I have listened to a lot of managers over the years. I've read a lot of annual reports, and I've seen a lot of analysts and CEOs on television. There is one common factor between all of these things and stock prices that underperform: Insults. Tesla's CEO Elon Musk told "Handelsblatt", a German newspaper that the former Tesla engineers that Apple has hired are like picking through a "Tesla Graveyard". It has been a consistent indicator of poor long-term business outlook when a CEO, even if he might be the world's most brilliant engineer, has to say negative things about the competition. And it is naive: There is no possibility that Elon knows every engineer that Apple has hired, whether or not they are all ex-Tesla employees, and he is delusional to think that Apple does not have the cash resources to help improve their capabilities. Good CEOs respect their competitors. When the people who run Coke talk about the people at Pepsi, they speak about them positively. They appreciate that both groups, while highly competitive, are peers. There is no room to be macho in leadership. You can be confident in your product, you can sell your exclusive benefits and utility, but downplaying the capability of another company is an admission that you are afraid of what they might do to yours. Tesla closed down $5.24 at $226.72 today, Apple closed down $1.28 at $109.50.