> One thing that is true in all successful organizations over time is that for any given person, no amount of genius will make up for being an asshole.
Wouldn't Steve Jobs be a counterexample to this? And possibly Bill Gates?
Wouldn't Steve Jobs be a counterexample to this? And possibly Bill Gates?
Remember that Apple (etc) have been troubled at many times through their history with him at the helm :)
Gates also eventually left in part because he was doing more harm than good (and has tried to turn himself into a more reasonable person it seems).
Compare that to the organization that MS is now under a leader who isn't an asshole?
I'm certainly not going to claim you can't make a successful company or organization by being a brilliant asshole. I'm only claiming it eventually catches up with you, and over time, ends up a net negative for the organization.
Am I downplaying his donations? Not at all. It's just that doing a good thing does not cancel out the bad.
To give an example: Elon clearly drives tesla in it's current position. Do you think at some point he will not be a clear net negative to the organization?
(It's also interesting to me that essentially the only counterexamples people have tried to raise are CEO's - i'm curious if this means people believe what i say is true for lower levels but not founders/ceos/etc, or what)