People are the most important thing – Adam Neumann

People are the most important thing: I want to talk about a beautiful quote today about people, in building businesses. Most often when we talk about business, we use terminologies such as return on investment, financial projections and a host of other transactions. But we don’t talk enough about the quality of people, teams which produce these results. The startup world is exciting but also brutal when we start thinking about people as numbers which is unfortunate.

This quote is a reminder about how important people are when building a business. As a founder, one of the first thing you’ll be passionate about is the idea. However, as Dhirubai Ambani says “Ideas are no one’s monopoly, think big, think fast! In order to think big, you’ll need the help of some wonderful people. This article is a reminder of this wonderful theme around people in startups.

People are the most important thing. Business model and product will follow if you have the right people.

Adam Neumann, Co-founder of WeWork

People are the most important thing

When you start a business, there are a thousand challenges to start thinking about. You need to work on your business idea, market proposition, value added to the customer. You will need to work out the revenue model, when you will start making money, etc. In short, your business plan is the most important asset during the early stages of startup creation.

Having been through a startup experience recently and successfully raised a considerable amount of funds, I feel proud and humble to share a few of my experiences through this process. Ultimately a business is all about its people. If you think you can achieve everything on your own, the word megalomania comes to my mind. The best businesses have been created by meeting of some phenomenal minds that got together to solve a problem. As a founder some of the key questions you must ask are:

• Is the problem worth solving?
• Who will help me best in solving the problem?
• Am I going to have fun working with this person?

A startup will demand lots of work. If you don’t enjoy, there’s no point in starting one.

Raising investment in a startup and the importance of teams

You may have the best idea and a great set of customers, buy in for your solution. Unless you have a team that believes in you, there is no point in trying to convince an investor to put money in your business. Most investors are keen your team profile, the sacrifices they have made and how you have convinced them to join you. Most solo businesses are often challenged by investors about the co-founder or a founding team to join your quest.

You are not a solo contributor: No one cares for an individual genius! You are trying to find a solution which can impact a lot of people. You may be a genius, but that makes you a great talent. But you will still need someone to manage you. Or else you might as well look at some patents and settle for that. Running a business needs slightly different skills than sheer specific talent alone.

You can’t possess all the skills: Everyone knows that you cannot possess all the necessary skills. That is why you need a team to work with you. Stop nursing the idea that you are a genius and find the real geniuses out there. The real genius in you is in getting other people to work for the same cause and vision.

Managing ideas vs managing people

Once your people become a part of your vision, you have a responsibility towards them. You cannot just be thinking of the business alone. The elements of business kick in, you can start thinking about how to get them motivated and working towards the same goal. If you constantly keep asking this question, you will find ways to make this happen.

How do you convince your people to join your mission and vision? Are they a part of your planning. Do you create these visions together? Is there enough to associate them and to ensure that this company or plan is as much their vision as it is yours?

How are your people incentivised? It is much better to have a smaller size of a large pie than a large slice of NOTHING. Do you have share options for them, are they paid well?

What is their career plan? Have you thought about their long term plans to ensure that there is enough to keep them engaged. The worst thing to happen is when you train some people and lose them. It is key to keep thinking how you hold on to them.

Summary

As I already highlighted, running a startup is a lot of work. It will demand you to work in lots of different ways and one of the most important one is about working with people to build a team and ultimately a business.

Some key points to remember in this process are:

• Your team is more valuable than just you as a founder
• No one cares for an individual genius, you are not in the business of making patents but providing solutions for complex problems
• You cannot possess all the necessary skills, you need people to help you with it.
• It is better to have a small piece of a large pie rather than having everything of nothing. Share your company with its key resource

As a reminder, I will close with this quote:

People are the most important thing. Business model and product will follow if you have the right people.

Adam Neumann, Co-founder of WeWork