Start with why

The Only Difference Between You and a Caveman Is the Car You Drive
The reason the human race has been so successful is not because we’re the
strongest animals—far from it. Size and might alone do not guarantee success.
We’ve succeeded as a species because of our ability to form cultures. Cultures
are groups of people who come together around a common set of values and
beliefs. When we share values and beliefs with others, we form trust. Trust of
others allows us to rely on others to help protect our children and ensure our
personal survival. The ability to leave the den to hunt or explore with confidence
that the community will protect your family and your stuff until you return is one
of the most important factors in the survival of an individual and the
advancement of our species.
That we trust people with common values and beliefs is not, in itself, a
profound assertion. There is a reason we’re not friends with everyone we meet.
We’re friends with people who see the world the way we see it, who share our
views and our belief set. No matter how good a match someone looks on paper,
that doesn’t guarantee a friendship. You can think of it on a macro scale also.
The world is filled with different cultures. Being American is not better than
being French. They are just different cultures—not better or worse, just different.
American culture strongly values ideals of entrepreneurship, independence and
self-reliance. We call our WHY—the American Dream. French culture strongly
values ideals of unified identity, group reliance and joie de vivre. (Notice that we
use the French word to describe the joy-of-life lifestyle. Coincidence? Perhaps.)
Some people are good fits in French culture and some people are good fits in
American culture. It is not a matter of better or worse, they are just different.
Most people who are born and raised in one culture will, for obvious reasons,
end up being a reasonably good fit in that culture, but not always. There are
people who grew up in France who never quite felt like they belonged; they were
misfits in their own culture. So they moved, maybe to America. Drawn to the
feelings they had for America’s WHY, they followed the American Dream and
emigrated.
It is always said that America is fueled in large part by immigrants. But it is
completely false that all immigrants make productive members of a society. It’s
not true that all immigrants have an entrepreneurial spirit—just the ones that are
viscerally drawn to America. That’s what a WHY does. When it is clearly
understood, it attracts people who believe the same thing. And assuming they are

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good fits for what Americans believe and how they do things, those immigrants
will say of America, “I love it here,” or “I love this country.” This visceral
reaction has less to do with America and more to do with them. It’s how they
feel about their own opportunity and their own ability to thrive in a culture in
which they feel like they belong versus the one they came from.
And within the big WHY that is America, it breaks down even further. Some
people are better fits in New York and some are better fits in Minneapolis. One
culture is not better or worse than the other, they are just different. Many people
dream of moving to New York, for example, attracted to the glamour or the
perception of opportunity. They arrive with aspirations of making it big, but they
fail to consider whether they will fit into the culture before they make their
move. Some make it. But so many don’t. Over and over, I’ve seen people come
to New York with big hopes and dreams, but either couldn’t find the job they
wanted or they found it but couldn’t take the pressure. They are not dumb or bad
or poor workers. They were just bad fits. They either stay in New York and exert
more effort than they need to, hating their jobs and their lives, or they move. If
they move to a city in which they are better fits—Chicago or San Francisco or
somewhere else—they often end up much happier and more successful. New
York is not rationally better than other cities, it’s just not right for everyone.
Like all cities, it’s only right for those who are good fits.
The same can be said for any place that has a strong culture or recognizable
personality. We do better in cultures in which we are good fits. We do better in
places that reflect our own values and beliefs. Just as the goal is not to do
business with anyone who simply wants what you have, but to do business with
people who believe what you believe, so too is it beneficial to live and work in a
place where you will naturally thrive because your values and beliefs align with
the values and beliefs of that culture.
Now consider what a company is. A company is a culture. A group of people
brought together around a common set of values and beliefs. It’s not products or
services that bind a company together. It’s not size and might that make a
company strong, it’s the culture—the strong sense of beliefs and values that
everyone, from the CEO to the receptionist, all share. So the logic follows, the
goal is not to hire people who simply have a skill set you need, the goal is to hire
people who believe what you believe.

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