Gee, do I all do is bounce between Presentation Zen and Guy Kawasaki? Anyway, today's post by Guy has a line that I've been given from a VP before:

"A player hire A players; B players hire C players"

Let the Good Times Roll--by Guy Kawasaki: The Art of Recruiting

Actually, I was initially offended by the ABC line because I had asked my boss at the time a question and then he rolled it up to the VP to answer. Taught me a lesson about asking hard questions! But it made me realize that if you ever drop your quality in hiring there are dire consequences, because one day those people will be hiring, too.

I want to hire someone smarter than me (okay, maybe not an especially high bar) and someone I could one day end up working for.

Hiring is hard, no doubts about it. But hiring the wrong people for your team and for your company brings in a whole new world of hard-hurt.