Best Advice Ever Received Happened Long Long Ago

My best piece of career advice came during my third week in my first management position, around mid-October, 1972. I was a fresh MBA, one year out of UCLA, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

I had just been transferred to Michigan as a financial planning manager for Rockwell International’s Automotive Group. I had been working 12-14 hour days since arriving, but I didn't mind, since my new wife hadn’t made the move yet. I was working on a huge presentation – my first – to the Group President and VP Finance the next day, so getting it right was essential. Unfortunately, that’s when I got a desperate call from my boss, Chuck Jacob. Chuck was a 29 year-old Harvard whiz-kid and the #2 financial person in this $2 billion international business. He was also the reason I was in Michigan, far from Southern California.

Chuck was interviewing MBA students at the University of Michigan and his schedule was overbooked. We needed to hire a bunch of MBAs immediately, and I was needed there to handle the overflow, but I had a 12-hour day ahead of me, and protested vehemently, citing the critical report the next day. There was a slight delay. Chuck’s response still blasts in my ears: There is nothing more important to your business success than hiring great people. Nothing. We’ll somehow get the work done. Get your ____ over here now! He then hung up.

I was there within the hour. Together we interviewed 20 people, took eight to dinner that night, and hired three top MBA students within two weeks. Chuck and I got back to the office around 10 PM that night and cranked out a handwritten report by 3 AM. We presented it to Bill Panny and Bob Worsnop the next morning. We apologized for the format and lack of preparation, but told them what we were doing. They agreed – there is nothing more important to your business success than hiring great people. Nothing.

Chuck passed away at a too early age, but his advice rang true then and still does today. Everyone contends that hiring great people is the number one objective of all managers, but for most it’s just talk, for Chuck it wasn’t. He lived it, everyday. If he was alive today, I probably wouldn’t be writing these blogs, but caught up in another of his wild ideas and ventures. But I know that he would still be saying, there is nothing more important to your business success than hiring great people. Nothing.

_____________________________________________________

Lou Adler (@LouA) is the Amazon best-selling author of Hire With Your Head (Wiley, 2007) and the award-winning Nightingale-Conant audio program, Talent Rules! His latest book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired, is now available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.