If you have found something to be true from your professional experiences and then find a respected publication that echoes those concepts, is this still confirmation bias?

The reason many industries fail to innovate or self-disrupt before it's too late is that they only look for industry insiders to add to their organizations. We want the books of business and the low hanging fruit of a professional who is ready to hit the streets from day one. Many leaders know from painful experience, hiring carry overs from a competitor carry their own challenges and/or baggage. Hiring from a short list within an industry bubble does not create a lot of room for introduction of new ideas, perspectives and strengths.

While I strongly believe that an organization should promote from within they also should be looking to extend their pursuit of quality individuals beyond the industry bubble. A company that spends all those resources to build a culture and a team that rallies around core values are too valuable to thin or disband through the lack of local progressive opportunities for people who have earned such through building the team. This commitment to internal growth does not mean that an organization should only build itself from those who are already versed in the field of operation.

I am glad to hear a respected publication promoting this idea of recruiting candidates who either have no direct experience or who may be a bit of a gamble as they are not industry versed prior to joining your team. Author and CEO/Founder, Liz Ryan shares this challenge and insight, "When you hire someone who lacks industry experience, it challenges you as a manager. You get to see your new hire encountering your world, and that is an instructive thing to experience. You have to train your newcomer differently. You have to ask and answer questions you may not have considered for years — or ever."

Too often we come to a point in our career where we are confident, if not comfortable, with what we know and we begin to first assume that everyone should know what we know (we got our elbows deep in the mud earning our experiences) and secondly that we forget to re-invest those nuggets of wisdom into our teams. We forget that it took many years for us to get where we are and we want immediate results from those who are working on our teams, we lose a bit of our patience when we lose our connection to the ground floor. 

We want a mix of backgrounds, perspectives, ideas and strengths on our teams so that we will continue to challenge each other to be the best that we can be every day. Business is sport, its a competition against our opponents as much as it is against ourselves to not settle in the victories already won. Unfortunately, in the current climate you are either growing or you are dying, there are no other options.

So what do we do? Do we just hire the next ugly duckling that comes along and turn them into the star quarterback? That's not the concept as this should not be about bolstering our already inflated egos but rather a means to challenge and build our organization by infusing it with new perspectives, strengths and potential.

In our experience we believe the criterion has been fairly simple, is the candidate 1) honest, 2) hard working and 3) willing to learn? If they can bring these three character traits, items that we cannot give them, then we can train them to have the opportunity to be successful in our industry. Anymore we are looking for relevant as opposed to direct experience. Someone may not have the technical skills in our industry but if they have the work ethic, relational strengths, a track record of team building, or other strong qualities that will help our team, we want to bring them in. "You will shake up your own thinking," states Liz Ryan, "When you hire outside your industry -- and that may be the best gift of all!"


Resources: 
Liz Ryan - https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2017/09/24/five-reasons-to-hire-someone-with-no-industry-experience/#720b80656de3

More from izvents - Attracting Talent, What To Look For and Hiring, Three Character Keys. 

Everyone wants money but so many of our money trees just aren't growing, no matter how often we water them. Our kids express their desires to purchase things, we share means through which they may possibly earn money by assisting with tasks around our home that we would rather pay dollars than time to complete. As such, our kids understand (to varying degrees) that money requires work. At times the work equals money relationship becomes and expectation and other conversations or reality alterations occur. Parenting is always a cycle of challenges. 

Recently, we had a unique opportunity and decided to experiment with something we have enjoyed from television's offering of educational entertainment. Our eldest son, currently 10 years of age, had a an opportunity through friends and family connections to create and distribute a naturopathic allergy remedy. It's a quirky industry but one that many people have an appetite for and thus there is an opportunity, especially for an eager young entrepreneur. Rather than hand over a fully funded business opportunity with zero strings attached, a scenario that would be a set up for disillusionment with future ventures, we decided to dabble with micro investing in our own home. 

The Opportunity
Summer is the start of allergy season, thus Summer is a prime opportunity for Caiden's Natural Remedies (CNR) to distribute a product in the Willamette Valley of Oregon that is notoriously brutal to allergy sufferers. 

The Urgency
Caiden is still in grade school, which is not an obstacle to entrepreneurship but rather provides him the most direct path to initial sales as this is a focal point where those who are familiar with Caiden congregate. For Caiden's Natural Remedies this community creates access to the Lowest Hanging Fruit in his entrepreneurial ventures. But, school is almost out which both creates a need for urgency in getting products to market. Caiden's Natural Remedies needed an influx of cash immediately. 

The Pitch
$100 initial investment for immediate purchase of product and materials. 50% of initial investment as a loan which had to be paid in 60 days to retain zero percent interest, then 20% of each sale in perpetuity (yeah, we made a Kevin O'Leary deal with our son). 

The Plan
With the $100 cash flow distribution, our son was able to purchase his initial stock for creating his initial offering of Caiden's Natural Remedies, an allergy oil relief in a roller applicator. In addition to Caiden's deal with his initial investors, Caiden decided to reach out to those whom he felt could be key business partners, and without sharing the details of each deal, he made offers of generous commissions for those who would be willing to assist him in selling his product. 

The Process
If Phase 1 of Caiden's Natural Remedies was to acquire funding. Phase 2 would be acquiring materials for the creation of initial product offerings. Caiden was so excited to get his hands on his product and brand the Caiden's Natural Remedies Allergy Applicators. He will be hitting the streets to get his products into hands and make his first series of sales. 

We will post updates as the story develops, you can find the young entrepreneur working his grind @caidenvents, if you suffer from allergies and are looking for a natural remedy, Caiden would tell you, "I'm your man."