Jason Cohen of WP Engine argues that founders avoid firing underperforming people because they're scared, not because of product or management issues. When you can't stop thinking about a problem, act fast. Be decisive like Patton, exit people kindly like Mother Teresa.
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And so the thesis that I'm going to talk about today is I think you have to make emotionally difficult choices, and I'll be very specific, all along the way to build a healthier company and to make you also maybe avoid this fate, which kind of puts in question why we're all doing this at all. I did this wrong in my previous startups. I've sold companies for millions of dollars. In our current startup, we are now at $100 million in ARR, which is always the magical SaaS number. So in other words, and I'm still here after 8 years and not upset. So you see I've done it wrong and right. So hopefully this will be useful to you too. So let me zoom in on this part. The product is complex and boring too. So the product is— now these sound like good reasons, but they're not the real reasons. I can't get someone to help because the product is too complex. Really? Because I know a lot of developers that work on really complex stuff. That sounds like a good reason why it's too hard to get help, but That's not true, is it? But it does sound like someone who's very self-important. It's so complex only I could possibly understand. Maybe that's more of the real problem. And also the product is boring. Okay, so it's so complex no one can figure it out but you, and also it's so boring no one wants to work on it, and that's why you can't retain developers? Probably not. So I want to prove that you are making exactly this error now, the same error that this guy's making. So raise your hand if you have ever fired someone too late, taken too much time and finally did. So that's most hands, okay. Now raise your hand if you've ever fired anybody too soon. 1, 2, 3, okay. So about 1/100th. So I think the pattern is clear. This is very predictable. We all— we make this failure of judgment all the time. We all do it. We're all guilty. But what's going on? Same thing. There's good reasons not to fire someone. You know that team, you know, before I get some replacement in that team, it's too hard for that team to continue. I need to wait. That sounds like a good reason. That's the excuses we tell ourselves why we're not doing it, right? We all know that's not true. We've all been on teams with someone that shouldn't be on the team. It'd be much better if they were just gone rather than the team having to make up for them, clean up after them, right? It's not the real reason. Another reason we tell ourselves, especially as new founders, is I'm a bad manager. I haven't set expectations. It's not their fault. It's probably mine. I need to set better expectations to give them more time, we say. Sounds like a good reason, except what about the other 7 people on the team that are thriving? You probably are a terrible manager. That's probably true. But we need to operate now. And everyone else is operating now. We don't have time for this. Actually, so even if that's true, it doesn't mean that person's a bad person or something like this. It's just they're not a fit here now. That's the truth. So these sound like good reasons, but they're not. The real reason is simple. It's scary. You are scared. Can you accept that? Can you just accept you're scared and that's why you're not doing it? And that's the whole argument, and it's not a good, very good argument, of course. And of course it's scary. It's a hard conversation to have. What if they cry? What if you cry? What if they get upset and do something? What What if other employees get upset and do stuff? What if they get violent and you have to take out a restraining order? I've had to do that. What if they get depressed afterwards and kill themselves and you have to explain it to everybody? That has happened to me. There's a reason to be scared about it. It is scary. It is scary. Okay, fine. Also, you got to do it. That's the truth. Making the emotionally difficult choice is better. So what's a more general framework for thinking about these kinds of things, not just this? Well, there's things you want to do and things you don't want to do. Things that need to be done in the business and things that don't really need to be done, of course. And the problem is you, you do the things you want to do. And you're the founder or the CEO or whatever, and so you don't have a boss telling you you can't. And we just established you're a shitty boss, too. So this is a problem. No one's stopping you from doing the stuff that's, say, doesn't really need to be done, but you know you can. It's very tempting, but it's a failure mode because you're not spending the time on the things you should be doing, like maybe working on sales or dealing with a difficult person. You should be doing the stuff on the right. So how do you know you're in this bottom right position where you're delaying something that needs to be done and you need to fix it quickly? How do you know that? And the one way that I know is you can't stop thinking about it. When you wake up at 2 in the morning, you're like, "Ugh," like that. That simple thing, not a deep analysis, just that simple thing of, "I can't stop." I'm thinking about how this person's here and they shouldn't be. That indicates you do need to take action. Why? Because when, when there's an emotionally difficult choice like having to fire somebody and one that's not as difficult and you can't decide, you can't decide only because you don't want to. Otherwise, it would be no question. If the easy one was clearly the better one, you wouldn't be stuck. The reason you're stuck is that you have to make the hard choice. So that's how you do it. And then how do you do things that are difficult? How do you do it well? Do it quickly. Delaying only hurts everybody, everybody, you, the team, the person. Be decisive. Our CEO Heather Bruner has a terrific phrase about this, which is General Patton on the decision, Mother Teresa on the exit. Be decisive and then be kind. That's the right way to do it.
