Zak Parker
For me, it was admitting that the people you start with are not always the ones who grow with you. The hardest lesson when I started my company was not getting rid of weak people earlier than I did in the first few years of my business. I spent more time managing them than finding new customers. I knew in my gut they were not up to snuff but out of loyalty to them, I let them hang around much longer than they should have. It would have been better for everyone to let them go as soon as the signs were there. They became more insecure and threatened as we grew which was not productive for the team.
As soon as I let them go the culture got stronger and the bar higher. A team people like to be surrounded by other stars. It is true that you should hire slowly and fire quickly. I did not make that mistake again later on so learned it well the first time. I wish I had known it even earlier though but lesson learned for sure!
Contributors: Paige Arnof-Fenn from Mavens & Moguls
