I came across this article about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and transition of leadership and got me thinking about all incredibly impressive things built by entrepreneurs! This was a case of great entrepreneur failing but he’s succeeded well beyond any ordinary person in other areas.

There are many anecdotes about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk management style. Interestingly many successful [relative] entrepreneurs stated they absolutely love what Steve Jobs has done and what he had created but not once in a million year they would consider working for him — and that’s only because of his attitude and managerial style.

As with most negative stuff, these negative stories and experiences may be amplified much more than the positive ones but the question remains;

Is it truly possible to create remarkable companies and products if you don’t manage (lead?) like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Elon Musk?

Most people seem to fall into one of these three categories:

• Great visionaries
• Great managers
• Bad managers (Traditional command and control type)

Visionaries don’t invest time details; they are all about big picture, connection between events and things and how to leverage and utilise them. Bad managers, at the other end of the spectrum, are too focused on details, micromanagement, and checking their items in their spreadsheet – that’s why some call them spreadsheet masters.

What is fascinating is that the types of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are great visionaries (honestly a handful in every 100 years) but also seem to possess skills of managers – particularly bad ones!

I wonder why!

Photo courtesy of Quino Al (@quinoal) | Unsplash Photo Community