Why you're not as good as the guy that started your company

[nobody 2,667]

I remember the old Obama line of, "they didn't build that" and I get that he was talking about roads and infrastructure, but here's the thing, neither you nor the people he was talking to at the time built that either.

You are not a leader.  You are not a visionary.  You can't take an abstract idea and bring it to life by clearly articulating the what and how. 

You can probably follow instructions.  You can probably understand an idea that has been explained to you, but you can't come up with the idea.  And even if you could, you wouldn't have the passion and energy to drive the execution.  

That's why they're wealthy and we're not.  We don't have the vision, the drive, the execution, the risk tolerance, the intuition, etc.  They do, and that's why they make the money.  We follow instructions like monkeys while they apply the critical thought on what those instructions should be.  And I know you think you can do all the stuff they do, but you can't.  

All of our lives have been lived thousands and thousands of times before.  We are not special.  We are not exceptional.  We are not unique.  They are.

We are fungible.  We can find multitudes of people to fill out roles. 

So when someone complains that they make too much money, understand that we can't do what they do.  Very few can.

[Baker Boy 1,699]

6 hours ago, nobody said:

I remember the old Obama line of, "they didn't build that" and I get that he was talking about roads and infrastructure, but here's the thing, neither you nor the people he was talking to at the time built that either.

You are not a leader.  You are not a visionary.  You can't take an abstract idea and bring it to life by clearly articulating the what and how. 

You can probably follow instructions.  You can probably understand an idea that has been explained to you, but you can't come up with the idea.  And even if you could, you wouldn't have the passion and energy to drive the execution.  

That's why they're wealthy and we're not.  We don't have the vision, the drive, the execution, the risk tolerance, the intuition, etc.  They do, and that's why they make the money.  We follow instructions like monkeys while they apply the critical thought on what those instructions should be.  And I know you think you can do all the stuff they do, but you can't.  

All of our lives have been lived thousands and thousands of times before.  We are not special.  We are not exceptional.  We are not unique.  They are.

We are fungible.  We can find multitudes of people to fill out roles. 

So when someone complains that they make too much money, understand that we can't do what they do.  Very few can.

Off the top of my head, I know that private enterprise built the railroads and Cornelius Vanderbilt built Grand Central Station.

[iam90sbaby 2,610]

You should read The Great Gatsby 

[easilyscan 924]

I'm a capitalist pig, but I'm also a realist. For every true visionary like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, (I assume these are the type of people you were referring to) there's 100 worthless a holes that have an Ivy League business degree collecting huge pay for doing nothing. Bob Iger, who is now in his 2nd stint as Disney CEO is a good example. Warren Buffett is another. He's a great investor, but once you get into the position he's in, you can cut deals that aren't available to anyone else. 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is now H.J. Heinz Co’s majority shareholder, as Berkshire purchased another 5.4% of outstanding common stock for a 52.5% overall stake.
Berkshire exercised a warrant to pay about a penny a share, receiving 46.2 million shares for $462,000.
That warrant was a part of Berkshire’s $23 billion acquisition of Heinz in conjunction with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital in 2013.

Pretty hard to look bad, when you can buy that many shares for about a penny.

If that wasn't bad enough, it's not unusual for CEOs who are supposed to be genius, but not only didn't deliver, drove the company into the ground, get huge golden parachutes.

Robert Stevenson drove AT&T into the ground. Here's his punishment. This massive sum of money, according to MarketWatch, would provide 60-year-old Stephenson with “a guaranteed income of $274,000 a month for the rest of his days.” This is on top of his total last three years of an average $30 million compensation.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/05/12/atts-ceo-steps-down-with-a-64-million-gold-plated-retirement-plan/

Carla Fiorina is another. Jack Welch from GE is another. 

 

[Herbivore 1,134]

12 hours ago, easilyscan said:

I'm a capitalist pig, but I'm also a realist. For every true visionary like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, (I assume these are the type of people you were referring to) there's 100 worthless a holes that have an Ivy League business degree collecting huge pay for doing nothing. Bob Iger, who is now in his 2nd stint as Disney CEO is a good example. Warren Buffett is another. He's a great investor, but once you get into the position he's in, you can cut deals that aren't available to anyone else. 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is now H.J. Heinz Co’s majority shareholder, as Berkshire purchased another 5.4% of outstanding common stock for a 52.5% overall stake.
Berkshire exercised a warrant to pay about a penny a share, receiving 46.2 million shares for $462,000.
That warrant was a part of Berkshire’s $23 billion acquisition of Heinz in conjunction with Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital in 2013.

Pretty hard to look bad, when you can buy that many shares for about a penny.

If that wasn't bad enough, it's not unusual for CEOs who are supposed to be genius, but not only didn't deliver, drove the company into the ground, get huge golden parachutes.

Robert Stevenson drove AT&T into the ground. Here's his punishment. This massive sum of money, according to MarketWatch, would provide 60-year-old Stephenson with “a guaranteed income of $274,000 a month for the rest of his days.” This is on top of his total last three years of an average $30 million compensation.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/05/12/atts-ceo-steps-down-with-a-64-million-gold-plated-retirement-plan/

Carla Fiorina is another. Jack Welch from GE is another. 

 

good post here. i appreciate true visionaries, but think most get overshadowed by people willing to exploit people. not arguing but think the people you listed fall into that boat. also, for every ivy leaguer, there's some schmo who inherited the family biz or nepo'ed into a position that they did not earn by merit. the less actual vision, the more exploitation.

[IGotWorms 4,058]

You sound like a sycophant

[BunnysBastatrds 2,436]

 My father started his incorporation, not an LLC, and built a great company on his own. I used to tell him that my little pinky doesn’t have the knowledge that you have and worked so hard for. I wish I did, but your fifty plus years of experience is what helped make you great and hard work. God bless him.