Every company says they want “the best people.” They build job descriptions like shopping lists — five years of this, ten years of that, proficiency in these tools, prior experience in that market. Then they sit back and wait for someone who checks all the boxes. When they finally find that person, they celebrate — only to realize six months later they hired someone who’s comfortable, not hungry.

I’ve been around long enough to tell you this: experience is overrated. In fact, it can be dangerous. Too often, experience comes bundled with baggage — old habits, rigid thinking, and a deep resistance to doing things differently. The truth is, experience doesn’t guarantee performance. Hunger does.

Don’t get me wrong — experience has its place. But if it’s the only thing you’re hiring for, you’re probably buying yesterday’s playbook for tomorrow’s game.

The most dangerous phrase in business is still, “That’s how we’ve always done it.” Experienced people often come with that phrase tattooed on their mindset. They’ve seen the movie before, sure — but sometimes they’re watching a different version than the one playing now.

Industries evolve. Markets shift. Customers change. Technology upends everything. A person with twenty years of experience might actually have one year repeated twenty times.

What you need are people who see change and get excited, not scared. Who ask, “Why not?” instead of “Why?” Who don’t cling to their comfort zone because that’s where their résumé feels safe.

Experience can blind you to opportunity. Hunger opens your eyes.

When I think of the best people I’ve ever hired — the ones who made a difference — almost none of them had the most impressive résumés. What they had was fire. They wanted to win. They were curious, relentless, coachable, and obsessed with improving.

You can’t teach hunger. You can teach skills, systems, and strategy — but hunger is internal. It’s the drive to outlearn, outwork, and outthink everyone else. It’s the quiet force that shows up early, stays late, asks better questions, and refuses to settle for average.

Hunger beats pedigree. It beats degrees. It beats titles.

The problem is, most hiring managers don’t know how to spot it. They’re too focused on checking boxes instead of testing for curiosity, drive, and grit. Ask someone about the hardest thing they’ve ever had to learn. Watch how they talk about failure. See how fast they light up when talking about solving a hard problem. That’s where hunger hides.

Common sense says: I’d rather hire a rookie with something to prove than a veteran with something to protect.

Companies love training programs. They build onboarding plans, certification tracks, learning management systems — all great tools. But none of them matter if you hire people who don’t move.

Hunger-driven people don’t wait for permission. They figure it out. They act, adjust, and learn. They don’t need a manual to start making progress — they just need an opening.

The truth is, the best training isn’t a class. It’s doing. It’s making a mistake, owning it, and fixing it. It’s trying something new because you’re not afraid to fail.

When you fill your team with people who act, you create momentum. Action is contagious — just like complacency is. One hungry hire can change the energy of an entire team. They remind everyone that growth doesn’t come from sitting still.

Experience tells you what can’t be done. Hunger shows you what might be possible.

In a world where everything changes overnight — technology, customer behavior, market dynamics — learning faster is the only real competitive advantage left.

That’s why I’d rather build a team of learners than a team of experts. Experts protect what they know. Learners expand what’s possible.

The best organizations I know reward learning, not perfection. They encourage people to ask dumb questions, to experiment, to share what they’ve discovered. They create psychological safety for trying — and failing — because that’s how growth happens.

You don’t need every person on your team to know everything. You need them to want to know everything. Hunger fuels that.

If your competitors hire for experience and you hire for hunger, you’ll beat them in the long run. They’ll be defending the past. You’ll be inventing the future.

There’s a dangerous assumption that the longer someone’s been around, the more capable they must be. That’s not leadership — that’s laziness.

Seniority doesn’t guarantee wisdom. Tenure doesn’t equal talent. I’ve seen “seasoned veterans” who haven’t had a new idea since the Clinton administration. And I’ve seen twenty-somethings who bring more insight, creativity, and drive to the table in six months than some “pros” do in a decade.

The moment you start confusing years served with value delivered, your culture begins to rot. Because your best people — the hungry ones — will see it. They’ll notice that effort and innovation don’t matter as much as time in the chair. And they’ll leave.

A leader’s job isn’t to reward longevity. It’s to reward results, growth, and initiative. It’s to build a meritocracy, not a museum.

If your organization is full of people who’ve stopped learning, you’re not managing a business — you’re running a retirement plan.

Here’s what it all comes down to: A résumé might get someone through the door, but it won’t keep your company alive. Hunger will.

Every innovation in history started with someone who didn’t have all the experience but had all the drive. Every turnaround I’ve ever seen was led by people too hungry to accept the status quo.

You don’t need people who know everything. You need people who want to learn anything. That’s the future.

So, the next time you’re hiring, look past the job titles and the decades of “industry experience.” Ask yourself instead: Does this person need the job, or do they want to win? Are they coming here to keep doing what they’ve always done, or to build something better?

Because in the end, it’s not the experienced who change the world. It’s the hungry. A résumé doesn’t drive results — a hungry mind does. It’s only common sense