people people people people people
people people we wanted people that were
insanely great at what they did but work
we’re not necessarily those seasoned
professionals but who has on at the tips
of their fingers and in their passion
the latest understanding of where
technology was and what we could do with
that technology and who wanted to bring
that to lots of people so the neatest
thing that happens is when you get a
core group of you know ten great people
they it becomes self-policing as to who
they let into that group so I consider
the most important job of someone like
myself is recruiting I always kind of
like I get a little upset whenever any
media attention focuses on me personally
and me leading Facebook much less a
movie it’s been kind of a bad year but
like but I think it’s one of these
things that the media systematically
gets wrong is that this idea that it’s a
person right it’s never a person right
it’s always a team and the most
important thing if you are an
entrepreneur trying to build something
is you need to build a really good team
and that’s what I spend a lot of my time
on right I mean I spend probably at
least three hours a day with our core
team right and doing things I spend
probably 25% of my time recruiting
finding good people
both outside the company and inside the
company to put in more and more
impactful roles
farmer to the business to everything and
many your ears smart enough to grab this
person who’s great at marketing but this
person who is great at you know all the
different aspects of what you’ll need to
make whatever it is your businesses
see I always say chemistry is everything
you know and we have to find chemistry
new people and and the people they can
have to have a to do with doesn’t always
work that first person second change but
that jobs like
people that come in and you just like
wow stuff happens when we’re together
you know and I’ve been lucky enough to
have a lot of people like that in my
life because I’m a Leo and I’m very
loyal all eyes stay with those people
and where they go to build a build and
building they can create and discover it
and keep challenging ourselves to be
better better better and what else
living product a product that we create
what other things can we do or the
audience that’s watching you look for
for people that are not political people
that are not beer beer crowds people
that really don’t care who gets credit
people that are can privately celebrate
the achievement but not care if their
name is the one in the lights you know
that there are other there are greater
reasons to do things you look for wicked
smart people you look for people who
appreciate different points of view you
look for people to care enough that they
have an idea at 11:00 at night and they
want to call and talk to you about it
because they’re so excited about it they
want to push the idea further and that
they believe that somebody can help them
push the idea another step instead of
them doing everything themselves you
know I’ve never seen I’ve never met
anyone in at least in my life maybe they
desist that could do something so
incredible by themselves you know in in
companies with global footprints and and
in in our world in an apples world the
the reason Apple is special is that we
focus on hardware software and services
and the magic happens where those three
come together and so it’s unlikely that
somebody that’s
just on one of those in and of
themselves can come up with magic and so
you want people collaborating in such a
way that you can produce these things
that can’t be produced otherwise and you
want people to believe in that yeah I
always believe in I love that you know I
love that thing I’m collaborating you
taking the best of what you do is
someone taking the best of what you’re
doing you’re not robbing from what they
do and in it robbing from what you do
and y’all bring the best of what you are
to the table and you put it in this mix
and you see what happens you know I love
that part of creating you just don’t
succeed in any endeavor unless you’ve
got a team that’s been supporting you
and that’s part of my political
philosophy it’s really based on my own
experience which was if somebody hadn’t
been out there looking out for me
starting with my mom my grandmother my
grandfather then I wouldn’t made it it
wasn’t because of my brilliance or
something that these things happen it
had to do with people investing in you
and so we’ve got to make sure we’re
investing in the next generation just
like somebody invested in us find the
smartest people you can and surround
yourself with them working with smart
people means that you’ll be challenged
to do your best you’ll have to strive to
keep up with them and as a result they
will elevate your thinking when there
are better players around you you get
better I first noticed this when I was
growing up I had a friend Laura Beckman
Laura tried out for the volleyball team
her junior year of high school and at
the end of the tryouts was given a hard
choice bench on varsity or start on JV
most people when they’re faced with this
choice choose to play and we’ll pick JV
Laura did the opposite she chose varsity
and she benched the whole season but
then an amazing thing happened
senior year when she tried out she made
varsity as a starter and all the JV
starters from the previous year benched
and I remember asking Laura how did you
know to choose varsity and she said I
just knew I
just knew if I got to practice with the
better players every day I would become
a better player even if I didn’t get to
play in the games how does the sporting
example relate to smart people I deeply
