
A sick CEO's full disclosure - mattmaroon
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/07/a-sick-ceos-full-disclosure/
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holdenc
One of the things that strikes me as odd is the personal obligation leaders
feel to their companies as they prepare to die. In some ways it's
understandable since they've invested a huge amount of personal energy into
their work, but in a different way it shows that there is little separation
between their personal and work life.

I couldn't believe it when my cousin (a CTO of a large company) was dying of
multiple meyloma -- he actually was working from his hospital bed until a few
weeks before he got an infection and died. That's probably exactly what he
wanted, so godspeed. But, seeing that was enough to make me quit my job and
try to keep things in perspective. Your customers and colleagues are can be
extremely close and valuable, but your family and life you only get once.

~~~
avar
Another way to look at it is that it was probably his only chance of human
interaction that didn't directly involve his current predicament.

If he wasn't working he'd probably be doing nothing but staring into the air
waiting to die. Having to nothing to do but deal with medical staff, and group
after group of well-meaning relations who feel sorry for you is probably very
mentally stressful.

~~~
Mz
Continuing to work is also a way to feel you have value as a human being and
there is more to you than your illness.

I belong to a number of a groups for people with a deadly medical condition.
It is very clear to me that well-meaning well-wishers are often essentially
helping to kill people with kindness. Their unstated assumption is you aren't
going to get well, death is inevitable. Such thinking tends to help make it
inevitable. And hearing that 500,000 times from all the people who "love" you
makes it extraordinarily difficult to resist that thinking and therefore
resist that path. When you are working, no one is giving you that message.
They are saying "I need that report next week", which implies you will be
alive next week to deliver it. That's a much healthier message than having
everyone visit you daily for fear it might be the last chance they have to
speak with you as you might drop dead any second now.

~~~
avar
There's also the unspoken assumption that once you find out you're going to
die you're going to drop everything, tour the world, meet up with all your
loved ones etc. But that's a very Disney-esque view of the world.

We all know we're going to die in 20-60 years. I don't see why people that
know they're going to die in 6 months or 2 years from now should be expected
to behave any differently than the rest of us.

There's certainly a place for getting your affairs in order, but spending the
rest of your days feeling sorry for yourself is a bad waste of time as far as
I'm concerned.

~~~
Mz
_There's also the unspoken assumption that once you find out you're going to
die you're going to drop everything, tour the world, meet up with all your
loved ones etc. But that's a very Disney-esque view of the world._

Medical care for a serious health issue can be extremely expensive. My sister
has been battling cancer on and off for over 11 years and has had 4 separate
occurrences. She continues to work. She needs her job because it provides
better insurance than her husband's and they need two incomes to pay the
medical bills.

You would practically need to be Bill Gates to do the Disney-esque Version of
living with a life-threatening medical condition.

~~~
avar

        You would practically need to be Bill Gates to
        do the Disney-esque Version of living with a
        life-threatening medical condition.
    

That or live in a country with a working single-payer health care system. I.e.
anywhere in the first world except the US.

------
nezumi
It's surprising how the disease crept up on him despite the annual checks. One
of the benefits I imagine successful executives must have would be super-
duper, executive-level healthcare. All the check-ups and screenings the rest
of us miss out on because they're not quite cheap or statistically significant
enough to be worth rolling out for the general population.

And yet the CEO of a biotech firm slips through the net.

Does executive-level healthcare exist or is it just in my imagination? Is
there any significant advantage to be had if money is not an issue? Or perhaps
he already had all these advantages (he already knew about the genetic marker)
and that's how come he's in remission now?

~~~
masklinn
> It's surprising how the disease crept up on him despite the annual checks.

Depending on the cancer, they can act extremely fast. My father died from a
pancreatic cancer, he got about three months after the discovery, and before
that he spent under a month with severe back pains (doctors were telling him
it was nothing but he forced them to get to the end of it and find out why he
was in so much pain).

Considering Mr Martin's myeloma took out a whole vertebra before he hurt
enough to go see the doc, I'd say the thing was particularly ferocious, and
short of checking every 1-3 months he would only have caught it by luck.

> Does executive-level healthcare exist or is it just in my imagination?

it probably exists, but you have to factor in the long hours and activity
which result in both physical stress and not much time to go see the doc',
short of having your own on retainer.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> (doctors were telling him it was nothing but he forced them to get to the
> end of it and find out why he was in so much pain)

A family member is currently unwell, and their immediate family isn't doing a
great job talking to the doctors. The doctor basically tells her something
using medical terminology that she doesn't understand, and she doesn't follow
up.

Previous experiences with doctors, and your story, have re-inforced my belief
that if I ever get ill, as far as I'm concerned, that doctor is now my
personal tutor and servant, and that I will get clear answers, explanations,
and whatever tests might be necessary even if I have to streak up and down
hospital hallways screaming and whipping nurses with my IVs.

------
antileet
Can some experienced founders shed some light on how to handle situations when
you or your team might not be available for some unavoidable reasons for some
time.

~~~
SabrinaDent
There are very few circumstances under which "you or your team might not be
available for some unavoidable reasons" that are not due to catastrophic
planning failure. What kind of circumstance are you looking at that you cannot
put fail-safes in place well in advance? Even death is subject to redundant
engineering.

~~~
frossie
_Even death is subject to redundant engineering_

Death may be, but shareholder opinion isn't.

No matter how thoroughly Steve Jobs engineers his own departure, the stock
will still tank the day he leaves.

~~~
mkr-hn
Isn't there a shortlist of people who could take the company over without much
disruption? I would be surprised if Steve Jobs hadn't been working on training
a successor.

~~~
Tichy
If you believe that, you can probably make a killing with Apple stock on that
day (provided you are right).

~~~
anamax
It will take longer than a day for the stock market to figure that the new gal
is as good as Jobs, so you can delay your buy for a while.

------
quizbiz
I think this a testament to the power of drive and passion. Doing the best he
can for as long as he can is a way for the mentioned CEO, to leave the world
with a legacy. Thus, the persistence. I think with such passion, this terrible
news is transformed into a phenomenal motivational factor that will hopefully
push the company to preform better in shorter time. The stakes are higher
because everyone at the company is connected to this personal struggle.

The question is how to lead a firm where everyone considered the work to be a
personal struggle without sacrificing so much.

------
elliottcarlson
Inspiring, and definitely puts a new light on when the CEO where I work
announced he had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

------
wglb
I admire what he did, and the freshness with which he did it. Disclosure was
important as highlighted by the uncertainty about Steve Jobs and his illness.

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass; it is learning to dance in
the rain."

