A leader's job is to recruit people smarter than themselves and give them equity. Darren Hardy's exercise of listing 100 qualities you need to become, not just want in others, applies to building teams. The speaker credits his success not to his own effort but to surrounding himself with better talent and paying them well enough to stay.
There's this book I read called The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. He wrote down 100 things he wanted in the perfect woman. He writes down every quality about her. He reads the list and he's sitting there saying, I can never pull a chick like this. Why? I don't deserve a woman like this. So he said, I better write down 100 things I need to become to deserve somebody like this. And I think some people need to step back and say, who do I need to become to deserve the people that I want to work with? Because I'll tell you this, I didn't get here alone, Brian. I'd love to tell you it was all my ideas and I worked my ass off, but guess what? I don't do a whole lot anymore. I don't. I show up as best I can. The only thing I think I'm really good at now is identifying talent, because that's all I need to do. If I keep getting people that are smarter than me to come in, pay them well, give them a stake in the equity, it's amazing how it'll keep growing and growing and growing.