believe that the same thing happens
intellectually when you surround
yourself with smart people they
challenge you to think harder and in
entirely different ways but does that
look like your group no it doesn’t look
like your group I mean in no way shape
manner or form you know maybe if we had
a bunch of bunny rabbits running there
or it’s unbelievable but again you are
who you hang around with you know and as
Oprah Winfrey says and which I talk
about a lot is that you want people with
a like mind and that are better than you
smarter than you more intelligent than
you to get on your bus and don’t be so
concerned about what you’re gonna do
with those people but you want to you
know the joint brain is you know there’s
nothing the joint brain collective brain
or brains can’t overcome and I give the
example of the atomic bomb the Manhattan
Project and they were put together and
they were told we need we need to
develop a weapon of mass destruction
which they didn’t call it that back in
those days in the middle 40s to end the
war in the Pacific and they did they
didn’t know if it was implode or explode
but they did but if your if your team
doesn’t look like that then you should I
won’t say you should give serious
thought you should just change building
a team is the hardest thing for an
entrepreneur to do because very often
they don’t know what they don’t know
right they they know their area of
specialty really well but other areas
they think they understand but they
don’t and every areas more complex and
more nuanced then it appears to somebody
you know – I see so many entrepreneurs
who think marketing is about a press
release or an advertising campaign it’s
not it’s much more nuanced and
sophisticated than that so team building
is very important
some entrepreneurs do a really good job
of growing Larry page’s an example
Mark Zuckerberg is an example of being
better at new functions as they come up
in and and and also they’ve done a
really good job of adding people who
they can learn these new areas from what
I find is some poor entrepreneurs assume
they know the answer and that’s very
dangerous and others know they don’t
know and they hired the people who they
can learn from but they can still apply
their entrepreneurial style in these new
areas sometimes it makes sense for
d’entre node to keep being CEO and
driving the whole vision usually that’s
the best course but somewhat knows can’t
think broadly enough to do that and they
can’t grow fast enough company culture
was always important and myself and Fred
and I interviewed everyone when we were
still in San Francisco basically until
we can do that anymore because there
were too many employees to interview but
basically we wanted to we had we had
this criteria of you know yes interview
for the normal business technical stuff
but they made the bar right so do the
normal set of interviews but then you
kind of had this final test of like is
this someone I was choose to hang out
with or grab a drink with and if the
answer was if we weren’t in business
together
if the answer was no then we would an
entire them so that goes against a lot
of the things that you know I’ve heard
out there in the past it’s like keep
your work and personal relationships
separate you know like that’s kind of
been like a thing that’s been stated out
there like this should be just firewall
between the two but you went and said
okay it’s very important that I can
actually get along with this person this
is a someone I could go out and have a
beer with why was that so important to
you I guess I have two answers to that
one is yes there are companies that
focus
work/life separation or work-life
balance and at Zappos we really focus on
work-life integration and you know at
the end of the day it’s just life so you
might as and especially if you spend so
much time at work like you better
hopefully enjoy the time that you’re
spending there and the people that
you’re with so that’s one answer and
then the other answer is and I don’t
think the book existed at the time
Zappos was founded but Jim Collins his
book good to great
you know researched and looked at what
separated the great companies in terms
of long term financial performance from
just the good ones or mediocre ones and
found that the great ones had two
important ingredients that separated
them from just the good ones are
mediocre once and one of them was that
they all had strong cultures and and you
know we formalized the definition of our
culture into we have ten core values at
Zappos and one of the actually really
interesting things I found from the
research was that it actually doesn’t
matter what your values are what matters
is that you have them in that you line
the organization around them and the
power actually comes from the alignment
not from the actual value so there’s no
judgment the values and so we’re not out
there telling people oh you should adopt
the sapless values and culture and so on
because actually that would probably not
work in most cases and where our message
is more you should figure out where your
values are and then align the entire
organization rather thank you guys so
much for watching I hope you enjoyed I
love to know what you think of the video
if you want to leave a comment below I’m
going to join in the discussion I’d also
love to know which of the clips that you
saw today had the biggest impact and
what change you’re gonna make in your
business as a result of watching this
video I’m really curious to find out
leaving the
so join the discussion again thank you
so much for watching continue to believe
and I’ll see you soon
