I've felt that way, too. There is some truth to it. A lot of people who get ahead in business aren't the kind of objectionable characters you are thinking of,

I've felt that way, too. There is some truth to it. A lot of people who get ahead in business aren't the kind of objectionable characters you are thinking of, although they easily come off that way. A lot of people who get ahead seem to me to be good at keeping their ego in check and taking a very outgoing and friendly but fundamentally reserved and "universal" approach to social interaction. They are like social "bees" that pollinate the connections among people and between people and ideas but they do that often by being vague and hard to really pin down. So they can seem smarmy. Jerks. Many aren't though. It's a set of skills they have in common with the really bad sociopathic types.