The Shoulders of Giants
#hiring #wisdom note/develop🍃 #human-nature
Hiring someone that's better than you are is difficult. They're hard to find and even harder to stomach. Anyone that became the head of an office at Ogilvy & Mather received a Matryoshka doll. In the smallest one was a note that read "if each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants." David Ogilvy wanted to remind each of them that the company was built by people with a well-furnished mind, exceptionally curious about everything (from history, languages, economics, etc.), a great sense of humor, and a dedication to their craft. These were the giants they needed to hire and the people that would go on to train others to do the same.
There's a luxury enjoyed by creators who study the Eminent Dead. They get the admiration of others and skills while never being called unoriginal. The people today that study human nature, human stupidity and folly, and others that learned lessons the hard way stand on the shoulders of giants to stand out among their peers today. There are no new ideas, just the hard lessons yet to be learned from the experience of others. Ideas ripe for emulating with a little advantage.