Tim Berry audio story - on overestimating people early on

Another story from my 2010 conversation with Palo Alto Software founder (and superb blogger) Tim Berry. (The entire discussion can be found here.) In this story, Tim discusses a "long-term mistake" of his, and how he compensated for it.

Tim Berry - "I consistently overvalue people early on" (mp3 - 2m10s) - right-click to download.

Transcript:

I've never been a gun person, but I gather that the weapon sometimes has a natural lean to the left, or the rifle comes out high or the rifle comes out low. You get to know the weapon. And the markspeople compensate for that natural misalignment of the weapon by knowing that they need to aim slightly to the right or slightly up.

So I think of that analogy when I recognize that, through the years that I've been running a business, since 1983, when I went out on my own, I consistently overvalue people early on, early in the relationship. I've learned, with job interviews, and managing people, I've learned that this is a weakness, this is a flaw. And I know after I've finished the interview that I'm going to come out too up on that person. So I've tried through the years to recognize that and compensate. For example, when I was running the company, I started to get other people into the interviews to compensate. For example, for years, I'd never hire anybody until my wife had met and approved that person. Because she had better people skills.