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Being an asshole isn't required to be successful. It's a nice think to think the world is "fair" like that, that anyone who is successful has to be an asshole (

Being an asshole isn't required to be successful. It's a nice think to think the world is "fair" like that, that anyone who is successful has to be an asshole (or that smart people are ugly, or that successful people are unhappy, or whatever), but it isn't true from experience. [I am only taking issue with this portion of your response and not the entire narrative] Would you care to elaborate on this? Would you list some striking success stories - besides the Hastings' and the Hoffmans' of the startup world - that have prominently animated our collective imagination and have generally informed us of what special kind of a person it takes to truly strike it big, in the big leagues of startup triumph? I ask genuinely and without a heightened degree of cynicism.

rdl 13y ago
Woz (yes, Jobs was an asshole, but they got to a pretty high level of success when Woz was in a key role, and probably could have gotten to the Apple II stage with Woz + anyone -- not Mac/iPhone/etc., but that's reasonable). Diane Greene, by all accounts, is a great person. VMware is pretty successful (ok, they're dicks now under EMC to some extent, but she also left long ago) Dr. Amar Bose (Bose audio, not Bose physics) was one of the most amazingly good people I've never encountered; Bose doesn't make the best audio equipment in the world, but it's a successful company. Stripe is pretty successful so far; the Collison brothers are widely regarded as decent people. YC itself has been quite successful; none of the YC partners are dicks. There are clearly counterexamples (Zynga alone makes up for a lot...), but I think it's pretty clear being an asshole isn't necessary to be successful. It might be somewhat correlated, or not, but I think there are a lot of other traits which are far more predictive of success or failure.
- coffeemug 13y ago
  There are countless examples (your list is great). Here are some more people I instantly thought of. Gabe Newell. John Carmack. While he doesn't have the reputation of being a super-nice person, he certainly doesn't come off as being an arrogant dick. Marc Andreessen. Similarly to Carmack, doesn't necessarily have the reputation for being super-nice, but certainly isn't a dick. Mendel Rosenblum (Diane Greene's cofounder). Max Levchin. There are countless others, really. People in these positions typically have to make some really tough choices (should I fire Bob?) and you can't reach any significant level of success without leaving a trail of disgruntled people behind you. Being forced to make choices that leave some people unhappy isn't the same as being dick, though it might look that way from afar.
- e40 13y ago
  I wouldn't call Woz a serially successful guy, though. Brilliant. Amazingly nice. Talented. But not serially successful in starting and making businesses valuable. It is one thing to do something great and be successful. It's another to do it over and over again. The former is much easier than the latter. Sometimes it's just being in the right place at the right time. Doing it over and over requires great skill and intelligence and drive. (I don't put myself anywhere near that category.)
  - rdl 13y ago
    I think a lot of that is wanting to do it again. A lot of people who make huge amounts of one startup are just not at a point in their lives where, now knowing the costs, they want to try again.
- saryant 13y ago
  The Rackspace guys are some of the nicest people I know.
brudgers 13y ago
Bill Gates. Perhaps you have heard of him.
- frandroid 13y ago
  Yo, I love the work that billg is doing with his foundation, but as a company CEO, he made plenty of dick moves, like trying to dilute Paul Allen out of his wealth, not to mention the whole Netscape-crushing kerfuffle that led to an anti-trust lawsuit and the near-dismantlement of the company...
  - brudgers 13y ago
    Netscape's founders had a 4.2 billion dollar exit that closed higher...following a 2.3 billion dollar IPO. Between internal decisions and the culture infused from AOL, suicide is a more apt analogy than homicide at the hands of Gates. I''ll take a moment to point out that it was Silicon Valley companies [don't forget "look and feel" from Apple] that were focused on litigation rather than innovation just a few years ago. Anyway, few people who reach Gate's age have done nothing blameworthy. That's just the price of adulthood. As fo
  - rdl 13y ago
    He's made a turnaround perhaps greater than Rockefeller or Carnegie from probably being well over the line of ethical behavior in business, to an immense force for good in charity. It's pretty amazing. Warren Buffett, on the other hand, seems to have gotten rich through being basically fair but brilliant (and of course lucky, and hard working), and is making huge charitable contributions as well (both before pledging his wealth to the Gates Foundation and after).

