Absolutely correct. Companies are in no way "generous" with one another, agreements and contracts are written and all details nailed down by professionals of not getting caught (lawyers). And there are good reasons for that: Business is about money, and when there's money to be won you don't trust people. Not event *your* people (maybe shall I say _specially_ your people?).
If Mr. Shuttleworth thinks otherwise, _he_ is being ignorant of how the real world works. But I find it difficult to believe that such a fool could have become as rich as Mark Shuttleworth is.
Posted May 18, 2011 19:45 UTC (Wed) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953)
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Don't attribute riches or even their accumulation to intelligence. That's a very big mistake even if it is repeated ad nauseam in the political space. Creation or wealth or creating/running a successful business isn't correlated to intelligence in the least. Luck and timing can play a bigger role in wealth generation than just about other factor. Contrary to what you hear in politics wealth makes no prediction on the incentive or even the ability to create additional wealth.
Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software
Posted May 26, 2011 12:33 UTC (Thu) by Wol (guest, #4433)
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Successful businessmen are usually those people who did well on the games field at school.
And kids who do well at games are rarely the sharpest knives in the block.
Cheers,
Wol
Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software
Posted May 27, 2011 6:42 UTC (Fri) by AdamW (guest, #48457)
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But...if that's true, why do so many retired athletes screw up their business ventures so badly? :)
Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software
Posted May 29, 2011 16:37 UTC (Sun) by Wol (guest, #4433)
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Statistical howler 101 ...
Just because A implies B (successful businessman implies good at sports when kid) doesn't mean B implies A (good at sports implies good businessman).
Most new businesses go bust. It seems the skills that give a business the best chance are also those that tend to lead success on the sports field. But it's quite likely that successful businesses are lead/run by people who have the ability to do well (but not excel) at sport. If they excel they stay in sports. If they don't, when they go into business they are more likely to excel there than the general populace as a whole.