people people we wanted people that were
insanely great at what they did but work
we’re not necessarily those seasoned
professionals but who has on at the tips
of their fingers and in their passion
the latest understanding of where
technology was and what we could do with
that technology and who wanted to bring
that to lots of people so the neatest
thing that happens is when you get a
core group of you know ten great people
they it becomes self-policing as to who
they let into that group so I consider
the most important job of someone like
myself is recruiting I always kind of
like I get a little upset whenever any
media attention focuses on me personally
and me leading Facebook much less a
movie it’s been kind of a bad year but
like but I think it’s one of these
things that the media systematically
gets wrong is that this idea that it’s a
person right it’s never a person right
it’s always a team and the most
important thing if you are an
entrepreneur trying to build something
is you need to build a really good team
and that’s what I spend a lot of my time
on right I mean I spend probably at
least three hours a day with our core
team right and doing things I spend
probably 25% of my time recruiting
finding good people
both outside the company and inside the
company to put in more and more
impactful roles
farmer to the business to everything and
many your ears smart enough to grab this
person who’s great at marketing but this
person who is great at you know all the
different aspects of what you’ll need to
make whatever it is your businesses
see I always say chemistry is everything
you know and we have to find chemistry
new people and and the people they can
have to have a to do with doesn’t always
work that first person second change but
that jobs like
people that come in and you just like
wow stuff happens when we’re together
you know and I’ve been lucky enough to
have a lot of people like that in my
life because I’m a Leo and I’m very
loyal all eyes stay with those people
and where they go to build a build and
building they can create and discover it
and keep challenging ourselves to be
better better better and what else
living product a product that we create
what other things can we do or the
audience that’s watching you look for
for people that are not political people
that are not beer beer crowds people
that really don’t care who gets credit
people that are can privately celebrate
the achievement but not care if their
name is the one in the lights you know
that there are other there are greater
reasons to do things you look for wicked
smart people you look for people who
appreciate different points of view you
look for people to care enough that they
have an idea at 11:00 at night and they
want to call and talk to you about it
because they’re so excited about it they
want to push the idea further and that
they believe that somebody can help them
push the idea another step instead of
them doing everything themselves you
know I’ve never seen I’ve never met
anyone in at least in my life maybe they
desist that could do something so
incredible by themselves you know in in
companies with global footprints and and
in in our world in an apples world the
the reason Apple is special is that we
focus on hardware software and services
and the magic happens where those three
come together and so it’s unlikely that
somebody that’s
just on one of those in and of
themselves can come up with magic and so
you want people collaborating in such a
way that you can produce these things
that can’t be produced otherwise and you
want people to believe in that yeah I
always believe in I love that you know I
love that thing I’m collaborating you
taking the best of what you do is
someone taking the best of what you’re
doing you’re not robbing from what they
do and in it robbing from what you do
and y’all bring the best of what you are
to the table and you put it in this mix
and you see what happens you know I love
that part of creating you just don’t
succeed in any endeavor unless you’ve
got a team that’s been supporting you
and that’s part of my political
philosophy it’s really based on my own
experience which was if somebody hadn’t
been out there looking out for me
starting with my mom my grandmother my
grandfather then I wouldn’t made it it
wasn’t because of my brilliance or
something that these things happen it
had to do with people investing in you
and so we’ve got to make sure we’re
investing in the next generation just
like somebody invested in us find the
smartest people you can and surround
yourself with them working with smart
people means that you’ll be challenged
to do your best you’ll have to strive to
keep up with them and as a result they
will elevate your thinking when there
are better players around you you get
better I first noticed this when I was
growing up I had a friend Laura Beckman
Laura tried out for the volleyball team
her junior year of high school and at
the end of the tryouts was given a hard
choice bench on varsity or start on JV
most people when they’re faced with this
choice choose to play and we’ll pick JV
Laura did the opposite she chose varsity
and she benched the whole season but
then an amazing thing happened
senior year when she tried out she made
varsity as a starter and all the JV
starters from the previous year benched
and I remember asking Laura how did you
know to choose varsity and she said I
just knew I
just knew if I got to practice with the
better players every day I would become
a better player even if I didn’t get to
play in the games how does the sporting
example relate to smart people I deeply
believe that the same thing happens
