Nobody likes to talk about firing. It’s not something to celebrate: if you need to fire someone it means you screwed up. Either you hired the wrong person, or — more common — you hired the right person, but failed to enable their success. Either way, the blame falls on the company (not the individual), so it’s no surprise that companies tend to avoid talking about their failures.
But despite that discomfort, firing is an important topic because in the long run, careful application of firing is actually more important than hiring. To understand why, consider this simple chart:
I won’t lie: it’s flattering and vindicating for the low-burn, efficient-growth strategies we’ve been championing for years to come into vogue. For years we’ve watched quietly on the sidelines as low-interest rates and market doldrums have fueled massive investments into “Unicorn” startups, operating unsustainable business models at a massive loss. And I can’t deny we’ve envied their shocking valuations. So I’ll admit satisfaction that the mythical creature’s shine is wearing off, and that there’s enough appreciation of our sustainable, profitable models that startups of our class have finally earned a name of our own.
