, but perhaps he should have. Philosophical, highly disciplined, and ferocious when he has to be, he would have been well suited to samurai life. But he grew up in inner-city Detroit and became a warrior of a different way.
Well, before I interview anyone I start by asking what their intentions are and I say, “I will help you get those intentions, but you have to trust me.” I’ll give you an example. I made a reservation at John Bentley’s, two blocks from my house. If anything went wrong, I figured we could make a fast getaway. Instead, after a three-hour dinner, I invited Shaka back to our house, where we talked for another five hours.
The Melanics’ code was complex, but it essentially made everyone responsible for his fellow members. If an outsider struck a member, the entire organization would rise against him, which meant he would not be safe in any prison. You had to come to the aid of any member in need who was a worthy brother; his beef became your beef. If a member was deemed unworthy—often because he hadn’t come to another member’s aid—he lost his protection.
All those life-risking decisions he’d made, all those moments of serial integrity, had added up to a culture he didn’t want. Culture is weird like that. Because it’s a consequence of actions rather than beliefs, it almost never ends up exactly as you intend it. This is why it’s not a “set it and forget it” endeavor. You must constantly examine and reshape your culture or it won’t be your culture at all.
I had many of these moments when I was the CEO of LoudCloud, and each of them felt like they could go either way. Once, after a quarter that was strong on revenue but low on bookings—an accounting term for guaranteed contracts that will eventually become revenue—some of my employees devised an elaborate way to make an unguaranteed contract sound like a booking. Basically, the team suggested that we toss actual bookings and unguaranteed contracts into the same bucket.
Here's an idea: STOP THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE for minority students. Show them there are other options. Stop making learning an unpleasant experience. Education is about growth not containment.
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Shaka Senghor knew how to shape a culture, recognize its flaws, then transform it—lessons that venture capitalist Ben Horowitz took to heart after meeting the ex-con. Which Horowitz discusses in his new book, 'What You Do Is Who You Are,' slated to debut on October 29