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I have to question if Jobs, Gates, or Ellison would actually be good employees in a large company like Google. It definitely takes resiliency, dedication, and t
by jskopek 18y ago
I have to question if Jobs, Gates, or Ellison would actually be good employees in a large company like Google. It definitely takes resiliency, dedication, and tenacity to start a company; when you're joining a well established one, however, those almost seem like negative traits. I realize that Google encourages employees to try things their way (the 20% paid time they give employees to work on their own projects pretty much locks down that argument), but an organization in which every employee wants to do things their way strikes me as inefficient.
- imp 18y agoI think there's a lot of overlap. For example, the three traits you listed are "resiliency, dedication, and tenacity." There's nothing in those three things that requires doing things your own way. A big company would probably love an employee who had those three traits, but deferred to higher authority for decision making.
- wensing 18y agoIn those kinds of people it's not a la carte--you don't just get "resiliency, dedication, and tenacity" and not get "intense, willful, and independent." They go together. Unless companies start genetically breeding perfect employees ...
- johnrob 18y agoGreat point. There seems to be an assumption that companies want founder types as employees. Fact is, they probably do make good employees, but only for the 1 year they actually stick around before starting up on their own.
- stevenjames 18y agoI think one of the defining characteristics that differentiates "good" from "great" is discipline. Good students possess great skills, but they lack discipline. But in my opinion, discipline can be taught.
- tsally 18y agoUh, good students (if you mean the ones that get good grades) have incredible discipline. Indeed, given a base amount of talent, discipline is all that is required.
- stevenjames 18y agoI agree. I was just commenting on the quotation in the post. I think it would be erroneous to conclude that a student is not "good" because he/she receives a "C" in an economics course. Perhaps the student was very ill that quarter or was busy building some really great thing. But even if they slacked off, they may want to be disciplined. Better yet, they may be willing to listen. In which case, one can probably be taught discipline.