Ильдар Хусаинов – The power of freedom (страница 27)

This is fundamentally the right approach. You can do it differently and hire expensive candidates, but will that be justified? Not always. Strong candidates are also needed, but their effectiveness must be supported by results. This is a straightforward example of how an entrepreneurial model should be structured.

Let me give another example. Mortgage brokers have been motivated based on results rather than just conducting consultations. Now they work differently. Marketers are responsible for business volume rather than just incoming client flow. Even our lawyers are incentivized to sign as many contracts as possible. They compete with each other: they earn 75 rubles per contract, and 120 rubles during evening hours. As a result, by 8 AM all contracts are ready, and there’s even a queue for them at night. I see that employees are still working at 2 AM.

We don’t force anyone. We simply say: “Here’s your money; if you want to, go ahead and do it.” We always monitor whether we need to increase salaries, and we see this through results in three systems. At higher management levels, we ensure motivation through net profit. Many of our leaders participate in the distribution of the company’s net profit.

Once, I had a conversation with a talented employee. I offered him a five-year contract where his salary would be based not on achieving KPIs but on a percentage of net profit. We would find legal forms for this, establish partnerships, shares, and everything else. He declined: “No, I’m not ready. Let’s do 100,000 fixed salary and 100,000 for KPIs.” Six months later, he came back to me and said: “Ildar Borisovich, after working with you, I’ve changed my mind. I’m interested in trying a different relationship scheme; I’m ready for your terms.”

We signed a five-year contract, and his effectiveness increased fivefold, if not tenfold. Within two years, his income consistently exceeded one million rubles, and his contribution to the company became invaluable. With a fixed salary and KPIs of 100,000 rubles, he would never have achieved such results or become such a valuable employee.

When an employee understands that every action they take is fairly compensated, their potential is unleashed. Their inner strength comes to the surface. This is the foundation: 1 + 1 becomes 11. However, to harness this potential, one must be generous. Unfortunately, most leaders are hindered by greed.

Why do I speak about this so calmly? Because I have seen it happen many times. Sometimes I ask people a question: “Imagine you’ve gone to Bali, and your business, under the leadership of an employee, has earned 500,000 rubles. You did nothing, and a year later the business is generating 5 million rubles a month. How much are you willing to give to the employee who made this happen?” The most common answer is 10–12%.

Let me share how I personally battled my own greed. Here’s what you need to know about human greed: it’s rooted in the instinct for self-preservation. People have a tendency to hoard. Primitive humans, after killing a deer, didn’t know when they would catch another one. Without refrigerators, they needed to consume as much as possible. This instinctive greed is ingrained in all of us.

In our entrepreneurial culture, there is no value placed on investing. We are not accustomed to giving in order to earn more later. This is a legacy of our primitive communal past and humanity's long evolutionary journey. Our first reaction when we receive something is to hold onto it. Understanding this fact will help us manage ourselves and our decisions better.

The ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was right: you can’t take anything with you when you leave this world. To think otherwise is to succumb to illusions. So the first reason for greed is the instinct for self-preservation. The second is the fear of uncertainty. Greed requires letting go of something, which triggers fear of the unknown. Even businessmen who keep their funds in dollars are afraid to convert them into rubles, worrying they might lose value. Their minds start painting terrifying scenarios. Many who switch to dollars never convert their money back into rubles; they become prisoners of their savings.

I am an advocate for investing. Money should not sit idle. I have always invested in real businesses. This is a separate topic – investment thinking – and I plan to dedicate an entire chapter to it. The fear of risk is the third reason for greed. Those who do not understand or know how to manage risk will always resort to hoarding. Only knowledge allows one to manage risk and feel comfortable with it.

The fourth reason for greed is distrust of others. A greedy person often does not trust anyone else. They genuinely believe that only they can manage money correctly and that without them, money will be wasted. This reflects a lack of faith in other people’s abilities.

These four aspects of greed – self-preservation instinct, fear of uncertainty, and distrust of others – hinder our development and progress. To overcome them, we need to cultivate an investment mindset and learn to trust others. To illustrate this point, let me share an interesting experiment: a person is given a trinket and asked how much it’s worth. “Three dollars,” they reply. Then they’re told, “Here, keep it; it’s yours.” When asked how much they would sell it for, they respond, “Eight dollars.” Why? Psychologically, people perceive their possessions as more valuable. When something becomes theirs, its worth increases in their minds compared to how they would value it if it didn’t belong to them.

Here lies a trap. I found it very difficult to deal with this. I admit that at first, I was reluctant to give people money. I was stingy and didn’t realize it was a serious flaw. Only now, as I write these lines, can I calmly acknowledge that all the components of greed were within me.

There were times when I was tight-fisted with employee salaries, even when I had enough resources. I hoarded like a hamster instead of investing. Over time, my mindset changed. Several books helped me, especially Daniel Goleman’s "Emotional Intelligence," which I highly recommend. This book discusses, among other things, the nature of greed and the characteristics of human thinking. Greed is always about the past. It is a remnant of the past, while creating future value requires us to be willing to live in the future.

When a person wants to accumulate something, they are essentially choosing to live in the past. Investments are about the future. Each person decides whether to live in the past or look ahead. Many people on their deathbeds regret that they didn’t spend more and didn’t give enough to others.

I derive immense pleasure from seeing my top managers earn well. It makes me ten times happier than my own income. What drives me is the desire to continue developing the business so that my employees can earn well. I want them not just to work for me but to work alongside me, feeling that this is their own venture.

I am willing to sacrifice my income. For instance, during crises, I continue to pay my top managers whose salaries depend on net profit. Even when there is no profit, we implement hedging strategies. For example, in 2004, we hedged our top managers for four out of twelve months. I want to share a story: several top managers approached me then and said, “Ildar Borisovich, we see that things are tough for you right now. Maybe we shouldn’t hedge our salaries?” I replied, “We should.” One of them sat with me for 30 minutes, convincing me that he was doing fine, that he cared about the company and didn’t need the money. I said, “Let’s skip the altruism; it’s not quite right. I’m confident that the business's capitalization is growing, even if it’s declining at the moment. We are creating value, and as soon as the market situation improves, our company will reach a new level. Consider this a form of payment through capitalization and a sign of increased company income.”

In the past, I aimed to accumulate, but then I realized it stemmed from the fear that there wouldn’t be enough money. But those fears are misguided. If a person starts hoarding instead of sharing with others, there truly won’t be enough money.

These fundamental insights changed my perspective on motivation and business. I detailed this in a post on VK, where I explained how proper motivation is formed and how to apply it. You can read this material by scanning the QR code provided on this page.

https://disk.yandex.ru/i/4OPe3QZhtIqNJQ

I believe that those who recognize and appreciate the strengths of others will always reach greater heights, build strong teams, and achieve outstanding results. I’ll be honest: I didn’t possess this skill initially, but I have developed it and continue to do so. Learning is a lifelong journey. What did I do? I attended numerous HR conferences and read books on assessing abilities and competencies. Gradually, I began to realize how little I actually knew.

Now, when I conduct interviews, I often feel like a kind of robot because I’ve mastered many techniques and methodologies. Of course, I try to remain human, but I’m genuinely interested in understanding how the candidate’s “processor” works, how they relate to others, and the extent of their self-reflection. Each of us has our own “processor,” which doesn’t change much over time. There are indeed people with strong cognitive abilities who think quickly, but even their capabilities are limited.