# What VIPs look for when deciding to work with you

- **Episode:** [133](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/133.md) (2024-10-03)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** vip-relationships, business-development, trust
- **Time:** 31:16–34:36 (start 1876s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/133?t=1876](https://truthliesandwork.com/133?t=1876)

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[31:16] Al Elliott: Well, so Jackie, let me ask you about this because I love that you're talking about people and it all rests on people. So do you have some kind of formula for recognizing that someone is special? Whether it potentially be a partner or someone to— someone who you want to work for you
[31:32] Jackie Stewart: They're not being sycophantic. They're not promising things that I can see that they can't reach. Who do they hang out with? They hang out with the wrong people. You're likely to find the wrong success, second-rate. Choosing people, vitally important. Choosing friends, vitally important. Don't hang out with the wrong people. That's expensive in the end. So I've been very lucky to have friendships with some of the most important people in the world because of my motor racing or because of my shooting, whether they be monarchs or whether it be, you know, multinational corporations. Leaders, um, because they've seen me shooting successfully. HSBC— Sir William Purvis was then the chairman— was inviting me to events that I would be meeting people that otherwise I would never have been close to. And as long as I didn't misbehave, they might invite me to come to a lunch or a dinner or event, which often happened. If you're hanging out with the wrong people at the wrong time, you're judged by the associations you have with these people. And if I was with HSBC, the Ford Motor Company would pay attention to us— not just Henry Ford II, but investment people, management people would say, well, if Jackie's hanging out with HSBC, I got them to, to invest in their, their, in their works charity at Ford Motor Company at the highest level. Um, and that came because they were impressed by, well, you've got Sir William, the top man. So if I could take the chief financial officer, the financial officer, To Sir William Purvis, that's a big deal for him. So that applies all the way through, um, still going on today with the right people. Um, I love being with the right people. I learned something every time I go with somebody that's, you know, that's So clever and have achieved so much and are not sycophantics. You know, they're real people, but they don't grow on trees. And if you overplay it to even reach them, they think, what's he up to? You've got to present yourself in a way and make them say, oh, He's successful, he's done this, why don't we have a chat with him? And that goes through a corporation very easily