The first article of this series listed dozens of tactics you need to be more successful. In the rest of the series, I will take a closer look at each of them. You should surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are.  Being successful in business takes brains. No doubt that you are smarter than some of the people who work for you. However, if you are always the smartest on in the room, you need to do a better job hiring. The person in the engine room of the ship knows the engine inside and out, but he reports to the captain. Do you really think the ship would run as well if the captain spent all of his time in the engine room?  The captain needs to delegate and direct a team of people competent in their specialties. In the consulting I do with small business owners, I find that finance is an area that owners often do not turn over to the right level person soon enough. For example,  if your salvage operation is selling more than 1.5 to 2 million, you should upgrade from a bookkeeper to a comptroller-level finance person. When I reached that level of sales, I made a change. It cost me $20,000 more per year to get a Comptroller who had financial skills that neither the bookkeeper nor I had. She showed me ways to lower costs, increase sales, and streamline my operations. I recovered the full increase in salary in two months. Surround yourself with people who will do things that you won’t. Sometimes, a longtime employee needs to be let go. Some owners can’t do it, even when everyone involved would be better off for it. If you can’t fire, make sure you have someone working for you who can and will let ...