If we strip away the atrocities of war, the path to victory has been the same. To win, you must simply break the will of the people. To remove the fight.
In times of war, it is an existential decision to put down arms to save yourself, your family, your town. And, generally, what is left inside is emptiness. Conquerors know, when the will is gone, control is easy. There is a clear path to institute new rules and ways to govern without much pushback.
Breaking the human spirit through existential fear is how wars are won. Knocking down food supplies, transportation, energy, and ability to make a living.
And it is not just wars that win when the human spirit is broken. It happens in relationships. It can happen in education. And most certainly, it can happen in business.
But winning is much different than controlling, which is what conquerors tend to do.
Elon Musk is a modern-day conqueror. His methods may not be a physically barbaric, as say, Genghis Khan. But his methods are psychologically barbaric.
I doubt many people working at Twitter have been getting a good night’s sleep lately. Imagine waking up to find an email, giving you one day to decide whether your life will completely change. To distill your future by simply pressing, or not pressing a button on that email. Imagine the lack of understanding, or empathy, of the person writing the email. Late at night, angry, frustrated, over their head, and having no idea that an email like this will just make things worse.
I don’t know what hardcore culture stands for, but it doesn’t sound pleasant. It takes work culture back to the Gordon Gecko days, where greed, deception, and a complete lack of anything outside of work is what gets you ahead. Again, sounds miserable.
Pressing that button, is asking you to commit to believing in someone who knocked down the doors down and completely changed your life. No one trusts a conqueror. There are those who bend their knee and shut their mouth to stay alive (Russia, Cuba, North Korea). But many don’t believe in them. They depend on them. They stuff their feelings inside. They silently protest with a free mind, or they simply resign. They accept. They feel flat. They are broken.
Been there.
The choice is to either fall in. Or leave. It’s a tough decision. A decision based on ideals, economics, and almost exclusively fear. Because that is how conquerors rule, with fear.
The reality is this. No one wants to work with a conqueror. No one wants to add to their power by absolving their own. Yet, to choose not to do so, is a privilege. Many are reliant on work Visas. Many have mouths to feed and housing to pay. To leave without a backup plan, which is hard to make when given a single workday to figure one out, may feel reckless to the person making that choice. But also brave. And just. And probably, right.
That decision is difficult as it clicks the timer on a 3-month ticking clock, within the landscape of a tech economy that seems to be shitting itself. Those who stay will probably simply buy some time. I doubt they are committing to the toxic culture Elon presents. They are simply falling in for now, as they search for more time and a better way amid the chaos. Elon wants to rule the lives of the people who work for him, and no one wants that.
There is a difference between a leader and a conqueror. A leader provides a clear and shared vision, one that others can see themselves in. They are inclusive. They recognize that work is not life, just one part of it. They allow freedom to explore. They reward hard work, and motivate people when they need that gentle push.
Leaders empower others, and rarely give ultimatums, except in the most dire of cases. Instead, they understand the value of the collective brain, the connected drive, and that for their vision to come through, they need others to help. That happens when you inspire people. It will never happen when you threaten people.
Conquerors, well, they like to wield their power, not just over your job but your life. They threaten to cut off your source of income. They give choices, but, is deciding whether you want your job or not a choice? For many, they clicking yes is accepting a prison sentence. Allowing a conqueror to not just rule your job, but your life. That’s hardcore.
There is only one way with the conqueror mindset. Unless you consider the highway another option. Conquerors change out the government or leadership, even if it doesn’t follow the will of the people. They put others in surrogate power who have already been tamed, and thus, unwilling to challenge any of the bad decisions.
Conquerors don’t respect you enough to try to win you over. They simply try to bulldoze through. And without inspiration or believing in their “leader,” people will not perform. There is no desire to make things better. So employees simply hold their feelings deep inside, and perform as much as they need to get that paycheck.
Those companies never survive. Those employees inevitably leave. And with them goes years of high value institutional knowledge.
This Twitter fiasco represents everything I hate about the dark side of corporate America. The insider status, the devaluing of employees. Arrogance. Greed. Emotional lethargy. We’ve tasted different, and don’t want to go back.
The behavior we have seen with some leaders lately, putting shareholders above the people who built the company on their backs is disheartening. To allow the will of any wealthy outsider to outsize the accomplishments of the people toiling within is happening more and more. The message is clear: the people who have worked long hours, missed vacations, had to skip family dinners or vacation to build the platforms don’t matter.
And they didn’t merely do it because they were pressured. They did it because they believed in it. They had a vision, and they wanted to build that vision into a reality. They were motivated, inspired, and willing to make personal sacrifices for the good of the company.
In a strange way, those who were among the first let go may have had it the easiest. They didn’t have to make a decision of economics vs. beliefs. And those who didn’t press the button, which seems to be about half, had to make probably one of the toughest decisions in their life.
Everyone’s situation is different, and it is a shame that Musk put his people in a position to make that choice, especially around the holidays. I hope one day he understands that. Until then, we will continue to watch him destroy lives as he conquers the platform he hoped to save.
Because no one trusts a conqueror.
