Why is the Business a Reflection of the Founder? / by Alexander Lyadov

If a founders complains about their team, what does it say?

Essentially, they are looking in the mirror and describing themselves. Similarly, a tennis player angrily hits the racket on the court due to an awkward serve. It's no wonder that the samurai Miyamoto Musashi considered the sword an extension of the hand. The product of creativity may be worse than its creator, but it's never better. Company is built by people, but someone, after all, invited them, trained them, set goals, and gave them the necessary power and resources. Or they were not taught anything, were unaware of the company goals, were loaded with responsibility, but almost all the power was kept by someone else.

If inexperienced talented people end up in such an environment, what will happen? After a few unsuccessful attempts to change something, they will catapult out of there very soon. In other words, it's not easy to find the best people, it's hard to hire them, but it's absolutely impossible to retain them against their will. The founders are the origin, epicentre and centre of attraction of a business. In their micro-universe, they are God. Everything good and bad in the company happens at their will and desire, even if they don't admit it to themselves. Following the formation of vision, the study of customer needs, and the search for a business model, choosing the first employees is a decisive step.

Dan Rose held leadership positions at Amazon and Facebook for 20 years and now heads Coatue Ventures. He  said  that when he was considering leaving Amazon, he asked for advice from investor Peter Thiel: "Peter, I'm interviewing at these six companies. And by the way, four of them are companies you invested in. What do you think I should do?" And he replied, "You should go to Facebook." And I asked, "Why?" And he said, "Simply put, they have the best people. And companies with the best people ultimately win." Therefore, Dan concludes, "The best founders are able to attract the best people, period."

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander


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