I recently came across two questions reportedly used in recruiting at Tesla. They are deceptively simple, and I think they reveal something fundamental about what separates exceptional people from everyone else.

The first question:

“Describe your resume, and talk about the intentionality of your career.”

In other words, did things happen to you, or did you go after things?

The second question:

“What makes you exceptional? Give us an example of exceptional ability.”

The idea was to find people who could win under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. People who, when the odds were against them, found a way to get across the finish line.

The thinking was simple. Fill a company with people who know how to win, and you increase the likelihood of building a winning company.

I like these questions.

What interests me most is that neither question is really about qualifications, education, experience, or technical expertise.

Both questions reveal how a person operates.

And that’s far more interesting.

Are You the Author of Your Life?

Consider the first question.

When you look back over your career, how much of it happened by design, and how much happened because you responded to circumstances?

Did you deliberately pursue opportunities, or did you wait for opportunities to present themselves?

Did you make decisions based on what you wanted to create, or were your decisions predominantly reactions to what was happening around you?

There is a profound difference.

Over the past three decades, I’ve worked with thousands of people, from individuals struggling to get their lives together to extraordinarily successful entrepreneurs, executives, and leaders.

One of the most consistent differences I’ve observed is the degree to which people take responsibility for creating their own reality.

Some people spend much of their lives responding to circumstances. Their decisions are shaped by what happens to them, what other people do, and what they believe is possible.

Others have a clear sense of what they want and actively move toward it.

Of course, life is rarely that simple.

Some of the greatest opportunities in my own career were completely unexpected. I didn’t plan them. I couldn’t have predicted them.

But what matters is what we do when those opportunities appear.

Intentionality doesn’t mean having every step of your life planned. It means taking ownership of the direction of your life.

And that brings us to the second question.

What Makes You Exceptional?

This is a much more revealing question than asking someone to describe their strengths.

Most people can tell you they’re hardworking, committed, intelligent, creative, or good at solving problems.

But what have they actually done?

Tell me about a time when the odds were against you.

When you didn’t have enough money, time, resources, support, or experience.

When other people thought it couldn’t be done.

What did you do?

What decisions did you make?

What did you accomplish?

And what happened because of your actions?

I’ve always been fascinated by people who can produce extraordinary results under difficult circumstances.

They see possibilities where other people see obstacles and find resources that seemingly don’t exist.

They figure things out and take action.

And when their first approach doesn’t work, they find another.

This is not simply determination or persistence. Some people are extraordinarily persistent at doing things that don’t work.

Exceptional ability includes knowing when to persist, when to change direction, and when to stop.

It is the combination of awareness, judgment, creativity, resourcefulness, and effective action that produces extraordinary results.

Building an Exceptional Organization

Now consider the implications for building a company.

If you want an exceptional organization, you need exceptional people. You cannot build a dream team by filling positions with people who simply meet the minimum requirements.

A Dream Team is made up of people who take ownership, demonstrate initiative, solve problems, and consistently produce results.

People who don’t need to be pushed, reminded, or rescued… who see what needs to be done and do something about it.

This is why I find Tesla’s two questions so useful.

They shift the hiring conversation away from what someone knows or claims they can do and toward what they have actually demonstrated.

Of course, qualifications and technical skills matter. But they are not substitutes for exceptional ability.

And there’s another important consideration.

An exceptional organization needs more than exceptional individual performers. It needs exceptional people who can work together to achieve extraordinary results.

The person who can personally overcome almost any obstacle may not necessarily be the person who can build a team capable of doing the same.

That’s where leadership becomes critical.

The objective is not to create an organization full of people who depend on one exceptional individual.

It is to build an organization in which exceptional performance becomes normal.

And that brings us to the OPTIMA Zones.

The OPTIMA Zones Perspective

From Exceptional Performance to Exceptional Leadership

The OPTIMA Zones describe seven levels of human development, each characterized by different motivations, awareness, behaviors, and results.

When we look at Tesla’s two recruiting questions through the OPTIMA Zones, an interesting distinction emerges.

Orangezone people are primarily motivated by security. Yellowzone people are motivated by achievement.

An Orangezone person may be hardworking, dependable, competent, and successful within an established structure.

But when faced with extraordinary uncertainty, they may prioritize protecting what they already have rather than taking the initiative and risks required to create something new.

A Yellowzone person is typically more achievement-oriented.

They want to accomplish something. They take ownership, pursue opportunities, overcome obstacles, and find ways to win.

Many of the exceptional performers Tesla was looking for would demonstrate characteristics associated with Yellowzone.

They don’t wait for circumstances to become favorable.

They make things happen.

And these are precisely the kinds of people you want when building a high-performance team.

But there is another level.

From Yellowzone to Greenzone

Yellowzone people can be extraordinarily effective individual performers.

They can build successful businesses, lead major projects, and achieve results that other people consider impossible.

However, exceptional individual performance doesn’t automatically translate into exceptional leadership.

A founder might be brilliant at solving problems but struggle to delegate.

A salesperson might consistently outperform everyone else but be unwilling to share what makes them successful.

A leader might achieve extraordinary results but create an organization that depends entirely on their personal involvement.

As people develop into Greenzone, their relationship with achievement expands.

They become increasingly interested in contribution, collaboration, developing others, and creating something greater than themselves.

They don’t lose their ambition or their ability to achieve.

They apply those capabilities differently.

Instead of being the person who wins every battle, they develop a team capable of winning without them.

Instead of personally solving every problem, they build systems and develop people who can solve problems independently.

Instead of measuring success only by what they accomplish, they increasingly recognize the value of what others can accomplish because of their leadership.

Yellowzone people can produce extraordinary results. Greenzone leaders can build organizations that produce extraordinary results sustainably.

This distinction is particularly important for founders and business owners.

The qualities that enabled someone to build a successful company may not be sufficient to build an extraordinary organization.

At some point, the challenge changes from being exceptional yourself to building an exceptional team.

How to Apply This When Building Your Dream Team

Start with Tesla’s two questions.

Look for evidence of intentionality, ownership, resourcefulness, and exceptional achievement.

Don’t confuse confidence with competence, ambition with ability, or an impressive resume with demonstrated results.

Ask for specific examples.

What happened? What did they do? What was the outcome?

Then, when recruiting leaders, go one step further.

Ask them to describe something extraordinary that other people accomplished because of their leadership.

Did they develop someone who went on to achieve exceptional results?

Did they build a team that became more capable and independent?

Did they create systems that continued producing results after they moved on?

Did they make the organization stronger, or did the organization become increasingly dependent on them?

These questions help distinguish exceptional individual performers from people who can build exceptional teams.

And that’s the difference between hiring a collection of talented individuals and building a dream team.

Are You Exceptional?

I would encourage anyone reading this to answer Tesla’s two questions for themselves.

Look back over your career and life.

How intentional have you been?

What have you accomplished that demonstrates exceptional ability?

Where have you overcome extraordinary odds?

And if you’re a founder, executive, or leader, consider one more question:

Are you the exceptional performer everyone depends on, or are you building an organization full of exceptional people?

Because the ultimate measure of exceptional leadership isn’t simply what you can accomplish yourself.

It’s what becomes possible through the people you lead.

This will make the world a better place…

⚜️