- I think when it comes to building a business
finding a hungry market, fulfilling a need
in the marketplace, that is the most important thing.
Assuming that you have that, then the next most important
thing are people, right?
'Cause I always say that business is simple,
but people are complicated.
People are complex.
When it comes to selling something,
providing a service, providing a product to the marketplace,
that's easy.
That's just sales and marketing.
But people-- because everyone is different,
it's not static, it's always dynamic.
So I believe when it comes to building a company,
an organization, finding the right people,
having the right people in place,
that's the most important thing.
Because in business, the best team wins, period.
Because the best team, it doesn't matter what happens
to the marketplace, the economy, the product.
They will find a solution.
They will be resourceful and they will always be able to
solve problems with the right team and the right culture.
I think that my hiring philosophy, my leadership style
or management philosophy, it's very very different
from most CEO's and business owners.
Because you look at most companies,
they hire based on the resume.
Versus with my organization, even as a global organization
we're growing so rapidly that not a single person
on my team-- I don't think I've ever even read a resume.
None of them submitted a resume.
None of them did a traditional kind of approach.
That's not how I hire and find good people to join my team.
I hire based on attitudes.
There's a saying "You hire for attitudes,
and you train for skills."
And it's very interesting because
even the leadership positions, the director positions
within my organization-- every single person,
every single director, none of them were "qualified"
for the job.
None of them "have the training" or the background
for their particular position.
They might come in doing a certain task,
and from there I can see that they've got potential
then I give them more and more responsibilities
and then they would kind of rise up to the rank
as I could see their attitude, their skills,
their capabilities, their desires, their loyalties.
And they just do that.
And sometimes a lot of people-- I mean I have
a lot of people young people in my organization--
and most people they will say "That's like a kid.
How would you give a kid that responsibility
or be responsible for millions of dollars
of marketing budget?"
That's not what I see.
Shouldn't you hire someone with ten years of experience
and all that?
I don't believe in that because, at the end of the day
with what we do-- internet, social media, education,
business-- things move so fast.
I need to be on the pulse, right?
I hire millennials where I want to know
what they are thinking, right?
They make me feel old.
They always bring new ideas, like,
"I didn't know about that technology"
or "What about that idea?"
What's hip, what's on trend?
If I want to know what young people are thinking,
I need to have young people in my organization.
So, hire for attitude and train for skills.
I don't believe in resumes.
Anybody can write a good resume.
Sometimes you see the best people who are doing interviews,
like they give very good interviews,
but when you actually hire them for the job they suck.
The reason they are good at giving interviews is
because that's what they do.
They're very good at doing interviews,
but when it comes to doing things, getting shit done,
they can not do it.
I think the way that I look at people is
I don't believe in what they say, I watch what they do.
So, I like to make people jump through a lot of hoops.
Not the traditional hoops about a resume,
multiple interviews, all of that.
Let's example taking personality tests,
giving them certain tasks, see how they perform,
maybe even give them certain tasks and jobs to work with
people within my organization just to see how they perform.
'Cause talk is cheap.
Once I know that I'm getting feedback from my team
"Okay, how is this person?"
"I think he/she is pretty good."
"Okay, let's give them a little bit more."
"How are they now?"
'Cause everyone is different.
Some people they thrive in a more
quiet and calm environment.
Some people they thrive in chaos, right?
Some people thrive under pressure.
So I want them to see will they crack under pressure,
how they react to certain things.
Some people they work better
when everything is very systematic.
Some people work better
when it's a very creative environment.
With what we do within my organization, at least,
we move so fast that everything we do-- especially me
as a leader, when something doesn't work I pivot.
So, if they're not used to that kind of environment--
example is like compare an elephant verus a tiger--
their organizations it takes them three fucking months
to make a decision.
It's layer, layer, layer.
That's not the way that we operate.
We are very nimble, flexible, quick.
So when something doesn't work, we just change it.
With something I want to implement, we just do it.
So, it's very very fast.
And most people are not used to that kind of environment.
So we bring people in if they thrive under pressure,
they like the challenge, they like to learn.
And once they, kind of, work with us they will find
"This is home.
I like this kind of pace.
This is what I've been looking for."
Or some people they're like "This is way too stressful.
This is too fast for me.
I'm too old for this."
Then they will leave.
Anyone who joins, if it's not a good fit,
naturally either they would slow other team members down
and then they would almost push this person away,
because it's not a culture fit.
Or that person will just quit.
It's not a good fit.
It's that kind of organic process.
Instead of resume I like to have people
send me video resume.
I like to see people on video, how they sound.
And then from there, test, give them a lot of hoops
to jump through, then send some projects,
see how they perform.
And I always look at a person not the skill set that
they have, because they could get the skill sets
and acquire the knowledge.
I look at the attitude and I would always give people
different opportunities and chances for them to excel.
And if they do good, I will give them
more and more responsibilities.
