A short advisory YouTube video (by Jason M. Lemkin) arguing that the common hiring advice—to hire a COO who is strong at tasks the founder dislikes—is flawed. The main claim in this chunk: hiring the founder's polar opposite creates a misaligned partnership ("oil and water") that pulls the company in different directions and leads to failure.
I'm happy to share with you today the number one reason why COO hires fail so that you can avoid that. And I think the reason why it fails is because there's a myth out there. And people tell CEOs and founders, think about all the things that you love doing that you're great at doing, that you want to spend your time doing great. Now think about all the stuff that you hate doing that you're not very good at doing that you don't want to do, and go hire someone who likes that and is good at that. And if you only follow that advice, you will most likely fail. And that's because what you've just hired is your polar opposite, right? And so you end up in a situation where, you know, one person's over here, another person's over here. It's like oil and water. And the first time you disagree, you. You start pulling the company in different directions, and that's not good for anybody.
