Just before the meeting got started, Andy Grove, the gruff chairman of Intel's board at the time, pulled Pottruck aside. 'When you got promoted to CEO,' ... 'did that make you a better man' I said no. He said, 'Well then, do you think the fact that you're no longer CEO of Schwab means you're not a better man' I said, 'No, I don't think so.' He said, 'You're as good a man as you were last week. Hold your head high.' It helped me a lot.
Quotes about pottruck (2 Quotes)
Many executives, particularly those of Pottruck's age and tax bracket, would simply have retired, using that competitive fire to improve their handicaps. But for Pottruck, the best coping strategy was simply to charge ahead, to believe that what came next was just as important as what had come before. By September, he had settled into luxurious new offices (paid for by Schwab as part of his severance agreement) that overlooked San Francisco's Embarcadero, just 10 blocks from Schwab's offices. There is going to be mourning, ... but successful people let go of the past as quickly as they can. You can't mourn at the same time you have a new beginning because it drags the new beginning down.