5 Myths That Can Kill a Startup – GigaOM

5 Myths That Can Kill a Startup – GigaOM: "Myth #1: Hire Smart People and Let Them Do Their Magic

Truth: Hire Stars and Let Them Do Their Magic

Intelligence is important, but only insofar as it helps with performance and execution. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in “Outliers,” while some minimum level of intelligence might be necessary for superior performance, in many jobs it’s not in and of itself enough to ensure it. You need people willing and able to work as part of a team, and sometimes superior individual contributors can negatively affect team performance by creating affective or role-based conflict (for more on those, see Myth #3 below). As Reed Hastings puts it, you should eliminate all brilliant jerks from your team."