Being Poached

When I took on a new client last year they were really insistent on getting me “onboard” with their company. They were really excited for me to lead the tech development for their idea and were agressively throwing shares in my direction, they had already agreed to pay me an exorbitant amount, and there was talk of big things to happen.

Hindsight

They were trying to poach me… from my own company.

Random Thoughts on This

A lot has happened since this episode last year, at the time I thought they were just trying to make sure I would stay with the project for an extended period of time. Honestly, if I were getting into a big project with someone I would want to do the same thing. However, it was pretty clear that this wasn’t really what they were doing… They were actually trying to get me to leave my own company and join theirs.

Now, there’s a couple of mistakes they made:

1. I was a PARTNER in another company already
2. They assumed that I would abandon my commitment to Slant in favor of “better” compensation
3. They were oblivious to the fact that if I were to abandon Slant, why wouldn’t I abandon them in the future?
4. They tried to poach me from my own company.

Some Advice

If you’re going to poach someone from another company, make sure it’s not theirs. Because, if they do happen to abandon their own company in favor of yours then that means they’ll never be reliable. There’s integrity in sticking with your commitment to yourself, your partners, and your vision for your own company. If you’re willing to abandon all three of those then you clearly have commitment issues. Why would someone want to hire you for an important position if you have commitment issues? I have no idea… But, if they do want that then there’s something wrong with them as well.

If you’re going to try and poach someone who is seriously committed to their own company then you have a problem. The problem is this: you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing. Think about it. You’re probably trying to hire a very intelligent, highly motivated, and hard working person. If you think they can’t see through your bullshit and your manipulations then you’re completely misguided. If they actually can’t see through you then you’re definitely hiring the wrong person – someone who’s pretty ignorant. And, if you’re actually successful in getting them to quit their own business and start with yours then you have two major problems:

1. They’ve got no integrity for themselves so why would they have some for you?
2. The likelihood of them leaving your company for a better deal will be pretty high – you’ll always have to worry about keeping them on board.

If you’re being poached from your own company by someone then that person might very well be deluded in the way they see things and the world. Given the things I’ve written above, why would you want to work for someone who clearly doesn’t care what you actually want, what you value, what you’re committed to creating, etc.? You’re an entrepreneur with a vision, goals, and the balls to try and branch out on your own when you know it’s really hard. Why on earth would you work for someone who takes that for granted?

Finally

If you’re in a partnership that really isn’t going all that well, and someone comes along with a better offer, then they probably aren’t crazy. By all means, take the opportunity if you’re really not doing well. However, this wasn’t the case, I had explained that to the client, yet they insisted … and that’s the point.

P.S. The other project failed miserably. There were insufferable management problems, an early indicator of which was the fact they were actually trying to poach me from my own company.