And yet more about Rob and his contribution

 Alain urged me to check out the eulogy written by a close friend and colleague, 

Earlier this week we lost a person that was very important to my life and our family, Rob Burgess.

I’ve knew Rob for over 30 years. My introduction to him was soon after he started at Alias Research (a Canadian 3D graphics pioneer). I was working in an ineffective role, and watching others get laid off as the company struggled to meet payroll during a corporate rebuild. A coworker and I made an appointment with the terrifying new CEO, to tell him we were watching good people go while we added nothing. I will never forget his response. “As a CEO, do you know what the most valuable thing you can bring me is?”. We stuttered… we had no idea. “Truth. That’s what you have brought me. Leave it to me.” The next day we had been moved to productive roles, and the VP’s we had been working with were effectively gone. It was the start of my real ‘career’.

Over the years, Rob was my friend, my supporter and my guide. I followed him to Macromedia; “We have this little company we just bought, how would you like to help us figure out what to do with it? We just renamed it Flash.”

Years later, after the dot com boom, when a few of us decided to leave and start Greenbox, he was nothing but appreciative, and the first person to offer support - no questions asked - “Go change the world again”.

It is no exaggeration to say that without Rob, I (and my family) would not have had the life we have lived, or the success i have enjoyed. I’m not alone - I’m confident that those who joined us on these journeys would all say the same thing.

He was a generous soul. A captain of industry. A straight shooter. A caring man. And always a Canadian. He will be sorely missed.

Isn't that a nice tribute?   How many people in your constellation would rate praise of this sort?   Thank you to Peter and to Alain for these pointers at this time of loss of a great leader, and a great intrapreneur.  

Give the point of this blog, I think it is important to note that Rob never founded a company--he worked for others, and in those roles, he achieved incredible things for the companies.  Even the leadership he did for the Alias/Wavefront merger, and the later work for Macromedia, were ASSIGNMENTS basically, done with skill and aplomb, and all that it took for magnificent success.   And people miss that factoid about so many wonderful talents who are INTRAPRENEURS, not ENTREPRENEURS.  That needs much higher recognition.  The world basically runs because of INTRAPRENEURS, not their more famous and morelauded brethren.