I really like the post but I don't agree with the conclusion.
> don’t make the mistake to think that those who don’t fit your specific environment are unworthy human beings
> don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking you’re better than them
I think from a personal and societal perspective, both of these statements are great. But in business, who cares? People found ambitious startups because they think they are better than the companies/people that reside in that space. Founding a company is inherently an arrogant exercise, the opposite of a humble one. Business loves arrogance and confidence because business is hard. If you spend all your time philosophizing about the humanity of it all, some other competitor who doesn't care is just going to beat you [unless it is a competitive advantage].
So basically, if you are firing somebody, it really doesn't matter whether you are firing them because you think they are a B/C player or because you think they are a great person but they aren't a fit. You are firing them. From a humanity perspective it would be great if you spent a bunch of time helping them find a new job and gave them a great severance package, but as nice as that feels there is no guarantee this is good for your business at all.
I know a guy who operates like that. He's in fact quite successful, has exited a company at $25M+, is extremely abrasive to work with and thinks he's the smartest guy on the planet and treats most people around him like shit. If anybody has a god complex it's him.
If he'd been a little bit less arrogant, a little bit less abrasive and a bit more aware of how many people it took to get there then he would have exited at a far higher valuation and would not quite possibly still lose it all due to messing up during the lock-up period.
Why you fire people is extremely important because every time you fire someone you should be telling yourself: I most likely made a mistake at some point in the past, otherwise this firing would not have happened, how can I avoid this.
That way the company culture will improve rather than that you're setting yourself up for a repetition of moves.
This is a terrible attitude. In the grand scheme of things making things better for those around you should be the goal of any enterprise, business or otherwise. Lose this and you end up with modern corporations staffed with psychopaths and there is plenty of evidence that this is the case.
I think you can found a company humbly. If you're trying to enter an already-crowded space, sure, you have to believe that you're better than the competition. But if you're the first to enter a space, it pays to be humble, because you don't even know what people want yet.
Lack of humility is what keeps businesses on paths that don't attract users, or even actively repel users. You have to be able to dump your hypotheses once they've been shown to be incorrect.
> don’t make the mistake to think that those who don’t fit your specific environment are unworthy human beings
> don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking you’re better than them
I think from a personal and societal perspective, both of these statements are great. But in business, who cares? People found ambitious startups because they think they are better than the companies/people that reside in that space. Founding a company is inherently an arrogant exercise, the opposite of a humble one. Business loves arrogance and confidence because business is hard. If you spend all your time philosophizing about the humanity of it all, some other competitor who doesn't care is just going to beat you [unless it is a competitive advantage].
So basically, if you are firing somebody, it really doesn't matter whether you are firing them because you think they are a B/C player or because you think they are a great person but they aren't a fit. You are firing them. From a humanity perspective it would be great if you spent a bunch of time helping them find a new job and gave them a great severance package, but as nice as that feels there is no guarantee this is good for your business at all.