Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
00:07:04 · Dara Khosrowshahi
[00:07:04] S2: the how? The most important how is simplifying the situation and breaking down what seems like an unassailable problem into its component parts. Vector mathematics. If you have a three-dimensional complex interaction, you can just break it down to each dimension. And if you solve each dimension and you bring it all together, you can actually solve pretty complex issues and equations into its component parts. And the same is true in business. When I got into Uber, there were very distinct areas that I had to take care of. One, at the board level, the board was fighting for control. And you had a board that was focused on who's going to control the future of the company versus what the future of the company was going to be. And so, for example, we brought in a new chairman, Ron Sugar, who has become my partners through all of the years and really brought the board together. This isn't about who controls it. This is about the fate of the company. I think the company lost trust with stakeholders, with regulators, with the public. So we went out and first went on a listening tour to understand what the issues were and then started listening, started acting based on that impact and started communicating both internally and externally, which is the concerns of stakeholders externally were just as important as our own concerns as well. And then with employees, it's putting together a team. And there was a lot of talent inside of Uber, but there were some folks who kind of were stuck in the old world who had to get off. And then there was an incredible talent base. Andrew McDonald, who is our President and COO, predated me and has come through many, many years. Many others have been with me since before day one and then bringing in new management members like a Tony West as well, who's been with me ever since. So I think if you focus on each distinct problem, what seems like chaos can become small surmountable problems that you take on. You set initiatives against each of them and over a period of time, you can't control what gets solved when. But over a period of time, things get better. And I think things got better.
00:09:15 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Dara Khosrowshahi
[00:09:15] S0: In situations like that, and I'm sure there's been many others at Expedia and Sense, what have you [00:09:19] S2: learned about managing your own stress so that you don't get personally overwhelmed by chaos? I think I'm lucky. Sid, my wife calls me a robot, which is I don't get stressed out by situations. We lost everything when we came here from Iran, and I saw destroy my father. How old were you? I was nine years old. My father built, along with his family, an incredible family business. We came here. We lost everything. But then we rebuilt. And I think for whatever reason, it just doesn't help. Overthinking things doesn't help. It only makes things worse. And I'm able to approach things from an engineering mindset. I studied engineering school, which is, what are the problems? Let me list them. And let me have an approach to solving each of them, test and learn. And not everything improved in a linear path. But being stressed out, what's the point of it? Who cares? [00:10:12] S0: Can you say a little bit more about what that experience was like, watching your dad go through that at that young age?
00:10:12 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Dara Khosrowshahi
[00:10:12] S0: Can you say a little bit more about what that experience was like, watching your dad go through that at that young age? [00:10:17] S2: For us, we came to The States. We got to stay with my uncle Nasi. The adjustment for us was not very difficult. But as I grew up, I observed my father who, when I was a kid, he was kind of a giant of a man become less trying because I was getting bigger as well. And he just lost that spark. He wasn't able to begin again here in The US. He did his very best. He was an entrepreneur. He tried his hand at a lot of things. And I think that one, it drove myself and my brothers and my family to rebuild. Many immigrants have a chip on our shoulder and I had a particularly big one. But at the same time, I didn't want to be in the same situation, which is for work, for fortune to break me as a person. I was able to separate the two, which is, yeah, do I want to do well? Absolutely. Am I going to give it every inch that I've got? Absolutely. But in the end, know who I am and I'm always going to be that same person. I'm not going to let the chaos of the world affect me mentally. [00:11:20] S0: What have been the chapters of the chip? How has the chip on the shoulder evolved? Like, what satisfied it early on, and how has what satisfied it changed, or is the chip still
00:11:20 · Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Dara Khosrowshahi
[00:11:20] S0: What have been the chapters of the chip? How has the chip on the shoulder evolved? Like, what satisfied it early on, and how has what satisfied it changed, or is the chip still [00:11:28] S2: It's never satisfying. I don't know what it is. I always wanted to do well in school, sports. For me, I just believe in being all in in anything that you do. When I'm with my kids, I'm with my family, I don't have this thing around. I'm not checking messages. I'm not getting distracted. I believe in if you're going to do something, whether that's work, whether that's sports, whether that's personal life, just go all in, get rid of the distractions. And I think you'll lead a happier, more effective life. [00:12:00] S0: You think that CHIP is roughly the same today as it was when you're in high school? [00:12:05] S2: It's core. I don't know whether I would have been the same person, you know, the counterfactual if I were in Iran. But I know my family is awfully competitive. A lot of Iranian immigrants have come here to The US and many parts of the world have been extraordinarily successful. And, of course, starting from behind and knowing that you're starting from behind and having the desire to get ahead again, it absolutely plays a part in your life.
00:12:05 · Dara Khosrowshahi, Patrick O'Shaughnessy
[00:12:05] S2: It's core. I don't know whether I would have been the same person, you know, the counterfactual if I were in Iran. But I know my family is awfully competitive. A lot of Iranian immigrants have come here to The US and many parts of the world have been extraordinarily successful. And, of course, starting from behind and knowing that you're starting from behind and having the desire to get ahead again, it absolutely plays a part in your life. [00:12:34] S0: And the selfish question because I have kids, you know, they're growing up fast. How do you think about your kids? My guess is you wouldn't press the red button to undo the experience you had because it made you who you are. Totally. And so I think about this a lot as it relates to kids that maybe are not gonna have an experience like that, that might shape them in a similar way. How do you think about that as a dad?
00:12:54 · Dara Khosrowshahi, Patrick O'Shaughnessy
[00:12:54] S2: I'm figuring it out as we go. I think being a parent is so humbling, but I think we're doing our kids a disservice by giving them too much, being around too much. I don't know about you as a kid, but on the weekends, my mom would be like, get out of here and come back for dinner. Figure it out. And I think this helicopter parenting, being around your kids all the time, you want to love your kids. You want to know that they're absolutely loved and appreciated, but it's the challenges in life that form you. And it's the overcoming of these challenges that give, I think, humans a profound satisfaction. And if you as a parent are overcoming these challenges for your kids, you're actually doing them a disservice long term, whereas short term, you think that you're doing them a favor. You're giving them an easier life. A happy life is not necessarily an easy life. And so for me, it is a challenge because I love my kids. Sid and I co parent in a way, which is we're not going to do everything for the kids. They come home. They're responsible for their homework where they've got to learn how to make it in this world themselves within the scope of family, which will prepare them for the outside world, which as you know, can throw you a lot of curveballs. [00:14:04] S0: Yeah. Speaking of curveballs and challenges, if we zoom all the way to today, it's gotta be curious if you think so. It seems to me from the outside, like the most interesting time to be running this business. Oh [00:14:13] S2: my God. Yeah.