What You Do Is Who You Are: An expert guide to building your company’s culture

by Ben Horowitz

But there was a flaw in the plan. Two-factor authentication was required on everyone’s work email. The phishing attack was sent to Podesta’s personal email. Now, what past behavior could possibly have given Podesta the idea that he could send and receive tons of highly confidential campaign emails from his personal email account? Oh, snap. Not once did Hillary Clinton tell John Podesta, “Don’t take email security seriously.” Not once would she ever have told him that. But Clinton’s actions overrode her intentions. It did not matter that the campaign had taken all the steps necessary to prevent the attack, because John Podesta imitated what Hillary Clinton did, not what she said. The talk said, “Secure your email”; the walk said, “Personal convenience is more important.” The walk almost always wins. That’s how culture works.