One of my first rules of hiring is that you should always try to hire someone smarter than yourself -- so you can learn as much as possible. I have been very fortunate to work with some wonderful people over the years. My friend Van Morris (who we hired to become CEO of Infonautics) taught me a wonderful lesson about risk taking. It's about getting your fouls. If Alan Iverson fouled out in the first ten minutes of an NBA basketball game, you can be sure that his coach would immediately talk to him because he was playing too aggressively...and "urge" him to play it a little safer. However, if Iverson played several games without getting any fouls, Van believed that a good coach should also talk to him -- because he was playing too safe...and "urge" him to take more chances and be more aggressive. Basketball players get the opportunity to commit five fouls before they are removed from the game. Why doesn't that apply to business as wel...
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