Maybe you were blessed with the right group of friends. I wasn’t. I knew one “Rich Kid” but only because he was hooking up on the side with a poor girl from my neighborhood. Once he went off to college he left her behind. We all tried to warn her – but she wouldn’t listen. She was in love and was convinced that we just didn’t understand him.

We understood him better than she thought.

Thats the problem with picking the people around you. Sometimes your heart gets in the way of your brain. My first real crew got together when I was about 6 years old. We ran a little syndicate at the elementary school. We sold a product that had universal appeal and cost us nothing to get. We could have put any price on it because we cornered the market – but we wanted to make money, so we priced it at what would generate the most sales.

I was The Leader. I could get the product and I put the distribution plan together. I hired 3rd graders to guard the door to the boys room. They were the muscle. They worked for 25 cents a recess period. I had a lookout and a guy to keep the merchandise in case the teachers showed up – we could all split. That crew worked well – until a teacher noticed that every recess there were two older boys guarding the boys room. The lookout opened the door to whistle – our signal to clean up. However, in all my planning I forgot a very important detail. Make sure your lookout can whistle.

This taught me a few very important lessons:

1. Your greatest plan is only as strong as your weakest link.
2. You don’t know what you don’t know

I know you are dying to know what we were selling. We were selling cut up pages of nudie magazines. I grew up in a “Foster Home” environment and I used to steal the magazines of the “Dad” and sell them in pieces. When I got expelled from the first grade – I had $30 in quarters nickels and dimes in a sock. That is a lot of money for a 6 year old in 1980.

Now I am not telling you this suggesting that you get into the porn business. Even now I don’t touch that industry (even though I have been approached at least a hundred times). What I am saying is that I have been doing this my whole life and I have learned a few things. Plus it is always good to know a little about the person that you are choosing to listen to.

Now, on to paying the bills.

You will notice that every successful team has at least 4 core players. Think about movies. If there are 5 team members, likely one is a traitor or cannon fodder (getaway driver). The reason is, large groups are hard to manage. If there are too many players, the plans get complicated.

So who do you look for? I’m not psychic. I don’t know who you hang out with. But I can tell you what kinds of people you need to look for. Obviously, if you fit into one of these descriptions, you don’t have to find someone else like you.

• The Leader – Your leader (and it may not be you – but since you are reading this, it probably is) Leaders love to come up with ideas. They are “Big Picture” people. They want to set up a plan and pull together the other players. They’re creative. Others may complain that they don’t do enough work once the plan is in progress. But this is likely because they are already on to the second part of the master plan.
• The Brain – The Leader and The Brain aren’t necessarily the same person. These people are brilliant in their geekiness. They love to take your ideas and create a plan or strategy for success. When you tell them an idea, they instantly tell you the next steps to make it happen. They are go-getters who like to make connections and create action plans. The leader and the brain need to be tight. Trust is important with this relationship. The brain may be very friendly and have a large network of friends and contacts or they could be a loner. The Brain may get caught up in the details and argue with you on specific points. Be aware of this. This is where team leadership comes into play. Be fair, but be sure all players know this is your operation.
• The Anchor – The Anchor is suspicious of new ideas. They believe in proven solutions and not doing anything too risky. They are good at pointing out problems and seeing around corners to know what might go wrong. When presented with a new project or plan – they can immediately rattle off all the reasons why it won’t work. This is critical for effective planning. If all you have are a bunch of people in lock-step with you, you will not be properly prepared for when things go bad. And they always go bad at some point (see lesson #2 above). The Anchor allows the team to simulate all the possible failures at the concept stage. This saves time, money and possible jail time. Without an Anchor – your team will be convinced that your plan is foolproof.
• The Soldier – If you need someone to execute your plan effectively – you can count on your Soldier. These are detail-oriented people are great at step-by-step work. They keep things organized and running smoothly. Give them their exact steps and expectations and they perform beautifully. The Soldier is different than “The Muscle”. You can usually recognize a Soldier as someone with ambition and determination – but no direction. They are usually fiercely loyal (in the beginning) as you are offering them a hand up. But if you have a project with them that is successful – The Soldier may feel like they have contributed more sweat to the project (even though that is their function – they didn’t come up with any ideas after all). The Soldier – after learning your system, is the most likely to “Go It Alone” and steal your clients, customers, secrets or ideas. So keep this one close.

Now I have left out what I call “Freelancers”. These are people with specific skills. A person with specific industry insight or connections is a freelancer. A salesperson is a freelancer. Hired muscle is a freelancer. They can either get paid up front or vest in for a piece of the project. But they are not part of the crew. The crew runs the show and calls the shots. Freelancers are told how they play their part.

I will say that I have had a freelancer or two replace a member of my crew before. This will happen. Remember – it’s business, its not personal. As long as you abide by your legal agreements or moral agreements – you should be good.

I will be adding to the list of players in your hustle later on. The next part of this will be what you do once you have your crew. I am calling it “Starting a business is like robbing a bank.“