Ben is the real deal in terms of Leaders. I saw him make many, many tough decisions, many of which were not popular, but were right for the company. About the

Ben is the real deal in terms of Leaders. I saw him make many, many tough decisions, many of which were not popular, but were right for the company. About the only mistake I've ever seen him make (that couldn't have been avoided) was after the catastrophic layoffs when Loudcloud went public at the same time the market tanked (an awesome achievement, in itself), when he was rallying the leftover troops (that hadn't gone to EDS, or lost their jobs), he stated "No more layoffs, not while I'm CEO." - he was pretty passionate about that, and was trying to make a commitment to the leftover 100 or so employees - but no CEO should ever make that commitment to their employees. (Though, to the best of my knowledge, he honored that commitment while CEO of Opsware - so who am I to judge...)