2020-07-23
A detailed look at the gifts of obsessive business leaders and where they can go wrong.
Some of the most recognizable personalities in the modern business world are among the most single-minded and detail-oriented. These are people who create extraordinary things, who embody a relentlessness of spirit, and who show truly remarkable grit, according to consultant Shaw, who profiles three such figures here—Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick—and compares them to the quintessential obsessive innovator of our time, the late Apple founder Steve Jobs. Each profile embodies the accomplishments of compulsive and exhaustively involved leaders, and the most important among them, Shaw asserts, is giving customers what they want and need, innovating new products, and engaging with negative feedback. The author also looks at how self-absorption, ethical dubiousness, and poor priorities can become liabilities for obsessive leaders. The portraits are often unflattering, but they also render the trio’s exploits and talents in impressive detail, pulling information from a variety of sources, including Brad Stone’s Bezos biography The Everything Store (2013), Ashlee Vance’s Musk bio, and a series of other studies, writings, and ruminations on topics such as vocational motivation in odd fields, like orchid collecting or zookeeping. These are documented in an extensive index, endnotes, and citations. Following the profiles, Shaw offers a useful guidebook that presents ways that companies can attract and prioritize similarly hyperfocused workers, further illustrating what they bring to table while also offering guidance in dealing with the inconvenient aspects of such personalities, which can clash with other workers’. The author also stresses that such single-mindedness isn’t possible for everyone, and clearly outlines how one’s work-life balance can suffer under such conditions.
A wide-ranging, warts-and-all analysis of the pros and cons of being “all-in.
