The Good Kind of Saying One Thing and Doing Another
Meeting CEOs whose companies reached orbit, I found a common trait: their words are cold, their actions warm. They speak of revenue and restructuring — then carry the responsibility first, and talk more about their flaws than their wins.
Meeting a number of CEOs whose companies had reached a certain orbit, I discovered one interesting trait in common.
The good kind of saying one thing and doing another.
In words, they are quite cold.
“In the end, revenue is what matters.”
“Depending on the situation, restructuring is necessary.”
“A CEO must sometimes be the bad guy.”
They don't gift-wrap the realities of business.
Their failures and mistakes,
their poor judgment calls and embarrassing episodes — they lay them all out without hesitation.
At first they can come across as coldly pragmatic people.
But watch how they actually run their organizations, treat their customers, and treat their employees, and the impression differs from their words.
They don't cling to empty formality.
They don't parade their authority.
They don't treat people carelessly.
Instead, they look relentlessly at substance and essence.
Whether this work actually helps the customer, whether the organization is sustainable, whether its members are truly growing, whether today's decision is right for the long term.
Their words speak cold reality, but their actions never dodge responsibility.
And rather than boasting of their achievements, they speak more of their shortcomings.
Rather than re-explaining what they've already built, they look at the problems still unsolved. They replay the moments they judged wrong more than the reasons they were right, and raise what must be fixed before the story of how the organization grew.
That, I suspect, is the posture of people who keep advancing.
Those intoxicated by their success gaze at what they've already achieved.
Those who keep growing gaze at what they still lack.
Humility is not a manner of speech that shrinks oneself.
It is the attitude of seeing reality precisely, admitting one's shortcomings, and continually correcting toward better judgment.
So good CEOs' words are sometimes cold, but their actions are warm.
They say performance matters but never see people as mere numbers; they speak of restructuring while knowing its weight better than anyone; they say a CEO must sometimes be the bad guy, yet in practice they shoulder their responsibility first.
In this good kind of saying one thing and doing another, I see what a real manager looks like.
Not dressing oneself up in beautiful words —
but facing reality in words while fulfilling responsibility in action.
And being able to bring one's shortcomings out into the open rather than boasting of achievements.
Of course that's how progress happens.
That is how you reach orbit.