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Palmer Luckey: The True Believers Were Still in the Office at Midnight

By Palmer Luckey · Leadership · 2 min read

Every VR company in history had been a total failure. Nobody worked at Oculus because they thought they'd retire early or because it was prestigious. They worked on VR because they wanted to work on VR. We were a band of misfits.

Key Points

VR had zero successful companies — so everyone who joined was there for the mission, not money
The True Believers were still in the office at midnight even after the company had resources
People hired later as a career stepping stone have all left VR

Nobody was working for me because they thought they were going to retire early. They worked on VR because they wanted to work on VR.

Nobody Had a Good Reason to Do It

Luckey: One of the things I loved about working in virtual reality is that nobody had any good reason to do it. In so many businesses, you get people who are there because you can make a good paycheck. For all the lawyers in the room — there are people who are lawyers not necessarily because they've always had a passion for law. There are people on Wall Street not because they have a passion for running hedge funds. Those are places where you can make a really good living.

The VR industry by comparison had never had a successful company in history. Every VR company had been a total failure. So everyone who worked for me was working on VR because they wanted to work on VR. Nobody thought they'd retire early. Nobody thought it was prestigious. We were a band of misfits. Today we call ourselves the True Believers.

Nobody had any good reason to work in VR. Everyone who joined did it because they wanted to. We were a band of misfits.

The Midnight Test

Luckey: Those True Believers — they were the people who, when the going got tough, even after we had lots of money to work with — were still in the office at midnight. Working seven days a week. Because they believed in VR, not because they were there for a paycheck.

I hired people later who saw it as a stepping stone for their career. Come in, do it for a few years, move on to the next thing. None of those people are still working in VR. They've all moved on. One of them is actually working on Wall Street now.

When the going got tough, the True Believers were still in the office at midnight. Seven days a week.

How Privileged I Was

Luckey: It's really interesting to look at in hindsight — how privileged I was to work with a group of people like that.

Now I get to do it again. At Anduril, in the defense space, we have a lot of True Believers who are there for similar reasons. The only difference is that everyone is very convinced that I'm going to make them money.

I get to do it again at Anduril. True Believers for similar reasons. Only now, everyone's convinced I'll make them money.