I run a 3 person, now 2, engineering firm in south Texas. I hired a 25 year old EIT to run a division and I paid him 70k, free healthcare, company truck, and 10% net profits of his division.

At first, he came in with a lot of energy. He was excited to work but not focused. I eventually got him to focus but his work was still sloppy. I hired him with the intention that he would grow the department and he would be motivated by his profit sharing incentive.

However, he only would perform PM duties and still was not without errors. 3 months later (today), I’m kind of ripping into him that he isn’t doing enough and he tells me that he isn’t motivated anymore and that he doesn’t want to put out anymore.

So I fired him… in EOS terms he was the right person (good character, generally knows the business) just wrong seat. He was a PM not a division leader.

I guess the morale of the story is not to hire people for roles they aren’t ready for. But what do you think? Was I asking too much of him? Was my expectation of ambition too high?