What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture

by Ben Horowitz

Well, before I interview anyone I start by asking what their intentions are and I say, “I will help you get those intentions, but you have to trust me.” I’ll give you an example. Last week I was filming my show Super Soul Sunday and I had this guest on, Shaka Senghor, who had just spent nineteen years in prison, seven in solitary confinement for a murder he did commit. He had big muscles, dreadlocks, tattoos, and looked very scary. I asked him what his intentions were and he said, “It’s my intention to let people know that you shouldn’t be defined by the very worst thing that you have ever done in your life. People can be redeemed.” I said, “I got it and will help you get it, but you have to trust me.” So we start filming and I ask him, “When did you turn to crime?” He said, “I hit the streets when I was fourteen years old.” But I had read his book. So I said, “What about that time when you were nine years old and you came home with a perfect report card and your mother threw a pot at your head? How did that make you feel?” His body language closed up and he said, “It didn’t feel very good.” So I said, “You have to trust me. How did it make you feel?” He said, “It made me feel like nothing that I would do in life would ever matter.” I said: “You didn’t hit the streets when you were fourteen. You hit the streets when you were nine.” And we both started crying.