You know who we’ve been too hard on lately? CEOs. We (me, you, all of us) haven’t walked a mile in any of their shoes and yet we sit here, day in and day out, looking at them, and judging them, and criticizing their every move. So they collectively lost zillions of dollars and thousands of of people’s jobs, so what? They’re still people. People. PEE-PULL. Not bots, people. And not just people, broken people. Heartbroken over what they’ve done, none of which has really been their fault. You see, being a CEO is hard. Being a failed CEO? Even harder. Take, for example, Jimmy Cayne. The man is already beating himself up for something that was really out of his control. For us to kick him when he’s down, to write things like “you go to hell Jimmy Cayne! you go to hell and die!” on his own portrait is a kind of immeasurable cruelty that should only be reserved for Michael Vick’s dogs, or Canadians. This is too upsetting to talk about. Take it away, Wall Street Journal columnist, Evan Newmark:
…spare a prayer for the CEO. It is tougher than you think to be a CEO. What goes through the mind of the CEO isn’t just about money and power. It also is about the burden of failure.
When thousands of people are depending on you, that is a heavy burden. You don’t want to let your employees, shareholders and board down. In failure, you do.
Just look at Chuck Prince and Jimmy Cayne. Broken men. As Cayne said at the final Bear Stearns shareholder meeting, “Words alone can’t describe the pain I feel.” He knows his legacy: the destruction of his bank and almost $1 billion of his personal wealth.
Next time, Jim Cramer or some other talking head calls for the firing of another CEO, pause for a moment. To err is human, to forgive divine.
As a CEO myself, I can empathize with just how tough it can be to stock a compensation committee with crony’s who are going to give you an oversized pay package.
Forgiveness is overrated.
– Shylock
Phuck ‘em
“Words alone can’t describe the pain I feel.” …because Jimmy was originally going to tag 383 Madison to show how he really feels, but was stopped by security seeing as how he hasn’t been employed there for some time.
CEOs don’t lose money. “Models” do.
“you have no idea how high I feel”
I invite any company to hire me for $30M a year, I then proceed to drive the company into the ground and the WSJ pastes my face on page A1 labeling me as a failure. I INVITE you!
I can be reached at 212-687-5309
the hardest thing has to be being the fall guy, no matter who screwed up.
iggy pop once said, “if you believe ‘em when they say you’re great, you’ll have to believe ‘em when they say you suck.”
That was before “suck” was considered acceptable speech.
Not sure if it totally applies, but it makes me feel cool posting a quote from iggy pop.
@3:19
They don’t teach CEOs how to spell plural words?
CEOs don’t walk a mile in their own shoes. Fucking divas are jetted and limo’d everywhere.
The devil never grants long leases as the Irish say.
“I … I … I Curse The Day You Were Born!!”
– Charlotte York
Rich “Siskel” Marin has largely avoided most of the blame at BSC, yet isn’t he sort of the one that took his eye off the ball whilst blogging ???
(He *was* CEO of BSAM at the time of the HF implosion … granted, not quite as powerful as being corporate CEO, but still)
Someone told me he was actually going to run some hedge fund. Can anyone confirm?
“I … I … I Curse The Day You Were Born, Jimmy Cayne!!”
– Charlotte York
http://www.stuffinvestmentbankerslike.blogspot.com/
Hi Bess,
I enjoy your posts. You sound like someone who has a good head on her shoulders.
I know you probably look for good news/commentary sites. Here’s one that seems real, with real opinions:
http://www.duckieduck.com
One of the nice things about Bear Stearns being defunct is that we get to hear less and less about Jimmy Cayne.
Wait…Canadians as in Stephen Harper, or Canadians as in Bess Levin and Ridgewood residents in general?