The Illogical Vilification of CEOs

Not all of us are evil

I remember when I was CEO of Omnivore.io. I worked tirelessly for months to land our seed financing. And our investor was very demanding. We went through thorough due diligence, for a rather small seed investment. And I did it all myself. I had calls every day with the attorneys since the investor had given us fir an outrageous term sheet and then outrageous deal documents that included all sorts of provisions not in the term sheet, and then my attorneys had a bad habit of typos and leaving out things I requested (big, name brand expensive Silicon Valley firm too). I had to constantly be on them. Not to mention negotiation with the investor on a daily basis. Plus running a growing company, keeping it afloat, managing cash flow, while also doing a lot of the point of sale coding myself since I was the only one coding.

It was the hardest I’ve ever worked and the most stressful time of my life.

So when those docs got signed after months of doing nothing but work endlessly, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I happened to be at home and got on a conference call with all of my employees and told them the news.

And they congratulated each other.

Not one of them said thank you to me.

Not one did a single thing to recognize the hundreds of hours I had put in to make sure they could get paid, keep their jobs, and continue to get healthcare. Instead, they all celebrated their individual contributions.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so alone and unappreciated.

Now, I take very good care of my employees. The book Drive by Daniel Pink correctly states that above a certain level for skilled workers, money actually becomes a negative motivator. But you need to pay them enough so they don’t worry about it. So I didn’t skimp. Never have. My employees are my most important resource and I treat them as such. So when I want to hire someone, I ask them how much they need to not worry about money. I tell them to go make a budget and then give me a number. As long as it’s reasonable and within the range I had in mind (or close enough), I’ll put 20% on top and that’s their base salary. Usually I hire very top performers and I’m rarely dissatisfied with anyone’s work so I can only remember one instance where I didn’t feel I was getting my money’s worth. That person was gone very quickly. Hire slow, fire fast.

I similarly give the best benefits I can buy. Fully covered. It’s a small cost that goes a long way. I also make sure to tell my employees all the time how much I appreciate them, or say thank you when they do a good job. Go read my LinkedIN. I just got a recommendation from a developer I’m working with yesterday. Here’s what he said:

George is an effective leader. He is kind and responsive and listens to what you have to say. While being easy to work with, he also makes you feel appreciated. I’m looking forward to continually working with him on future projects.

So when I treat my employees that well and they show no appreciation to me, it stings.

This was hardly an isolated incident and over the years has led me to a simple conclusion: thank yous never go up the ladder.

The first thing I’ve done is always go out of the way to thank my bosses when I notice they did a good job, and holy heck do they appreciate it. Because no one has ever done it before.

The second is to say thank you to the CEOs of companies I’ve worked for. Since literally no one thanks them. And that has led to some very close and lasting relationships. Game knows game.

All of this is to expand upon my previous piece about how lonely this job is. Not only is it lonely, your get little to no appreciation for all of your hard work.

Which leads me to CEOs of larger companies. These people are infamously vilified in our society. Do you have any idea what kind of sacrifices these people make and what kind of lifestyle they live? Let me give you a hint, it’s not pleasant. Their entire life IS the job. That’s it. They have no time for anything else. They calendar is booked SOLID for 12-14 hours a day.

These people live to work and are usually incredibly intelligent, conscientious, and hard working. But don’t believe for a second their life is pleasant, having been the CEO of a small company. I cannot even imagine the stress, difficulty, and challenge of being a CEO of a Fortune 500 while the average American hates you.

Quite simply, until you’ve lived in the shoes of a founder, CEO, or small business owner, it’s very difficult to understand the incredible multitude of challenges and stress you face on an hour to hour (even minute to minute) basis. I can’t and won’t defend some of the outrageous pay packages of some public CEOs when I’m sure they can do by less, but their pricing is set by the open market like anything else. I’m sure if Apple wasn’t willing to pay Tim Cook hundreds of millions of dollars, someone else would be.

Vilifying the hardest working and most productive members of society is so backward I cannot even wrap my head around the logic. CEOs deserve our admiration for building great things and changing the world, not anger because they got a big paycheck. Would you rather Apple didn’t exist or had shitty products because they were restricted by law that they couldn’t pay their CEO above a certain level? These are such capable people they’d go find another way to make the same amount of money if they couldn’t by running a company.

We should appreciate good CEOs (obviously, there are plenty of bad ones) and the hard work they put in as with any worker. So if you like your boss or your company, say thank you to them sometime. Trust me, they’ll appreciate it more than you know.