CHAPTER 9
SHATTER THE SHARK TANK
Selfishness is . . . self-destruction in slow motion.
—NEAL MAXWELL
The Zoom call began. The CEO sat at a table, staring at the camera, as hundreds of employees faced their fate. He leaned in and said of the layoffs he was about to announce, “The last time I did it, I cried. This time I hope to be stronger.”
Were those words supposed to be comforting? Vishal Garg had just made it painfully clear that he cared more about his own feelings than theirs.
What led to this? How could a leader be so callous? Not long before, Garg had sent out a brutal email to staff. “You are TOO DAMN SLOW,” he wrote. “You are a bunch of DUMB DOLPHINS and . . . DUMB DOLPHINS get caught in nets and eaten by sharks. SO STOP IT. STOP IT. ...
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