The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

CHAPTER 5

THE MAGIC HAPPENS WHEN YOU HIRE SUPERSTARS

To run a successful business, top-notch marketing is critical. You can’t do without it. High-quality products and services—definitely important. Good ideas—essential. But you can get all of these things, and more, if you have one thing.

I’m talking about the right people to help build, operate, and grow your business.

There are bad employees, mediocre employees, good employ­ees, excellent employees, and superstars.

You must fire bad and mediocre employees quickly, give good employees a short window of time to become excellent, and treat your excellent employees well. I’ll explain what I mean by that a little later in this chapter. But first, let’s talk about superstars.

Superstars are dedicated and hardworking. They know their stuff. They understand and care about the business. But with their rare combination of intelligence and ambition, they can do something for you that you can’t do on your own. They can—and will—take your business to new levels of success … if you let them.

One excellent employee is worth three good employees. But one superstar is priceless.