Intelligence, Energy, Integrity
Screen every partner and hire on three traits and refuse to compromise on any of them.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 88%
Naval calls this the three-part checklist you cannot compromise on. Intelligence, because someone heading in the wrong direction will not get you to the right place, and smart is domain-specific rather than a slur about anyone else. Energy, because the world is full of smart lazy people, and because motivation is task-specific: the person who cannot get out of bed for an office job may be electric about painting. Integrity last and most important, because with the first two and none of the third you have a smart, hardworking crook who will eventually cheat you. Integrity cannot be self-reported. You read it from signals, from what people do when they think nobody is watching, and from the fact that anyone loudly advertising their honesty is usually advertising the opposite.
Origin
Extracted from Naval. Nivi raises Naval's tweet about picking people with high intelligence, high energy and high integrity, and Naval expands it into a hard screen, adding that integrity is detected through signals rather than statements.
Core principles
- 01Smart without energy heads the right way and never arrives.
- 02Energy without smarts runs hard in the wrong direction.
- 03Smart and hardworking without integrity is a crook who will eventually cheat you.
- 04Smart is domain-specific, not a global ranking of people.
- 05Motivation must be intrinsic; you cannot talk someone into caring for the long term.
- 06Integrity is read from signals, never from claims.
How to run it
- 1
Score intelligence against the actual domain
Decide what the work requires and assess whether this person is smart at that specific thing. Everyone is smart at different things, so a general impression is useless.
Pro tip Ask them to reason aloud through a real problem from the work rather than a puzzle.
- 2
Test energy for this work, not in general
Check that they are intrinsically motivated by the thing you need done. People are often unmotivated for one task and relentless about another.
Pro tip Look at what they already do unpaid; that is where their energy actually lives.
Watch out Do not try to talk someone into wanting it. You can inspire initially but you cannot be the permanent crutch for missing intrinsic motivation.
- 3
Read integrity from signals
Observe behaviour rather than claims: how they treat service staff, how vindictive they are toward enemies, what they do when they assume nobody is watching. People are oddly consistent.
Pro tip Look for irrational ethics, the person who does the right thing at personal cost and is offended when thanked for it.
Watch out Someone who volunteers how moral, ethical and high-integrity they are is signalling the way con men do.
- 4
Apply the lifetime test
Ask whether you can see yourself working with this person for life. If the answer is no, do not work with them for a day, and start extricating from existing relationships that fail it.
Pro tip The same test screens investors and customers, not just employees.
- 5
Reject on any single failure
Treat the three as a hard filter rather than a weighted score. Two out of three is precisely the configuration that produces the worst outcomes.
Watch out The pressure to compromise is highest when you are short-staffed, which is exactly when the cost of compromising is highest.
In the wild
Naval invested in a friend's company that failed. The founder could legally have wiped out the investors, but instead put more of his own money in through three separate pivots until the company finally worked, never diluting them to zero. When Naval thanked him for being so good to his investors, the founder was offended. He said he had not done it for the investors at all; he had done it for himself, for his own self-esteem, because that is how he lives his life.
→ Naval flags him as exactly the kind of person to work with: integrity that is internally enforced rather than externally negotiated.
Consider a prospective co-founder who is obviously brilliant and works relentlessly, and whose references all praise their drive. Under Naval's screen the first two traits are exactly what make the third one dangerous rather than optional. The intelligence lets them structure the arrangement in their favour, and the energy means they will actually execute it. The screen is designed so this candidate is a reject, not a close call.
→ Rejecting a high-scoring candidate on one axis avoids the single most expensive category of business mistake.
Common mistakes
Trading integrity for talent
The first two traits are visible in an interview and the third only shows up under pressure, so teams routinely hire the smart, hardworking crook and discover the gap when the money is on the table.
Selling someone into the role
Persuading a candidate to want the job produces initial enthusiasm and no durable motivation. Naval says he almost will not start a company or hire anyone he has to convince.
Believing stated ethics over observed behaviour
Overtly claiming high status is a low status move, and the same logic applies to claimed honesty. Signals are what people do despite what they say.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and operators choosing co-founders, early hires, investors or business partners for relationships intended to last years.
Not ideal for
Short, transactional, well-specified engagements where a contract does the work and the relationship ends on delivery.
From the transcript
“pick people to work with that have high intelligence, high energy, and high integrity. I find that's the three-part checklist that you cannot compromise on”
“if you've got the other two, what you have is you have a smart and hardworking crook who's eventually gonna cheat you”
“Signals are what people do despite what they say.”
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