+1 on this. If someone is as smart as they think they are, building up the team is always the best option. If you’re always going to be ahead of the curve hours out how you can make everyone perform better as a force multiplier rather than just your own performance.
I will say, I think this is a negative aspect of performance culture though: if you’re average are you going to help someone who is going to be pipped instead of you? Probably not.
I helped one of the worst programmers I've ever known become an average programmer and he was so thankful that a few years later when a crazy opportunity came along to make a few million bucks he called me up because there was no one else he trusted with what would become his life's work. Now we hire abuse victims and other people who had a rough time but are amazing and get them set up on an accelerated path to six figure income careers as PMs, sysadmins, and developers. And we make great money in the process. I'm an above average programmer it would be a disservice to deny it, but you don't have to be the best programmer in the room to help the worst programmer in the room.
I worked with another guy and a few years after we had been working together he called me up and asked me if I would mind if he named me in his will. He had started a solo company and made good money and if he died he wanted me to help make sure his wife didn't get taken in by vultures. Of course I offered to do it without hesitation.
Fuck performance culture. Make your own culture. Be the kind of person that others want to trust their life's work and fortunes with.
I will say, I think this is a negative aspect of performance culture though: if you’re average are you going to help someone who is going to be pipped instead of you? Probably not.