B Players
topic on 4 shows · 8 statements across 6 episodes
Founder's Journal 
BigDeal 
Capital Allocators 
20VC
8 statements about B Players, every show
Herjavec: A players move forward while B players wallow in misery
“A players move the ball or the needle forward. B players get stuck in repetition or something. And I think B players wallow in misery. Adaptability is the ability to wallow quickly and move on.”
Ross: Accepting B-players as a company grows reflects management laziness
“I think saying that you're gonna hire B players because you've gotten large enough is, is laziness and an excuse. And it, it's a lack of creativity in your business model and how you're going, the algorithm of how you're going to scale.”
Levchin: You can only differentiate A and B players after hiring them
“The point is, you can filter out C players. You can definitely filter out D players. Differentiation between B and A is what happens once you've brought them in.”
Levchin: B players hire C players out of fear of being outperformed
“The Steve Jobs quote, A players, higher A players, B players, higher C players, is profoundly true. There should be an asterisk explaining why this is true, and the reason for it is fear.”
Levchin: B players handle essential tasks that A players reject
“Having people who are Perfectly willing to do good work day in and day out is not the worst thing in the world. There's plenty of things that A players will turn their notes from because it's just not that challenging. It's not accelerating them out of the A p…”
B players destroy companies because their mediocrity is tolerated, unlike C players
“Organizations are not getting killed by their C players. Everybody knows who they are, and performance eventually is addressed. The people who kill organizations are your B players. It's the scourge of the enterprise, because there are many, and they are gener…”
Hockey: B-players are often better long-term fits than A-players
“Not every role needs that a plus player. Sometimes it's actually the opposite, right? If you get an a plus player and they're in a role, they're not going to be super happy. They want to move quickly. You can have attrition risk or they want new responsibiliti…”