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Nice generalization that doesn't address the question of just what constitutes an A-player vs. B,C, and Losers and why I should think that an A-player in one si

by gcheong 17y ago

Nice generalization that doesn't address the question of just what constitutes an A-player vs. B,C, and Losers and why I should think that an A-player in one situation will continue to be an A-player in another or if, given the right incentives, whether a B,C,Loser can become an A-player.

adrianwaj 17y ago
If you look at another and think "he is better than me at x,y,z" and you feel jealous, and want some type of retribution or revenge, you are a B player. The A-player makes their skill or activity look easy and isn't conceited about it, they are primarily trying to out-do themselves. They aren't trying to add some egotistical emotional experience to themselves via the startup process. A B-player won't want an already successful, serial entrepreneur as a co-founder. They want the glory. They want to own any success, even it is another's, with which they'll aim to claim. Also, B-player investors are those that follow other investors, they can't make an investment decision on their own, so they follow the A-players and pretend to be A, but they're not.
- dabent 17y ago
  "If you look at another and think "he is better than me at x,y,z" and you feel jealous..." If you look at another an think of how that person being better at x,y,z would make them a huge asset to your company, you just might be an A player.
thaumaturgy 17y ago
I dunno either. However, a while back I needed to bring a new technician on, and I was out of personal contacts, so I posted to Craigslist. I got a number of responses, and a couple of promising ones. One of them was the "former senior software engineer" for a major newspaper in the Bay Area. The prospect of bringing on someone like that positively scared the piss out of me. I'm a young guy, my business is doing well in spite of me, and this person would probably be my senior in every way. So after thinking about it for a day, I contacted him first. (As it turned out, the situation wasn't nearly as unbalanced as I thought.) So I have no idea what an A, B, or C... player is, but I figure that hiring the best people you can, even if they intimidate you, is a good start.
sunkencity 17y ago
Yeah, there are a lot of environmental issues that need to be managed to get the most out of everyone. That's why the overall team need to be balanced. I think that people stating that things ARE a certain way or somebody BEING at a certain level, could gain benefit from looking at Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics or more particulary trying expressing themselves in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime It's not bad being judgemental however, and I think that going with ones gut feeling regarding co-founders is a good thing. I wish I had had no tolerance for bullshit and done away with some poor performing co-founders early on, because the net effect would have been better for everyone. It's the team that counts, and those people who fanatically prefer to do waterfall development and enterprise java solutions don't belong in a fast paced startup environment, because they cannot deliver good results in this setting, they count on orders coming in from "management" instead of being proactive themselves..

by gcheong 17y ago

adrianwaj 17y ago

If you look at another and think "he is better than me at x,y,z" and you feel jealous, and want some type of retribution or revenge, you are a B player. The A-player makes their skill or activity look easy and isn't conceited about it, they are primarily trying to out-do themselves. They aren't trying to add some egotistical emotional experience to themselves via the startup process. A B-player won't want an already successful, serial entrepreneur as a co-founder. They want the glory. They want to own any success, even it is another's, with which they'll aim to claim. Also, B-player investors are those that follow other investors, they can't make an investment decision on their own, so they follow the A-players and pretend to be A, but they're not.

dabent 17y ago
"If you look at another and think "he is better than me at x,y,z" and you feel jealous..." If you look at another an think of how that person being better at x,y,z would make them a huge asset to your company, you just might be an A player.

thaumaturgy 17y ago

I dunno either. However, a while back I needed to bring a new technician on, and I was out of personal contacts, so I posted to Craigslist. I got a number of responses, and a couple of promising ones. One of them was the "former senior software engineer" for a major newspaper in the Bay Area. The prospect of bringing on someone like that positively scared the piss out of me. I'm a young guy, my business is doing well in spite of me, and this person would probably be my senior in every way. So after thinking about it for a day, I contacted him first. (As it turned out, the situation wasn't nearly as unbalanced as I thought.) So I have no idea what an A, B, or C... player is, but I figure that hiring the best people you can, even if they intimidate you, is a good start.

sunkencity 17y ago

Yeah, there are a lot of environmental issues that need to be managed to get the most out of everyone. That's why the overall team need to be balanced. I think that people stating that things ARE a certain way or somebody BEING at a certain level, could gain benefit from looking at Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics or more particulary trying expressing themselves in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime It's not bad being judgemental however, and I think that going with ones gut feeling regarding co-founders is a good thing. I wish I had had no tolerance for bullshit and done away with some poor performing co-founders early on, because the net effect would have been better for everyone. It's the team that counts, and those people who fanatically prefer to do waterfall development and enterprise java solutions don't belong in a fast paced startup environment, because they cannot deliver good results in this setting, they count on orders coming in from "management" instead of being proactive themselves..