It isn't that he isn't trying. It's that it's clear that despite trying, he still isn't seeing it.
He talks about being a "pretty good" listener but, not catching the fact that people he respects and admires feel like he's constantly talking down to them.
It's an easy trap to fall into and I imagine a hard one to get out of (not because I'm not an asshole but, because I'm not rich enough to say that I'm in his position).
He just clearly doesn't understand himself. Startup culture looks at this thing called exiting as the very hard thing that very few people do sucessfully and then we look at the few that do it as some kind of oracle. We want answers to hard questions and automatically think that people that achieved success have found it.
Maybe he isn't this business savant and maverick. Maybe he just got lucky and the momentum of that took him over the line into success. I'm not saying it was easy but, maybe his success isn't because of the things he thinks it is.
He's far from the only person who's had to struggle through this. I give him the benefit of the doubt that he sincerely does not want to be seen as a rich asshole.
His wealth is still very new to him and there's an adjustment process. Both individuals and entire nations go through this adjustment process of newfound wealth. It gets to your head and it takes some time to work it out of your system, counting your mistakes each time you "slip up" and show your materialistic, vain side again and again. But if his desire to be a decent guy who happened to work hard and made it, then he'll figure things out for himself.
"Maybe he isn't this business savant and maverick. Maybe he just got lucky and the momentum of that took him over the line into success."
He spent 10 years (LinkedIn) for a 7 figure exit. So, he is neither a maverick nor just lucky, he was just a hard worker business owner. But, you are right. There is no magic here.
He talks about being a "pretty good" listener but, not catching the fact that people he respects and admires feel like he's constantly talking down to them.
It's an easy trap to fall into and I imagine a hard one to get out of (not because I'm not an asshole but, because I'm not rich enough to say that I'm in his position).
He just clearly doesn't understand himself. Startup culture looks at this thing called exiting as the very hard thing that very few people do sucessfully and then we look at the few that do it as some kind of oracle. We want answers to hard questions and automatically think that people that achieved success have found it.
Maybe he isn't this business savant and maverick. Maybe he just got lucky and the momentum of that took him over the line into success. I'm not saying it was easy but, maybe his success isn't because of the things he thinks it is.