Business Advice - Avoid Hiring Morons
Hiring the right people is one of the most important tasks you'll ever need to do as a business owner. There are different kinds of safety-measures to simplify this process for you - things such as CV's, recommendations and and so on. However, there's something else to think about.
The way I see it, there's four phases in everyone's life. And more, I would say there's 4 phases in all areas of everyone's lives. The first is knowing everything - this is where you are really stupid and you think you know everything. The second is knowing nothing. That's when you have realized there's really a lot to know about and you really don't know anything. And that's a good thing because this makes you learn. The third one is learning, the pursuit of knowledge. And the fourth one is...for a lack of better word for it, it's identification. That's where you really know about a subject but you also know you'll never know enough.
And I would also bring out just a bit different 3 phases. First is stupidity, you don't know anything and you don't try to show it. Second is that you know something and you feel the need to show others what you know. That's where you usually leave the impression of an egomaniac. And the third is where you know enough and you don't feel the need to demonstrate it to anyone.
I brought out the phases with a reason. You should always figure out in what phase the potential employee is at a given time in a given topic. You don't want people who think they know and who want to show it. You want people who think they don't know much but who are learning to get to know things. Or you want people who really have the know-how. And it's your job to figure out if the person really is what he says he is.
I was once looking for a marketing guy. James answered. His presentation was good, by presentation I mean the first few emails he sent. He didn't say anything specific but he left an impression like he knew about the stuff. Well, not only did he leave the impression but he also said he knew what he was doing. But the truth was far from that. His first marketing idea was - put the domain to your MSN name. Enough said. And the saddest part was he actually believed he knew about marketing.
Siim Einfeldt is a business blogger, online magazine publisher and internet entrepreneur. You can read more articles from him on his blog Business Advice Pro
