I have hired the wrong person more than once. I will probably do it again. But I have learned the difference between the kind of wrong that costs you a couple of months and the kind of wrong that takes a year of your life and a chunk of your team with it.
The fast version of the lesson is in the title. The slower version is what this post is about, because there is a 2026 wrinkle that changes the math.
Years ago we had a project come in that was bigger than what our team could handle. The client had real urgency, the scope was clear, the work was inside our wheelhouse. So I did what most owners do. I went into panic mode and hired a person to fill the gap.
That person was on payroll inside of two weeks. Within ninety days I knew it was wrong. Within six months we were having the kind of conversation no one wants to have, the kind that ends with someone packing up their stuff and the team quietly wondering what just happened. The cost of that hire was not their salary. The cost was the morale of the people who watched me make the call, the trust I burned with the team I asked to cover for the gap, and the year of energy I spent untangling what I had tangled in two weeks.
The smarter move would have been to call a contractor. The smarter move would have been to tell the client that we needed to stretch the timeline. The smarter move would have been to do almost anything other than hire fast.
Multiply your hiring time by four
Dave Ramsey says you should multiply your hiring time by four. If you think it should take a month, give it four. If you think it should take a quarter, give it a year.
That sounds insane until you do the math on a bad hire. A bad hire is not just a salary line. It is the time you spend training, the time the team spends covering, the time you spend in difficult conversations, the time you spend rebuilding morale, and the time you spend hiring again when it ends. If a hire is late by a month, that is expensive. If a hire is wrong, that is catastrophic.
The way I run it now at the agency is intentionally inconvenient. Multiple conversations. Practical work, not just talk. A real conversation about how the person handles a hard moment, not a pre-rehearsed answer to a behavioral question. A second look from at least one person on the team who is not me, because I am too easily charmed by people I want to like. And a slow yes, not a fast one.
We have lost candidates because of it. That is a real cost. We have not lost the wrong candidate because of it. That is a much bigger gain.
The 2026 wrinkle - you can hold the seat empty longer
Here is what is different now.
In 2026, the cost of holding a seat empty has come down. Not to zero, but lower than it has ever been. The work that used to require a warm body for forty hours a week can often get done in a fraction of that time with a contractor plus AI, or with the existing team plus AI, while you take your time finding the right person.
That is not an argument for never hiring again. People are still the point. But it is an argument for refusing to hire under panic. If you can stitch together six weeks of coverage with a contractor and a few well-built AI workflows, you can buy yourself the time to make a hire you will not regret. Two years ago you did not have that lever. Now you do.
This is what I mean when I talk about being a wise steward of your team's energy. Hiring fast does not protect them. It puts a bad teammate in the seat next to them and asks them to absorb the difference. Hiring slow protects the people who are already in the boat with you.
action
1. Multiply your current hiring timeline by four. Tell yourself the truth about the date. 2. Build a six-week stitch of contractor plus AI plus existing team to hold the seat empty. 3. Tie at least one part of pay to an outcome the person actually moves. 4. Write clean, direct, written feedback for the teammate you have been avoiding. 5. Stop dragging out the conversation the parking lot has already been having.
dont Hire in panic. The cost is not their salary. It is the morale of the team you asked to cover for the gap. :::
Look at your team this week. Who are you about to hire in a panic? Who have you been avoiding a real conversation with? Pick one. Slow it down or speed it up. Just stop letting it sit.
