Start with why

Finding the People Who Believe What You Believe
Early in the twentieth century, the English adventurer Ernest Shackleton set out
to explore the Antarctic. Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, had only just become
the first explorer ever to reach the South Pole, leaving one remaining conquest:
the crossing of the continent via the southernmost tip of the earth.
The land part of the expedition would start at the frigid Weddell Sea, below
South America, and travel 1,700 miles across the pole to the Ross Sea, below
New Zealand. The cost, Shackleton estimated at the time, would be about
$250,000. “The crossing of the south polar continent will be the biggest polar
journey ever attempted,” Shackleton told a reporter for the 
New York Times
on
December 29, 1913. “The unknown fields in the world which are still
unconquered are narrowing down, but there still remains this great work.”
On December 5, 1914, Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven men set out for
the Weddell Sea on the 
Endurance
, a 350-ton ship that had been constructed
with funds from private donors, the British government and the Royal
Geographical Society. By then, World War I was raging in Europe, and money
was growing more scarce. Donations from English schoolchildren paid for the
dog teams.
But the crew of the 
Endurance
would never reach the continent of Antarctica.
Just a few days out of South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic, the ship
encountered mile after mile of pack ice, and was soon trapped as winter moved
in early and with fury. Ice closed in around the ship “like an almond in a piece of
toffee,” a crew member wrote. Shackleton and his crew were stranded in the
Antarctic for ten months as the 
Endurance
drifted slowly north, until the
pressure of the ice floes finally crushed the ship. On November 21, 1915, the
crew watched as she sank in the frigid waters of the Weddell Sea.
Stranded on the ice, the crew of the 
Endurance
boarded their three lifeboats
and landed on tiny Elephant Island. There Shackleton left behind all but five of
his men and embarked on a hazardous journey across 800 miles of rough seas to
find help. Which, eventually, they did.
What makes the story of the 
Endurance
so remarkable, however, is not the
expedition, it’s that throughout the whole ordeal no one died. There were no
stories of people eating others and no mutiny.
This was not luck. This was because Shackleton hired good fits. He found the
right men for the job. When you fill an organization with good fits, those who

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believe what you believe, success just happens. And how did Shackleton find
this amazing crew? With a simple ad in the London 
Times
.
Compare that to how we hire people. Like Shackleton, we run ads in the
newspaper, or on the modern equivalents, Craigslist or 
Monster.com
. Sometimes
we hire a recruiter to find someone for us, but the process is largely the same.
We provide a list of qualifications for the job and expect that the best candidate
will be the one who meets those requirements.
The issue is how we write those ads. They are all about WHAT and not about
WHY. A want ad might say, for example, “Account executive needed, minimum
five years’ experience, must have working knowledge of industry. Come work
for a fantastic, fast-growing company with great pay and great benefits.” The ad
may produce loads of applicants, but how do we know which is the right fit?
Shackleton’s ad for crew members was different. His did not say WHAT he
was looking for. His ad did not say:
“Men needed for expedition. Minimum five years’ experience. Must know
how to hoist mainsail. Come work for a fantastic captain.”
Rather, Shackleton was looking for those with something more. He was
looking for a crew that belonged on such an expedition. His actual ad ran like
this:
“Men wanted for Hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of
complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and
recognition in case of success.”
The only people who applied for the job were those who read the ad and
thought it sounded great. They loved insurmountable odds. The only people who
applied for the job were survivors. Shackleton hired only people who believed
what he believed. Their ability to survive was guaranteed. When employees
belong, they will guarantee your success. And they won’t be working hard and
looking for innovative solutions for you, they will be doing it for themselves.
What all great leaders have in common is the ability to find good fits to join
their organizations—those who believe what they believe. Southwest Airlines is
a great example of a company with a knack for hiring good fits. Their ability to
find people who embody their cause makes it much easier for them to provide
great service. As Herb Kelleher famously said, “You don’t hire for skills, you
hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.” This is all fine and good; the
problem is, which attitude? What if their attitude is not one that fits your culture?
I love asking companies whom they like to hire, and one of the most common
answers I am given is, “We hire only passionate people.” But how do you know
if someone is passionate for interviewing, but not so passionate for working?
The truth is, almost every person on the planet is passionate, we are just not all

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passionate for the same things. Starting with WHY when hiring dramatically
increases your ability to attract those who are passionate for what you believe.
Simply hiring people with a solid résumé or great work ethic does not guarantee
success. The best engineer at Apple, for example, would likely be miserable if he
worked at Microsoft. Likewise, the best engineer at Microsoft would probably
not thrive at Apple. Both are highly experienced and work hard. Both may come
highly recommended. However, each engineer does not fit the culture of the
other’s company. The goal is to hire those who are passionate for your WHY,
your purpose, cause or belief, and who have the attitude that fits your culture.
Once that is established, only then should their skill set and experience be
evaluated. Shackleton could have had the most experienced crew money could
buy, but if they weren’t able to connect on a level much deeper than their ability,
their survival would not have been a foregone conclusion.
For years, Southwest didn’t have a complaints department—they didn’t need
one. Though Kelleher rightly talked about the need to hire for attitude, the airline
in fact deserves more credit for hiring the good fits responsible for providing
great service. Kelleher was not the only one making the hiring decisions, and
asking everyone to simply trust their gut is too risky. Their genius came from
figuring out why some people were such good fits and then developing systems
to find more of them.
In the 1970s, Southwest Airlines decided to put their flight attendants in hot
pants and go-go boots as part of their uniforms (hey, it was the 1970s). It wasn’t
their idea; Pacific Southwest, the California-based airline after which Southwest
modeled itself, did it first, Southwest simply copied them. Unlike Pacific
Southwest, however, Southwest figured out something that would prove
invaluable. They realized that when they recruited flight attendants, the only
people who applied for the job were cheerleaders and majorettes. That’s because
they were the only people who didn’t mind wearing the new uniforms.
Cheerleaders and majorettes, however, fit in perfectly at Southwest. They didn’t
just have a great attitude, their whole disposition was about cheering people on.
Spreading optimism. Leading crowds to believe that “we can win.” They were
perfect fits at a company that was the champion of the common man. Realizing
this, Southwest started to recruit only cheerleaders and majorettes.
Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire
already motivated people and inspire them. People are either motivated or they
are not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something
bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new
job and you’ll be stuck with whoever’s left.

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