What was the problem you were grappling with?
A few years after starting Vu Technologies, one of the employees whom I had trained since she was an intern and had risen through the ranks to become a marketing manager, wanted to leave the company. I had a small team back then and when she told me she wanted to quit, I could feel the blood rushing to my face and it caused me immense stress.
Whom did you approach for advice and why?
I spoke to my friend and celebrity chef Moshe Shek, who is good at handling employees and vendors at the back-end and customers at the front-end. He has worked across the globe and I told him about my predicament and how stressed I was. What was the advice you received?
Over his famous carrot cake with ice-cream, he gave me the life-changing advice that I shouldn’t be afraid of people leaving. He said, “You’ve built it once, you can build it again!” He also added that oftentimes the replacement is better than the original hire because they have fresher insights and possibly better experience.
How effective was it in resolving the problem?
Since then, I’ve not worried too much when people want to move on because I have faith in myself that I can do it again, if I have to. However, we have a strict “no revolving door policy” in the Vu Employee handbook that says once someone leaves they cannot join back. We don’t entertain people who didn’t think of their company and their boss while leaving because they have probably been replaced by someone more deserving.