A Question to Bosses

I used to have this very problem myself. I had 8 people working for me when I was starting out, at just 16.
The ages of my employees ranged between 23 and 35.
Imagine getting all that attention from people who're far more educated, qualified and elder than you. I made some mistakes and learnt from them. As my team grew bigger, I found that being sweet didn't really work!



Respect is something that needs to be there between an employee and a boss.
Believe me, if you get too friendly, you're hitting yourself in the leg with a hammer!

Employees are going to mess up at times, and if they believe you're just like them, they'll expect you to be nice to them. You can't always be nice to your employees.

If they respect you, they'll think twice before arguing. If you get friendly with them, they'll begin crossing lines and you'll find it difficult to put them back in their place.
You also have to understand that each employee notices how to treat the others. I can't really explain it, but from a lot of experience I've learnt that it's best to stay a little aloof from your employees.
BE friendly, polite and fun to talk to. Crack jokes with them because you don't want them to be uncomfortable. But at the same time, you don't want them getting too comfortable with you either so make sure that the employee-boss relationship remains established.

Be rude once in a while, and don't be shy when you're showing how frustrated/upset you are.

Believe me, if you try to be too much of a pleaser to your employees, at some point, someone will let you down big time along the way and you'll find it difficult to cope with yourself.

Business is Business my friend. Sometimes you have to do things you don't like, things that may defy your logic. You'll either learn this from experience the hard way, or just take it from the rest of us, the easy way!


There's absolutely nothing bad that can come out of your employees respecting you too much, treating you like a god ... blah blah blah
It might seem funny to you at first, but believe me, you'll get used to it soon. Act like the father figure around office because they look to you for guidance. They need to believe you're better than them, only then will they want to follow you with their full heart and soul. (and remain loyal as well)

If you treat them like friends, they won't be 'scared' of you. If they're not scared, there's a very high chance they'll walk all over you.

There are some that don't need this kind of treatment to stay in line, but then, 80% of them do! You can start being partial to certain employees after they've been with you a couple years and you've established that they don't need to be meted such treatment.


MOST IMPORTANTLY: If you're too friendly and get too close to your employees emotionally, there'll be issues among the employees. They'll all start a war for your attention and that becomes a bigger problem!

When you're a rude boss, it's easy to correct people and yell at the ones that need to be taught a little sternly.
However, when you're friendly, you'll find that it's a lot more difficult to get pissed off at an employee.
You can never ever fire someone after getting emotionally connected to them. If you do, you're a DICK. So make sure you put in enough thought before starting to get friendly and nice to any employee. You can't go back then. Be nice, but only to a select few that really deserve it and make sure you make them work for it as well!

Concluding,
Please understand what I mean when I say 'friendly'. Don't take it too literally. Don't talk to them down your nose, but at the same time, don't let them climb over your head. Let there be some respect between you and your employees.

As I recall, you're about the same age as I am ,21 ,correct? Care to tell us more about how you were managing that many people at 17? I'm pretty sure a lot of people here would love to hear your story.
 


piece of advice

buy a frivolous car...the peasants will respect the SHIT outta you...those who don't..fire them.


i can't tell you how many times I've heard peasants talk about "their boss' car" or some shit like that

they want someone to look up to and if you drive a frivy (frivolous car lol) they'll be proud to work for someone who drives a frivy car.

don't try to be all Ikea and drive a '87 Camry and be all humble...they won't respect that...

I'm sure this works if you want your office to be full of peasants and yes men, but that seems like a pretty toxic work environment to me.
 
buy a frivolous car...the peasants will respect the SHIT outta you...those who don't..fire them.
Is it okay if they simply mock you from behind your back?
don't try to be all Ikea and drive a '87 Camry and be all humble...they won't respect that...
If you inspire them with your work ethic, leadership skills and vision, they'll respect you. If you drive a cheap car, while paying them well, they'll think you're the greatest.

You put a lot of importance on outer appearances in search of validation. Take a hint or two from the Ikea billionaire.

Billionaire IKEA founder revels in frugal lifestyle - World - The Scotsman

And Warren Buffet.

Warren Buffett's Frugal, So Why Aren't You?
 
!

As I recall, you're about the same age as I am ,21 ,correct? Care to tell us more about how you were managing that many people at 17? I'm pretty sure a lot of people here would love to hear your story.

November, 1990 born so I'm 22 going on to 23.
Initially, It was all havoc. I've made way too many mistakes.
One of the biggest is, I got too overconfident because I was making a tonne of money very young and thought everything I did was the right way to do it.

Reflecting back, I now realize how stupid I was.
I still feel quite stupid even now, and in fact, when I was 16, I kinda thought I was the smartest person I knew. Big mistake ! :zzwhip:

If I could give 16 year old ME advice, it would be this:
1) get your head out of your ass!

2) PLEASE PLEASE ditch all your friends your age, they'll only prevent you from getting where you want to be. The fact that you're trying at 16 puts you 10 steps ahead of them and the fact that you're successful at 16 puts you a lifetime ahead of them! There's absolutely nothing good that can come out of hanging out 8 hours a day with friends who just care about drugs, partying and women.

3) Quit smoking weed/hashish. No matter how much you think it helps productivity, it doesn't! GET REAL. [Cocaine doesn't take down productivity but in a couple years, you'll get too dependent, so don't even get into it. You'll become unproductive when you're not on cocaine so that's bad as well.]

