We Wait Too Long to Train Our Leaders

Okay, let’s nip this shit in the bud, right now. There is no, true, work/life balance. It doesn’t exist, people. The phrase du jour is work/life integration. (Thanks, Jeff Bezos.) In today’s work environment, it’s nearly impossible to find a balance between work and your personal life without some sort of overlap.

My grandmother used to say, “Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one and they’re mostly full of shit.” Man, do I miss her.

Business is a game. I actually see it as frighteningly analogous to professional football. I’ll explain.

Quickly move from concept to final product. Build a dream team to help run the company. Find and mine relevant industry connections. Get customers. Make money and build credibility as a must-have product. IPO, sell, and move on to next idea.

I amend my previous statement. CEOs are often thrown into the deepest end of the ocean, not just the pool. They are often losing their shit while doing their best to learn as much as they can, take calculated risks, appear to be in complete control, and keep their marriages and friendships from completely falling apart, all while trying to fulfill

Business, as a whole, is really no different. In fact, business shares the same underlying themes and motivations: money, power, and the quest for legacy and ubiquity. And like football, the stakes are high and based almost solely on a team’s ability to win consistently and, thus, bring in profits.

purpose and critical result.

Worse, is that the “hot chick with a big rack” who’s doing an okay job is always given deference in a misogynist-tinged C-suite, while the aging or not-as-hot EA who is absolutely murdering it behind the scenes and likely covering for the lackluster efforts of the “hot chick” has to fight for the recognition, compensation, and respect they deserve