We all love to win, we all love the feeling of winning. When you win, you know you’ve accomplished something, and that feeling is addictive. What do you learn from winning, I ask? What do constant winners learn from their accomplishments? To emulate the previous result, to obtain the previous outcome (a win?) — what does that teach someone?
You’ve seen it plenty of times throughout your life, groups separated by two labels: winners and losers. Winners are said to be those vastly superior, those with a carnal urge to succeed — these are the people that were ‘born to win’. Losers are said to be those who are inferior, those that lack drive — these are the people who, no matter what they do, will never ever succeed.
Pretty ridiculous if you think about those statements, right? How can you segregate a population of people into two drastically different buckets with no real hope of progress or cross pollination? It’s as if the labels, no matter what you do, are final.
But again, what exactly does one really learn from winning? Especially if they consider themselves a ‘winner’? One may argue that a ‘loser’ or someone that has lost will learn more from a loss than one can learn from a win. When you build a team, regardless of if this topic is brought up, it’s present — believe me when I say that. It’s in our instinct to want to hire people that are successful, that have only been successful, and will continue to be successful, right? Yes — but it’s how you define the characteristics of a potentially successful person.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of people, many of which I would consider the ‘cream of the crop’. I will always remember this, but I remember openly saying that I, “only wanted to hire winners” (I was 23, give me a break) — and I remember immediately after saying that, I received one of the best bits of advice I’ve ever heard from a very high ranking executive:
“No, we hire losers”
Now trust me, right when I heard that, I immediately questioned the reasoning to that — why would we want to hire people who lose? People who won’t help us win?
“We’re not just looking for the people who only have a track record of winning; from the best school, the best previous job, the most awards, etc — all that tells us is that they probably think they’re perfect.
We’re looking for people who have ‘some’ of those qualities - but we want people with one other quality, and that’s people who have have lost or have taken significant losses. People who were laid off, people who have made mistakes, people who took risks that never panned out…
We want these people who would otherwise be labeled a ‘loser’ if we stacked them against the ‘winners’ — these are the people we want, because these are the people that know what’s at stake.
`We are going to hire ‘losers’”
It made sense. Completely. Once I started looking for that quality, I understood why it was so important. Losing or taking really strong losses can have a monumental change in your behavior, how you approach problems, and how you plan for the future. These people are motivated by change, by never feeling the agony of defeat ever again.
Life is a journey, and you learn along the way. If the only experience you’ve had are wins, you may not know what’s at stake, and you may not know how to deal with losses.
Now, i’m not saying that i’m not completely against those without the ‘loser’ qualities, there are plenty of people that haven’t failed in their career that can and will contribute immediately to a team. I’m just saying that it makes sense, and the people who I have hired along the way with these ‘loser’ qualities have greatly exceeded expectations, every single time.
So I advise you to always look at the whole picture. Don’t just silo yourself to only hiring “winners”. There are many people who have been written off as “losers” that have taken that hardship, and worked very hard to ensure they never feel that ever again. Those are the people you want on your team, because they’ll never give up, because they know what loss tastes like.
Hire ‘losers’.
