What Are The Five Rules You Need To Know About Firing Someone?
“See that property over there? Steve Jobs owns it. That’s going to stay in his family for a long time.”
I was being interviewed by a Venture Capitalist at his home in Woodside. The interview was going well, and it looked like he was going to give his approval for hiring me to the other board members.
Then, he asked me, “Have you ever fired anyone?”
“No,” I answered truthfully.
“Bullshit!” He responded.
But, it was true.
I was 37 years old. I had never fired anyone even though I was managing a large number of people at the time.
The company I worked at was kind of like the law firm in John Grisham’s book, The Firm. No one ever left.
Now, if you’re thinking that working at this company was a picnic, well I can tell you it wasn’t. The CEO was tough as nails and expectations were sky-high.
The talent level at this company was sky-high too. Almost everyone was an A player.
Rule Number One: Hire great people and you wont have to fire anyone.
Back to my interview…
I got the job.
