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Comment by blazespin | Hacker News Reader

Wow! That was incredible. Must read for anyone and everyone at any level. If only we could get honest AND self aware posts like that from everyone.

Critical quote: "I think, to be frank, I was also deeply selfish. I wanted Moz to be the kind of place I wanted to work, not the kind of place most likely to succeed with the team we had or were hiring, not the kind that fit best with what Sarah wanted, but my own little creation where things were weird and different and Rand-like."

I really really appreciate this. I think if you want to become a CEO you have to first (critically!) a) figure out what makes a successful culture and then b) become a person who enjoys and thrives in that kind of culture.

Do you have be born that way for "b"? I don't think so, though it probably helps.

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I think if you want to become a CEO you have to first (critically!) a) figure out what makes a successful culture and then b) become a person who enjoys and thrives in that kind of culture.

I don’t know if I see this as much value add. Finding out what makes a successful culture doesn’t seem trivial, much less easily repeatable. Different cultures can succeed in different circumstances and many different types of cultures can succeed. I also believe cultures evolve more than they are created. To me your argument sounds like saying “to succeed in starting a business you need to figure out what it takes to make a successful business and become a person who thrives doing that.” Working at Google is no more likely to teach you how to start a business than to create a culture. Sure you can learn things that worked there, but only some will work for you and some will likely work against you. The best I’d say you can do is recognize culture is important, try to learn what decisions leadership can make that affect culture, and understand how those decisions impact the business both short and long term. There’s no magic formula for business or for culture.

In all the successful companies I've ever worked in/with, there have been different sub-cultures depending on what role you were fulfilling and what team you were part of. I suspect that part of the requirement for a successful culture is that it allows for the networking of the work of people from a wide range of different backgrounds; favouring different communication styles and patterns of working.

Born what way? (serious question — "born the kind of person who thrives in a successful culture"? Seems a bit tautological / vague)

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