My Toughest Challenge: Josh Smith

“People ask me what the hardest part is about building a business, and the answer, 100 percent, is people. We moved our headquarters to Dallas in June of 2015 and found the talent pool we were looking for. We’ve grown from two people at the beginning of 2016 to 130 people today. We have seen more than 30 times our revenue since the beginning of 2016, as well as tremendous growth in all aspects of the business. It’s important to invest in a good vice president of talent—someone who can be a bridge to who you are as a company and what that means, and also monitor ethos just as much as job performance. Those are really important things, at least for my industry and my company, especially because it is growing so quickly. I’ve learned that people are the hardest thing you’ll do—period. Make sure you invest time, energy, and effort in them. Like businesses ebb and flow, people ebb and flow. If you’re not giving them time, energy, and effort, in the end, that typically becomes the death knell in a company.”