My family knew him back when he married a cousin of ours in Rome GA in the 1880s (her family's plot is next to ours in the old cemetery west of town).
Nobody liked him, you should have heard my great-aunt and grandmother feeling sorry for his first wife and declaring that he got what he deserved in his second (nobody cared for her either, apparently).
He really was a very unlikeable person and not very bright to boot. Hard work and determination without any underlying character or intelligence may get you someplace, but it's probably not where you ought to be.
Your last sentence should be required reading in every management class in this country.