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What Are The 6 Steps You Need To Take To Build A Loyal Startup Team?

brett fox
5 min readJan 21, 2020

“It was my fault. I screwed up,” I told Jack Gifford, Maxim Integrated Products founding CEO. “You should be screaming at me, not him!”

I didn’t want Steve (my boss) to take the beating for my screw-up. I wanted Jack to tear into me, not Steve.

Jack didn’t care. He kept his guns pointed at Steve and he wouldn’t relent.

Ten minutes later it was over. Steve was bloodied from the bullets he had taken. The CEO had made his point and left the meeting.

Picture: Depositphotos

And I was indebted to Steve forever. You are fortunate in your career to have one or two really good bosses or mentors and Steve was one of my mentors.

Each mentor provides you different knowledge. I only worked for Steve for about one year before he retired, but he forever impacted me.

Steve had in many ways the toughest job in the company. Imagine being in the middle of a battle with bullets flying in every direction at you and you get the general idea.

Yet, Steve always carried himself with class and grace. He was a beacon of calm in a very stormy ocean.

And Steve’s people were incredibly loyal to Steve.

Why is loyalty so important?

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brett fox
brett fox

Written by brett fox

I work with startup CEOs to help them grow their businesses . I built several businesses from $0 to >$100M. Learn more at https://www.brettjfox.com

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