I love them Russian Doll Principle.
When it comes to hiring, a lot of business owners,
entrepreneurs, and CEO's they hire people who are smaller,
who are worse than they are, right?
So you notice, if this is the CEO, they will hire someone
"Okay, I need a manager.
Well let me hire someone who is less skilled than me."
And then that manager will hire someone
who is also less skilled than him or her, and so forth.
On the other hand, if you hire people that are
better than you, bigger than you,
you end up a company of giants.
If you hire people who are smaller than you, less than you,
you end up with a company of dwarves.
Then that's what happens.
The reason the CEO or the business owner hires people
that are smaller than them is because of insecurities.
They are afraid that "If I hire someone better than me,
I can't manage them.
I can't control them."
Versus if you hire someone less than you,
"Well I can easily-- more easy to control them."
You see this a lot, also even in Asia.
A lot of these companies they hire people
that they think they easily can control.
The problem is, when you do that,
the organization doesn't grow.
Versus if you hire someone that's better than you.
Within my company as the leader, as the CEO,
my job is not to make sure that when it comes to
a certain department, a certain division,
every single director, every single executive,
they can do their job better than I do.
Because they have the area of expertise.
That's not what a CEO does.
I'm the visionary, I have to map out the strategic plan
for them to execute.
That's my job.
But my job is not to perform a certain task
better than they do.
Think about The Art of war.
In military terms, the ancient military,
the general is not necessarily the best horseman
or the best guy that uses the arrow, the archer,
or the soldiers on the ground, they are the best fighters.
But the general is the one that sees big picture.
"How do I mobilize my troops?
How do I mobilize my army?
What is the best way to allocate the resources?"
That's the CEO's job.
That's how the Russian Doll Principles apply.
I think it's very difficult to motivate people.
I think a better solution is, find motivated people.
I believe culture eats strategy for breakfast.
Instead of trying to motivate the people
and trying to always push them and motivate them
and put up motivational quotes and all that stuff,
I think if you find motivated people,
that people that's got that fire, that desire within them,
you don't need to motivate them.
When you find very good people who are already motivated,
then all you need to do is create the culture,
give them the responsibility,
give them the authority and power,
then get the hell out of their way
and let them do their thing.
That's the best.
The people are motivated, they will find the answers,
they will want to make stuff happen.
They will want to grow, they will want to help you grow
not as a company obligation, it's because it's who they are.
Which is a very small percentage of the population,
because most people have no desire to grow.
Myself, I'm a very self-motivated person.
I don't need people to motivate me.
I don't need people to pump me up.
I am motivated.
I get up in the morning, I go.
I'm driven.
So I want the same people within my organization
to have the same desire versus that
I have to push them and motivate them.
If you spend so much time trying to motivate your people,
then you're not spending enough time getting shit done
or moving forward.
So find motivated people and get the hell out of their way.
In this very competitive business environment,
I think the advantages that we have--
or if you want to have the advantage--
I don't care how much success that we have in the past,
"Oh, look at our glory days and what we've done."
What you've done in the past doesn't mean shit, right?
It's about where you're going in the future
and what you're doing now.
And in order to thrive in any economy: constant learning.
Especially us, what we do as a global organization,
an educational organization.
Education and learning is extremely critical.
Every single one of my members they know--
like one of the things that we do is we would
go to training.
We would invest in training because that's what we do.
We are constantly learning.
I invest hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars
every year in my own education.
And I expect my team members to do the same.
So my policy-- and this is very different
from most organizations 'cause most organizations
they would "Hey, let me send you to training.
Here's a workshop that will help you improve your skill.
Let the corporation pay for all this stuff."
I don't do that.
My people if they go to a certain training,
they invest in themselves.
They pay for their own flight.
They pay for their own hotel.
They pay for their education.
I don't want them to do it because it's an obligation
or it's required if you want to get promoted,
any of that stuff.
I want them to do it because they want to get better.
If I invest in my own education, they should do the same.
And when they learn new skills and upgrade their skills
and be able to perform better,
then they will get compensated.
But the learning aspect, I want them to invest
because I know that if they invest in their own education,
whatever they paid, they pay attention.
They will get more out of it.
Versus I know employees and friends where
"Here we go, corporation sent me to this training.
I gotta go for two days of this shit."
And then "I can't wait to get out of the training
and go to the bar or hang out."
All this shit, how are you gonna learn anything
going in with that attitude?
It's bullshit.
Versus you are there to learn.
And I don't even, at this point, sometimes I
suggest, but not much, what they need to learn.
They will find out on their own.
"I need to learn this particular skill.
I need to take this course to stay on trend
about what's happening with this."
Because they want to get better
and they can see me leading by example.
I'm always learning, I'm reading, I'm attending workshops.
When it comes to education, I'm never on a cheat.
I'm always the most dedicated student.
I'm a good leader because I'm a good student,
so that's the culture that we have.