At some point or other most of us have heard the phrase “Our people are our most important asset”. There is a lot of truth to that statement. Having worked in the human resource industry for over 5 years, I have seen first hand the difference right people in the right place actually make. Building up the right team is one of the most challenging aspects of business. As compared to larger organizations, start ups have greater difficulty attracting quality talent due to the large risk element associated with them. Apart from the risk element, start ups need to attract a particular type of person. I think there are people in this world who have an entrepreneurial spirit within them, and those who do not. There is really no middle ground here because the life of an entrepreneur is one of extremes, of focus and an insatiable hunger to win. There is no space for people stuck in the middle. As a result, the first thing I look for in talent for a start up, is the specific characteristic of knowing exactly what he/she wants.
The next thing you need to look for is a unique skill set. The relevant person needs to be extremely gifted at some primary function that the start up requires. This could be one of many things such as programming, designing, marketing, leading or sales. The person must also constantly strive to build on their domain expertise. It should be almost akin to an obsession, where living, breathing and eating is an extension of the focus on this skill set! Not everyone is born knowing what this particular skill set is. In fact most of us have to find this out the hard way on our journey in life through trial and error. Over the years I have attempted doing sales, marketing, accounting, negotiations and leading groups. The area where I have had the best results have come from leading groups. I now manage multiple teams on a daily basis and assist each one of my team members to excel at what they do best. My background in human resources has helped me greatly and given me the ability to connect with colleagues, associates, investors and clients a whole lot better.
The last point I want to make in this post is to be able to identify just how passionate the person actually is about what they do. Without this last component, he/she may know exactly what they want and have the skill sets to get there, but if they lack passion, you will in all likely hood find them falling short. I believe passion is having that “never give up” spirit. Your work needs to inspire the sort of emotions that keep you awake in the middle of night when you are stuck, make you want to wake up at an unearthly hour every morning just because you can’t wait to get started, it must literally be the driving force for who you are, and your purpose in life. Passion is what will get you through the tough times, and believe me, there will be many of them along the entrepreneurial path. Times when you feel like giving up, when you think you may be wasting your life or may have been wrong all along about what you wanted. These are testing and defining crossroads and will determine whether you have what it takes to be part of a start up team.
To summarize, this is the quick mental checklist I go through when looking for that specific person to join a start up:
1. Does this person know what he/she wants?
2. Have they discovered a skill set that they excel at and want to be the best there is in it?
3. Is the level of passion apparent when they talk about their project, skill set or life?
Even though this is a relatively simplistic checklist it has helped me make some critical decisions as far as team building for my start ups is concerned. Once they have passed this first filter, I have another specific list that I will share with all of you in the near future.
How did you go about building your start up team? I look forward to your comments and feedback.