intellectually when you surround
yourself with smart people they
challenge you to think harder and in
entirely different ways but does that
look like your group no it doesn’t look
like your group I mean in no way shape
manner or form you know maybe if we had
a bunch of bunny rabbits running there
or it’s unbelievable but again you are
who you hang around with you know and as
Oprah Winfrey says and which I talk
about a lot is that you want people with
a like mind and that are better than you
smarter than you more intelligent than
you to get on your bus and don’t be so
concerned about what you’re gonna do
with those people but you want to you
know the joint brain is you know there’s
nothing the joint brain collective brain
or brains can’t overcome and I give the
example of the atomic bomb the Manhattan
Project and they were put together and
they were told we need we need to
develop a weapon of mass destruction
which they didn’t call it that back in
those days in the middle 40s to end the
war in the Pacific and they did they
didn’t know if it was implode or explode
but they did but if your if your team
doesn’t look like that then you should I
won’t say you should give serious
thought you should just change building
a team is the hardest thing for an
entrepreneur to do because very often
they don’t know what they don’t know
right they they know their area of
specialty really well but other areas
they think they understand but they
don’t and every areas more complex and
more nuanced then it appears to somebody
you know – I see so many entrepreneurs
who think marketing is about a press
release or an advertising campaign it’s
not it’s much more nuanced and
sophisticated than that so team building
is very important
some entrepreneurs do a really good job
of growing Larry page’s an example
Mark Zuckerberg is an example of being
better at new functions as they come up
in and and and also they’ve done a
really good job of adding people who
they can learn these new areas from what
I find is some poor entrepreneurs assume
they know the answer and that’s very
dangerous and others know they don’t
know and they hired the people who they
can learn from but they can still apply
their entrepreneurial style in these new
areas sometimes it makes sense for
d’entre node to keep being CEO and
driving the whole vision usually that’s
the best course but somewhat knows can’t
think broadly enough to do that and they
can’t grow fast enough company culture
was always important and myself and Fred
and I interviewed everyone when we were
still in San Francisco basically until
we can do that anymore because there
were too many employees to interview but
basically we wanted to we had we had
this criteria of you know yes interview
for the normal business technical stuff
but they made the bar right so do the
normal set of interviews but then you
kind of had this final test of like is
this someone I was choose to hang out
with or grab a drink with and if the
answer was if we weren’t in business
together
if the answer was no then we would an
entire them so that goes against a lot
of the things that you know I’ve heard
out there in the past it’s like keep
your work and personal relationships
separate you know like that’s kind of
been like a thing that’s been stated out
there like this should be just firewall
between the two but you went and said
okay it’s very important that I can
actually get along with this person this
is a someone I could go out and have a
beer with why was that so important to
you I guess I have two answers to that
one is yes there are companies that
focus
work/life separation or work-life
balance and at Zappos we really focus on
work-life integration and you know at
the end of the day it’s just life so you
might as and especially if you spend so
much time at work like you better
hopefully enjoy the time that you’re
spending there and the people that
you’re with so that’s one answer and
then the other answer is and I don’t
think the book existed at the time
Zappos was founded but Jim Collins his
book good to great
you know researched and looked at what
separated the great companies in terms
of long term financial performance from
just the good ones or mediocre ones and
found that the great ones had two
important ingredients that separated
them from just the good ones are
mediocre once and one of them was that
they all had strong cultures and and you
know we formalized the definition of our
culture into we have ten core values at
Zappos and one of the actually really
interesting things I found from the
research was that it actually doesn’t
matter what your values are what matters
is that you have them in that you line
the organization around them and the
power actually comes from the alignment
not from the actual value so there’s no
judgment the values and so we’re not out
there telling people oh you should adopt
the sapless values and culture and so on
because actually that would probably not
work in most cases and where our message
is more you should figure out where your
values are and then align the entire
organization rather thank you guys so
much for watching I hope you enjoyed I
love to know what you think of the video
if you want to leave a comment below I’m
going to join in the discussion I’d also
love to know which of the clips that you
saw today had the biggest impact and
what change you’re gonna make in your
business as a result of watching this
video I’m really curious to find out
leaving the
so join the discussion again thank you
so much for watching continue to believe
and I’ll see you soon
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