The other day I again ran across a major manager, in this case a CEO but this thought is not limited to the CEO class, who is a bully. I was reminded of something that Halibuton* said:
"A brave man is sometimes a desperado; but a bully is always a coward."
When you meet and observe driven individuals that you will have to interact with it is important to learn early which kind you are dealing with.
In business there is a strong lead and/or follow relationship issue in when two or more personalities work toward a transaction or common goal. Fundamental to the relationship is the issue of personal faith, that is in theory you both put faith in each other as an assumptive basis for the furtherance of your activity. It takes a brave person to deal with the truths frequently necessary to succeed, a bit of the desperado is not uncommon for part of the definition of desperado it to be bold enough to cast a fear aside, in this case to do what is right.
This is not the domain of the bully for he is a coward. The bully will use bluster to camouflage that character flaw, most commonly in the form of misleading you with their supposed fame. Bragging, name-dropping, innuendo, implying relationships, generally claiming what is not theirs are the tools they use and that you must watch out for.
As you build your business you are exercising bravery. For the faint of heart do not pick up the responsibility for their lives and the lives of others, they do not follow their dreams. They steal and claim dreams from others.
You will be besieged by bullies who will try to impress you with their skill, power, and virtue. This is always with the intent of getting their hand into your pocket, to acquire your power and resources, and to leverage you in the launch on to their next victim
This guy I met the other day reminded me that constant vigilance is the key to survival and success. Thus again, Andy Grove’s motto, "only the paranoid survive" comes home.
Wow!A couple of days ago someone smacked me upside the head with a Ph.D!It's been a long time since that has happened and it still tickles.
I was at a lunch of an organization to find out about them and determine my interest in working to get on their Board.I like their premise and know I could help drive them to where they want to go.What I learned was that after 10 month of existence they still don't know where that exactly is (they're not a business but a non-profit).Those of you that know me, well, you know how I can be a pain-in-the-neck with my pressure to discover and my thruthaches and the like.So I was torturing the Board to push them to find out what they really want to be and no one understood what I was doing.I ask questions that sound like opinions to get a more profound answer and push people into self-discovery.While I am seeking knowledge they think I am telling them what to do, don't worry, it is confusing but is style that leads from chaos to order (in a very Shakespearean way).Well, a person there and I had differing opinions and as you also know, I kneel to no one so I didn't yield to this person’s sense of self-authority and importance.
Anyway, I was taking some heat from them and not responding in the desired fashion when the person in question whipped out the old line "I know because of my education and my Ph.D!"It was classic, I couldn't have found a better line in movie.Surprise - I did conduct myself as a gentleman, I didn't fall down laughing or say the obvious.I just looked around at the other folks to see if anyone else got it, some did, some didn't.
I like these folks and what they ultimately can do, I would like to help.
But to the point, which is that you as an entrepreneur are subject to lots of people trying to influence you.Many of them have lots of letters before or after their name.Typically those letters say that person may know a whole lot about a narrow topic.None of those letters indicate that the have any COMMON SENSE.
Only you know the real truth about your enterprise, only you know the real goals, only you are responsible for what happens, only you live it.Don't ever let an 'expert' dissuade you from what you know is right.
