Here’s What the Next Billion-Dollar Startup Will Need to Succeed
The Next Wave of Entrepreneurism Needs to “Get” This
Steve Jobs. Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos. Travis Kalanick; these are just a few of the entrepreneurs I’ve never talked to in my life.
But if I were able to talk to them, I would tell each of them one thing: You need to work on your people skills.
Each of these (rich, white) men is famous for being harsh and demanding as a boss, and fiercely opinionated as a person. They are also famous for being the greatest visionary thinkers of the last 20 years or so. So, the temptation for many of us is to write off their interpersonal skills, or lack thereof, as irrelevant, or at the most, eccentric.
The fact is though, that had these men been mid-level managers at any other company, they would have been described as one thing, and one thing only:
TOXIC.
Do people skills matter for entrepreneurs though? I mean, visionary thinkers and hugely successful entrepreneurs aren’t always known for their interpersonal skills. Part of being a genius is a little bit of dysfunction, right?
Heck, don’t most founders become entrepreneurs in the first place because they don’t want to…
