Where to Start with Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt served as CEO and then chairman of Google during the company’s most explosive growth period, from 2001 to 2017. Together with Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle, he has written three New York Times bestsellers that distill the leadership and management lessons from building one of the world’s most influential companies. His writing is shaped by decades of experience at the intersection of technology, strategy, and people, and his most personal work centers on the coach who shaped his own leadership: Bill Campbell.
Start here
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg & Alan Eagle · 240 pages · 2019 · Easy
Themes: Silicon Valley leadership, executive mentoring, trust building, team dynamics, coaching in practice
A tribute to and practical playbook from Bill Campbell, the executive coach who shaped the leaders behind Google, Apple, and Intuit. Written by three people he coached directly, this book reveals the principles behind one of the most extraordinary coaching careers in business history.
Why Start Here
Trillion Dollar Coach is the most accessible and compelling of Schmidt’s books. It tells the story of Bill Campbell, a former Columbia University football coach who became the most sought-after executive coach in Silicon Valley. Campbell coached Steve Jobs through his return to Apple, guided Larry Page and Sergey Brin as they scaled Google, and mentored dozens of other leaders who went on to build transformative companies.
The book distills Campbell’s coaching philosophy into actionable principles. Build trust before anything else. Coach the team, not just individuals. Lead with both high standards and genuine care. Be willing to say the hard thing when it serves the person’s growth. These ideas are illustrated through vivid stories from inside some of the most consequential companies of our time.
What makes the book particularly valuable is that it shows coaching from the perspective of the people being coached. Schmidt, Rosenberg, and Eagle do not just describe Campbell’s methods. They describe what it felt like to be on the receiving end of his coaching and how it changed their leadership.
What to Expect
A fast, engaging 240-page read structured around Campbell’s core principles. Part biography, part leadership manual. The writing is clear and driven by storytelling rather than theory. No prior knowledge of Silicon Valley is needed, though readers familiar with the tech industry will recognize many of the characters and situations.