[rprospero]

> unless you actually build something, the money isn't going to arrive, and you'll be out of a job.

The sad part is that many employees have come to the rational and correct solution that the above is not true. Out of the people I've known, more have lost their jobs to the results of C-suite malfeasance (e.g embezzling, illegal behaviour) than have ever lost their jobs to their own actions.

Conversely, unless the organisation you work for is exceptionally incompetent, your own personal failures shouldn't put them out of business. Think about all the cancelled Google projects. If the devs that worked on them had just come into work and played Minecraft all day, Google would still be in business. My personal opinion is that, if the Google Reader devs had never delivered a product, Google would be better off today than it actually is because it wouldn't have such a devoted community angry at it for killing off a beloved product.

The navel gazing framework discussion is like selling your own lotto tickets. If someone's number actually comes, you're on the hook for millions of dollars and probably broke for life. However, a person with a risk taking mentality will recognise that the odds of someone winning the lotto is tiny and, barring that outcome, selling your own lotto tickets is free money.