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At least you know who is putting their skin in the game rather than some generic name. Also Tesla is not named Musk, or Amazon, Bezos.
by eggy 8y ago
At least you know who is putting their skin in the game rather than some generic name.
Also Tesla is not named Musk, or Amazon, Bezos.
- geofft 8y agoWhy are they putting their skin in the game? What sort of decisions could WeWork, Tesla, or Amazon make that would ruin the personal finances of Neumann, Musk, or Bezos? There is still a corporate abstraction, so while profits turn into bonuses, losses don't turn into personal misfortune for the founders. (Although they may turn into personal misfortune for laid-off employees.) (And yes, the real world is not a fictional caricature.)
- rdl 8y agoMusk has said and shown repeatedly that he'd put his last dollar into SpaceX (and probably Tesla), so he's not a great example here.
- richardknop 8y agoNot sure about that. He maintains very luxurious lifestyle. His continuous investment in Tesla could be seen more as an effort to maintain full / majority shareholder control of the company. I don’t think he would sell his house and invest the money in Tesla. He would still be rich even if Tesla goes bankrupt. Plus he has billionaire family members as a fallback.
- gowld 8y agoWho are Musk's billionaire family members?
- richardknop 8y agoHis brother is a billionaire also I believe (not as rich as Elon but still that’s a nice safety net to have).
- Spivak 8y agoIt puts their reputation on the line. If you destroy the brand $Lastname you can't use it again. "I stake my personal reputation on the reputation of the company I run"
- geofft 8y agoWhat do you need a reputation and a personal brand for if you have two billion dollars?
- beatgammit 8y agoWhat if you need $10B to reach your goal? You'll need to raise money somehow, and reputation is the deciding factor for many investors. Also, once you become fabulously wealthy, you want something more than financial security, you want to be remembered. Look at the flip Bill Gates did with becoming a leading philanthropist. He doesn't want to be remembered as the evil, anti-competitive CEO of Microsoft during the 90s, he wants to be remembered for his work in the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Trump didn't want to be remembered as the shrewd personality on The Apprentice, he wanted to become President of the United States. Some just want to be extraordinarily rich to make "richest people in the world" lists (that's where I place Larry Ellison). $2B is far from enough for most people to "be remembered".
- brewdad 8y agoSo either way, it's all ego. Why should I care at all if I'm "remembered" after I die? I'll be dead. Conan O'Brien's NYTimes interview the other day captured this sentiment exactly. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/arts/television/conan-obrien-tbs-show-reboot-half-hour.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/arts/television/conan-obr... "I had a great conversation with Albert Brooks once. When I met him for the first time, I was kind of stammering. I said, you make movies, they live on forever. I just do these late-night shows, they get lost, they’re never seen again and who cares? And he looked at me and he said, [Albert Brooks voice] “What are you talking about? None of it matters.” None of it matters? “No, that’s the secret. In 1940, people said Clark Gable is the face of the 20th Century. Who [expletive] thinks about Clark Gable? It doesn’t matter. You’ll be forgotten. I’ll be forgotten. We’ll all be forgotten.” It’s so funny because you’d think that would depress me. I was walking on air after that."
- coldtea 8y agoIf: (a) you have FU money (b) you'll get to keep having FU money (perhaps drastically less, but still FU money) whatever you try Then you don't have "skin in the game" anymore like a normal person does. If Bezos fortune goes from 100 billion to 5 billion due to bad bets, he still hasn't suffered anything more significant than some damage to his ego (meanwhile Amazon employees could see their lives and finances ruined).
- Aeolun 8y agoI’m sure he would feel like he’d just gone from $1000 to $50 though. It’s a fairly significant difference.
- coldtea 8y agoEgo difference. No lifestyle difference. And no life and death difference.
- komali2 8y agoWould he, though? Really? Functionally what is the difference in quality of life and power between the two? The only thing I can think of is he'd no longer be astronomically one of the richest ten humans alive.
- InitialLastName 8y agoI'll bet it's really nice to have major cities beg you to move there.
- ameister14 8y agoSure, because the Walton family is such a bastion of good policies and personal responsibility