Why Your "Great Resume" Isn't Enough in a High-Growth Business
In high-growth roles, initiative isn’t optional. It’s The Job
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Introduction
A friend of mine recently unlocked 100x growth in his business over the last five years.
Safe to say, he’s built a high-performance, fast-paced ecosystem — one that thrives on clarity, proactiveness, and execution.
But here's what shocked me:
He fired his new Executive Assistant on her very first day.
Here’s what happened:
Imagine the scenario
On the morning of her first day, my friend sent her a voice note explaining that he would be out till lunch.
He listed a few simple tasks for her to get started with:
01 - Book a meeting with a vendor
02 - Plan a consulting session with his business coach
03 - Set up a team lunch on Friday (if the budget allows)
No rocket science. But here's what she did: Nothing.
She froze. Got overwhelmed. And didn’t even reply to the voice note.
What went wrong?
She didn’t ask for clarity, didn’t respond, didn’t prioritize, or didn’t even try.
All that was needed was a simple reply like:
“Could you help me with the coach’s contact details?”
“What’s the preferred time for the vendor meeting?”
“Is there a budget range for the Friday lunch?”
Instead, she chose silence.
The lesson
My friend later told me:
“She might have had the perfect resume and an amazing personality, but to work in a high-growth environment, you need one thing above all else: the right mindset. I don’t need perfection. I need someone who is willing to figure things out, ask questions, and get moving.”
He added, “Even if she had shown a little presence of mind and willingness to learn, I would’ve happily trained her, but I don’t have the bandwidth to teach someone how to think.”
Food for thought
A good resume may get you the job, but only proactiveness, clarity, and a bias for action will help you keep it.
In today’s world, mindset > skillset.
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Prompt used to create the image for the note
P.S.: Image made on Meta AI using the prompt, “Imagine a young executive assistant who is overwhelmed on the first day on the job”