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> This glorifying of CEO's (and entrepreneurs) is making me sick. Sure, it's hard being a CEO. It's hard being a teacher. It's hard being a parent. Stop believi

> This glorifying of CEO's (and entrepreneurs) is making me sick. Sure, it's hard being a CEO. It's hard being a teacher. It's hard being a parent. Stop believing you're so special. They're different kinds of hard, and they're also all worth thinking about. There's many places that articles and discussions are happening on being a better teacher or being a better parent too. And this blog post (1) isn't gushing, and (2) has a lot of truth in it. I'm staying with a friend of mine in China who left IBM to start his own company. He's experiencing the whoa-holy-shit-I'm-the-guy-responsible feeling. There really aren't too many things similar to it - being the final decisionmaker is its own kind of stress and neurosis. If things screw up, it's your fault alone and you have to live with that. In theory, that's true for everyone. In practice, there's a huge difference between being employed or contracted, and running your own shop or self-employed. The psychology of it is really, tangibly different - that's not glorification, that's just the facts here. > the people being fired have to live with the consequences. Jason only has to live with making the decision, which is much easier. Jeez. Have you ever recruited anyone to work for you, had it not work out, and had to let them go? It's one of the hardest, most gut-wrenching things you'll ever have to do. You asked someone to trust you, and you were wrong and someone else is going to suffer for it... and you have to pull the trigger now. Ask anyone who has had to lay off someone they recruited and brought into the company - it's miserably awful. Agreed it's also bad for employees to be let go, but writing it off as "much easier" to say to someone, "I'm sorry, I made the wrong decision and you have to suffer for it"... I don't know, I'm guessing you've never had to do it. Very few things weigh so heavily on your conscience.

ghshephard 16y ago
"Ask anyone who has had to lay off someone they recruited and brought into the company - it's miserably awful." - In particular, I recall when Ben Horowitz had to do that to about 200+ people in 2001, some of whom he had hired away from other jobs to come work at Loudcloud just a few months earlier. I'm trying to recall if I've ever seen anyone suffer as much as he did when he met with the employees to explain what was happening, and why he had to do it. It was a case of survival, and I did not envy him for a second. I think he probably carries the emotional scars of that moment to this day.
pbz 16y ago
Take doctors for example. They have to make life and death decisions on a daily basis - and that's not a metaphor. If the argument is that it imposes a psychological tax on you then I could come up with quite a few examples that are far more taxing and far less rewarding financially. Try being in a war and killing people and compare that with firing 200 people. In most cases you go through an adjustment period, and after a while you get desensitized - or you go crazy. The same happens with CEOs, you're not going to care the same about the 200th-time you fire somebody as you did with the first. I'm not saying is easy, or that anybody can do it, but we need to step back a little. The same way praising a child about their smarts puts them in a well-I-can't-get-any-better locked position, glorifying CEOs prevents us from critically evaluating their performance or even suggesting there's a better way... After all, we can't possibly know how hard it is.
petervandijck 16y ago
"Have you ever recruited anyone to work for you, had it not work out, and had to let them go?" -> Yes. It wasn't fun, but it's less fun being fired. "Very few things weigh so heavily on your conscience." -> Realizing that you haven't been there for your kids. Accidentally killing a bicyclist with your car. Building a product that rips people off. I can easily write a really long list here of things that are harder than firing someone who is not working out. Just saying.

ghshephard 16y ago

"Ask anyone who has had to lay off someone they recruited and brought into the company - it's miserably awful." - In particular, I recall when Ben Horowitz had to do that to about 200+ people in 2001, some of whom he had hired away from other jobs to come work at Loudcloud just a few months earlier. I'm trying to recall if I've ever seen anyone suffer as much as he did when he met with the employees to explain what was happening, and why he had to do it. It was a case of survival, and I did not envy him for a second. I think he probably carries the emotional scars of that moment to this day.

pbz 16y ago

Take doctors for example. They have to make life and death decisions on a daily basis - and that's not a metaphor. If the argument is that it imposes a psychological tax on you then I could come up with quite a few examples that are far more taxing and far less rewarding financially. Try being in a war and killing people and compare that with firing 200 people. In most cases you go through an adjustment period, and after a while you get desensitized - or you go crazy. The same happens with CEOs, you're not going to care the same about the 200th-time you fire somebody as you did with the first. I'm not saying is easy, or that anybody can do it, but we need to step back a little. The same way praising a child about their smarts puts them in a well-I-can't-get-any-better locked position, glorifying CEOs prevents us from critically evaluating their performance or even suggesting there's a better way... After all, we can't possibly know how hard it is.

petervandijck 16y ago

"Have you ever recruited anyone to work for you, had it not work out, and had to let them go?" -> Yes. It wasn't fun, but it's less fun being fired. "Very few things weigh so heavily on your conscience." -> Realizing that you haven't been there for your kids. Accidentally killing a bicyclist with your car. Building a product that rips people off. I can easily write a really long list here of things that are harder than firing someone who is not working out. Just saying.