<story><title>Most people won&apos;t</title><url>http://bryce.vc/post/64889707700/most-people-wont#notes</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spodek</author><text>Everybody so far is commenting on the woman who approached the CEO.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s not forget the CEO, who committed and risked resources on a hunch or instinct or who-knows-what.&lt;p&gt;If I had to pick one of the two to ask how they had the nerve to act and to learn from, I&amp;#x27;d pick him. (Of course I&amp;#x27;d prefer both and not to belittle her gumption and skills to back it up).&lt;p&gt;- What did he see to suggest risking those resources? ... To create a team of outsiders to work on the &lt;i&gt;core&lt;/i&gt; app?&lt;p&gt;- How likely did he expect things to work out?&lt;p&gt;- How did he explain the expenditure of flying the others in to the CFO or whomever?&lt;p&gt;- Or did he make a unilateral decision without asking others?&lt;p&gt;- Did he just get lucky?&lt;p&gt;- Had he done things like this before and succeeded? Failed?&lt;p&gt;- Was he worried about making waves in his organization? Did he?&lt;p&gt;Plenty more questions pop up...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bowlofpetunias</author><text>I have some doubts about the CEO.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very common in these kind of scenarios that either a) the same criticism &amp;#x2F; suggestions have been made regularly over a long time by people inside the company which have gone ignored, or b) the company has a culture in which that information never reaches the CEO, either out of fear or because of middle management layers.&lt;p&gt;In both those cases, the CEO is actually mismanaging the company and completely undermining the motivation and loyalty of his employees.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve seen this happen time and time again. CEO&amp;#x27;s and managers don&amp;#x27;t accept internal criticism or suggestions, don&amp;#x27;t give their people the freedom to take action themselves, but some outsider swoops in with an impressive Powerpoint presentation (or dress) and suddenly they see the light.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s the opposite of taking risks (you can blame the outsiders if it fails), it&amp;#x27;s actually cowardice.</text></comment>
<story><title>Most people won&apos;t</title><url>http://bryce.vc/post/64889707700/most-people-wont#notes</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spodek</author><text>Everybody so far is commenting on the woman who approached the CEO.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s not forget the CEO, who committed and risked resources on a hunch or instinct or who-knows-what.&lt;p&gt;If I had to pick one of the two to ask how they had the nerve to act and to learn from, I&amp;#x27;d pick him. (Of course I&amp;#x27;d prefer both and not to belittle her gumption and skills to back it up).&lt;p&gt;- What did he see to suggest risking those resources? ... To create a team of outsiders to work on the &lt;i&gt;core&lt;/i&gt; app?&lt;p&gt;- How likely did he expect things to work out?&lt;p&gt;- How did he explain the expenditure of flying the others in to the CFO or whomever?&lt;p&gt;- Or did he make a unilateral decision without asking others?&lt;p&gt;- Did he just get lucky?&lt;p&gt;- Had he done things like this before and succeeded? Failed?&lt;p&gt;- Was he worried about making waves in his organization? Did he?&lt;p&gt;Plenty more questions pop up...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jcampbell1</author><text>The thing that is most fascinating, is that she basically said, &amp;quot;I like your idea, but your execution sucks&amp;quot;.  That is the pinnacle of the most painful thing to hear, but the CEO took it in stride and made his product better.&lt;p&gt;That is the lesson I am going to take away.  Ideas matter, but if execution is the thing you can change, then embrace the people that tell you your execution sucks and have ideas.</text></comment>