Previously, I was convinced that being an entrepreneur implies beating everyone else, in terms of work, by a mile. The hustle culture had me trapped in its claws long hours, never ending tasks, and the ceaseless need to prove my worth. Being the right hand person for my boss, Alex, at our small technology company and its secondary project, a coding school, I was under the impression that grinding was the only way to get successful.
Fortunately, experienced entrepreneur Alex presented another picture, one where the best do not overwork themselves but rather employ smart people and work less. Seeing him turn our operations around influenced my perspective of success.
Our tech company, a scrappy startup making educational apps, and later our coding school were in need of a large shot when I came on board. Alex counted on me to do everything from product updates through student support all the way to social media. I bragged about my indispensability, working late to fix bugs or prepare course materials. I was totally exhausted and on top of that our development was stagnating.
What a great power he wielded! During a lunch one day, he said: “You are doing a perfect job of exhausting yourself, and this is the reason why we are not moving forward. Instead of working harder, we should be hiring smarter.” I was lost at the beginning. Hiring meant blowing money which we barely had and then I became concerned that nobody could equal my dedication.
But that wasn’t enough for Alex, he kept pushing. His approach was clear and without rearguard: select the people who are more skilled than you, give them the reins, and get a little distance. First, he did it at the school, brought in an ex curriculum designer from a top ed tech company, and the woman reshaped the coding boot camp in weeks, doubled the enrollment by making it more fun, and engaging.
I could not believe it she accomplished in a few months what she would have taken me years to do. After that, Alex took a lead developer on board for the tech company. This man, who was a genius in cloud architecture, was someone that I was struggling with through tutorials. Quickly, the performance of our app was enhanced, and the lack of continuity was almost at zero. I was not staying awake until 2 a.m. trying to fix the bugs in my app anymore. Instead, I could concentrate on the liaison between the company and the school, completely understanding our app’s features with the students’ needs.
Alex was not working harder either he was spending a greater amount of time pitching investors, thus gaining us a very important funding round. But not just in relation to the skills, it is thoughtful that hiring more intelligent people is of trust and fit. After a bad working relationship, a marketing hotshot who only looked good on paper but neglected our mission to empower underserved students was it, Alex discovered life lessons which he then shared with me and we learnt together. The enrollment sadly fell as his campaigns were becoming less authentic. Alex took the lesson to heart, and so did I. Now, we check out the qualifications of the candidates only after they are checked for their commitment to our cause of making the technology accessible.
Our community manager who is our new hire has a nonprofit background. Her activities have raised student retention by 20%, and the amazing thing is we did not merely know each other before. The biggest transformation for me was that I learned to let it go. I was used to thinking that delegating was losing my grip, but from watching Alex, I saw the power of trust. Our team thus successfully rolled out a new app feature and conducted a school workshop as if a breeze, while last month, when it was time for Alex to be away on a conference.
The app attracted 5,000 new users and the workshop got very good feedback. Neither was I in a frenzy I was guiding, not grinding. Alex’s method gave us all the chance to focus on our various strengths and thus, it made us more productive as a whole. As a result, our company and school are doing greatly not because of our overwork, rather it is for the fact that we have made the right decisions during recruitment and we have hired smart people. The decision of who to hire and how to go about it have been pivotal in that matter.
One of the greatest lessons that Alex was able to teach me was that entrepreneurship is not about being the hardest worker in the room but instead building a team that makes the work feel lighter. We have grown the scope of the small vision we started by hiring people who are better than us at their roles. As a result, I am not burned out anymore, and neither is Alex. We are the proof that by hiring smarter, one can work less and still achieve more.
Posted Using INLEO