It doesn\u2019t take much to publicly wish a departing employee well, to throw a small celebration, to coach the outgoing person if asked, and to listen and receive fair criticism at the moment of the exit interview.<\/p>\n
Feel good about the former employee\u2019s success<\/strong><\/p>\n And sometimes, the story that results is one that joins the ranks of super-tales, to be told again and again.\u00a0 Here is one such departure story I tell often.<\/p>\n Tom rose through the programming ranks to become the chief architect of my software<\/p>\n company, with 26 programmers in his fold.\u00a0 The company had grown to 233 employees and served 16% of all automated hotels worldwide at that time.\u00a0 Each week, Tom and I would have an informal lunch and discuss issues that ranged far and wide.\u00a0 Tom almost always had ideas to contribute, particularly about marketing programs and opportunities.<\/p>\n How to handle it when a valued employee wants to move on?<\/strong><\/p>\n [Email readers, continue here…]<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 One day Tom came to me and said, \u201cI want to transfer to marketing. I am tired of programming.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBut Tom\u201d, I protested,\u201d you are in charge of the family treasure.\u00a0 All of us depend upon you.\u00a0 Oh, the humanity\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Tom insisted, and nothing I could say would stop him from resigning, selling his home, and moving away. Five years later, I received an email from Tom.\u00a0 I keep that email in my leather note portfolio, carrying it with me wherever I go, pulling it out often to read portions to audiences during my workshops, or just for fun to fellow private equity investor friends.<\/p>\n An email to preserve and show<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHello again, Dave,\u201d it began. \u201cAfter looking around a lot, I have landed as employee In one of the most understated several word paragraphs in history, I responded by email, \u201cGee, Tom. Good to hear from you.\u00a0 Keep me informed.\u201d\u00a0 After recounting this story, I then ask my audience to guess what an August 1995 angel stage investment in Amazon might have been worth at the IPO, getting lots of range in the responses.\u00a0 The answer is $33 million.\u00a0 $33 million return from $100 thousand investment, or 330 to1. That story always gets a laugh as most everyone of us recalls the deal we didn\u2019t do, the investment we didn\u2019t make, the opportunity we shunned that turned to gold.<\/p>\n And it can get better over time<\/strong><\/p>\n After telling that story recently to a large audience at an international meeting of early stage investor group managers, two of them pulled me aside as I came off the stage, showing me their iPad graph of where Amazon had grown to by then. If held for all those years, that $100 thousand investment would have been worth over ten billion, then stated.<\/p>\n Wow!<\/p>\n So, you never know what good things will someday come, especially from talented, driven associates you nurtured but released into the wild when their time had come.\u00a0 Or whether you should invest in those who introduce you to a new opportunity as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is tough to lose your best employees wanting to advance their careers.\u00a0 Sometimes you can be the coach, helping them even if it means losing them.\u00a0\u00a0And, as in today’s story, sometimes it can mean the beginning of an amazing … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Bottleneck-300x168.jpg\")
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number seven at a Seattle-based startup called Amazon.com.\u201d\u00a0 Tom goes on to extol the opportunities, describe his job in marketing with creative opportunities at every turn, and then\u2026 \u201cMy founder is in round two of capital-seeking, looking for increments of $100 thousand, and if you\u2019d like, I\u2019d be happy to introduce you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n