Chris Young

@ryancohen Truer words have never been spoken.

The Hollow Men American capitalism is rotting from the head down. We have replaced the "Owner-Operator"—the risk-taker-with a new, parasitic class of corporate bureaucrat: The Risk-Free Insider. By "Insider," I am not referring to a specific title. I am referring to the entire administrative state that has captured the modern corporation. This includes the Directors who exist solely to collect fees, the Executives who exist solely to collect bonuses, and the Managers who exist solely to hire consultants. These are the hollow men of the boardroom. They are masters of PowerPoint. They wear the right suits. They say the right buzzwords about "governance" and "ESG." But they are mercenaries fighting a war with someone else’s ammunition. In a functioning economy, authority is tied to liability. If you make a bad decision, you lose your own money. That fear of loss is the only thing that keeps a business honest. It forces you to cut waste, obsess over the customer, and stay late to fix what is broken. Today, we have severed that link. We have rigged the game so that heads, the Insider wins; tails, the shareholder loses. If the stock goes up, the Insider collects a massive performance bonus. If the stock crashes due to their own incompetence, they are fired with a "Golden Parachute" worth tens of millions. They are gambling with the house’s money, and they never leave the table poorer than they arrived. This looting starts in the boardroom. We have normalized a "Country Club" culture where directors are selected based on social profiling rather than their ability to build a business. The modern board member is often a professional tourist—paid an average of $350,000 a year. Let’s be brutally honest about what that number represents. The average director is paid nearly five times the GDP per capita of the United States. They earn more for attending four quarterly lunches than the vast majority of Americans earn in five years of hard labor. And for what? Most of these directors are "over-boarded," sitting on three or four boards simultaneously. They treat directorships as a gig economy for the elite. They fly in, rubber-stamp a compensation package they didn't read, and fly out. They collect checks from companies they do not understand, do not use, and certainly do not love. They are not there to ask hard questions. They are there to be collegial. They are there to protect the other Insiders. And what happens when these boards hire executives who also have no personal capital at risk? We get the Delegation Economy. When a Risk-Free Insider faces a crisis—bloated expenses, a broken supply chain, or a stale product—they do not roll up their sleeves. They hire a consultant. They pay a strategy firm millions of shareholder dollars to produce a 100-page deck telling them what they already know. This is not management. It is intellectual money laundering. They use shareholder capital to buy an insurance policy for their own careers. If the plan fails, they can blame the consultants. They delegate the work because they are terrified of the responsibility. They would rather preside over a slow, comfortable decline than risk a bold mistake. While American Insiders are busy optimizing their severance packages, our global competitors are optimizing their products. They are not slowed down by bureaucracy. They are not waiting for a slide deck. They are outworking us. If we continue to fill our C-suites with administrators instead of operators, we will lose our edge. We will see iconic American franchises hollowed out by fees, managed for the benefit of the Insiders, while the true owners—the shareholders—are left holding the bag. The time for polite governance is over. If we want to save the American economy from mediocrity, we must demand a return to the "Owner’s Mentality." We need leaders who treat shareholder capital with the same reverence they treat their own savings. The era of the Risk-Free Insider must end.

@SenJohnHoeven Watch the videos, Senator. Believe your eyes.

We never want to see someone lose their life, and I believe we need to get the facts to determine what exactly happened in Minneapolis. At the same time, state and local officials and the federal government should be working together to enforce our immigration laws, which would help de-escalate the situation, restore law and order and make our communities safer. We are encouraged that the President and Governor Walz had a productive conversation today and that Tom Homan is headed to Minneapolis.

@Delta DL 2129 on 1/22 MSP to BIS left over ten passengers behind after closing the gate and then sat at the gate for at least ten minutes. Is that the Delta Airlines I know and love? In this world of incivility, kindness goes further than ever.

Just wanted to thank @westjet for screwing up my @Delta flights yesterday and today. Never again. How on earth @Delta sees fit to have @westjet carry their passengers is way beyond my capacity to understand. #WestJetsucks

@jimcramer Time to short?

In all my years of following Nvidia I have never heard that team more fired up!!!!

@Dontshortspy It just did.

Now we test the declining 21 day $qqq $spy $nvda is a beast, but still needs to hold and prove itself

@Delta Thank you for the sprint exercise from MSP C23 to F11 this evening. It’s the little things that matter in CX.

You Cannot Scale What You Tolerate - Culture is defined by what leaders allow. Tolerance of mediocrity institutionalizes dysfunction. You cannot scale what you refuse to enforce. hubs.ly/Q03spfJM0

Check out my latest article: The Mindshare of Low Performance linkedin.com/pulse/mindshar… via @LinkedIn #BusinessGrowth #FOUNDERMODE #PerformanceManagement #Leadership #TriMetrixHD #FounderInsights #ScalingUp

Tell the truth. Hear the truth. Act on the truth. Even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. Brutal facts. Radical candor. Ideological conflict. Truth is the foundation of scalable leadership. #Leadership #RadicalCandor #TruthCulture #ScalingUp #E... hubs.ly/Q03rPFcL0

Leaders bring the weather. You want performance? Show up clear. Show up composed. Your presence sets the climate. No one follows chaos. #Leadership #CEO #Execution #ScalingUp hubs.ly/Q03rr9lQ0

Profit does not equal brilliance. Your top-line engine might be strong enough to drag dysfunction across the finish line—for now. Discipline is what lasts. #Leadership #Execution #ScalingUp #TheWolfWrites hubs.ly/Q03qk-B00

Top reps are never fully yours. They are loyal to results, not titles. One foot in your company. One eye on the market. That is how they stay sharp. #Leadership #SalesCulture #FounderLife #ScalingUp #HighPerformance hubs.ly/Q03pFVQv0

If you are too busy to build a culture of clarity and ownership, prepare to manage friction and drama. The Accountability Flywheel shows you a better way. #Accountability #ScalingUp #LeadershipGreat teams do not need babysitters. They need discipline, ... hubs.ly/Q03nHpvR0

Most companies track 20 KPIs and move none. The best companies align around one. It is called a Critical Number. And it is how execution cultures scale. #Leadership #Scaling #Execution #RockefellerHabits hubs.ly/Q03ng-W40

Some years you win. Some years you build character. If this was a grind year, do not waste it—leverage it. Here is how: [hubs.ly/Q03ngWH90] #Leadership #ScalingUp #FounderMode #ScalingUpMindset hubs.ly/Q03ngWH90

Team building is not an offsite. It is an operating system. Train it quarterly. Reset it annually. Onboard it daily. If you do not reset culture—it resets you. #Leadership #Execution #FiveDysfunctions #TeamBuilding #ScalingBusiness #OrganizationalHealth hubs.ly/Q03mHXzw0

The Mental Models Every Founder/CEO Must Master to Scale with Discipline - Mental models every scaling CEO must master—frameworks to think clearly, execute consistently, and lead teams with discipline and precision. hubs.ly/Q03m9bXW0

You Are the Bottleneck: Why Critical Self-Awareness Is the CEO’s Most Underrated Performance Tool hubs.ly/Q03jdjhm0

Too many teams let fear silence real issues—the "moose on the table." 🦌 Great teams embrace conflict, build trust, and sharpen team hygiene like a strategy. Learn how to mine for productive debate and scale with confidence. 📖 Read more: [therainmakergroupinc.com/blog/about-tha…... hubs.ly/Q03cC1kR0