Naval Ravikant on the importance of hiring high-agency people

I would add another one to that whole set, which is just agency. Like people who just solve problems without even being asked to solve the problem. They identify the problem, they go solve it. They don't necessarily even have to update you every step of the way. They're not asking silly questions and they're just coming up with solutions. Because building a startup is an infinite set of problems that are being thrown at you. And there comes a day when you realize, I can't even look at every problem, let alone think about it, let alone solve it. It's not even possible. So. So at that point, as Vinod Khosla famously said, the team you build is a company you build. And so at that point, the team you have built is the company you have built. And your ability to solve problems is based entirely on how many problem solvers you have below you. If you have somebody who takes 10% of your time in management and solves problems, well, you can only have 10 of those people working with you. But if somebody takes 5%, you can have 20 of those people. So people who are low ego, take agency, solve problems, don't have to thump their chest about it and are just professionals. They just get stuff done. I think like in air chat and Angellist, like when we were building the teams, I used to think of it like a Navy SEAL team, right? Everyone is just really good at what they do. They know their job, they do it, they don't complain, they're not egotistical about it. And if they have to constantly be corrected or they have to be led around by the nose, or if they clean up after them, or if they question even their judgment, it's not going to work out.