I hate the statement ‘Nice Guys Finish Last’.
My 27 year old rabbi used it in front of me at the Seder on Fridy and I set him straight.
‘What’s the timeframe you are using?’
Define Nice guy?
Define Last?
Define Winning?
It’s a lazy way to think about life. Nice guys that I know are finishing first in every industry. I talk to nice guys in lead positions all day.
Quitters finish last because nice guys and even dickheads pass them.
I think you have somewhat of a skewed perception because you’re in the VC world where niceness matters, but being a jerk definitely pays dividends in the dog-eat-dog corporate world. I can attest to this phenomenon first-hand.