Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

How Getting Fired Was The BEST Thing For ME

16 Dec 2020 · 1 min

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1:16

Cameron Herold was fired by his best friend Brian while second-in-command at 1-800-GOT-JUNK. They'd grown the company from $2 million to $106 million in six years, but Herold was the right leader for that growth, not for scaling to a billion. He knew it was coming and says the firing, though painful, was the right call.

Questions this video answers

From $2 million to $106 million in six years.

His best friend, Brian (at 1-800-GOT-JUNK).

In the middle of the seventh year after he helped scale the company.

Christina.

Chapters

So have I been fired? I've only ever been fired once in my career, and it was by my best friend at the company that I'm most well known for building. When I was the second in command of the chief operating officer for 1-800-got junk. I had taken the company from 2 million to 106 million in six years. And in the middle of our seventh year, my best friend, first thing in the morning on a Thursday morning before our leadership team meeting, pulled me aside and he said, I think we're done. And I started to cry, and he got teared up as well. And he was right. The amazing thing was, I knew it was happening the night before. I told his assistant that I was going to get fired. Christina. And she said, don't shut up. Just go home. But something in my gut told me that it was the right time. And Brian knew that I was the right guy to take us from a million to a hundred million, but I was the wrong guy to take us from 100 million to the billion. And I think the core lesson that I got in there was that at some point, you really do, as a leader, have to make those tough, tough decisions, even if it comes down to firing your best friend. The key is, can you do it in the right way so that the relationships can stay strong, so that the integrity can stay strong? But you do have to make those decisions. And it was the best decision for the business at the time, and it was absolutely probably one of the best decisions for my career as well. But it was hard.