Most Of The Solution

Asked for his top tip for up-and-coming leaders, Musk gave one line: “Hire great people.” In the same 2017 Glassdoor interview he put a number on it, calling good hiring “90 percent of the solution as hiring wrong can cost you so much.” The Glassdoor original is no longer independently reachable, so the wording here is reproduced as CNBC quoted the interview.

At 90 percent, hiring is not one priority among many but nearly the whole job, which leaves everything that comes after, directing, motivating, correcting, as the smaller part.