rdl 13y ago

Woz (yes, Jobs was an asshole, but they got to a pretty high level of success when Woz was in a key role, and probably could have gotten to the Apple II stage with Woz + anyone -- not Mac/iPhone/etc., but that's reasonable). Diane Greene, by all accounts, is a great person. VMware is pretty successful (ok, they're dicks now under EMC to some extent, but she also left long ago) Dr. Amar Bose (Bose audio, not Bose physics) was one of the most amazingly good people I've never encountered; Bose doesn't make the best audio equipment in the world, but it's a successful company. Stripe is pretty successful so far; the Collison brothers are widely regarded as decent people. YC itself has been quite successful; none of the YC partners are dicks. There are clearly counterexamples (Zynga alone makes up for a lot...), but I think it's pretty clear being an asshole isn't necessary to be successful. It might be somewhat correlated, or not, but I think there are a lot of other traits which are far more predictive of success or failure.

coffeemug 13y ago
There are countless examples (your list is great). Here are some more people I instantly thought of. Gabe Newell. John Carmack. While he doesn't have the reputation of being a super-nice person, he certainly doesn't come off as being an arrogant dick. Marc Andreessen. Similarly to Carmack, doesn't necessarily have the reputation for being super-nice, but certainly isn't a dick. Mendel Rosenblum (Diane Greene's cofounder). Max Levchin. There are countless others, really. People in these positions typically have to make some really tough choices (should I fire Bob?) and you can't reach any significant level of success without leaving a trail of disgruntled people behind you. Being forced to make choices that leave some people unhappy isn't the same as being dick, though it might look that way from afar.
e40 13y ago
I wouldn't call Woz a serially successful guy, though. Brilliant. Amazingly nice. Talented. But not serially successful in starting and making businesses valuable. It is one thing to do something great and be successful. It's another to do it over and over again. The former is much easier than the latter. Sometimes it's just being in the right place at the right time. Doing it over and over requires great skill and intelligence and drive. (I don't put myself anywhere near that category.)
- rdl 13y ago
  I think a lot of that is wanting to do it again. A lot of people who make huge amounts of one startup are just not at a point in their lives where, now knowing the costs, they want to try again.
saryant 13y ago
The Rackspace guys are some of the nicest people I know.

brudgers 13y ago

Bill Gates. Perhaps you have heard of him.

frandroid 13y ago
Yo, I love the work that billg is doing with his foundation, but as a company CEO, he made plenty of dick moves, like trying to dilute Paul Allen out of his wealth, not to mention the whole Netscape-crushing kerfuffle that led to an anti-trust lawsuit and the near-dismantlement of the company...
- brudgers 13y ago
  Netscape's founders had a 4.2 billion dollar exit that closed higher...following a 2.3 billion dollar IPO. Between internal decisions and the culture infused from AOL, suicide is a more apt analogy than homicide at the hands of Gates. I''ll take a moment to point out that it was Silicon Valley companies [don't forget "look and feel" from Apple] that were focused on litigation rather than innovation just a few years ago. Anyway, few people who reach Gate's age have done nothing blameworthy. That's just the price of adulthood. As fo
- rdl 13y ago
  He's made a turnaround perhaps greater than Rockefeller or Carnegie from probably being well over the line of ethical behavior in business, to an immense force for good in charity. It's pretty amazing. Warren Buffett, on the other hand, seems to have gotten rich through being basically fair but brilliant (and of course lucky, and hard working), and is making huge charitable contributions as well (both before pledging his wealth to the Gates Foundation and after).