Skilling had other ideas, too. He used to say that he liked to hire “guys with spikes.” By this, he meant that if an executive had a singular narrow talent—a spike—Skilling was willing to bring him into Enron and lavish him with money, no matter what his other shortcomings. Egomaniacs, social misfits, backstabbers, devotees of strip clubs: Skilling didn’t really care about their foibles so long as they had a skill he needed.
