My Complaining Boss
Why is my boss always like a emotional baby?
"This is not usable!"
"The AI images are horrible!"
Our boss often said these words in our office, creating unease and tension among the team. Before tonight, I usually thought he was such an immature, overly emotional person. "Horrible" isn't a constructive word at all. I was always annoyed by his leadership style. Why couldn't he calm down and be more reasonable in this professional environment?
Until tonight, I started to understand why he was always so emotional.
Today, we went to a popular AI startup event. More than 1,000 people were on the waitlist. The venue was packed, and I had to shout at people three times so they could hear me. There was sweat, noise, and apologies when trying to pass through the crowd...
In that environment, it's his job to sell our product to people.
He needed to present our buggy app, even as everyone stared, wondering why it wasn't loaded yet.
He had to wait for quite a while to craft a course for demonstrating the app while introducing it and making it look as fun as possible.
He had to address all the doubts that had always lingered in my mind, such as monetization and use cases, using interesting and engaging stories to persuade people.
His task was to showcase our somewhat glitchy app, when everyone's eyes fixated on it, waiting for it to load forever. The seconds seemed to stretch into an eternity as he patiently waited for a course to be generated by AI, but he needed to inject an element of fun into the presentation.
It struck me then that being a founder was such a dirty dirty job.
Despite the flaws in our product, he emerged as the most compelling speaker and the top salesperson in the room. His ability to connect with the audience, tackle doubts, and present our product in an engaging way left everyone impressed.
That’s when I realize why is he always complaining and chasing our asses. In his shoes, I might have been tempted to unleash my frustration on all my employees the next day after the embarrassing situation I had to go through.
But he didn't let our buggy product embarrass him; instead, he left a lasting impression on everyone he talked to. He was friendly, welcoming, and humorous while exuding confidence.
Tonight, I transformed from being just an engineer who locked herself away, working on something with uncertain demand. I became a believer, rediscovering the purpose of our journey, understanding why people needed us, and reacquainting myself with the stress and determination that a founder needs to go through.
I guess. I am sold.
I can imagine being annoyed by complaining bosses but the way that you stood in his shoes and saw things from his perspective was a good reminder to me as well :)