#275: Ania Smith, CEO, Taskrabbit – Take risks that teach you something
How Leaders Lead with David Novak
David Novak Leadership
4.8 • 596 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead with David Noback. |
| 0:05.2 | Today we've got Anya Smith on the show. Now, she's CEO of TaskRabbit, but she moved to the |
| 0:10.6 | United States from Poland at just 12 years old and at the time didn't speak a word of English. |
| 0:17.1 | That didn't stop her, though, from creating an incredible life and an incredible career. |
| 0:21.6 | She's worked her way through leadership positions at Walmart, at Uber, and at Airbnb. |
| 0:26.4 | And from Airbnb, she took her entire family to Argentina for a gap year |
| 0:31.1 | so that they could enjoy one another and grow together as a family. |
| 0:35.6 | She moved back to the States, took over as CEO of Chask Rabbit, |
| 0:38.9 | and in today's episode, you'll hear how Anya's focus on taking bold risks has helped her succeed. |
| 0:45.6 | You'll also learn why every leader should be building a culture where people feel encouraged |
| 0:49.8 | to be bold. Enjoy this conversation between David and Anya, and I will see you at the very end of the |
| 0:56.0 | episode for the debrief. It is about being bold. It is about feeling safe enough to really try |
| 1:03.9 | a lot of things that may or may not work and knowing that it's okay because that's the only |
| 1:09.8 | way you can learn and actually try and do better next time. |
| 1:18.6 | Anya, I have to start with this. You know, most executives, they take a vacation every now and then. |
| 1:25.4 | But when you were at Airbnb, you took your whole family, |
| 1:30.6 | not on a couple week trip. You took them on a gap year in Argentina. What did your kids teach |
| 1:37.1 | you about leadership on that trip? Well, I think the first lesson is how very different each one of them is I have three |
| 1:47.3 | kids and they couldn't be more different. And just like the teams that I work with and the individuals |
| 1:52.6 | that I work with, whether they're on my team or, you know, further in the organization, it's very |
| 1:59.5 | clear that everyone is very different and what motivates |
| 2:02.9 | people is really different. I think that the second thing that was really insightful is |
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