To My Predecessor
Tucson, Arizona. Apparently my predecessor has read Something Else (or some of it) for he sent me an email. He states that he will never forget the expression on my face as I handed him a box to pack up his things.
A board member handed him the boxes. Whose face is he remembering? Then he suggested I wrote Something Else for financial gain. It’s posted for free at a Web site with no advertising. The blog has no advertising. The Web site costs money. The blog requires a great deal of time. He has no idea why I blog and never will.
I don’t know how he can believe I was responsible for his demise, but he does. That board had over a dozen individuals far too intelligent for me to manipulate. All I wanted to do was teach. I’d never run a company in my life. I did NOT want his job.
He claims to have designated me as a successor. I will spare the reader the proof, but that is false.
SAIAT closes this month according to word on the street. If he wishes to believe I caused the funding reductions and vilify me as the cause of the carnage, fine, but it’s not reality. He claims to have been hurt, and that he has suffered. Well, join the long list. Perhaps I’m arrogant in believing no one suffered more or put in more effort than I did struggling to please what could not be pleased, to succeed when success was not an option. I speculate that my suffering exceeds his. As for comparisons of character, he may wish to consider his letter to the board in the fall of 2003.
I have openly requested anyone wishing to refute any facts I have ever posted here or anywhere to submit the refutation. I will correct any erroneous content. I have made errors (usually as significant as a name spelling) and corrected them when notified.
Something Else required hundreds of hours of research over seven months. The documents supporting its assertions occupy a shelf. Something Else is not about my predecessor, not about SAIAT, and certainly not about me. If it were about any of these, certain chapters would not exist. The astute reader sees that Something Else is about something else.
A board member handed him the boxes. Whose face is he remembering? Then he suggested I wrote Something Else for financial gain. It’s posted for free at a Web site with no advertising. The blog has no advertising. The Web site costs money. The blog requires a great deal of time. He has no idea why I blog and never will.
I don’t know how he can believe I was responsible for his demise, but he does. That board had over a dozen individuals far too intelligent for me to manipulate. All I wanted to do was teach. I’d never run a company in my life. I did NOT want his job.
He claims to have designated me as a successor. I will spare the reader the proof, but that is false.
SAIAT closes this month according to word on the street. If he wishes to believe I caused the funding reductions and vilify me as the cause of the carnage, fine, but it’s not reality. He claims to have been hurt, and that he has suffered. Well, join the long list. Perhaps I’m arrogant in believing no one suffered more or put in more effort than I did struggling to please what could not be pleased, to succeed when success was not an option. I speculate that my suffering exceeds his. As for comparisons of character, he may wish to consider his letter to the board in the fall of 2003.
I have openly requested anyone wishing to refute any facts I have ever posted here or anywhere to submit the refutation. I will correct any erroneous content. I have made errors (usually as significant as a name spelling) and corrected them when notified.
Something Else required hundreds of hours of research over seven months. The documents supporting its assertions occupy a shelf. Something Else is not about my predecessor, not about SAIAT, and certainly not about me. If it were about any of these, certain chapters would not exist. The astute reader sees that Something Else is about something else.
posted by x4mr at 6:46 PM
14 Comments:
You are correct that the hour is close, and it does not surprise me that your predecessor would grab at the straw that you are responsible.
He certainly won't touch the possibility that he was. Now he can seethe at you instead of Carol Somers, who was the prior focus of his wrath.
When operations close around Christmas you will no doubt post a concluding story, and I will post a closing comment that I think you will find very interesting. There is something very profound, x4mr, to which you are completely blind.
Your predecessor cannot take comfort in the fact that he never stood a chance. He actually did have a chance and blew it.
You and Carol stood no prayer. Anyone pointing blame at either of you does not know the truth.
Interesting ... to the best of my recollection, this is your first comment at this blog, is that correct cigar man? Or did I miss some? Or perhaps you have posted anonymously?
Given what I have heard about you here, and what I have learned of x4mr, I see no reason to expect SAIAT to last through the end of the year. I look forward to the denouement, and your comment on the affair.
Sirocco,
You are absolutely right that this is his first post. This guy is serious horsepower.
Cigar Man,
Where have you been? What's going on? Get in touch with me. You say I am completely blind about something? What do I not see?
Why didn't you tell me back then when I had some time or could do something about it?
It is possible, Sirocco, that this is an impostor, but I don't think so. His words sound like the man I met years ago.
Remember, this guy said SAIAT was dead in late 2004 (3 years ago!) when we were in the black and everyone was telling us we were fantastic.
There are only a couple ways somebody could have this sort of information. They either are extremely savvy, and paying close attention, or they are somehow part of the mechanism. That's what I thought when I read about your first encounter with him. Anyway, I'm not big into conspiracy theories, but how he could make that kind of prediction has certainly piqued my curiosity.
Fascinating.
I confess I cannot see what Cigar Man is talking about, but am most intrigued.
Your predecessor is an idiot for emailing you. You could have posted his content verbatim, exposing his foolishness for all to see. I assume you held back out of compassion.
The people at TREO are smart enough not to engage.
