The Wisdom Wall

“the days of hiring people for attitude and training for skill, the days of hiring the The kind of master all trades or jack of all trades, master of none that gets you seven to 10% growth, but it doesn't get you the hyper growth.”

“entrepreneurs have to be born with the entrepreneurial traits, and then they can be nurtured. But I don't think you can take a person and make them an entrepreneur. You're either entrepreneurial or you're not. And some of that is the craziness. It is the ADD, the bipolar, the Tourette's, the thinking out loud, the…”

“20 years ago to get a C level title, you had to be a major player at a major company. And about 10 years ago, we started giving away titles as well as equity, as well as compensation to Gen Y who are asking for big titles. And we've had title creep in a big way.”

“If you hire for attitude and train for skill, you get seven percent growth, but if you hire for attitude and proven skill set, That's where you get the incremental growth. A true a player has done the job before.”

“The true power COO wants to make the CEO iconic.”

“Nowadays we've had title creep where like to have a CMO or a CRO or a CT, like God, those were titles reserved for the fortune 100 or the fortune 500. We've had a lot of title creep down into these entrepreneurial companies where you've got 40 employees and you have a chief revenue officer and a chief marketing…”

“if you don't have an assistant, you are one. And I often get CEOs will talk about wanting to hire a second-in-command And the first thing they need to do is hire a really kickass executive assistant to get a lot of this stuff off their plate to free them up for their unique ability.”

“When you're looking to hire a second in command, it really has to be a true yin and yang relationship for you. So you've got to take a look at the stuff that's on your plate that you love to do, that you get energized from, that you're really, really good at. The stuff that you don't want to give up, you know, the…”

“What you're looking for in a COO is someone who is a very high second and first number. Their second number should be the highest. Their first number should be second highest. So you want someone who's a high follow through, which is putting systems in place before they start something. Even if that system is a really…”

“Write it like an ad that pushes some people away and magnetizes people towards you.”

“your job in the first 90 days is to watch the ripples As they're getting up to speed, you have to watch for all the ripple effects that they cause. Most people miss that. They're so worried about getting the answer, the CEO up to speed that they miss all the things that are happening to the current team and customers…”

“the decision filter is a one pager that has you outline what the project looks like at perfect or at complete. It shows the five success criteria. It shows the ROI. It shows whether you're going to make money or make people happier. It's a great way to hand off a project to somebody because they understand why we're…”