I’ve had the joy and privilege to observe closely the trajectory of one of the most inspired entrepreneurs and company builders in the world, Brazilian Jorge Paulo Lemann. Lemann and his two partners, Marcel Herrmann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, started with a tiny brokerage firm and from there built one of the most successful investment banks in Latin America. And while the partners were smart and accomplished at managing money, they discovered they had a peculiar genius for building a culture filled with hungry, fanatic people who thrived on meritocracy. They became so good at building culture that they eventually began to consider buying entire companies outright and then running them based on their cultural operating system with the goal to build and grow them forever. “If we believe in our culture,” they said to themselves, “why not bet big on it?

I’ve seen way too many people come out of the corporate world, decide to start a company, and be completely unprepared for what it takes. If they’ve never been on a small team starting from scratch, they’re often a fish out of water. They spend too much money too fast. Hire too many people. Don’t put in the time, don’t have the startup mentality, can’t make hard decisions, are buried by consensus thinking. They end up making mediocre products or

nothing at all.

Don’t let that be your story. If you want to start a company, if you want to start anything, to create something new, then you need to be ready to push for greatness. And greatness doesn’t come from nothing. You have to prepare. You have to know where you’re headed and remember where you came from. You have to make hard decisions and be the mission-driven “asshole.” [See also: Chapter 2.3: Assholes: Mission-driven “assholes.”]

So do the work. Know what you’re getting into. Trust your gut.

And when the time comes, you’ll be ready.

The rising stars on your team may not be clamoring for your attention, but if you help them to dream bigger and become more capable leaders, you’ll be amazed at how much more your team can do as a whole.

The lesson: Recruiting top talent is all about the relationships you build. Good, seasoned leaders aren’t short of options, because everybody wants to hire them. When they’re looking for their next role, they tend to choose opportunities that they already know to be great.

Are you enthusiastic about the person you have in each box? If the leader isn’t getting the job done, then a change may need to be made. Maybe this leader is in the wrong seat or in too many seats. Maybe there are performance issues. Maybe a person is talented but doesn’t fit the culture (this often happens when a “big company” executive is brought into a

growing firm).