You do realize, Cigar Man, that telling a person like x4mr that he is completely blind about something will drive him into a frenzy.
He is probably in his secret chamber tripping on some substance concocted near the border of Nepal and Tibet.
Navigator,
Ha! No substances from Tibet. I am drug free minus the cigars, espresso, the light Starbucks "doubleshots" (love those) and the occasional scotch.
You are correct, however, that Cigar Man knows how to drive me nuts. He has been ahead of me in every conversation. I wish the place would close already so he can enlighten us about whatever it is that I cannot see.
Yes, I held back regarding the email. I don't wish the guy any harm. He has no clue what I see, and apparently I have no clue what Cigar Man sees.
Cigar Man,
If you fail to deliver I will hunt you down. You say I am totally blind to "something profound." Them's fightin' words in the blogosphere.
"There is something very profound, x4mr, to which you are completely blind."
Hmmmm. Wow. x4mr has pretty good vision.
This should be interesting.
Maybe I'm not seeing things clearly, but Something Else does not list your former boss by name, and you published it 7/7/7, four whole years after he left. I don't know who he is and don't care. I would guess the same for just about everyone else.
Tell me if I am wrong, x4mr, but I have a hunch if someone writes you a nasty message, it becomes material for the blog. You are doing something I can't quite figure out, but something is going on like a feedback loop or I don't know, but something.
I don't see what you are up to, but there is more here than meets the eye. When we comment, we become part of "it" whatever it is.
If he writes you, or in fact does ANYTHING, it integrates into "it."
Right? Having anything to do with you or any communication at all is the worst thing for him to do because it brings him back into "it." Am I off base?
Regarding Cigar Man's "something very profound" put me in the clueless column. I'm eager to hear this one.
Liza also mentioned she saw something that x4mr did not see. My guess is that what Liza sees and what Cigar Man sees are quite different. I had the impression that Liza sees something good, information that would be helpful.
I think Cigar Man has something very different to tell us.
interesting idea doc, are thinking about something along the lines of like a meta-conversation (I wouldn't know what else to call it).
All I know is, this has been quite a different ride than what I first expected, stumbling upon the site looking for info on the CD8 candidates.
I wrote a comment here earlier and when I tried to preview some error screen came back. The comment is in cyberspace now I guess.
Anyhow, I wish that I knew how to give all of you a glimpse into the story that I am writing for X4mr, but I cannot figure out a way to do that. It is becoming a longer story than I anticipated, partly because I wrote myself into it (in a small way to clarify my perspective.)
I am also very interested in what Cigar Man has to say.
Cigar Man and Liza are annoying the hell out of me with this "I have something BIG to say but not yet" stuff. Out with it, you two!!
The more I think about this post, the more it bugs me. I have never run a company or reported to a board of directors. It sounds terrifying.
Tell me if I am wrong, but in order for the CEO to lose his job, the board has to vote that he has to go, right? My logic then says that having the support of the board must be the highest priority. Right? If the board says you're out, it doesn't matter whether you are making money, losing money, doing it right, doing it wrong, or anything. Am I not seeing something?
If I am right, how in the world could this guy think x4mr destroyed his support? If the guy is doing a good job and x4mr says he isn't, doesn't the board think x4mr is crazy? Please enlighten me.
Further, if what is posted is false, why doesn't this guy blast x4mr and refute him point by point with evidence for all of us to see? Also, the whole board read the thing if I understand right, and not one board member has come forward.
Until convinced otherwise, I believe that having the support and approval of the board is the CEO's responsibility, pure and simple. If he lost it, for any reason, 100% of the responsibility is HIS.
Blaming it on a subordinate is in fact consistent with how the guy occurs in "Something Else." A competent CEO would see the issue ahead of time and take action (as x4mr had to do with Darth).
x4mr?
One more thing.
If Liza and Cigar Man come forward with legitimate points, I think x4mr will really listen to them and learn something, respecting their opinions.
If what they say is off, I expect him to respond with a rational argument showing why.
Doc,
You are spot on. Board support is the top priority and 100% the responsibility of the director, and the contradiction you perceive is accurate.
In 2004 Darth tried to have the board take me out, and when he talked nonsense it immediately appeared as such. Board pressure to remove him went nuclear.
Intelligent boards, and SAIAT had one, gather their own counsel and consensus, which they did via telephone 6/13/03 and formally 6/16/03.
That I saw it coming does not mean I made it happen. As documented, I saw it coming the day he didn't fire Floof in 2002. My telling Carol operations could continue only affected the logistics of a decision already made. A board member already had signatory authority.
All I wanted to do was teach.
Your last remark is also correct. I eagerly await both Cigar Man and Liza's insights. I anticipate thanking them both, no matter how tough or painful their information may prove to be.
I didn't include the down and dirty, but what I went through to become effective leading the LDP defies language. My good friend Bob was in group 7. He saw it first hand.
I eagerly await Liza's story and suspect that Cigar Man will get all of us thinking. If he says it's profound, it will be. I have ZERO clue.
My final statement is complete and will be posted at the right time.
Hint, x4mr: CHECK YOUR PREMISES.
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