The self-made billionaires of the type mentioned on this board (mainly Gates) aren’t the ones that puzzle me. I mean, people like that had an idea and ran with it, and through intelligence, cleverness, luck, and the right associates managed to be hugely successful. Sounds like fun. Makes me wish I’d had a worthwhile idea in my life.
The people I don’t get are the CEOs, CFOs, and such. Managers who claw their way to the top, without any real inspiration, but wwith a driving need to get ahead. CEO drones like Michael Cappellas (WorldCom), William Esrey (Sprint FON), Carly Fiorina (HP), who are annoying enough. And maybe even more so, their armies of underlings.
What don’t I get? I don’t know. They’re boring. They’re uninspired. They’re monomaniacal. They’re overpaid. They don’t do a very good job. Where do these people come from? And why doesn’t the earth swallow them whole?