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You're not the CEO - You're the Fucking Janitor

zachbruhnke.com

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Re: You're not the CEO - You're the Fucking Janitor

#2

Post by michael_nielsen »

Seems appropriate to quote an old HN comment (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3905794):

"After the first night of the 2008 SciFoo conference at Google, @gnat Torkington's twitter stream contained a gem: 'At SciFoo opening session. 300 people standing around networking. Meanwhile, Larry Page is quietly unpacking chairs at the back of the room.' (from memory, not exact)"

The CEO (or any leader)'s job is to make sure that whatever needs to be done, gets done. Sometimes, that means unpacking the chairs.

Re: You're not the CEO - You're the Fucking Janitor

#7

Post by zbruhnke »

tomasien wrote: post #3

Not a fan of the title.The post doesn't even go on to argue that "you're" not the CEO, just that "you're" ALSO the janitor. So "You're the CEO - but You're Also the Fucking Janitor" would be more accurate.

OP here: Sorry about that, really what the post was meant to say is that if you think of yourself as the CEO there is already a problem, but if you think of yourself as the Janitor you're probably in the right mindset for success.

Did not really expect the post to trend up HN so fast, but thanks for reading and for the feedback!

Re: You're not the CEO - You're the Fucking Janitor

#8

Post by coderdude »

It's important to remember that the CEO/founder role is where the buck stops. You're ultimately responsible for every mistake and fixing it. He's right that it's not glamorous. I think that if you're a sole founder you figure this out pretty quickly though. And as a rule of thumb: Always ignore Silicon Valley hype.

By the way: writing words in ALL CAPS, italicizing lots of things, and saying 'fucking' a lot made it painful to read that blog entry.

Re: You're not the CEO - You're the Fucking Janitor

#9

Post by zbruhnke »

coderdude wrote: post #8

It's important to remember that the CEO/founder role is where the buck stops. You're ultimately responsible for every mistake and fixing it. He's right that it's not glamorous. I think that if you're a sole founder you figure this out pretty quickly though. And as a rule of thumb: Always ignore Silicon Valley hype. By the way: writing words in ALL CAPS, italicizing lots of things , and saying 'fucking' a lot made it…

Thanks for the feedback.

I typically italicize and bold things in an effort to break up the black/white monotony of my site but I'll keep the advice in mind and maybe go back and make some edits.

As for the 'fucking' I agree, it was actually pretty hard to write too. I grew up in a middle class family in the South most of whom would be appalled by the way this post was written(the language) but I thought it put some fire to the post, and the title as well.

Re: You're not the CEO - You're the Fucking Janitor

#10

Post by johnnyjustice »

coderdude wrote: post #8

It's important to remember that the CEO/founder role is where the buck stops. You're ultimately responsible for every mistake and fixing it. He's right that it's not glamorous. I think that if you're a sole founder you figure this out pretty quickly though. And as a rule of thumb: Always ignore Silicon Valley hype. By the way: writing words in ALL CAPS, italicizing lots of things , and saying 'fucking' a lot made it…

So can we start a discussion on the use of those "no, no" type things. Is there any time they are worth using? (By the way, i really liked the title, I think this idea applies a lot of places outside of just CEOs)
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