Joe Gebbia

The Bezos hiring question: how lucky do you think you are, 1 to 10?

Sam shares the interview question Joe Gebbia asked him at Airbnb, originated by Jeff Bezos: how lucky are you on a scale of 1 to 10. The logic is that people who consider themselves lucky are either genuinely talented or attract good outcomes, and those are the people you want around you.

“people who, uh, say they're really lucky are the people I wanna be around. Right. I was like, why do you think that? And he goes, well, if you're lucky, if you think you're lucky, you must be talented and things just fall in your place or you actually are lucky. And I wanna surround myself with lucky people.”

Steal thisAsk candidates how lucky they feel on a 1-10 scale; favor the optimists who can explain why.