Assholes, the good the bad and the ugly

[DooDiligence]

Anybody ever work for, or invest alongside an asshole (maybe even been an asshole yourself)?

I've been an asshole so often it's embarrassing (the internet never forgets).

 

Brent Beshore takes us on a compelling journey through assholery.

I know nothing about his investment track record.

People are saying asshole avoidance is key.

 

https://www.permanentequity.com/content/our-no-asshole-policy

[brobro777]

Steve Jobs was an asshole and I made money off Apple...

 

I dunno about asshole avoidance - I've known small business owners who were quite successful and also assholes

[DooDiligence]

35 minutes ago, brobro777 said:

Steve Jobs was an asshole and I made money off Apple...

 

I dunno about asshole avoidance - I've known small business owners who were quite successful and also assholes

 

but he didn't create a culture of assholes. I made $$$  too.

 

[ValueArb]

22 minutes ago, brobro777 said:

Steve Jobs was an asshole and I made money off Apple...

 

I dunno about asshole avoidance - I've known small business owners who were quite successful and also assholes

 

Sometimes people are labeled as assholes because the labeler is entitled and angry that they aren't getting what they wanted.

 

In Jobs case he could be brutally direct to those he considered an impediment to Apples key priorities. There is a great video online of Jobs giving his speech and taking Q&A at his first developer conference after returning as CEO.  A very angry developer lambasts him for canceling OpenDoc, an Apple project at the time to develop a standardized way of embedding "objects" in documents to provide unique components with their own specific features. To his credit, Steve didn't fire back, he just calmly explained the trade-offs and priorities that led to the decision.

 

Jobs canceled something like 140 different R&D projects when he returned to Apple. That led to a huge number of angry developers and employees, many saying that Apple was doomed because it could no longer develop new or useful innovations because Steve had gutted Apple's R&D. Not sure how that worked out for Apple;)

 

Jobs was also known for his bluntness and curtness. He had a great set of meeting rules at Apple that were designed to make meetings useful and productive. If you held a meeting it had to be necessary, it could only include the specifc people necessary to make the decision, it had to make a decision and the organizer had to communicate the decision and followup obligations to the participants. So he was famous for walking into meetings, looking around the room and if he saw anyones assistants or subordinates he'd ask them who they were, then why they were there, and unless there was a really good reason given he'd say "nice to meet you but your presence isn't necessary". 

 

So when someone gets labeled as an asshole, my first question is why? Was it because they went out of their way to belittle or degrade someone? Or was it because they made a tough decision that others disagreed with? We all have bad moments and days, so I don't like to read too much into a few regretful personal actions. I prefer to save the asshole label for someone who commonly treats other people poorly without good reason, and I think those people are rare. 

 

 

[Blugolds]

The personality qualities of being an Ahole (or sometimes coming across as an Ahole) go hand in hand with other personality traits. There is a reason that Myers-Briggs, MMPI and several others when taken will yield results that are shared among many of the most "successful" people in human history (depending on how you define successful.) Aholes are capable of getting results out of people and getting what they want, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes under duress. 

 

I think its certainly possible to get results without the need to be an Ahole. Several traits of narcissism ie lack of empathy, sense of entitlement, grandiose feeling, dismissive attitude, willingness to exploit others, dominating conversations, manipulation, controlling and commanding all tend to do fairly well in a capitalistic setting.

 

People like Jobs, Musk, certain military commanders in history, any leadership position know clearly what they want, have a vision and will not accept anything less than that coming to fruition and are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen, and if that means hurting a few feelings that is acceptable.  

 

Also depends on context and priority, Warren said if you lose money for the firm he would be forgiving, but if you lost reputation he would be ruthless. He prioritized the reputation and made that clear, some prioritize results and revenue over everything else, but the sentiment is the same. 

 

I also think that the people that are underachieving many times view the person demanding more as an Ahole, that is probably just human nature, if you have a boss thats an Ahole but you are producing you might view it as less than pleasant but its not a huge problem because you arent on the chopping block. We had a football coach that was known to be an Ahole, certainly new players would call him an Ahole, he was brutal and demanded the best and was wiling to push everyone to the limit and find out where that was and then go a little more, no excuses. Regardless of your personal opinion, it yielded results and landed him in the coaching HOF with the most winning record. Guys that got cut said to heck with him, hes an Ahole...those of us that staid thought it was tough and sucked, but at the end of the year and now later in life, can look back and understand why he did what he did, and can think about it now removed and realize that there is a reason for the track record and that it would not have been what it was, and we wouldnt have been as good as we were if he hadnt been an Ahole.  Are Navy Seal trainers Aholes during hell week?  Sure, but its necessary to get the results they need/want. 

Edited March 23 by Blugolds11

[adesigar]

I think Steve Jobs was a horrible person. 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Brennan-Jobs

[economonoc]

Jobs may have been less than perfect as a human being.  But when he returned to Apple, he brought with him the truly excellent IP developed by the team he assembled at his company NeXT, including the operating system that became today's MacOS and iOS.  I am always tickled when I think of how NeXTstep powers my iPhone and the iPad upon which I am writing this comment.  Jobs can't have been all bad to have delivered such useful and beautiful things.

Edited March 24 by economonoc

[cubsfan]

11 hours ago, economonoc said:

Jobs may have been less than perfect as a human being.  But when he returned to Apple, he brought with him the truly excellent IP developed by the team he assembled at his company NeXT, including the operating system that became today's MacOS and iOS.  I am always tickled when I think of how NeXTstep powers my iPhone and the iPad upon which I am writing this comment.  Jobs can't have been all bad to have delivered such useful and beautiful things.

 

I worked at NeXT for a short time. He was a genius and visionary for sure that brought greatness back to Apple. But you just never wanted to be too close to Jobs.

[ValueArb]

22 hours ago, cubsfan said:

 

I worked at NeXT for a short time. He was a genius and visionary for sure that brought greatness back to Apple. But you just never wanted to be too close to Jobs.

 

Was it the never showering?

[DooDiligence]

6 hours ago, ValueArb said:

 

Was it the never showering?

 

[insert *Ray Liotta laughing gif*]