Do you have to be an a**hole to be successful?

I asked this question on LinkedIn a few months ago. The full title was — ‘Do you have to be an asshole to be seriously financially successful in business’.

The answer EVERYONE gave me was absolutely not.

Most people I know who’ve been highly successful are ruthless, mean and narcissistic at their worst. Can we all be? I'm not sure. In many cases they've operated fraudulently and often people have suffered at their hands. Assholes right? Maybe you do have to be a shit to make serious money in the commercial world!

Pondering for a while I realised that I was a big part of the problem. My answer was too heavily weighted from my perspective. Perception is reality, yup, and when something offends your core operating system it's hard to see beyond. They were only assholes through my eyes, fine to many..

Unpacking it a little…

I am a hyper-sensitive man and everything bothers me, but commercial decisions often don’t regard feelings… smart commercial decisions even more so. Why should they?

Business is business.

Those that operate brutally make more money — yes that correlation is strong. Their operating system is often autistic in nature and they get the job done at any cost and feelings can come later. If at all.

This works, it’s accepted in the business world, celebrated often but it doesn’t work for me and I’ve had to become comfortable with that. The only open question is will the engine run so well if we are less selfish and greedy? Will we see the same innovation, market gains, economic growth? At the moment these things are crucial to our survival.

Should being seriously financially successful be anyone’s goal? Make enough to have options for you and your family for sure, but I’d love to see people pay the rest forwards. Use capitalism to spread the wealth rather than suck it all up into the 1%. When you have all the trappings (Probably at about ￡100k/yr combined income) a bigger house, boat, or car isn’t going to make you any happier, for long.

I’m lucky enough to have had my fair share of cash but to be a gazzilionaire, as we’re conditioned to feel the need to be by the consumerist world we live in, shouldn’t be lauded at all.

The Forbes Rich List should be replaced by those who actively engage in a triple bottom line (social, environmental, financial). Adding real value not just financial. Circular value. Helping others along their commercial and entrepreneurial journey, NOT just employing them but helping them ‘get it’. And THEN helping them pay it forwards, so the cycle continues. I appreciate my meanderings can be seen as weakness but I hope there's something in what I'm saying.

Free markets are wonderful things. Capitalism only fails when we’re greedy.

As for the super successful who make it and then guilt their money back via philanthropy - well, maybe they’re the assholes?! They are the smartest people on the planet and know how to do better. Why use the system to make money and then step outside of it to give it back? That just makes no sense (Excepting the PR and huge tax effect).

As one of my favourite people (and least assholey) Ricardo Semler says -

“If you find yourself giving back, you took too much in the first place.”