Jason Landry
Sep 5, 2018 · 1 min read

Thanks for the article. I recently had a somewhat similar experience at my own firm. We had one team member who gradually became isolated and convinced of his own genius. In our case, he was, in fact, not especially talented. He had convinced the senior partner (and perhaps himself) that he was a bona fide superstar but truly lacked even basic knowledge. Unfortunately, he had convinced said senior partner that he was irreplaceable. A sequence of events very much like what you describe took place. He was fired after a nearly two year battle when one-third of our staff threatened to walk out if he was kept (the only people who did not insist on firing him were the ones who never dealt with him). Afterwards, the full scope of his deficiencies was exposed and the senior partner had to give a heartfelt, if grudging, mea culpa.

Our own tale has more to do with mismanagement than it does the instability of genius, but te events themselves are strikingly similar. As a result, I take delight in continuing to remind the senior partner of this on a near daily basis.