How to Tell if Your Company Has Crossed the Line

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Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says the company's culture had promoted piracy for years. Ethical pirates make nor conventional rules, but they're driven by their own strong moral code. Criminal pirates have no such moral compass; how can you tell if your company has crossed the line? The broad question is: am I a creator who is trying to improve the state of the world for everyone? Or am I just trying to grab things for myself?

Early-stage startups are a lot like pirate ships — they need a buccaneering spirit to survive. But every startup needs to shed its pirate nature at some point, and evolve into something more akin to a navy — no less heroic, but more disciplined. Dara Khosrowshahi, as Uber CEO, took on the most extreme pirate-to-navy transition in startup history. Though Uber blitzscaled to become the most valuable startup in the world, it was also notorious for its toxic culture — and Dara turned the company around. His method? Truth-telling and doing the right thing

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