Ousted Gen. Stanley McChrystal Uses LinkedIn As A Rant Rag

Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. Army General who was more or less fired over a blistering Rolling Stone piece written by reporter Michael Hastings, has lately turned to LinkedIn to share how his career fallout ended up having a silver lining (and we’re not just talking about his generous for-life pension he collects each month).

For LinkedIn’s series of testimonials from “influencers” who turned that unemployed frown upside-down, McChrystal blasts Hastings’ “unfair” portrayal of himself and his staff, recalls his despair over no longer having a reason to shave in the morning, and confesses that he was “tempted to feel like a victim,” after his career with the U.S. Army had ended.

But everything turned out okay in the end:

“While momentous at the time, the question was actually quite simple: what am I? And what do I want to be next?

“…in the end, the answer was simple. My business, and my life, has been people. Like leaders in many walks of life, my business has been to serve with, and for, others. By focusing on this simple truth, and allowing it to guide my decisions through a difficult time, this curveball ultimately opened as many doors as it closed.”

The reaction to McChrystal’s LinkedIn confessional has been mixed thus far. While more conservative publications have praised his career advice and insight, left-leaning blogs like Gawker have taken the disgraced general to task over his unique situation and the ultimate inability of anyone who has suffered a career bump to relate to his experience because of it.

They point out that McChrystal still earns about $12,000 a month for life from the Army, wrote a best-selling memoir, and still has about a dozen jobs (Board of Directors at JetBlue and Navistar International, chairman of the board at Siemens Government Technologies, UAE, McChrystal Group LLC, etc.).

We don’t really caucus one way or the other here at Social News Daily, so we’ll let you decide: Is Stanley McChrystal’s LinkedIn piece an inspiring piece of work, or a remote and un-relatable account from a one-percenter? Let us know in the comments below.