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Holmes is fictional. Graham and Bezos are salesmen in every sense of the word. See my post for Catsmull. It's not so much about having an incredibly high bar (

Holmes is fictional. Graham and Bezos are salesmen in every sense of the word. See my post for Catsmull. It's not so much about having an incredibly high bar (though I'll admit it's unfair), but just being aware that what they are selling you as insight might not be as insightful as you think it is. Most people don't have the experience to know whether they are wrong (I don't), this is the inherent danger. We also tend to gloss over when they are wrong. Skepticism is warranted, though maybe not the cynicism.

danielam 9y ago
Your comment reminded me of Chesterton[0]. [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11505/11505-h/11505-h.htm#THE_FALLACY_OF_SUCCESS https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11505/11505-h/11505-h.htm#TH...
dwaltrip 9y ago
You can make the argument that Bezos is a salesmen. But that is not certainly NOT his primary role... so it's a misleading statement and it doesn't support your main point. I would argue that this collection of content has a fairly high signal to noise, for someone who is sifting through it critically.
- dfee 9y ago
  You believe selling is not his primary role? You used a double negative in your comment so I’m unclear. Anyway, as his duty to Amazon is selling equity and debt to drive growth - and has been for the last 2 decades, if not 3 - I’d conclude that sales best defines his primary duty. Sure, he manages and directionally pushes the organization, but he’s doing that to improve his ability to raise capital, increase shareholder confidence, and build a tappable revenue pipeline. How would you argue he’s not primarily a salesman?
  - dwaltrip 9y ago
    Sorry, sloppy typing on my phone. He drives the vision and values of the company, makes major strategic decisions, and so on. He decided to reinvest all profits into the growth of the company for more than a decade, despite immense whining from investors. And he drove the internal systems to be so well decoupled that AWS could spring out from internal infrastructure as an amazingly successful secondary business. And countless other things. It sounds like you are describing the generic, money-manager CEO that is brought in to run an existing stable business. I don't think Bezos fits that mold. Even in your own description, you said: > build a tappable revenue pipeline. which is much beyond the capabilities of a pure salesperson. I totally agree that great CEOs need to be great salespeople (the good kind... not the slimy kind). But that is only one aspect of what they need to do -- especially for complex, changing domains like where Amazon operates.

danielam 9y ago

Your comment reminded me of Chesterton[0]. [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11505/11505-h/11505-h.htm#THE_FALLACY_OF_SUCCESS https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11505/11505-h/11505-h.htm#TH...

dwaltrip 9y ago

You can make the argument that Bezos is a salesmen. But that is not certainly NOT his primary role... so it's a misleading statement and it doesn't support your main point. I would argue that this collection of content has a fairly high signal to noise, for someone who is sifting through it critically.

dfee 9y ago
You believe selling is not his primary role? You used a double negative in your comment so I’m unclear. Anyway, as his duty to Amazon is selling equity and debt to drive growth - and has been for the last 2 decades, if not 3 - I’d conclude that sales best defines his primary duty. Sure, he manages and directionally pushes the organization, but he’s doing that to improve his ability to raise capital, increase shareholder confidence, and build a tappable revenue pipeline. How would you argue he’s not primarily a salesman?
- dwaltrip 9y ago
  Sorry, sloppy typing on my phone. He drives the vision and values of the company, makes major strategic decisions, and so on. He decided to reinvest all profits into the growth of the company for more than a decade, despite immense whining from investors. And he drove the internal systems to be so well decoupled that AWS could spring out from internal infrastructure as an amazingly successful secondary business. And countless other things. It sounds like you are describing the generic, money-manager CEO that is brought in to run an existing stable business. I don't think Bezos fits that mold. Even in your own description, you said: > build a tappable revenue pipeline. which is much beyond the capabilities of a pure salesperson. I totally agree that great CEOs need to be great salespeople (the good kind... not the slimy kind). But that is only one aspect of what they need to do -- especially for complex, changing domains like where Amazon operates.