Working With the Best
I haven’t talked about the business aspects of, well, running a business for a while and when I was up late last night doing some tweaks to 9rules and looking around the web I realized something. The Web 2.0 era has empowered many individuals to believe they can accomplish anything with a couple of resources. This is one of the reasons why you see so many copycats sprouting up.
How often though do these sites actually catch your attention and keep it due to innovation, design and technology? Anyone can pick up a book or head to a website and learn to code up 99% of the stuff that is being put out there today, but that doesn’t mean you will have the best code or the most efficient. Hell, it doesn’t even mean you will finish your code in a reasonable amount of time.
Anyone can learn XHTML/CSS and open Photoshop to create some basic graphics, but does that mean you should be the one doing the design for your company/site? Even worse, anyone can respond to emails and help out users, but does that make you the best at communicating with them on a one-on-one basis?
How often have we refused to admit that someone can do something better and therefore should be doing it? Too often do we hear the excuse of “not enough resources” and to me that just sounds like “not important enough to find better”. Of all the crappy, hard to use and plain jane Web 2.0 sites out there, how many can you think of that have actually improved over time? Digg is the only one that I can think of that has gotten progressively better as time goes on.
It is a basic business principle of bringing people on board that are better than you at certain tasks. So how come so many of us are still trying to do everything on our own? How come so many of us are quick to partner with the first person that comes around instead of going out and grabbing the best? Sometimes you can’t afford to think that you will just get by with what you have at the moment and instead of worrying about catching the next great VC offer why not think of a way to pool better talent around you and create some real magic.
I’m a firm believer that anyone can do anything when they put their mind to it. However, that still doesn’t mean that they will do it better than the next guy. I will never be the designer that Rundle is or the people communicator that Tyme is and to be honest, that is fine by me.
You raise some good points, and I’ve tried a few times to teach myself stuff like php so that I could do things myself for certain projects and realized that it’s alot better to let the ones who know it (in and out) take care of. That way I can focus on what I’m really good at.
“The jack of all trades is a master at none.”
I tell myself that alot these days.
By J Phill on January 19, 2007 3:40 pm
One of the best things you can do as a manager or business owner is realize that to succeed, truly succeed, you will need to hire or bring on those who are better than you!
Maybe not better at everything, but those who can bring to the table assets that will only help you and your organization grow.
Being intimidated by talent is only going to hurt you.
By Martin Ringlein on January 19, 2007 7:31 pm
So very true. I’ve seen a lot of very painfully designed websites — my own is no exception (first time trying CSS).
What I’ve never understood is if you are running a real attempt at a money making service that hopes to have 100,000s of hits a day… why don’t you spend money on a good design?
By engtech on January 20, 2007 5:40 am