I was on a pretty heady career arc to my early 30’s, serving as an IC to some powerful people at my employer and could have leveraged my own name recognition to jump into leadership…who knows what woulda happened, but the groundwork was there.
Then I got married and had our first kiddo, and my life priorities changed. My long-time boss had always said ‘family first’ but I saw that he really meant it…two kids with the associated missed time they require, grad school, patience as I worked through a tough adjustment period in my life (and associated drinking problem), etc.
A buddy of mine who did make that leap is now a Sr Director who they want to make a VP…he works 12 hours a day, phone never stops ringing, his wife practically raises their daughter solo, never gets to unplug. He doesn’t want those VP stripes even though it’ll probably mean his upward mobility will halt. Meanwhile I’d do anything for my boss because he enables me being a good husband/father and that’s worth untold amounts of money to me.
Point being, I can’t respect someone who asks for endless sacrifice for the ‘firm’…let alone someone who demands it, in writing. Forget his accomplishments, I can’t respect Elon as a person.