There was a season in SEO Hacker’s early days (around 2012) where the company was still young, scrappy, and running on pure faith, grit, and long hours.
Back then, I hired someone I genuinely trusted.
He wasn’t just “a hire.” He was a good friend. Same community, same church circles. I brought him to meetings. We ate lunch together. We shared stories. I treated him like family.
He was still in school part-time, but I paid him a full-time salary because I wanted to help him and because I believed in him. He handled production tasks for me—video edits, content-related work, the things I needed while we were building the company from the ground up.
And I never imagined what he would do next.
The Betrayal That Shook My Culture
One day, an employee approached me and said something like:
“Sean… you don’t know what he did?”
Apparently, he organized an overnight hangout with some of the team.
And during that “sleepover,” he did something that still stings to remember:
He computed everyone’s salaries.
Then he computed what our clients were paying.
Then he concluded (wrongly) what I was “making.”
He didn’t account for the real expenses—the stuff that keeps a company alive:
- software tools
- government taxes
- rent
- electricity
- ads
- operational overhead (and everything else business owners quietly carry)
So what did he do with his wrong conclusion?
He told the people there: “We should be paid more. What we’re getting isn’t enough.”
And in that moment, he planted something dangerous: the seed of rebellion.
Whether it fully succeeded or not isn’t even the point. The point is this:
He introduced an idea that was insidious, and it started to work against the culture I was trying so hard to build.
Not because the team was evil—most weren’t.
But because ideas spread. Especially when they sound like “justice,” but they’re actually built on incomplete truth.
What I Refused to Let This Do to Me
Here’s what I could’ve done:
I could’ve shut down.
I could’ve stopped trusting people.
I could’ve become paranoid, distant, and cold.
But I didn’t.
Because I learned something that I still believe today:
The only way you’ll know if you can trust someone… is to trust them.
That’s it.
Trust is always a risk. There is no “safe” version of trust.
If you demand certainty before trust, you’ll never trust anyone—and you’ll eventually lead alone.
And I don’t believe leadership is meant to be lonely.
The Real Lesson: Trust Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Improve Your Systems
Now, that doesn’t mean I stayed naïve.
I still trust people. But we improved how we hire—dramatically.
Because trusting people and building safeguards are not opposites. They’re both wise.
Here’s what changed for us:
1) We learned to hire slow
Early-stage founders (me included) often hire out of urgency: “Kailangan ko na ng tao ngayon.”
But speed hires create expensive mistakes.
Now, we make people go through a process that tests not just skill, but character, values, and fit.
2) We got serious about onboarding
You don’t “hire a person into tasks.” You hire a person into a culture.
Now we intentionally onboard people into:
- our core values
- what we believe in
- mission, vision, purpose
- expectations and accountability
Because culture doesn’t maintain itself. You teach it, protect it, and reinforce it.
3) We reduced the chances of letting the wrong kind of influence in
The goal isn’t to hire perfect people.
The goal is to hire people who are aligned—people who build with you, not people who quietly try to pull the foundation apart.
A Quick Reality Check for Leaders
If you’ve ever been betrayed, I want to tell you something straight:
You’re not weak for trusting.
You’re not stupid for believing the best in people.
You’re human.
And if you’re leading anything meaningful, betrayal is one of the painful prices you might pay along the way.
But don’t let one person’s failure turn you into a leader who can no longer love, trust, or build.
Improve your system, yes.
But don’t harden your heart.
What About You?
So here’s the question I want to leave you with—the same one I ask myself:
What are you doing today to improve your hiring?
Because your next hire isn’t just a worker.
They’re a culture-shaper.
And the future version of your company is going to look a lot like the people you let in.
