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You don't hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.
Herb Kelleher
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Attitude is more important than skills when hiring new employees.

Herb Kelleher emphasizes the importance of attitude over skills in the hiring process. While skills can be taught and developed over time, a positive attitude and the right mindset are essential for fostering a productive and cohesive team culture.

Themes

HiringAttitudeLeadershipSkillsTeamworkMindset

In practice

Example use cases

In a job interview, refer to this quote to highlight the importance of a candidate's mindset.

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To be an excellent leader, you have to be a superb follower.
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If you're crazy enough to do what you love for a living, then you're bound to create a life that matters.
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We will hire someone with less experience, less education, and less expertise, than someone who has more of those things and has a rotten attitude. Because we can train people. We can teach people how to lead. We can teach people how to provide customer service. But we can't change their DNA.
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The business of business is people.
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If the employees come first, then they're happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.
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