Thomas Mueller-Borja measures success by consistent improvement and purpose-driven drive. The people who rise rapidly are not just smart, but are self-starters with "hustle" who can self-regulate their emotions and work collaboratively. This blend of IQ and temperament is the "special sauce."
Related Insights
Elite talent manifests in two primary ways. An individual is either in the top 0.01% on a single dimension (e.g., tenacity, sales), or they possess a rare Venn diagram of skills that don't typically coexist (e.g., a first-rate technologist who is also a first-rate business strategist).
Prioritize hiring generalist "athletes"—people who are intelligent, driven, and coachable—over candidates with deep domain expertise. Core traits like Persistence, Heart, and Desire (a "PhD") cannot be taught, but a smart athlete can always learn the product.
Alpine's hiring philosophy for leaders downplays resume experience, instead focusing on core attributes like grit, humility, and emotional intelligence. They believe these traits are better predictors of success and that specific business skills can be trained on top of this strong foundation.
Intelligence is common, but the true differentiator for massively successful people is an unquenchable hunger. This is not a desire to reach a specific goal, but a perpetual, internal drive to constantly grow, achieve, and contribute more.
To combat the private equity industry's low success rate with CXO appointments, Speyside Equity uses a two-axis framework. It evaluates executives on their ability to achieve results (the Y-axis) and their personality and competencies to do it the 'right way' (the X-axis), effectively creating a 'no jerks' filter.
Top performers maintain a healthy balance by rapidly toggling between two extremes: believing they are exceptional and simultaneously feeling like they have failed. This duality fuels ambition while preventing the complacency that comes with pure ego or the paralysis of pure self-doubt.
Success is a product of intelligence (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), and focus (FQ). Former McKinsey strategist Faris Aranki argues that since these factors multiply, a weakness in any one area will undermine the entire effort, explaining why many well-researched strategies fail.
For cutting-edge AI problems, innate curiosity and learning speed ("velocity") are more important than existing domain knowledge. Echoing Karpathy, a candidate with a track record of diving deep into complex topics, regardless of field, will outperform a skilled but less-driven specialist.
Neurodiverse individuals in the investment industry are often just called idiosyncratic or brilliant. Research frames neurodiversity as a superpower, enabling teams to analyze the same data from different perspectives. This cognitive friction is a pathway to generating alpha by seeing what homogenous teams miss.
Gaurav Kapadia uses chef David Chang's model: hire for 'good enough' credentials plus a 'special something' like extra curiosity or ingenuity. Crucially, he argues this high bar must apply to all staff, including operations and support, to create a pervasive culture of excellence and dynamism, avoiding a common organizational mistake.
