Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
· Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Reed Hastings
[00:00:00] S0: My traditional closing question for every interview is the same. What is the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you? [00:00:00] S1: 30 years ago, I worked at a startup. I was a frontline engineer, 28, so I did all-nighters all the time. I used to have coffee cups spread around my desk and over a couple of days it would get kind of ugly and messy. And the janitor every now and then would clean them all. And I'd come in, they'd be cleaning mugs. And I didn't think about it that much. One morning, woke up early. And in those days, you had to go in the office because of the computers were there. You couldn't take them home. So I went into the office at 4:35 in the morning, walked in, went into the bathroom and there was my CEO washing coffee cups. And I looked at him and I was like, "Barry, are those my cups?" And he said yeah. And I said, "Have you been washing my cups all year?" And he said yeah. And I said, "why?" And he said, "You do so much for us, and this is the one thing I could do for you". And I was just very moved about his humility and his caring kindness in your question. And, so I felt like, God, I'll follow this guy to the ends of the earth. And so, simple gestures. [00:00:00] S0: Wow. Holy cow. Great story. Amazing place to close. Thank you so much for your time. [00:00:00] S1: Real pleasure, Patrick.