I remember getting hired as an executive before opening my own advertising company. I worked for this guy who at the time I thought was a terrible manager. The truth is he happened to be one of the smartest managers I had ever met.
Here’s why….
He had very little advertising sales ability, and couldn’t close a sale if his life depended on it. What he did have however was the knack to hire the right people to do the job for him. What most of the employees did not know was he had talked his way into becoming an equal owner for no money down.
When he spotted potential in a person, but they lacked the experience, he would ask a sales person to do him a favor. Since there was no salary and everyone worked on commission, he would get them trained for free. He might say to the salesperson I am not sure if this new person will work out, would you show him/her a few pointers, and let me know what you think. The next day he might take the sales person out for lunch, or to the club, and talk about this new person. Then he may perhaps say something like “I am going to be very busy over the next week with suppliers, could you just watch over this person a bit, and help them now and then if they need it. I would really appreciate it”?
He knew how to give back also, great perks like cash bonuses, weekend luxury trips, or for top people he would lease fancy cars. He would treat these people like gold, and everyone else working there would want to be part of his so called “Inner circle”.
I remember one day a new person actually went to his office for help. He was trying to close a sale with someone on the phone, but having trouble. The man actually looked up at him and said “I am eating my lunch right now”. The person said “I am so close to this sale, but I think he needs a second voice”. The manager said you can do this on your own, and if you are going to disturb my lunch make sure it is with a closed sale. About ten minutes later the person comes back to say “I closed the sale”. “The manager says “congrats, I knew you could do it”. The salesperson feels confident and is on the way to becoming part of the inner circle.
The point to this story
To be an excellent business person it is not about working hard all the time, but working smart. The idea of going into business on your own is to have a plan, hire the right people to execute it, and be an excellent administrator. As you can see from the story you do not have to be an expert in every aspect of your business, but be smart enough to hire the right people. So don’t work hard, work smart!