Citing Tim Cook's sycophantic White House appearance, Scott Galloway argues that a leader's final actions are what people remember most. Just as with a divorce or leaving a party, being principled at the end is crucial. A late-career misstep can tarnish decades of success.
Related Insights
Cook's potential retirement isn't about failure but preserving his legacy. He could exit after a record-breaking quarter, before the high-stakes AI bets of competitors either collapse the market or prove Apple is too far behind, protecting his track record.
Your true reputation is not what you project, but the sum of stories people tell about you when you're not in the room or after you've left an organization. This "legacy" narrative is the ultimate litmus test of your integrity and impact.
Public figures' careers follow a predictable arc of rise, excitement, and eventual controversy. Their survival depends on a simple equation: if the drama of their downfall is more interesting or valuable to the public than their actual contributions, their career is effectively over.
An empire is built for personal gain, name recognition, or familial wealth and will eventually crumble. A legacy is built on values and beliefs that benefit everyone and spread long after the founder is gone. A leader must consciously choose one path, as they are mutually exclusive.
The ultimate proof of leadership isn't a team's success under your watch, but its sustained success after you're gone. A leader who leaves a vacuum has failed to develop other leaders, making their impact temporary. True legacy is building an organization that continues to grow, proving you made the system, not just yourself, successful.
When eulogized, a person's career accomplishments are footnotes. The core of their legacy is their character—how they behaved and treated others—and their service. This reality should inform how we prioritize our daily actions, focusing on behavior over status or material success.
Tim Cook, at the height of his success, is planning his exit. This stands in stark contrast to aging political and corporate leaders who cling to power, creating instability. The biggest problems often trace back to a powerful man who "won't fuck and leave."
Tech executives like Tim Cook, who attend White House events after state-sponsored killings, are immune to moral shaming. The only effective leverage against their complicity is threatening their company's stock price, as shareholder value is their primary, and perhaps only, motivator.
Tim Cook's legacy will be judged not only by Apple's massive growth but by the strategic position he leaves for the next CEO. Unlike Steve Jobs, who left a clear product roadmap, Cook's successor faces an uncertain AI landscape, which could retroactively impact Cook's own historical standing.
Instead of directly praising his successor Greg Abel, Buffett's final letter is a masterclass in indirect endorsement. By repeatedly emphasizing traits like integrity and dependability, he frames character as the most crucial CEO qualification, implicitly anointing Abel without needing to mention his name often.
