Some Things Can't Be Taught

You can teach someone a lot about business.

You can teach them how to read financial statements, build a strategy, negotiate a deal and manage a team.

You can give them an education. You can give them experience. You can give them responsibility.

But there are some things you can't teach.

You can't teach someone how to get back up.

Every business eventually gets tested.

A deal falls through. A customer leaves. An investment doesn't work. A decision you believed in turns out to be the wrong one.

Those moments reveal something that a résumé can’t. They reveal willingness, effort, resilience, toughness and character.

I've come to believe that a business is only as strong as the people building it.

Strategy matters. Capital matters. Technology matters.

But none of those things can replace people who are willing to keep moving when things get difficult.

That's also why I think one of the smartest things a leader can do is surround themselves with people who possess qualities and experiences they don't have.

You want people who challenge you.

People who see things differently. People who have been through things you haven’t. People who can teach you something you couldn't learn on your own.

Leadership isn't about being the smartest person in the room.

It's about building a room where everyone makes everyone else better.

I've learned plenty from my father about running a business. I've also learned from the people who have worked alongside our family over the years.

Some lessons came from their expertise.

Others came from watching how they handled pressure, solved problems and treated people. Those qualities don't always show up on a balance sheet.

But they become part of the balance sheet of a company in ways that are much harder to measure.

As FourShare continues to grow, I want to be intentional about the people we bring with us. Because growth isn't simply about building a bigger organization.

It's about building an organization capable of handling what comes next. And that requires more than knowledge.

It requires people who are willing to work, willing to learn, willing to take responsibility and willing to get back up when things don't go their way.

Those qualities can be developed, but they can't simply be handed to someone.

Sometimes, you have to earn them.

And sometimes, the smartest thing you can do as a leader is find people who already have them.