Million Dollar Hire: Build Your Bottom Line, One Employee at a Time

Chapter 1. THREE THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT PEOPLE

Whether starting, managing, or investing in a new business, I'm driven by two things: build it well, and gain a payoff. Hitting both targets, though, is tough. The government's Small Business Administration tells us that five of every ten start-ups fail in their first year.^[1] Other sources put the number closer to nine or ten.^[2] Reasons range from poor financing, to poor success in growing sales, to incompetent founders and management teams. In most start-ups, nothing is built, and no one sees a payoff.

The problem isn't limited to start-ups. Research shows that at least 50 percent of executives and managers in organizations fail within two years of taking on a new job.^[3] Typically the organization ...