Your #1 job as a founder is NOT having the best product, taking care of your customers, raising capital, or making strategic decisions.

I’ve talked to hundreds of successful founders and they consistently agree upon one thing…

Your #1 job is to find and develop the right people.

When you take care of your people, they take care of the rest of the details.

I’ve had to drive people to the hospital, resolve landlord issues, buy vehicles, listen to unhappy girlfriends, and go clothes shopping– all in the name of taking care of our people.

When you go the extra mile for your people, they will do the same for you.

You as a founder cannot be the best salesperson, the best engineer, the best marketer, and the best finance person all at the same time– even if you had 25 hours per day.

Trust your people with decision making– give them explicit permission to think.

One of my mentors said to never come to him with a problem unless I had at least one potential solution, too, no matter how silly. 

This leadership technique saved him countless hours of micromanaging the details since people were empowered to think for themselves.

The best founders I know, whether they run a ball-bearing manufacturing company or software firm, spend most of their time developing their people.

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.

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