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Oct 2023
1h 38m

Airbnb CEO: “IT WAS SO DARK WE NEARLY DI...

DOAC
About this episode

If you enjoyed hearing about the highs and lows of creating the world’s biggest brands, I recommend you listen to my conversation with Spotify founder, Daniel Ek, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_35cUaU_NA

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/46vt340

Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RSjGYo


Follow me:

https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo

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