Why am I hiring an assistant like this?

A lot of people have asked me why I’m using this process to hire an assistant. Not only why am I doing it publicly and letting anyone apply, but why I am posting my thoughts about each round of applications, and why I talk explicitly about what I’m looking for and what various applications do wrong.

Obviously, I don’t have to do it this way. And yes, it does create more work for me in the short term. But I don’t care about the short term; I’m doing this to achieve longer range goals. Instead of me rambling on and on about what I hope to accomplish, I think you can see what I’m accomplishing by reading this fantastic email I just got:

Hello,

I didn’t think I would ever be writing a thank you e-mail to Tucker Max, but there is a first time for everything! Even though I did not make it to the third round (dropped the ball on including both questions AND answers), I just wanted to say I appreciate the feedback that you leave on your blog. I have been a fan of your old  blog and books for a long time now, and this new one is refreshing.  Your advice and analysis to the applicants is truthful, constructive and in my opinion, really helpful.

It is nice to know that even a self-proclaimed “asshole” will take the time to read 800 submissions and respond.  I can tell you that I know my well thought out cover letters were not read by 75% of the jobs I have applied to in the past.  My generation lives in a world where we think everything is going to be handed to us.  Hard work and perseverance is replaced by blaming the economy and giving up.  Thank you for reminding me to stop complaining and DO something—best fucking advice I have gotten in a while.

There are many, many other reasons I’m running the application process the way I am, and I will explain all of them in time. But this person, and many others who sent emails like this, get it, and it is summed up by that quote:

Thank you for reminding me to stop complaining and DO something—best fucking advice I have gotten in a while.

I say this to people all the time: What have you done? Everyone wants to be a star, and no one wants to do the work. I only want to work with people who actually want to do the work necessary to be stars. It’s pretty simple.

And yes: Once I get through all the Round 3 applications, I will do a comprehensive run down of what people did right, what they did wrong, and I’ll explain why I selected the person or people I did. But it may take awhile since I have .