Brian Chesky on what your startup can learn from Ernest Shackleton’s famous job ad

At the end of the interview process, the Airbnb founder will usually tell the candidate all of the reasons they shouldn’t take the job:

“It’s going to be the longest hours you’ve ever had. I’m going to hold you to higher standards. It’s going to be day and night. It’s going to be this. It’s going to be that.”

As Brian points out, this is often the opposite of what recruiters will do:

“Recruiters often want to sell their company as a country club - we have great benefits, we have great this, we have great that. And it creates mismanaged expectations.”

But the best people want a challenge.

Brian reads the famous job ad Ernest Shackleton ran in a newspaper to recruit men for his Endurance expedition:

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.”

Brian believes this is one of the best job ads ever:

“Don’t sell a rosy picture of the experience… Why do the most fit people in the world want to be Navy SEALs? Because they want the challenge. The average person doesn’t want a challenge, but the best people want a challenge. And so that will turn off mediocre people, but it will turn on great people.”

Full video: The Art of Hiring “Brian Chesky - Founder Mode & The Art of Hiring“ (Oct 2024)

More popular advice from Brian Chesky

Brian Chesky explains how Airbnb sought to make their offices a competitive advantage “You must have your own office. I don’t believe ever in shared office space. Peter Thiel has said that ‘every good startup is a cult’ and it’s really hard to create a cult if you’re sharing space with people.” (full article).

Brian Chesky’s response to the Samwer Brothers cloning Airbnb: “Missionaries will outlast mercenaries” “We had 40 employees and had raised $7M. They cloned us and raised $90M, and in 30 days they hired 400 people and wanted to sell the company. And if they couldn’t they were going to destroy us around the world. And the problem with Airbnb is if we’re not everywhere around the world, a travel site not being in Europe is like your phone not having email. It doesn’t actually work.” (full article).

Airbnb founder Brian Chesky explains his interview question “If you had a year left to live, would you still take this job?” “If you knew you had 10 years left to live—whatever you would want to do in those last ten years, you should just do. And I really wanted people to think about that. That was enough time to do something you really cared about… And the answer doesn’t have to be this company. If what you’re meant to do is travel or start a company, you should just do that.” (full article).