We are starting to build our team at Winrate. With the Olympics in Paris dominating headlines, I am reminded of my favorite hiring example: Usain Bolt. He was lightning on the track winning 8 Olympic gold medals but it is the intangibles that always impressed me the most.

When I interview, I am looking for 3 things:

1. Energy givers. People who lift up the rooms they walk into. The ones who are naturally optimistic. They are excited to celebrate their teammates’ wins, and are quick to pick up a teammate who is having a bad day. The trick to sustaining a high performance culture is accumulating a team of individuals with this natural orientation. When you do, positivity sustains momentum!

   How does Usain stack up? He was fierce, but he kept it light. There are countess videos of him having fun with kids, spectators, and teammates before and after competitions. Behind the scenes when the cameras were off, stories emerged from within Team Jamaica, where his reputation as a leader and teammate far exceeded his talent. He was a consistent energy giver in every sense of the word. His competitors would even comment on how much his energy was missing from the track when he was injured or unable to compete. Usain Bolt passes the energy test with flying colors!

2. Authentic Drive. I am looking for people who are naturally driven. As Sam Jacobs from Pavilion puts it, “you can’t put in what God left out.” So I look for the ones with authentic lasting motors. Insta-famous materialism can only push a person so far. People chasing money alone rarely dig deep enough or long enough to make history. It’s usually something else that drives someone to do great things. Great things are hard. So I like to keep an eye out for the ones who have done hard things. The ones with a strong why (cliche but true). To some, an introverted accountant might not make it through the interview process. A boat captain and father of two might seem like a too-late-to-start sales hire. Bullshit. A driven individual will catch the on and off again sellers quickly. Drive is one of the most important ingredients in successful sellers… and you just can’t teach it.

   How does Usain stack up? He was driven beyond belief. Disciplined, consistent, and obsessed… he always went the extra mile in training. His mantra, “the race is the easy part, the real work is done behind the scenes,” hits the nail right on the head. His focus and his drive were what allowed him to cultivate his natural gifts. He also had a strong why, coming from a poor area of Jamaica. A major driver for him was to represent his island and give back to the next generation who live there. His philanthropic reputation within Jamaica is second to none. Usain bolt passes again with flying colors.

3. Talent and ability to learn. If the first two are the “engine” in the car then #3 is the tires. The first two are the most important, but without the third you’ll have an engine that gets really hot, but the car won’t go anywhere. #1 and #2 are the hardest ingredients to find in a hire… but if they don’t have #3 for the role, they will not succeed. Someone who has #1 and #2 are going to be great at something, but it might not be sales, athletics, music. etc. They need to find the thing they have tires for.

   How does Usain stack up?

   Talent and ability. For track? Usain Bolt had it all. He was arguably the perfect sprinting specimen to have ever have existed (similar to how Michael Phelps was said to be the perfect body for his sport). However there are countless numbers of men and women who have had the “perfect physical attributes” that never performed at an elite level. They didn’t cultivate their talent. We don’t know there names. Usain combined his engine (#1 & #2) with his talent (#3). This is where the magic happens.

So would he succeed in sales? I wouldn’t count him out. He is a driven energy giver. However, we just don’t know if he has the talent and ability for it! BUT, I would take the bet 10/10 times that he could learn. If we were wrong? We would have the right person, wrong seat... and sometimes that’s life! But that’s a firm YES to hire him and take the chance, 100% of the time.

This model has helped me get out of my head and out of the resume, allowing me to identify and hire incredible people where others had passed. Many were unconventional but they all had one thing in common. Inside they burned brightly! When you see someone like that, you have to take the gamble! As a great leader once told me, “it’s your responsibility to throw the rope back over.”

Winrate Update!

It’s been a busy few weeks. There is a lot of excitement happening within the company. We are narrowing in on the launch of our BETA product and have begun to identify some of our first hires. If you or someone you know would like to throw their hat in the ring, please reply to this email!

🔊 Spotify Playlist of the Week 

GUEST DJ - Casey Elkins

Casey Elkins is a talented seller with an incredibly bright future. He is currently working at Toast in Boston! Casey was a true energy giver to the entire LinkSquares sales team! He always lifted up his teammates and had a reputation for cultivating the freshest playlists. I personally loved that he was never constrained to a single genre, he had deep range and always knew what the team needed! I asked him to make us a playlist… and in true Usain Bolt fashion, he titled the mix “Have fun with it.” Thanks Casey!