I’ve either found a future Sam’s List employee or my perspective on hiring has just changed. Here’s why: Sam will frequently call me to talk about hiring a team for Sam’s List, and I always brush it off.  Why? Well, to be brutally honest, I’d rather keep my attention on making Sam’s List the best it can be instead of spending hours filtering through applications and scheduling interviews. I just don’t see it as a need right now.  And to be even more brutally honest with you, we always have a new product update or bug we’re trying to push out, so it already feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day for that! So it wasn’t until a couple of nights ago that my perspective on hiring changed a bit. For the better, might I add. A couple of nights ago, I was coming home from dinner here in San Diego, and on my walk from the car to my little back house, I ran into my neighbor who lives in the main house.  He was enjoying some late night IPA’s with a friend of his.  As I was walking past them, they told me they were having their “Strategery” meeting. I had no clue what they were talking about, but they seemed to be having fun and really wanted me to participate in tonight's Strategery meeting. (It’s 10:30 p.m. by the way)It doesn’t take much to convince me to join in on someone else’s fun.  I’m in, I said. They gave me the lowdown on Strategery, and boom! I’m in my first Strategery meeting. I don’t know how accurate this is, but the definition shared with me iswhen you brainstorm on a topic or situation in hopes of finding some sort of solution.(It’s from an SNL skit if you want to watch ithere.) I haven’t fact checked them on it, so I’m going to roll with the definition they shared with me. Tonight’s topic: Should my neighbor withdraw his name from a promotion and lose out on a salary increase of $20,000?My neighbor, a husband and father of two, was ready to willingly walk away from TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.  He’s one of two finalists for a promotion at his company, and he really wants the job. But oddly enough, more than wanting the promotion, he wants to make sure the other finalist won't quit if he doesn't get the promotion.  He knows that the other finalist will only stay if he gets this promotion; otherwise, he’ll leave, and my neighbor will lose his top-performing employee. As the night went on, we spent the next hour deep in Strategery, discussing this dilemma. It immediately reminded me of how I brush off Sam’s calls about hiring for Sam’s List. Hiring isn't at the forefront of my mind right now, but I know it’s a reality that will come at some point. My neighbor, husband and father of two, is proposing telling the hiring manager to give the promotion to the other guy because he’d rather begrudgingly lose out on $20,000 and keep his top-performing employee at the company.  That blew my mind.  First of all, I’ve never gotten a $20,000 promotion, but if I had, I can’t say I’d be the one to willingly turn it down just to keep my coworker at the company.  Nope, give me the $20k promotion! The way my neighbor was talking about his job, the promotion, his family, and sacrifice, I wanted to hire him for Sam’s List immediately! He is genuinely someone that any employer would be lucky to have.  How the heck am I supposed to get so impressed with someone like that through a job application or phone interview when the only way to truly sense their abilities and behavior is during a late-night chat over backyard patio furniture and IPAs? I'm kidding. But you get my point. I’m terrified that I’ll hire someone that’s not a good fit.  Brains are great; I want the smartest person in the world working with me.  But I also want to work with someone that I can laugh with because building a company is the funniest thing ever. Anyways, my mind’s been racing about this hiring topic ever since my first Strategery.“Ugh, I wish I just had someone who could do this while I do that”.  “If I had someone doing this, I could cross off double the amount of tasks on my to-do list.”Thoughts that have crossed my mind.  I like being scrappy. I like getting to touch every part of the business. I’ve got a good pulse on things, and I don’t want that to change! Ah! The time for hiring will come. I don’t think it’s right now, but if it was, I’d walk three steps to my neighbor’s back door and ask him if he’d jump ship and come over to Sam’s List. 

Kimi

I want to try something new here. Like I said, building a company is hilarious, and it also has it’s Uh-Oh moments as well, so I thought it could be fun to share some (+)pluses and (-)minuses from this week at Sam’s List.  Plus and Minus because accounting….numbers…calculations…plus and minus. Get it?(-) I accidentally introduced one of our users on Sam’s List to the wrong accountant over email. It was embarrassing.(+) I got to visit one of the accountants on Sam’s List and had the best time. Turns out the owner,Michael Wander, on top of running his accounting firm, also does MMA, is a volunteer firefighter, and plays the guitar.