Ran across a crazy story on Twitter this morning as I was gearing up for the day. It was from Hadi Partovi the CEO of code.org. He was describing a moment early on in his career when he and his co-founders pitched Steve Jobs. As the story goes, Hadi lied to Steve about valuation and Steve read through his lie. Steve eventually didn’t believe anything that Hadi had to say from this point and went on to build a competing product that eventually led to the destruction of Hadi’s startup. (Facebook also destroyed the startup).
If you want to see the full detail of the story check it out here, but I read that story and walked away with a very interesting insight.
I don’t necessarily think greed makes you a bad person. There are some stories around greed that traditionally have led to this thinking. I truly believe that the core reason greed is bad is that it robs you of opportunity.
From my experience, an opportunity is one of the most important aspects of success in business and life. Opportunity can sometimes be the difference between living a standard and boring life vs. living a life of fulfillment and achievement. Opportunity comes to those who seek it, but it also avoids those who lie and deceive to capture it. So be bold…not greedy. Be courageous…not deceptive.