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Mark Hurd Has Died

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Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#121

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

VonGuard wrote: post #15

I feel really bad for Hurd and his family. Why work that hard? The 24/7 CEO lifestyle seems like such a waste of time if you end up working it to the day you die. Like, why work that hard? For the family you never see? The vacation home you can visit for 5 days a year? The yacht you leave parked 360 days a year? The job is so demanding and so hard it seems like Mark worked himself to death, literally. He probably cou…

Work can be a great source of joy and self-realization. I always feel sorry for people who hate their jobs and do it only to pay the bills. Once you find your true calling, sometimes it is hard to wait for Monday on weekends because you really want to get back to your job.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#122

Post by biztos »

coldtea wrote: post #101
clavalle wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some of the best, making and guiding companies is their art and obsession. That's the nice take on it. For others (or from a different perspective) for some making money itself is a bit of an addiction that swallows everything else. I know a great guy -- very kind, very smart. But he doesn't really know how to have fun if he's not making money. That's his game and he's great at it. But I feel like he's missing ou…

> For some of the best, making and guiding companies is their art and obsession. Again, why? If it wasn't "making and guiding companies", but e.g. someone was obsessed with making spaghetti paintings, and working for it the same hours, would we consider them balanced?

> would we consider them balanced?

No, but I never heard anyone say "again, why" about Van Gogh. The why is self-evident in retrospect.

I wouldn't put my art before everything else in life, and I'm not saying Mark Hurd did, but I get that some people do and once in a while that results in an incredible gift to humanity.

Most of the time it doesn't, but I don't see how you get a Van Gogh without a lot of people giving an unhealthy amount of themselves to potentially boring, mediocre shit.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#123

Post by biztos »

thrav wrote: post #113
jkcorrea wrote: post #31

Obviously this is very sad news and I wish all the best & my condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. I'm not very familiar with how Oracle is run, but it surprised me to see "co-CEO". I always assumed this wasn't a great way to run a company, and yet here is a major exception. Can someone enlighten me as to why Oracle chooses to have co-CEOs? Is it something specific to their business?

Salesforce did it recently. It's about division of labor. https://fortune.com/2018/08/07/salesforce-keith-block-co-ceo... “I am going to be focusing on, No. 1, the products, the technology—as well as the culture,” says Benioff, “and Keith is very much focused on the operations and distribution functions of the company. We feel it’s going to naturally align with both of our strengths.” Product, Marketing, Vision, Cult…

> focused on the operations and distribution functions of the company

At the risk of sounding dumb, isn't that what the COO is for?

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#124

Post by johnyy »

Guys it’s not about the CEO who spent whole time in the private jet. It’s about 1000s if families who depended on this company to bring the food on the table Profitability is the key He sacrificed for those employees his personal time.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#125

Post by chrisseaton »

_lbaq wrote: post #53
binarymax wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he worked that hard, because he enjoyed working above all else? Maybe he died doing exactly what he loved?

Few old people looking back with perspective say that they worked to little...

Tons of people look back and wish they achieved more and pushed themselves to their potential.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#126

Post by johnyy »

VonGuard wrote: post #15

I feel really bad for Hurd and his family. Why work that hard? The 24/7 CEO lifestyle seems like such a waste of time if you end up working it to the day you die. Like, why work that hard? For the family you never see? The vacation home you can visit for 5 days a year? The yacht you leave parked 360 days a year? The job is so demanding and so hard it seems like Mark worked himself to death, literally. He probably cou…

Please note that all the luxuries he sacrificed for the employees who depended upon this company.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#127

Post by OnlineGladiator »

biztos wrote: post #122
coldtea wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For some of the best, making and guiding companies is their art and obsession. Again, why? If it wasn't "making and guiding companies", but e.g. someone was obsessed with making spaghetti paintings, and working for it the same hours, would we consider them balanced?

> would we consider them balanced? No, but I never heard anyone say "again, why" about Van Gogh. The why is self-evident in retrospect. I wouldn't put my art before everything else in life, and I'm not saying Mark Hurd did, but I get that some people do and once in a while that results in an incredible gift to humanity. Most of the time it doesn't, but I don't see how you get a Van Gogh without a lot of people giving…

Van Gogh was utterly miserable though. I don't think he'd consider his life a success.

To frame it with someone I know much better, what about Nikola Tesla? Profoundly accomplished, objectively made enormous contributions to engineering that made huge improvements to the quality of life for a large chunk of humanity. He was utterly obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge and nothing else. On his death bed he regretted his work ethic and wished only to have ever known the touch of a woman.

We may be benefiting from their obsessions, but they aren't.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#128

Post by robterrell »

johnpowell wrote: post #86
eigenvalue wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without knowing the cause of death, I think it's premature to say that he worked himself to death. It was probably some kind of cancer that probably would have happened anyway. The bigger question I think is, if he could do it over again, would he have tried to spend more of his short time on earth with his family and relaxing/enjoying life rather than working? And even that is not so clear cut-- it may well be that…

Last year I was diagnosed with neck/mouth cancer. I did three months of radiation and chemo and it cleared it up. Then two months later I went in for a PET scan and the cancer had spread to my liver. So more ration for that. Then six months later another PET scan and the cancer popped up in a new place on my liver. I'm currently on Pembrolizumab and my oncologist wants to give that a few months and see how the lesion…

Thanks for posting this.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#129

Post by hbgaw »

VonGuard wrote: post #15

I feel really bad for Hurd and his family. Why work that hard? The 24/7 CEO lifestyle seems like such a waste of time if you end up working it to the day you die. Like, why work that hard? For the family you never see? The vacation home you can visit for 5 days a year? The yacht you leave parked 360 days a year? The job is so demanding and so hard it seems like Mark worked himself to death, literally. He probably cou…

This is not a comment on Hurd. However, I am not always sure about “working hard”. There are many reasons why c-level people stay at work for long hours and not necessarily because they are “working hard”. How many times have we witnessed CEOs not owning up when things go wrong? I did not know is a common excuse.

Re: Mark Hurd Has Died

#130

Post by AlexB138 »

indymike wrote: post #100
mikeg8 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few old people become peak leaders in their respected field.

Actually, that's about the opposite of true. Average age of a CEO is 58. Wealth, power and experience concentrate with age...

> Actually, that's about the opposite of true. Average age of a CEO is 58.

Most CEOs being older people does not mean most older people are CEOs. "Few old people become peak leaders in their respected field" is absolutely true, almost by definition unless you consider a huge portion of people in their field "peak leaders".

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