Bill Gates Says Lazy People Make the Best Employees. But Is Your Laziness Actually Masking a Deeper Issue?

Bill Gates thinks you should hire lazy people. No, seriously. He famously said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

I don’t disagree with the premise. Choosing a person who will do a job the “easy way” and solve the difficult problem in front of them can be better than putting your most ambitious team on it. The hardest way is often not the best way. In fact, in the startup world, over delivering can be just as dangerous as under delivering when time and money are finite resources and a lesser solution would have solved the problem effectively. Picking the lowest hanging fruit does not make a person lazy, nor does taking the more obvious path, nor does actually taking vacation. It makes them good at prioritization, efficient workers and more resilient people.