Who you are defines how you build.

It was my third day on the job at a hot Silicon Valley startup in early 2013.

I was more than, I was more than double the age of the dozen engineers in the room.

I'd been brought into this hot startup because of my, I was a seasoned expert in my field,

but in this particular group of geniuses, young geniuses and engineers,

I felt like a complete newbie.

So I did everything I could to actually be invisible. And then the wizard,

the 25-year-old wizard who was leading the meeting, turned to me and said,

Chip, if you shipped a feature and no one used it, did it really ship?

I looked at him, my jaw dropped and I said, chip is in deep ship,

because I have no idea what you're talking about. There was an awkward silence. He moved on to

someone else. I slid down in my chair and I could not wait for that meeting to end.

That was my introduction to Airbnb more than six years ago. I'd been asked by the three

millennial co-founders to come in and be the head of global hospitality and strategy, as well as the

in-house mentor to Brian Chesky, the CEO and co-founder.

Now, I'd spent from age 26 to 52 being a boutique hotel entrepreneur.

And so I had a lot of hospitality knowledge accumulated.

But after my first week on the job at Airbnb, I realized that the brave new home sharing world didn't need most of my old school bricks and water insights, hospitality insights.

A stark reality rocked me. What in the hell do I have to offer these people? I'm twice their age on average.

I've never worked in a tech company.

By the way, back then in early 2013, when Brian said to me, when he was trying to convince me to join the company,

he said, I'm going to Uber over to your home and let's talk about it.

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