,\u201d Kravis said. \u201cIf you stop learning and you think, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve got all the answers\u2019\u2014that\u2019s arrogant, and that\u2019ll kill you, because I guarantee, I don\u2019t care who you are, none of us have all the answers. Even ChatGPT doesn\u2019t get it right half the time as we know.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Curiosity, he added, is also a competitive advantage that no successful person can live without\u2014especially for entrepreneurs. It\u2019s something he learned as he and his partners built out KKR into a firm now with over $750 billion assets under management.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2584\">Remote-first fintech giant Revolut is making the office compulsory for new Gen Z grads\u2014and they\u2019ll earn flexibility like their peers after one year<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if you can teach somebody to be a great entrepreneur,\u201d Kravis said. \u201cBecause if somebody\u2019s afraid of taking risk and they\u2019re afraid of making a mistake, you won\u2019t be an entrepreneur. You\u2019ve got to fail. You\u2019ve got to be prepared to fail. Pick yourself up and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Fortune<\/em> reached out to KKR for further comment.<\/p>\n<h2>The secret to success is a learning mindset, agrees Marc Benioff and Jeff Bezos<\/h2>\n<p>Kravis isn\u2019t alone in his thinking\u2014having a learning mindset is something many CEOs agree sets apart those who succeed from those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has long advocated for maintaining what he calls a \u201cbeginner\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou can have an expert\u2019s mind, where you have few possibilities, or you can have a beginner\u2019s mind, where you always have every possibility,\u201d he said in an interview with LinkedInin 2020. \u201cIt\u2019s critical for every entrepreneur, for every CEO, every business leader\u2014really everyone\u2014[to] maintain your beginner\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Bezos has echoed that philosophy, saying Amazon\u2019s success depends on employees staying willing to learn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that culturally we do really well at Amazon. We\u2019re willing to learn new skills, willing to do that big price of admission,\u201d Bezos told <em>Fortune<\/em> in 2016. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of tuition to become an expert in something new but then while doing that, maintain a beginner\u2019s mind so that we actually end up with a differentiated offering instead of a me-too offering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AMD CEO Lisa Su delivered a similar, simple message to students at Stanford Graduate School of Business last year.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe most important thing for all of us is to have a deep curiosity for solving problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2582\">Netflix could turn NBC into its biggest bet yet \u2014 and this time, the math actually works<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before building the $80 billion Wall Street giant KKR, Henry Kravis met with Walt Disney\u2019s brother Roy and learned the importance of doing your homework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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