It is not just about bad hires

Some of my classmates have their own businesses and are fairly successful at it. I also get a chance to interact with many other people who have founded a business and have either turned it into something they are proud of or have regrets about not doing a great job at it.

Everyone expects their employees to scale peaks all alone in one shot

The majority of the people who failed always gripe about the bad hires they have made and how the bad hires have pulled the company down. If we look a bit deeper, the reason for bad performance was about the expectations. The founders have the fire inside them to scale peaks with no obvious motivation, but very rarely do you find a unicorn who will do it along with the founders. Some of my friends who have succeeded very well in their business have not had these sky high expectations from people instead they had a disciplined and systematic approach in going about building teams and their business.

Start with small tasks that does not test the stamina, able to leave it at a stage where you can continue again

These people built their businesses around average performers. People will generally lack the will and stamina of the founders, so their goals and tasks have to be achievable, incremental and iterative instead of a grand vision. Of course, when the business expands there needs to be more people who can tolerate ambiguity and drive the vision but those people will be a handful than a company full of them. Those are the people who sometimes will exceed the skill level of the founders and take the business to next level.

Average is not a bad word, it is just enough.

It is more easy to scale a peak in small steps, leave it at a better level than before take rest and continue again; repeat until you reach the peak

Although many people think it is the bad hires that pull things down, one type of bad hire is never spoken about which is hiring friends and family. It creates an echo chamber because friends/family have similar interests, we are soft on our friends and give them some leeway, it gets more emotional than being objective and often family of friends become our family friends as well, it is tough to take a stand when things go wrong.

The people who have strong will and stamina would already be running their own business, trying to find such a person to employ will be extremely hard.

In short it is just two things, (a) if you want to get work done then make sure to create an environment that it does not require rocket scientists to achieve day to day things; (b) don’t hire friends (or anyone) without a valid track record. It is clearly our problem when we are not able to lead anyone.

p.s: Also read about founderitis