On scorpions and frogs

The most important lesson I learned about people was told by a scorpion:

The Scorpion and the Frog is a fable about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being stung during the trip, but the scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, the frog would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog agrees and begins carrying the scorpion, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion explains that this is simply its nature. The fable is used to illustrate the view that the behaviour of some creatures, or of some people, is irrepressible, no matter how they are treated and no matter what the consequences.

I have never questioned this lesson, only my ability to recognize scorpions. I never blame anyone for not changing their nature. I blame myself for not recognizing it.

I apply this lesson to any part of my life where I deal with adults — e.g., friendship, marriage or recruiting. Lets stick with the less personal subject of recruiting: Part of my job is to interview people whom I have never met before and decide whether they are a good fit for my company. I don’t expect them to become a good fit. I expect them to be what they are. I simply try to do us both a huge favor by seeing it. Not hiring the wrong guy is often better than hiring the right one. Understanding the nature of our candidates is, to me, of far greater importance than evaluating their technical skills. My contention is that our business depends almost entirely on the collective nature of the people we have on board.

There are no absolute values here. On a professional level, I don’t consider any nature right or wrong. But we are in a business of crossing rivers and hiring a scorpion can endanger our business. That’s it. Not that there’s anything absolutely wrong with scorpions, it’s just that we happen to need frogs.

An ex boss of mine once told me that I have a disruptive nature. “Good when you need to change something”, he said, “bad when you want to keep the status quo”. So I joined a startup, where change is mandatory. Status quo can be good when it works. There are many environments where this is the case. Banks, for example. A friend once asked me why I wouldn’t work for a bank. “The pay is better and the job is less stressful”, he posited. “It is not in my nature”, I replied.