Mean old men.

I've been catching the occasional business biography on CNBC.

You have to take them with a grain of salt. A recent one, about Marriott, was interesting in what it didn't say; the sons were interviewed, and the first time on film they talk about what a "taskmaster" their father was; the second time, they repeat that, and then a third time, and then a fourth, and you get the message; the old man was a monster.

That seems to be a common refrain in the biographies. The old founders were monsters; a string of broken promises, lawsuits, shed partners, broken families.

Marriott started his hotel chain at the age of 58. That kind of ambition is just inexplicable to me. My guess is that these guys have such a huge reservoir of anger and resentment that it fuels them all the way to their deathbeds, whereupon they mutter the words "Rosebud" leaving their demoralized families to wonder what that was all about....

(Rich demoralized families...)