The author missed the Fred Wilson's MBA Mondays Archive [1] which personally was a great resource in the quest for my "business success" (whatever it means). There is a more organized and illustrated edition here [2]. BTW, I always return to some articles such as "Commission Plans" for Sales [3].

Regarding books: - Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew Grove (Intel) [4]. It is always in my "pocket". It is real experience with pain points from a top CEO, not an academic exercise.

- Other books that are not focused on business but are more "epistemological". For example, "How Life Imitates Chess" by Garry Kasparov [5]. I don't know who created this title for the book though. Many autobiographies, in general, or good business biographies such as "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire" [6].

[1] https://avc.com/category/mba-mondays/

[2] https://mba-mondays-illustrated.com/

[3] https://avc.com/2010/08/commission-plans/

[4] https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challen...

[5] https://www.amazon.com/How-Life-Imitates-Chess-Boardroom/dp/...

[6] https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Making-Microsoft-Empire/dp...

My beard is gray. I tend to apply Occam’s razor. The problem with code is almost never a bug in the compiler.

The simplest explanation for your experience is not Google being incompetent.

I have read AskHN’s written a bit later under similar facts. The consultant is trying to get their own account reinstated because they made a new account on behalf of a client experiencing “arbitrary” mistreatment.

Outside of that, the market for consulting clients is a market for lemons. Good clients already have consultants. Those consultants hang onto good clients like grim death.

I could be misreading what you wrote. You might not have written down something that would change my take.

Maybe this is not a situation where you pay the dumb tax. But everyone pays it sometimes.

As for paranoia: https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challen...

Too big to fail?

Remember all those Intel clones?

Intel crushed everyone now we need to save it?

Do we have another option?

“Only the Paranoid Survive” -Andy Grove

https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challen...

Gordon Moore created Moore's law and Andy Grove made it happen.

Loved this book http://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challeng...