Yesterday, I was listening to the My First Million Podcast, as part of my government-employee-broadens-his-horizons routine, and the hosts mentioned a concept first coined by Bryan Goldberg: “Losers Exist, Don’t Hire Them”. Goldberg’s thesis was simple: Some people who haven’t mastered the art of the standard interview might be great for your company; some people who have mastered the art of the standard interview might be bad for your company. What he was seeking, while hiring for startups, were people with enthusiasm and passion. He felt that he could train people up in a given task, but he couldn’t make them interesting or interested in working. In other words, he couldn’t make someone not be a loser. So he transformed how he hired and his interview process. Here’s a choice excerpt:
And the good news is that it’s really easy to detect losers. Here are some things you can ask a potential candidate to find out:
“Tell me about what you studied in college, and what were some of your favorite classes?” A person who spent $120,000 and dedicated four years of their lives to any pursuit better be able to speak eloquently for five minutes on that humongous experience. Or else they are a loser.
“Tell me about your hobbies…” A person who has no hobbies, and can’t even exaggerate one, almost certainly lacks the ambition to make your company valuable. They are probably a loser.
Although I’ve never been in a hiring position, this concept rang true to me. Though it’s brutal to hear, and it undermines every self-help book about self-improvement and betterment, some people are just losers. I know this because I’ve worked with some. I’ve worked with many people over the years who probably interviewed well, but they didn’t seem to care about the job or, really, anything. Not only did they refuse to supply energy to the system, they’d often absorb it or dampen everyone else’s energy. And it rarely seemed like they were motivated to change or that they even recognized this about themselves.
As employees, we can’t prevent management from hiring these people. But there’s something powerful in accepting you probably work with losers. It gives you clarity. You can stop wracking your brain trying to figure out why this person on your project doesn’t seem to care about it like you do: the simple fact is they can’t or won’t care as much as you. So stop hoping for a miracle. Accept that you’ll have to navigate around them and do so tactfully.
In a previous job, I finally confronted my management about a tactic they’d been using too routinely—because it was exhausting me. I kept getting added to projects that were in a rut, or directionless, and I would get into these rooms of people working on assigned to the project, and the conversation would be all mumbles or crickets. With my cosmic sense of existential dread, I would demand from everyone present “What are we even doing here!?” Once I squeezed an answer out of the stone, I’d set a path for achieving the goal. And soon thereafter my management would send me to another lifeless room. I finally told my boss that I was tired of this. That I felt like I was a battery they kept hooking jumper cables up to, and I was exhausted from bringing dead cars to life. I’ll never forget what my boss said to me: “I know, Alex, but I need someone who cares.” Looking back, after reading Goldberg’s piece, it’s apparent to me that in that job I just worked with a bunch of losers. Very talented, but very disinterested people.
Lest anyone think I’m above being a loser, I know I have circumstantially been a loser many times before. When I was in a funk at a dead end job. When I got voluntold to work on a project I didn’t believe mattered. Etc. And, in fact, this is when I knew it was time to move on to a new job. To augment Goldberg’s “losers exist, don’t hire them,” I would say “don’t keep working somewhere if it’s making you a loser.”
You probably work with losers
You probably work with losers
You probably work with losers
Yesterday, I was listening to the My First Million Podcast, as part of my government-employee-broadens-his-horizons routine, and the hosts mentioned a concept first coined by Bryan Goldberg: “Losers Exist, Don’t Hire Them”. Goldberg’s thesis was simple: Some people who haven’t mastered the art of the standard interview might be great for your company; some people who have mastered the art of the standard interview might be bad for your company. What he was seeking, while hiring for startups, were people with enthusiasm and passion. He felt that he could train people up in a given task, but he couldn’t make them interesting or interested in working. In other words, he couldn’t make someone not be a loser. So he transformed how he hired and his interview process. Here’s a choice excerpt:
Although I’ve never been in a hiring position, this concept rang true to me. Though it’s brutal to hear, and it undermines every self-help book about self-improvement and betterment, some people are just losers. I know this because I’ve worked with some. I’ve worked with many people over the years who probably interviewed well, but they didn’t seem to care about the job or, really, anything. Not only did they refuse to supply energy to the system, they’d often absorb it or dampen everyone else’s energy. And it rarely seemed like they were motivated to change or that they even recognized this about themselves.
As employees, we can’t prevent management from hiring these people. But there’s something powerful in accepting you probably work with losers. It gives you clarity. You can stop wracking your brain trying to figure out why this person on your project doesn’t seem to care about it like you do: the simple fact is they can’t or won’t care as much as you. So stop hoping for a miracle. Accept that you’ll have to navigate around them and do so tactfully.
In a previous job, I finally confronted my management about a tactic they’d been using too routinely—because it was exhausting me. I kept getting added to projects that were in a rut, or directionless, and I would get into these rooms of people
working onassigned to the project, and the conversation would be all mumbles or crickets. With my cosmic sense of existential dread, I would demand from everyone present “What are we even doing here!?” Once I squeezed an answer out of the stone, I’d set a path for achieving the goal. And soon thereafter my management would send me to another lifeless room. I finally told my boss that I was tired of this. That I felt like I was a battery they kept hooking jumper cables up to, and I was exhausted from bringing dead cars to life. I’ll never forget what my boss said to me: “I know, Alex, but I need someone who cares.” Looking back, after reading Goldberg’s piece, it’s apparent to me that in that job I just worked with a bunch of losers. Very talented, but very disinterested people.Lest anyone think I’m above being a loser, I know I have circumstantially been a loser many times before. When I was in a funk at a dead end job. When I got voluntold to work on a project I didn’t believe mattered. Etc. And, in fact, this is when I knew it was time to move on to a new job. To augment Goldberg’s “losers exist, don’t hire them,” I would say “don’t keep working somewhere if it’s making you a loser.”