An Entrepreneur's Legacy | Hacker News Reader

An Entrepreneur's Legacy

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17 pointstrekker76 comments

Definitely inspiring. Nothing quite like self made men who stay grounded.

There's one thing I'm conflicted about when it comes to the idea of creating jobs for so many people like this. It just seems so close to modern day feudalism. There are some significant differences obviously, and there's probably nothing immoral about the modern version. Ultimately though there's essentially a king (owner), his knights (directors), and the peasants (workers). This guy may have been a benevolent dictator, but his death puts all of those people's future at risk. If the new CEO isn't as smart and ethical (likely) they're in for harder times because they put their livelihoods in his hands.

I think I would feel much better about enabling 100 families to become financially independent for the rest of their lives than supporting 10,000 dependents for N years.

maybe you could help 100 people, but those 10000 would probably starve if they dont have a job, simply because they cant think or execute a plan well enough to achieve financial success.

Everyone can think, but most people choose not to. It seems like the only exception is someone with a mental disability.

everyone can think, but the fact of the matter is, there needs to workers, because technically if everyone thought, everyone would lead, leaving no one to follow.

i wanted to add in, 'there needs to be workers'* as a correction, i suck at typing on my phone sometimes.

An owner is not a king. If your goal is 100 families who are financially independent there are likely another 1,000 to 100,000 that support them with jobs they need because they haven't made enough to become financially independent. These may be direct employees, or at suppliers, partners, customers. These are voluntary associations, not hereditary.

Successful businesses create and rely upon interdependencies. Feudalism was one structure for reciprocal obligation (certainly post Magna Carta in England) but there are many others. For me the goal is to create products that customers value and build a company that people want to work at because of its shared values, regardless of who is running it. Ken Hendricks clearly embodied a "leadership is service" model and for me is good example of a business leader.

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