How to hire Calacanis
Scoble posted a story asking How would you hire Calacanis? Someone did a followup post on how to hire Calacanis.
It’s all very flattereing, thanks guys. Of course, it got me to thinking about some of things that Scoble pointed out like the fact that I don’t need to work for money any more. That’s a really strange thing to think about–I feel odd just typing it. I’ve never been in this position before in my life, and the interesting thing is that after I was able to say those words nothing in my life actually changed. That was confirming for me: I love what I do!
I started thinking about what motivates me and here is the list so far:
- Building big things that have big impact
- Building things that evolve or revolutionize a space.
- Working with really great people who are driven to do the previous two items.
- Finding new talent and helping them grow. I love doing this… Six of the eight people on the editorial team at the New Netscape are former Weblogs, Inc. bloggers. I’ve watched them grow from doing a couple of posts a day to being full-time team members–I love that.
- Debating, debating, and debating complex issues.
- Figuring out how to take complex issues and trends and make them into real-world businesses. I think this is my biggest skill at this point. I’m not always going to come up with the best ideas (i.e. Nick Dentondid the first blog network, and Josh and Kevin did the first social bookmarking sites), but I can certianly evolve concepts out there into sustainable busiensses.
- Solving complex problems quickly. This is why I love my partner Brian so much. I’ve never met someone who keep up with me–and in many (many) cases beat me–to the finish line when figuring out complex problems as much as Brian does. Brian’s one of those guys who can look at a group of words and tell you the seven best plays on them–or puns–in three minutes. It’s crazy to witness him do it. Back in the magazine days I’d watch ten people struggle to get one or two good headlines out, and Brian would rattle off ten that were all brilliant.
- Being in charge. Yeah, I can admitt it: I like being the leader. I hate not being in control of my destiny. I hate having to be diplomatic. Most of all, I hate politics. It’s all a total waste of time in my book. I like to build things and build them fast. Debate is fine, but I love that fact that at a certain point when you’re running the company you can just say “OK, debates over… it’s time to move on.” That’s very, very freeing for everyone involved. Of course, it comes with great responsibility. You have to know when to use your executive powers and when to lay back and let people do their thing.
