Building companies is fun. It’s hard, but that’s what makes it fun. We face challenges every day at Oomnitza; challenges that we sometimes do not have the answers to. What sets apart great talent, and what we look for in great people, is the quality to overcome challenges. For most people, that’s not natural. We try to find the select few that thrive in adversity. Why? Because when you go to battle every day and spend countless hours making the smallest details better, you have to know that the person next to you is fighting just as hard.
One of the most important and fun jobs we have at Oomnitza is surrounding our talent with other, equally brilliant people. We do this for these reasons:
- It sets the precedent. As the company grows, existing team members’ responsibilities grow too. And when you are optimizing for hyper growth, that happens really quickly. An individual contributor in a company of 10 will be a manager in a matter of a few months. When optimizing for growth, hiring has to be under control. We want to make it easy for our future managers to screen candidates. Are they like-minded?
- It helps with problem-solving. Smart people are quick to acknowledge that they don’t know something. With this attitude, they can continue to acquire more knowledge. People who do not thrive during times of adversity are often spinning their wheels on the same problem for too long. When you strive to create an environment where people enjoy solving hard problems, you can speak openly about challenges and find solutions in record time.
- It’s great for morale. Having a positive mental attitude towards a challenge is always the first course of action when dealing with any type of adversity. People who thrive during times of adversity are those who know, without a single tiny piece of doubt, that they will find a suitable outcome to any given problem, even if they don’t know the answer yet. Why? Because they have faith and trust in themselves. When we feel good about putting that same trust and faith in those around us, we find the extra confidence to fix hard problems.
- It allows our customers to count on us. We have been fortunate enough to be implemented at some of the most amazing high-growth companies of our generation. When you walk into companies like Square, Pinterest or Uber, you can tell what the future of human collaboration looks like: the smartest people in the world solving problems. So when they have a problem, that means we have a problem. Moreover, our customers know that we hire the right individuals to solve those problems — no matter what they might be.
Perfection is a moving target. You cannot arrive at perfection. Everything is always changing. Perfection is not about avoiding problems, it’s about solving them. And reaching excellence means continually overcoming adversity, growing the seed of self-confidence with every challenge we conquer.
A version of this article was originally published on Oomnitza’s blog here.
Arthur Lozinski is the Co-Founder and CEO of Oomnitza Inc. You can follow him @ArthurLozinski on Twitter.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
