The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

How to Handle a Powerful Critic You Still Need

When a former ally attacks you in public, don't defend — pivot to asking what they'd do instead.

SA (11:39 AM): i remember seeing you in a tv interview a long time ago (maybe 60 minutes?) where you being attacked by some guys, and you said they were heroes of yours and it was really tough. well, you're my hero and that's what it feels like when you attack openai. totally get we have some screwed some stuff up, but we have worked incredibly hard to do the right thing, and i think we have ensured that neither google nor anyone else is on a path to have unilateral control over AGI, which i believe we both think is critical. i am tremendously thankful for everything you've done to help—i dont think openai would have happened without you—and it really fucking hurts when you publicly attack openai.

EM (12:07 PM): I hear you and it is certainly not my intention to be hurtful, for which I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake.

SA (1:10 PM): i agree with that, and i would really love to hear the things you think we should be doing differently/better. it's also not clear to me how the attacks on twitter help the fate of civilization, but that's less important to me that getting to the right substance. also, i checked with our team on recruiting from tesla. we really are doing very little relative to the size of the company, but i will make sure we don't hurt tesla, i obviously think it's a super important company.

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Court Exhibit
Musk v. Altman (OpenAI)
4:24-cv-04722 (CAND), Doc. 379-75, filed 2026-01-06
February 18, 2023
Public domain
View the primary source →