right; my point was that if you have significant ownership, becoming a bully likely hurts you (because it hurts the company) more than it helps you (because w

right; my point was that if you have significant ownership, becoming a bully likely hurts you (because it hurts the company) more than it helps you (because who is going to promote you? you own the place.) My point is that the traditional rules for office politics are designed for an environment where the actual owners are absent, and what you have left are the middle managers arguing over control of other people's money. The equation works out quite a bit differently in a startup where the boss usually owns a pretty significant chunk of the company. It's the "at startups" bit of the title (which doesn't seem to be supported by the rest of the article) that I object to.