Airbnb CEO: “IT WAS SO DARK WE NEARLY DIED!”. I Was Lonely, Deeply Sad & Wanted To Be Loved! [INSPIRING!] Brian Chesky

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2023

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is being an artist the secret behind running a Fortune 500 company? In this new episode Steven sits down again with the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky. Brian created ‘Airbed and Breakfast’ in 2007 with his college friend Joe Gebbia as a scheme to pay their rent. Cut to 2020, when Airbnb became a public company, with its initial public offering reaching $100 billion, one of the highest in history. Brian has been named by Forbes as one of America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40, and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. In this conversation Brian and Steven discuss topics, such as: His difficult childhood Always feeling like an outsider and different How his art teacher changed his life The way industrial design shaped his career as a CEO Always wanting to design his own world Wanting to escape his childhood His work addiction Working as a way of finding love How success is isolating What no one told him about success The need to fight to be connected with people Why success won't fix you How Obama changed his life The life changing impact of one text message His biggest regret The impact of Walt Disney upon him How creativity changes the world Airbnb initially just being a way to pay the rent How creativity beats data Why more companies need creativity and heart Why company culture is everything The importance of leaders as examples How your worst moments define you Airbnb’s fight for survival What he learned about true happiness The world’s loneliness pandemic Follow Brian: Instagram: https://bit.ly/3ti1InE Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RSjGYo Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/3kxINCANKsb My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now: https://smarturl.it/DOACbook Follow me: Instagram: http://bit.ly/3nIkGAZ Twitter: http://bit.ly/3ztHuHm Linkedin: https://bit.ly/41Fl95Q Sponsor: Huel: https://g2ul0.app.link/G4RjcdKNKsb Shopify: http://shopify.com/barlett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You lose 80% of your business in eight weeks, and I knew there were questions.
0:07.0	Is this the end of Airbnb? Well, Airbnb exists.
0:10.0	Brian, testing founder and CEO.
0:12.0	Over $100 billion company.
0:14.0	Airbnb, one of the most successful and most disruptive companies in the world.
0:19.0	Airbnb Breakfast was just a way to keep paying rent before we came up with a big idea.
0:24.0	We did not think Airbnb Breakfast would be a company where 4 million people a night would use.
0:29.0	Don't focus on the mountaintop. Focus on the first step.
0:32.0	A lot of breakthrough ideas don't seem breakthrough at the time. They seem crazy.
0:36.0	People tend to overestimate what they can do in a year and and understand what they can do in 10 years.
0:40.0	10 years is a profoundly long period of time to create discipline and focused.
0:43.0	And you can have a small idea, a small dream, and you can build something vast.
0:48.0	Airbnb is going to IPO and then disaster strikes.
0:52.0	And the coronavirus emergency. Stay at home.
0:56.0	You lose 88% of your business in 8 weeks.
0:59.0	And I knew there were questions.
1:02.0	Is this the end of Airbnb? Well, Airbnb exists.
1:06.0	We had to make some incredibly difficult decisions.
1:09.0	So I write this letter to the entire company.
1:13.0	Here's what I said.
1:16.0	So how do you feel to read that?
1:18.0	Yeah. Yeah, no, no. I get a little emotional reading that.
	...

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