The Mentality of Entitlement

[anders]

# augustabound

 

Im sorry buddy, didnt mean to be offensive and it was clumpsy of me to write that all are the same.. I have used many contractors, and they have all pushed their fair amount of pay so I have yet to find a guy like you which I believe is quite rare.. 

 

I work in finance and I see all the non performers out there taking in big fees with no added value in return.. and people say fund managers are crooks.. so I know the feeling..

 

Cheers!

 

 

[oddballstocks]

Yes a steward thinks and acts like an owner as his compensation is in part based upon the performance of the business.  My issue is when the CEO acts like the owner of many private businesses feels the company is his private fiefdom that he can what he wants.  This is not the case.  The CEO is hired by the board of directors as fiduciaries of the shareholders.  The real issue is with the BoD who has neglected there fiduciary responsibility.  The CEO also has a fiduciary responsibility beyond making himself wealthy and I think that is part of the problem.  We have too many folks trying to get rich quick with no one telling them no and too few fiduciaries. 

 

Packer

 

You hit two salient points, the first is many/most (?) are unfortunately only looking out for #1 and will do anything it takes to satisfy that.  The second is that Boards who are supposed to be fiduciaries have disregarded their duty and are enablers.

 

What drives me nuts are companies where employees are paid peanuts and mistreated and yet the CEO is paying himself like a king.  It's culture-rot to the extreme, and it starts at the top.

[augustabound]

# augustabound

 

Im sorry buddy, didnt mean to be offensive and it was clumpsy of me to write that all are the same.

Cheers!

 

Lol, it's all good. 

 

Nate hit the nail on the head.  It's amazing how surprising some people are when you regularly and promptly return calls.

 

With contractors not returning calls for estimates or preliminary site visits, some contractors have tunnel vision.  They see the money on this job, here, right now and aren't thinking about next week or next month.

When next month comes, someone will call and they'll go to that job.

 

They don't build a clientele, they work a job, one at a time.

 

Sorry to hijack the thread. I'm sitting at home nursing a torn achilles and have way too much time on my hands.  God forbid I should open a 10K.  ;D

[yadayada]

http://quinzedix.blogspot.de/2013/02/customer-solutions-profit.html

[randomep]

I agree Prasad only way a investment company( should be structured is the way you and a handful of hedge funds have it 3 people max working in a Hedge fund more then that is just a social club of over spending and money garbing. I have fixed this problem myself too one employ me no fun but at least rewarding(or heart breaking) financially and learn a ton about the world at the same time  :D

 

Plus one great insight in life from Alice Schroeder reddit

 

Apart from books I think you should know what is going on that will affect the future. Not in the sense of forecasting. But for example, I was at a conference and asked a successful entrepreneur, "How do you get ideas to start businesses" since he had started quite a few. His answer ... "I look for big companies that have a lot of employees, and I figure out ways to get rid of the employees."

This sort of thing can take you aback, but it is worth knowing, which is one reason I stay in touch with the tech world.

 

This is the future :D

 

 

 

I am not exactly sure about that entrepreneur's situation but I see it in hi tech all the time. As I get older and I have a better and better system view of things, I see groups of people who can do the most by not existing. But if you didn't see what I see, you'd think they are all key contributors. That's how brilliant people can be at selling themselves.

 

In think we can grow GDP at a high clip still, I don't believe in the new normal. We are using technology to grow GDP, but we still can make better use of human capital all over the world. We must and we will do a better job of rewarding merit. Incidentally, I believe growth will also result in greater income disparity all over the world.

 

[NormR]

While it can be infuriating looking at instances of excess, the situation is more akin to giving a dog food and then snatching it away while it's eating.  The result isn't pretty even if they were given too much to begin with.  If you want to keep the dog around, the situation has to be handled delicately or it risks going south quickly. 

[ragu]

A CEO of a small local public company I know is like this.  He mentioned to me coming in on a Saturday morning to fix a toilet in the bathrooms that was leaking.

 

oddballstocks,

 

Could you share the name of the company and that of the CEO?

 

Thanks,

Ragu

[rmitz]

 

Wow, Prasad must be peeved to rant at midnight! :))

 

Parsad is absolutely right, and in this case, WEB is also in the wrong ... consider he admitted during the KO compensation debacle that in his many years on 17 Boards he never ONCE saw a compensation plan NOT approved ... I felt sick when I heard this ... makes me admire Richard Kinder all the more

 

It’s really quite simple.  Buffett is a flawed human being like all of us.  Less in some areas, perhaps more in others.  You can’t fight every single battle all the time—that is just a recipe for burn out.

[LongHaul]

Parsad - that CEO sounds nuts.  There is a probably a bell curve with how CEO's rank in owner orientation.  The toilet fixing CEO is probably near the top with Buffett.  Your CEO sounds like Vomit and I certainly would resent working for him if he is as bad as you say.  If he really is toxic I would remove him quickly.  It is so hard to identify with that type of CEO for me.

 

I am involved in a business and the entire thing is extremely lean.  Not a wasted penny.  The guy running it is trustworthy, tight and effective.  It's great.  I think it is rare though.

 

To Oddball Stocks point - I also know of contractors who are honest, did quality work and were reliable and they did extremely well vs. weak competition.

 

 

[randomep]

 

Prasad, if you can tell us: why did you invest in this company?

[Parsad]

 

Prasad, if you can tell us: why did you invest in this company?

 

Because it's a cash cow and I had secured the most valuable asset of the company in my agreement at a fraction of its cost.  The cash was not used properly and they did not have board members (or at least enough) that were business operators.  But the business makes money hand over foot with economics that should keep it that way for a long time!  Cheers!

[randomep]

 

Prasad, if you can tell us: why did you invest in this company?

 

Because it's a cash cow and I had secured the most valuable asset of the company in my agreement at a fraction of its cost.  The cash was not used properly and they did not have board members (or at least enough) that were business operators.  But the business makes money hand over foot with economics that should keep it that way for a long time!  Cheers!

 

Wait, the company makes money hand over fist and you don't think the money should pay for the CEO's yacht club? What do you think the money is for? The shareholders??? geeze!

 

 

[rayfinkle]

Unfortunately CEO & exec. perks are, to some degree, table stakes. Not defending this--but from a career strategy perspective every perk has a $$$ value, which will compound at a high rate over time. It is in many cases totally rational for a CEO to think this way and play this strategy.

[bmathews03]

What makes someone perceive their sense of worth being far superior to another?

 

Basically, it's a function of evolution, particularly for men. Back in the hunter-gather days (most of human history), unjustified confidence and ruthless greed didn't work most of the time... But when it did -- it could work out big (very asymmetric payoff). For that reason, it was the winning strategy from a gene pool perspective. So basically people (or at least men) have been bred for this bad behavior... so that's why they do it... or they do it because it works, even in modern society -- think about politicans, CEOs, Wall Streeters -- most of them (not all) suffer from delusions of their own grandeur...