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Perhaps in some old economy industries, but when's the last time you saw a startup CEO playing golf? Lots of people think it's all about the idea, and they can

by temphn 15y ago

Perhaps in some old economy industries, but when's the last time you saw a startup CEO playing golf? Lots of people think it's all about the idea, and they can just hire someone to "code it up" and that's the easy part. Lots of people also think that "vision and direction" is easy and anyone can be a CEO. But few people have legitimately good ideas that are connected to the ability of the organization to execute, the general competitive landscape, and the needs of the marketplace. Try being a CEO sometime, startup or otherwise, it's not about golf. It's about the crushing responsibility of making hundreds of decisions a day and knowing you're the one who is ultimately responsible for the business being cash flow positive.

michaelochurch 15y ago
Lots of people also think that "vision and direction" is easy and anyone can be a CEO. But few people have legitimately good ideas that are connected to the ability of the organization to execute, the general competitive landscape, and the needs of the marketplace. Thank you for pointing this out. For startups, the truth is that it takes a lot more than vision to succeed. You need the ability to sell people (investors and employers) on something that doesn't exist yet, a certain tactical acumen, nerves of steel, and quite a bit of luck. You also need a deep technical knowledge because you can't evaluate your first technical hires unless you're technical yourself. This is a tough bill to fit, and vision alone is not enough. Large-company vision is different, and the problem there is that the people who have the necessary skills essentially cannot rise to the top. They tend to be way too passionate to pay their dues, shut up when bad decisions are made, and plod along accruing influence at a pathetic, glacial pace rather than attempting to seize power (which doesn't work in a corporate context; you just get fired). Would Steve Jobs get to the top of any large corporation today? Fuck no, not a chance. Generally, people who rise to the top of large companies are mediocre in terms of visionary ability but extremely reliable. They're not all political sociopaths or assholes; most are perfectly nice people. What they are is very good at performing well no matter what is going on, what kind of work they get, and how they feel about what is going on-- people whose performance has an abnormally low sensitivity to morale and who can therefore sustain middling to high performance, without faltering, over decades. People who have vision almost never meet that description, because vision comes with passion which is another word for getting pissed off when the wrong thing happens.

by temphn 15y ago

michaelochurch 15y ago

Lots of people also think that "vision and direction" is easy and anyone can be a CEO. But few people have legitimately good ideas that are connected to the ability of the organization to execute, the general competitive landscape, and the needs of the marketplace. Thank you for pointing this out. For startups, the truth is that it takes a lot more than vision to succeed. You need the ability to sell people (investors and employers) on something that doesn't exist yet, a certain tactical acumen, nerves of steel, and quite a bit of luck. You also need a deep technical knowledge because you can't evaluate your first technical hires unless you're technical yourself. This is a tough bill to fit, and vision alone is not enough. Large-company vision is different, and the problem there is that the people who have the necessary skills essentially cannot rise to the top. They tend to be way too passionate to pay their dues, shut up when bad decisions are made, and plod along accruing influence at a pathetic, glacial pace rather than attempting to seize power (which doesn't work in a corporate context; you just get fired). Would Steve Jobs get to the top of any large corporation today? Fuck no, not a chance. Generally, people who rise to the top of large companies are mediocre in terms of visionary ability but extremely reliable. They're not all political sociopaths or assholes; most are perfectly nice people. What they are is very good at performing well no matter what is going on, what kind of work they get, and how they feel about what is going on-- people whose performance has an abnormally low sensitivity to morale and who can therefore sustain middling to high performance, without faltering, over decades. People who have vision almost never meet that description, because vision comes with passion which is another word for getting pissed off when the wrong thing happens.