by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting
What do Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolstoy, Picasso, Monet, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Schubert, Brahms, and Dostoyevsky all have in common?
They produced far more content than their contemporaries.
In his highly acclaimed book, The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace, Dr. Ron Friedman shares research demonstrating the connection between repetitions and ultimate success.
High performers are usually remembered for a mere fraction of their complete body of work.
They didn’t generate masterpieces on a regular basis.
Yet the quality that distinguishes them would be impossible without the quantity of attempts.
This pattern of high repetition of failures to success shows up in business as well.
Steve Jobs failed many times (Apple I, Apple II, the Lisa, the Newton, and NeXT hardware) before experiencing some of his biggest successes.
Here’s a question every recruiting and hiring manager should ask themselves: Are you willing to put up with high repetition and failures to be successful?
Lots of prospects, lots of connections, lots of screening, lots of interviews, lots of follow-ups, and lots of offers magically produce a few high performing hires.
I’ve met a few recruiting geniuses, and they’re amazing people.
But they’re rare because few are willing to walk the high-repetition/failure-laden path to become one.