4) Build assets! A swanky car, a slick phone, thousand dollar belts are NOT assets! Buy yourself bling from the money you make from your asset column!

5) You're doing well now, but there are going to be times when you're not doing so well. (Now I might get all religious on you, but whether you call it god, karma or the law of business, it boils down to the same thing) You will get ONE golden opportunity to ball, if you grab it by the scruff of its neck and milk it like the bitch it is, you're golden!
If you be stupid, and go around splurging the money during your golden period you're a dumbass. You're a motherfucking clown. I don't have words for how retarded you are.
If you have money saved, it will get you through the bad phase onto a good one. If you don't, the bad phase will continue for life!

6) Hang out only with people who are balling themselves. They've made the mistakes, fixed them. It is these guys you want to take advice from and follow it to the word. Advice from them doesn't come easy, you're going to have to be mentor-able and respectful. Do NOT take advice from your peasant friends, they'll always be showering you with tonnes of it as if they've done it all but if you have half a brain cell, you'll know that useful advice doesn't come that easy.

__________

When it comes to managing a team, all you need is a shitload of confidence. Yes! to the extent that people might think you're a bit in over your head.
You're young and people expect you to be stupid and childish. If you show weakness, they'll walk all over you.

It's alright to make some mistakes. Don't worry about what your employees will think, what people around you will think.
You know where you're going and if they were any better than you, they'd be in your place and you'd be in theirs.

Don't think too much about what people think about you. It's something that wears of with age and experience and a lot of socialising.

Put yourself in uncomfortable positions, socialize with people, don't be shy! Go out there and be the dickhead that you are. People might not kneel down in front of you just yet, but the time will come.
Understand this, you're different from your friends!
Just because your friends aren't respected by anyone elder than them doesn't mean you won't either! Even if they are friends you respect and think are smarter than you.
The very fact that you're successful when you're young means you have qualities different from others. You just don't know yet, but those qualities put you in an entirely different league from them!
Quit giving a SHIT about what others think!

Talk down to the employees that piss you off! Don't feel like karma is going to bite you in your ass, it won't! Because you're not talking down to him because its personal or because you think you're some god. You're talking down to him because he's an employee, you're his boss, he screwed up and business comes first for you! Understand the difference between bad karma and a no-nonsense boss. They're not the same thing. Caring about your business and not tolerating shit from your employees doesn't add to your bad karma.

When it comes to employees, be fair but be strict. If they deserve it, LET THEM HAVE IT!

____

In my teens, I've literally Google'd shit like: "how to hire employees"
I was that clueless!
But I think I turned out fine. I learnt along the way and got better and better. Experience teaches you everything you need to know.
Go out there, make your mistakes and learn from them. If you don't make mistakes, you won't learn...so don't be afraid of making mistakes.


Now this part, you might not believe but it is absolutely true:

WickedFire is NOT just all about gay webmasters, dick rolling and pr0n.
These nerdy marketers might come across as dickfucks but they're a lot of experienced dickfucks here.
If you're mentorable, they'll go out of their way to show you the right track. There are some gems of people on here. Their ways might be what you're not used to but nevertheless there's a lot to learn from them.
I swear 80%+ of my success goes to things I've learnt from people on WickedFire.

No, not about how to make money. No one told me: Do this and you'll make money.
It's just about how they think and look at money. If you think the same way and treat money the same way they do, you'll get where they are! It's as simple as that.
Some people give far too much importance to money. They start out and all they want to do is make money. They don't do anything that they think won't make them money. That's where they go wrong and that is probably why most of them fail miserably.

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day, teach a man how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
I learnt most of my fishing here on WickedFire!


Because I learnt the fundamentals right, I would have absolutely no problem if I suddenly lost all my money. I know how to make it back! If one way doesn't work, I know there's another! I wouldn't be 1% as upset as I was when I lost $20k at 17. It's really easy to make money if you know how to!

Take this from me:
If you're starting out, and you're on WickedFire, Success WILL come to you. It's just a matter of time. You're already 50% there by the very fact that you have access to WickedFire.

True Story.:2twocents:


For all those who just can't ever seem to get their projects started, Google what "Cognitive Dissonance" is. Understanding how your brain works will help a great deal in fixing the problem! It worked for me.
 
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Always execute the lowest performing employee on the first of every month.

It sets a standard, acts as a motivator, and consolidates power.

After a while, you'll notice people call in sick on the first of the month, so then you'll need to have random execution days.

You'll figure it out.

That would be a good strategy, but what about the silly regulations like X week/Month notice etc?
 
@DumDum

Respect bro, I faced the same problems as you, being too friendly with employees, going from 2 to 12 and then back to 4 employees, getting fucked over with mid-XXXXX$. You just have to keep hustling!
 
@DumDum

Respect bro, I faced the same problems as you, being too friendly with employees, going from 2 to 12 and then back to 4 employees, getting fucked over with mid-XXXXX$. You just have to keep hustling!

Life is long. You'll get tonnes of opportunities to make it back. If you could do it once, you'll be able to do it again.

Besides, it'll be a story to tell! How many people can say, "I got fucked out of $50k at 18"? :drinkup: