Nejatian: Turnarounds Succeed by Tracking Granular Accountability Repeatedly Over Time
Kaz Nejatian · Excellence Is the Capacity to Take Pain · Jul 21, 2026 · at 44:32
Kaz Nejatian, executive at Opendoor and Shopify, compares corporate turnaround frameworks to addiction recovery methods during a discussion on personal discipline with Shane Parrish.
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“There's a reason why AA works so well. Because you do things. You track your accountability. Like, day one, week one, month one. You track over and over again, thing, your accountability. And you do the right thing over and over again. And the score tends to take care of itself over a very long period of time. And I think that pattern tends to be one that is repeatable over and over again.”
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Nejatian: A culture of 'suicidal empathy' is killing top tech companies
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Nejatian: Remote work generally fails, with Shopify being a rare exception
“First of all, I don't think remote works. Generally, it only works for Shopify, and that's because we built more software to make remote work than anyone reasonably thought we could. And I think the jury has fully come back on this topic, that companies that a…”
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“What, for most tech companies, AB tests have done have been the safety blanket for management.”
Nejatian: Opendoor's top external expense was millions to a consulting firm
“And usually for tech companies, like, your largest expense to an external vendor ends up being, like, your cloud provider. But for Opendoor, number one was millions of dollars written to a very large consulting firm.”
Nejatian mandated Opendoor return to office within one week or exit
“So Open Door had gone fully remote. So at nine a.m. That Monday, I told the entire company, hey, Open Door is going to be back in the office next Monday. If you don't plan to be in one of these offices, we appreciate your help, but you're no longer with us.”