Eric Ries: prediction

Transcript context

…If this all sounds like a huge drag and a lot of work and really annoying, I'd say go back an hour when we talked a lot about just what is it you were trying to avoid and the pain. Yes. That's the thing. It's like, you know what's really a drag? I'll tell you a story. A friend of mine got ousted by his investors. Okay? And I was going to this party to celebrate him. And it was like people had flown in from all over the country to celebrate, including employees he laid off came to this party. It must have been a thousand people there. It was amazing. And I was describing to a new founder like, "I'm sorry, I can't help you with your company right now. I got to go to this party." And he was like, "Okay." I'm describing to him and he was just like, "Wow, what respect. That founder sounds invested. Just the kind of company I want to create." I'm like, "Dude, you have not been listening to anything I'm saying. He doesn't work there anymore." He's like, "Sol Price. This is not a party. This is awake." And he was like, "What? Did he die?" "No, man, he didn't die." "Did the company go bankrupt?" "No, the company's fine. That's not the problem. The new..." And he was like, "Is the new CEO an asshole or something?" I was like, "No, I like the new CEO. He's a friend of mine also. Perfectly fine. The problem is..." He's like, "What's the problem? " "The problem is if a company can be decapitated at any time, you can no longer trust it. All the promises that this company had made over its 15-year life, nobody believes them anymore." The new CEO is going out and making new promises, but we're like, "An activist investor owning 0.5% of the company can oust you at any time. Why should I believe anything you say?" And then we're like, "Why is trust collapsing in our institutions across the board?" We are teaching a leadership philosophy that is antitrust, anti-trustworthy. So yeah, if it sounds like this sounds like a bummer to have to worry about this stuff, you know what's really a bummer? Come to that party with me. That sucks. And that's a founder who made literally billions of dollars for his investors, but it wasn't enough. It's never enough. And hearing these from you is important and powerful because you see so many founders. There's few people in the world that see the number of founders, meet with the number of founders, work with as many startups as you. And this is not an easy place you're in, trying to convince people to do these very annoying things.…

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