Do Nice Guys Finish Last? Five Lessons From Apple, Tesla, And Volkswagen

What is the special sauce driving today’s most successful corporate leaders? So much has been written about the prickly personalities of the late Steve Jobs of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, and Ferdinand Piech, the former Volkswagen Chairman, that one might be left with the impression that unpleasantness is an essential ingredient to leadership success. Descriptors such as petulant, impatient, “discomfortable” to work with, difficult, autocratic, and brusque have all been used to describe their various leadership styles.