Burned bridges

A friend of mine used to be on the board of a medium-size company that was very successful and grew organically and by acquisition. Some years ago he parted acrimoniously, and was not entirely private with his opinion of his former colleagues.

He moved on, and made good things happen at other companies. I spoke to him yesterday. His business unit has just been sold. To a large competitor. Which is run by the CEO he used to work for.

He does see the funny side of this; at the same time he does not expect to last long.

Despite what we would sometimes like to think, it's a small world. Even if it's hugely satisfying at the time to burn the bridge, it's very unlikely to be a good strategy.