Steve Spurrier Defamation Survivor

Spent yesterday shadowing the PE‑backed portfolio company CEO. His assistant told me to pick him up at the regional airport at 9:30 am sharp — not 9:29, not 9:31. “Precision sets the tone,” she said. He was flying back from a “strategy summit” in Jackson Hole with other Port Co CEOs. I pulled up to the curb. He climbed in, slammed the door. His suitcase? Still on the sidewalk. He pointed at it without looking. I took the hint. On the drive to HQ, he joined two Teams calls on speaker. Said nothing until the end: “Thanks. Nothing on my end.” Volume maxed, eyes fixed ahead, face blank. We arrived at 9:50. Entered through the back door — “optics,” he said — I didn’t understand what he meant. He opened his laptop: 1,753 unread emails. No hesitation — Select All → Mark as Read. Checked his calendar on his phone and muttered, “Let’s see what fun we have in store today.” I asked why all his calendar invites said “no response.” He smirked. “Keeps people on their toes.” 10:00 am – HR Update Camera off. “Why’s PTO liability so high?” he asked. Before HR could answer: “Send me the names. Anyone over 80 hours — top of the RIF list. Change our policy to not pay out vacation effective immediately.” HR floated a new engagement survey. He flicked the camera on long enough to say, “This isn’t a family. Families lose money,” and switched it back off. Asked if the new Florida hires were W‑2 or 1099. When HR said W‑2, he sighed very deeply. Safety incidents were up. He nodded. “Good. Means they’re working faster.” 11:00 am – Finance Sync The VP shared his screen on a file titled "Forecast_vFINAL_FINAL_UPDATED_FINAL_v2.xlsx" — 47 tabs, each more confusing than the last. “Skip the noise,” the CEO said. “Gridlines? I can’t even look at it. Take me to the EBITDA bridge.” The model had four bridges — each with a different adjusted EBITDA number. None reconciled. He pointed to one labeled “Management Pro Forma Adjusted EBITDA — Including Unquantifiable Unidentified Potential Synergies (CEO Version)” and asked: “That's it? That is a quarter of what I committed to the board.” FP&A responded: “We added everything back that we possibly could and then some.” He shook his head. “Unacceptable. Add more back. Or I’ll find someone who will.” The CFO started to jump in. He cut him off: “No one cares about GAAP. Make EBITDA go up!” 12:30 pm – Ops Alignment Meeting COO started presenting a 92‑page slide deck. He reached slide 3. “Too many words,” the CEO said. Asked why service response time had improved. Ops explained they’d added more heads. “Wrong direction,” he said. “Shrink to grow.” “If I have to ask why we keep adding heads, we’ve already failed.” 2:00 pm – Strategic Planning Reset Whiteboard read: Narrative. Underlined twice. Someone had drawn a crude flywheel in the corner. He looked at the room and said, “What’s our story? What do we want a potential buyer to believe?” The COO started to speak. He held up a hand to stop talking. Told him to trim 15% of the team. Then clarified: “Start with leadership.” HR said we were already below operating minimums. He nodded. “Perfect. Now we find out who really wants to be here.” 3:30 pm – ELT Check-In Call with the PE Sponsor Joined 10 minutes late, camera off. “Sorry — was on another call.” He wasn’t. Jumped in once to confirm EBITDA was on target. Left before it ended. 5:00 pm – Board Prep Pacing his office, practicing to no one. “Say Value Creation Opportunities twice. Maybe three. It’s all about the narrative. Plant the first three questions.” “Use conviction words — recurring, scalable, capital-efficient — even if we’re none of the above.” 5:15 pm At the end of the day before leaving, I finally worked up the nerve to speak to him. I asked how he handled the pressure as he stared at a sensitivity table showing equity payouts at different exit scenarios. Without looking at me, he said, “Don’t build a company. Build a story someone richer than you believes in.” He paused, then said: “Don’t build for the customer. Build for the CIM.” Then he walked out without a word. Didn’t say goodbye. Didn’t look back. I never saw him again.

I don’t give a rip about being politically correct. Innocent Americans are being gunned down in the streets almost daily by Radical Islamists whose ‘religion’ teaches them it’s righteous to kill Christians. I won’t be silenced about this.