Growing lettuce is an odd exercise.

The seeds are super small, and a $2.00 package contains hundreds of them.

You plant the seeds by gently filtering them through your fingers onto the ground, and then, carefully cover them with just one-fourth inch of soil.

Amazingly, they sprout in a few days, and dozens of new plants come up in close proximity.

At this point, the plants must be thinned to allow the strong ones to take root and grow into a harvest.

In the end, only a few plants make it. But what those plants produce is remarkable.

For the last few years, record numbers of individuals have joined the real estate industry.

Shortly after sprouting, the invisible hand of fate and market conditions start thinning out the weak performers. 

Wise hiring managers know this is nothing new—the weak agents must be thinned out to allow the strong ones to create something remarkable.

It’s the natural part of the hiring process that cannot be avoided.

It’s foolish to think the problem can be solved by not planting or planting less and hoping the few you do plant will become the winners.

As Stephen Covey once said: Most businesses operate by the law of the farm.

And they have skillful gardeners managing them.