Eben Pagan - Why We Fail With Money (\u0026 What To Do About It)
In this guest appearance, Eben Pagan shares insights on managing virtual teams and creating meaningful wealth through compassion-based business practices. He reveals how his 80-person virtual company operates using 90-day cycles and daily huddles, while discussing the shift from traditional wealth accumulation to creating abundance through relationships and collaboration.
Key Moments
How to Manage Virtual Teams Effectively -- A framework for building and managing high-performing virtual teams based on Eben Pagan's 80-person virtual company experience
Hire Drivers — People With Ownership and Proactive Orientation
Hire drivers who show proactive behavior, result orientation, sense of ownership, and personal responsibility rather than just skilled workers
▶ 0:21
Physical Emotional Logical — What Each Communication Mode Does
Great leaders like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King experienced a shift where they stopped identifying with just themselves and started identifying with humanity as a whole
▶ 7:59
Show Superstars the World-Changing Impact of Their Work
Show them projects that will change the world and let them see the impact of their work. Superstars work for impact, not money, and want to see the world change because of what they do.
▶ 2:51
Compassion as the Most Profitable Business Skill
Compassion, defined as proactive empathy, is possibly the most valuable and profitable business skill
▶ 6:26
New Wealth as Relationship Education and Collaboration
The New Wealth is about creating relationship, education, collaboration, and abundance in social and human realms rather than just accumulating money
▶ 4:23
Relevant Clips22
- How-To
How to Manage Virtual Teams Effectively -- A framework for building and managing high-performing virtual teams based on Eben Pagan's 80-person virtual company experience
- Teaching▶ 4:26
The New Wealth Model: Relationships Over Accumulation
The New Wealth focuses on creating relationships, education, collaboration, and abundance rather than just accumulating money. It follows the principle that when you give it away, you still have it and actually get more.
- Teaching▶ 7:05
Understanding Others by Leading With Genuine Curiosity
It means starting every interaction by genuinely trying to understand the other person's perspective through questions like 'how do you feel' and 'what's your perspective' without marginalizing them.
- Teaching▶ 0:21
Traits That Define a Driver Hire for Virtual Teams
Look for drivers who are proactive, result-oriented, have a sense of ownership, take personal responsibility, and have passion combined with a track record of completing projects successfully.
- Teaching▶ 6:20
Building Rapport Through Proactive Empathy in Business
Compassion, defined as proactive empathy, is possibly the most valuable business skill because it builds rapport, trust, and helps you understand others' needs so you can serve them better.
- Teaching▶ 7:59
Physical Emotional Logical — What Each Communication Mode Does
Great leaders like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King experienced a shift where they stopped identifying with just themselves and started identifying with humanity as a whole
- Teaching▶ 2:51
Show Superstars the World-Changing Impact of Their Work
Show them projects that will change the world and let them see the impact of their work. Superstars work for impact, not money, and want to see the world change because of what they do.
- Teaching
90-Day Cycles and Daily Huddles for Team Alignment
Use 90-day planning cycles, implement daily team huddles, hire drivers who take ownership and responsibility, and focus on impact rather than just money when motivating top performers.
- Teaching▶ 5:12
Teaching as an Additive Not Subtractive Experience
When you teach someone something, you learn more about it yourself, how to teach, and how they learn, plus get gratification - it's additive rather than subtractive
- Teaching▶ 4:23
New Wealth as Relationship Education and Collaboration
The New Wealth is about creating relationship, education, collaboration, and abundance in social and human realms rather than just accumulating money
- Teaching▶ 0:21
Hire Drivers — People With Ownership and Proactive Orientation
Hire drivers who show proactive behavior, result orientation, sense of ownership, and personal responsibility rather than just skilled workers
- Teaching▶ 7:22
Seek First to Understand Before Responding in Conflict
Seek first to understand by asking questions like 'how do you feel, how do you see this, what's your perspective' without marginalizing anyone
Show 10 more
- Teaching
90-Day Cycles as Optimal Planning for Virtual Teams
Structure virtual teams using 90-day cycles as the optimal planning timeframe because business changes too fast for longer planning periods
- Teaching▶ 2:20
Daily Huddles Keep Virtual Teams Aligned
Implement daily huddles where virtual teams connect each morning to align on daily objectives and maintain team cohesion
- Teaching▶ 3:20
Hiring for Passion and Completed Project Track Record
Look for passion and a successful track record of driving projects to completion when hiring top performers
- Teaching▶ 6:26
Compassion as the Most Profitable Business Skill
Compassion, defined as proactive empathy, is possibly the most valuable and profitable business skill
- Teaching▶ 2:53
Superstars Work for Impact, Not for Money
Superstars work for impact rather than money and want to see the world change because of what they do
- Quotable▶ 6:31
Compassion Possibly the Most Valuable Business Skill
possibly the most valuable and profitable business skill is compassion
- Quotable▶ 6:00
Giving Knowledge Away Leaves You With More of It
when you give it away you still have it you actually have more of it
- Quotable▶ 2:53
Superstars Work for Impact Not Money
Superstars they work for impact not for money
- Quotable▶ 6:58
The Seek First to Understand Core Principle
seek first to understand
- Quotable▶ 0:55
Hire Drivers Who Take Ownership of Results
hire drivers
Entities Touched
Concepts
Questions
Canonical Teachings
Summary
Building High-Performance Virtual Teams
Eben shares his unconventional approach to managing 80 virtual employees, emphasizing the importance of hiring 'drivers' who take ownership and responsibility. He reveals how 90-day planning cycles and daily huddles create structure without sacrificing the freedom that makes virtual work attractive.
What Really Motivates Top Performers
Drawing from conversations with Google's Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, Eben explains why superstars work for impact rather than money. The key is connecting talented people with projects that change the world and showing them the meaningful impact of their contributions.
The New Wealth Philosophy
Eben introduces a paradigm shift from traditional wealth accumulation to creating abundance through relationships, education, and collaboration. This new form of wealth follows the principle that when you give it away, you still have it and actually get more - creating exponential returns for everyone involved.
Compassion as the Ultimate Business Skill
The most surprising business insight: compassion, defined as proactive empathy, may be the most profitable skill you can develop. By seeking first to understand others' perspectives without judgment, you build deeper relationships that transform both your business success and personal fulfillment.
Counterpoint
Claim: “Wealth comes from accumulating and extracting money for personal gain”
Reframe: The New Wealth comes from creating relationships, education, collaboration, and abundance that multiplies when shared
Eben explains that unlike traditional wealth, the New Wealth follows the candle lighting principle - when you give it away, you still have it and actually get more. Teaching, loving, and collaborating create exponential returns.
Claim: “Business success requires strict hierarchical management and control”
Reframe: Virtual businesses thrive with self-organizing teams of drivers who take ownership and responsibility
Eben's 80-person virtual company operates with non-hierarchical structures where teams self-organize, and success comes from hiring drivers who proactively take responsibility and deliver results.
Claim: “Top performers are motivated primarily by money and compensation”
Reframe: Superstars work for impact and want to change the world through their contributions
Eric Schmidt from Google shared that after hiring top global talent, they learned superstars work for impact, not money. They want to see the world change because of what they do.
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Topics
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Business Frameworks