Newmark, who founded Craigslist, had a potentially career-ruining moment while working at IBM in Detroit. He lost his temper in front of customers and “created an instant perception of not playing well with others.”
After moving to Charles Schwab and eventually taking on direct reports, those direct reports said he wasn’t a good manager. He decided to move down to customer service representative.
“By that point, I’d internalized the big lesson: that the only way I learned and moved ahead was the right kind of trauma,” he said.
His ability to recognize his weaknesses and learn from his mistakes is pretty admirable (and explains his later success!)