If It Doesn't Make Money: Don't Hire for It... Yet

Did you watch the Mojo Jojo origin story? Original Powerpuff Girls, not the woke remake. Professor Utonium adopts Mojo as a baby and the little guy turns out brilliant, actually helps in the lab. But the Professor is lonely. So he decides he wants to create the perfect little girls. (Creepy by today's standards, but hey.)

Mojo feels the distance. He is not for this new idea, so he tries to sabotage it. He shoves the Professor, the Chemical X spills, and boom, the Powerpuff Girls are born. Mojo spends the rest of his life traumatized that he created his own greatest enemy.

Fun story. Now the meat.

You are here and not on TikTok, which means you are the serious business type. So let me confess. I once hired a former client. As a client he was terrible; never paid on time, delayed projects out of nowhere, always wanted more than he paid for "as an investment." He sold dreams beautifully but had zero track record of executing them. I hired him anyway, with full faith that his silver tongue would help him manage the team.

Yes. Judge me all you want. We are writing from retrospect.

It is never a bad idea in the moment. You have to believe people can be more than they are when you hire them, or how do you ever grow anyone? Add that Zambia's biggest barrier to small business growth right now is capacity, not capital. So you hire on potential. I get it. I have made every mistake on this list. But one can cost you everything.

Keeping people in positions where they generate no value.

When my guy couldn't thrive in his role, I didn't let him go. I moved him. My logic? He was strong on culture and "bought into the vision." After more time, more money, and losing our biggest client, I learned. A person who is not generating value, meaning saving you time or making you money, should not be anywhere near your business. Especially not leadership.

Because the story of Korah is real. A man given a place in the camp decides it is not enough, rises against the order, and takes a chunk of the people down with him when the ground opens up. "The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them." (Numbers 16:32) Misplaced people do not stay quietly misplaced.

Here is the part nobody says out loud. Mojo and Professor U both thrived alone. Mojo became one of the most brilliant minds in Townsville, villain or not. The Professor ran his lab fine by himself. Not every brilliant person belongs on your team. Some are meant to build their own lab.

So two things. Only hire when the brief is strategically sound; people cost far more than salary. "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost?" (Luke 14:28) And always let people exit gracefully when the company outgrows their position. Holding someone in a role they have outlived is not loyalty. It is slow damage to you both.