#266: Richard Fain, Former CEO of Royal Caribbean Group – Push past comfortable
How Leaders Lead with David Novak
David Novak Leadership
4.8 • 596 Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2025
⏱️ 73 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | The blimp had been blown away. |
| 0:02.1 | Almost immediately we got a call. |
| 0:03.8 | The captain got a call from the Swedish Air Force. |
| 0:06.8 | Your balloon, your blimp, is in our airlines. |
| 0:10.3 | Can you mind if we shoot it down? |
| 0:17.3 | You have delivered a lot of wows over the years, so many that you can actually, with |
| 0:23.7 | 1,000 percent credibility, write a book on the power of really dazzling your customers. |
| 0:29.1 | What's the first time you remember being completely wowed by something? |
| 0:34.0 | Oh, I think it was actually my, probably my very first cruise. And I took it because I had never |
| 0:41.1 | taken a cruise. And the founder, Ed Stephan, of Royal Caribbean, said, Richard, you got to take a cruise |
| 0:46.6 | so you know what you're talking about. And I had never thought a cruise was for somebody like me. |
| 0:51.8 | I knew it was popular. I knew it was a great thing, intellectually, |
| 0:55.7 | but to actually feel it. And I took that cruise, actually, my wife and I took her somewhat reluctantly, |
| 1:01.8 | and we were just blown away. And the thing that blew us away was the people. They were so |
| 1:07.5 | spectacular. They were passionate. They were innovative. |
| 1:13.0 | It was just terrific. |
| 1:14.3 | And I think that was probably one of the more defining moments |
| 1:18.5 | of my career. |
| 1:19.7 | That's interesting. |
| 1:20.4 | You say you didn't think a cruise was for someone like you. |
| 1:23.5 | What do you mean by that? |
| 1:25.3 | Well, you know, I had a view that back then was quite common. |
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