Who I Want To Work With - Good Shipmates

I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about the type of person I would want to work with as I look towards taking CommunityWalk to the next level. I've come up with an analogy that is unfortunately quite cheesy. It is simple and memorable, though, so here goes nothing.

Building a company can be easily compared to sailing a ship. At first you can start by yourself, but eventually, as the ship increases in size, you need to find people you can trust to help you sail it. These people need to have a diverse set of skills but also must work together and have an understanding of the ship as a whole in order to properly do their jobs. So what you want are good shipmates. Breaking down the word shipmate reveals the type of person I want on my ship:

S - Sense of Humor
H - Humility
I - Intelligence
P - Passion
Mate - Someone you have deep respect for.



Having a sense of humor does not mean that they are funny all the time. Rather it means that they are easy going and enjoy themselves, that they are capable of goofing off. "Funny guys" are too often condescending and disrespectful to others, something I would not stand for.

Humility is an enormous asset that is widely overlooked. It does not mean that you are a push-over. It means that you respect the ideas of those around you, recognize that you are not right all the time and admit when you are wrong.

Intelligence is very subjective and comes in many forms. In general though, I feel like you can recognize an intelligent person within a few moments of talking with them. There is a certain level of thoughtfulness and creativity that is inherent and easily recognizable.

Passion may be the most important quality of the bunch and probably the hardest to recognize. The passionate person, though, stands to be the greatest asset a company can have.


These are just my initial thoughts on the subject and are likely to evolve. Still it gives me a framework to make decisions against for the time being.