Sorry for the clickbait title, but a chap called me and wanted my five keys to success for a CEO which got me thinking. He was writing an article and wanted to hear a lot of voices.
I fear I ultimately disappointed the old boy as I did not agree it could be limited to five — I will write about my list shortly. Continue reading
In the world of startups, founders:
“Know what they know” — which is often a substantial body of knowledge.
Some, “know what they don’t know” — for which they find co-founders to buttress or they learn.
All startup founders “don’t know what they don’t know” — which gives rise to the super power called “ignorance.”
One of the great truths of founders is they will not be talked off what the world judges to be a stupid idea because they are not knowledgeable enough to know it is a bad idea. Continue reading
A client of mine a few years ago said, “You always make me think, and I prepare for our meetings.”
That is a good thing and it makes me feel good. Nothing wrong with thinking, but it should be more than that.
At the end of every year, a CEO/founder/entrepreneur should conduct a bit of reflection and musing to consider how they are performing as compared to how they want to perform.
I am not talking solely about objectives accomplished, but the nature with which a CEO undertook her/his duties.
Remember this name: Vishal Garg.
“My name is Vishal Garg and I fired 900 employees on a single Zoom call. Yes, I am that moron.”
Vishal is/was the Chief Executive Officer of a digital mortgage company called Better.com. Continue reading
The best job I’ve ever had was as the company commander of a combat engineer company in the Army. It is like being a Chinese feudal war lord which is reputed to be a very good gig.
Company D as in Delta was in need of a firm hand having failed to pass its annual ARTEP (Army Training and Evaluation Program) for multiple years. The battalion was headquartered about five hundred miles away and I never met my battalion commander. Not sure I knew his name.
I was quite alone. Continue reading
In the recent annals of Chinese apologia stand two giants: Jamie Dimon and Ray Dalio. Allow me to elaborate.
“This is my big bad wolf look. I am the Jamie Dimon, Chairman/CEO of America’s largest bank. I am a freakin’ billionaire. I take shit from nobody. Well, except the Chinese to whom I will give a belly rub at the drop of a hat, but I’m still a powerful badass, except when the Chinese tell me to jump and I ask, ‘How high?’ on the way up. Grrrr!”
The only real equality in the world is time. We each get 24 hours a day. The rest of equality notions are lies, headfakes, just opiates for the masses — except for time.
Time is an absolute and nobody gets one more minute in an hour than all of us do. When it comes to time, you are as rich as Elon Musk.
Which beings me to the subject of how we use our time and the friction that life imposes on us and thereby shoplifts our time. Continue reading
I realize today — I didn’t realize it at the time — that I had a close, personal relationship with risk as a young man. It was unconscious and I never thought about it. It just happened.
The proper young lieutenant having just parachuted into a rice patty fertilized with “night soil” and having executed a standing landing. Look at the boots.
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