Music mogul L.A. Reid recently talked on NPR’s excellent podcast “How I built this” about his career, the choices he made and how he became one of the most successful entrepreneurs and executives in the highly competitive music industry.
In the interview he is being asked how he built his empire — and answers with a short and sweet: “It’s all about the talent.”
This insight carries universal truth — as every amazing business is fundamentally built on the talent creating and supporting it. We have talked many times about the need for entrepreneurs to surround themselves with the most amazing people they can find.
This often includes dropping your ego and hiring people who are objectively better at what they are doing than you — which can be incredibly hard as founders can feel insecure or even threatened. But true leaders surround themselves only with people who are the best at what they are doing and thus routinely are (much) better than they are.
Your role as a founder quickly shifts from the gal or guy building the thing to the person who’s attracting and enabling the most amazing talent. As it is all about the talent in the end.