Delegation works. Just do it.
A business owner needs to be skilled enough in their particular specialty to get the ball rolling and the money flowing in. Then they'll have the resources and cachet to identify and hire talent. But if all they can do is find talent and tell it what to do, why should the talent bother listening?
I'm sure I could tell go up to Marc Andreesen or Steve Jobs or Larry Page and say "I've got this great idea. Come work for me." I also suspect that if I did this, I'd get this quizzical "Who the fuck are you and why should I?" look, and then they'd walk away.
Because talented people don't spontaneously self-organize. Your example is a bit silly - you're talking about people with a lot of money, stellar reputation, and great leadership skills. Most skilled people don't have any of these things. Working for someone with leadership skills is the only option they've got. If you happen to have enough charisma to get people to buy into your vision, you really don't need to know how to code.
Yes they do. Game recognizes game. I always want to socialize and engage with people I deem technically competent.
Myself, and most technical people I know, would not defer judgement nor respect to someone trumping "leadership skills" as a reason to follow them. In fact, someone projecting that air would be an immediate target for mockery until they displayed technical competence.
I would only hire people that are more skilled than me on their areas.
They should come work for me exactly because I do this :)
I don't mind working for someone with excellent sales or product or visual design skills + good leadership. They're contributing something that I'm weak at. It's a trade.
I do mind working for someone with only good leadership skills. What do they do that I can't do myself? I have plenty of ideas for startups too; I could just go off and start one myself.
He's not negating the idea of delegation. I guess you just have to strike a balance.
There are many people out there who will wait days for someone to make a simple html change for them on their site, where they could just as well learn to do it themselves. Its not like they have to learn C# overnight.
But since I'm a technical person, I'd ask them why manhole covers are round.
I also agree with your top post. While it would be nice to have 10 years of software experience or the technical background to evaluate programming talent, you can still succeed by identifying and partnering with talented people.
When it comes to programming, just learning to program is an incredible way to actually meet other people that are already on a path to getting much better than you at programming - doesn't mean you have to commit to it full time for 10 years.
But on the other hand intimate knowledge of what exactly you're delegating can be crucial in many ways. Even if you're not a GREAT programmer, having had the experience learning the skills and building the prototype gives a more comprehensive understanding of what's needed to accomplish your goals
Though, I wouldn't get excited about it. For an initial version, I guess, everything you get there might suffice; but I might turn to pros asap.
If someone happens to have programming skill, it might expand into the skill of knowing which programmer to hire. But the skills the parent identifies are inherently the core skills - anyone growing in business would want to gain them and leave their other skills by the way side (you aren't going to run your business like a twelve year doing his homework, are you?).
Of course, I'd prefer not to live in the world of pure delegation so I'd rather go with being hired by someone with these skills. Oddly enough, the best managers of programmers actually don't jump in and program themselves!