Does It Matter If the President Has Ever Hired Anyone?

At the recent Republican Presidential Debate in Houston, Sen. Ted Cruz got in a nice jab at candidate Donald Trump about hiring illegal aliens.

Trump fired back (he always fires back) that he was the only candidate to ever have hired anyone.

That last part gave me pause. I don’t care who you might be voting for — Republican, Democrat, Socialist (hey, Bernie!), etc.,– is it important for a President to have experience hiring people?

It’s a great question to ponder.

Is government hiring “real” hiring?

All of us who hire, as part of our jobs, know how difficult it is, and how frustrating and wonderous of an experience it can be. We know how difficult it is to select the right candidate, and how disastrous it can be when the wrong candidate is selected.

I do get that while most political lifers have probably not hired in the sense that we have hired, but they do some kind of “hiring” in their various political offices. They have to select staff to run their campaigns, to work with them in their elected positions, etc.

So, while they haven’t had to hire for a private business, they have had to select individuals to come work for them.

Now, if you ever witness government hiring you could easily argue, as Trump did, that none of these people have ever really hired! Government hiring isn’t really hiring as much as it’s selecting the tallest of the seven dwarfs. Not much recruiting ever takes place; it’s post and pray of the worst kind.

So, I tend to fall into the camp of I want my President to be someone who has really had to go out and hire and fire. Don’t take this as I want Trump to be POTUS, I’m also of the camp that I don’t want my President to be crazy!

If all you’ve done in your career is “appoint” friends and associates to positions, you probably aren’t really ready to run the country. Both parties have this issue.

Do lifetime politicians understand the world of business?

Lifetime politicians don’t understand real world business. They understand politics, which has nothing to do with actually running a business, creating jobs, creating value, having your neck on the line for results.

I want a President who has felt the pressure of having to truly perform, or you lose everything, or you get fired. At that point, they understand what the vast majority of real Americans feel every day.

Elected people don’t feel this. They get elected, and they immediately go back to work on getting re-elected, which mainly constitutes telling people what they want to hear. Again, both parties do this the exact same way.

Yes, I want a President that has real world business experience, one who has sat across a desk and had to make real hiring decisions that had a bottom line impact to the success or failure of a business.

I understand that person. I don’t understand politicians.

This was originally published on Tim Sackett’s blog, The Tim Sackett Project.