Despite the enticing offer in 2018 and its promising pay package, I had a gut feeling that this deal wasn’t right. Chris trusted my instincts, and we killed the deal. During this process, we discovered that increasing our fire division’s revenue could significantly boost our company’s value. If we could increase our fire division’s revenue to 25% of our total, we could substantially raise our company’s valuation. We needed a fire leader, so we launched a national search and found what became our new company president. Convincing him to join us was a challenge. Chris doubted we could afford him, but I insisted. We rolled out the red carpet and offered him a competitive package. After days of silence, he finally accepted our offer. You should always aim to hire better than yourself.