New England Patriot Quarterback Tom Brady is secretly sort of lame. Credit: Keith Allison, Wikipedia Commons

Tom Brady is regarded as one of the most desirable men on the planet. He is also married to one of the most beautiful women in the world, who is also super rich.

Thanks to Sunday’s shocking victory, he’s a four-time Super Bowl champion and is generally considered one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He has three healthy children, globs of money and is probably the most famous NFL player going.

But want to know a secret about him? He’s actually sort of a lame dude.

For example, do you know that Tom Brady goes to bed each night at 8:30? 8:30! He has all the money, all the opportunity in the world, and yet his bedtime is the same as an 8-year-old’s.

So why does this great-looking, super rich quarterback go to bed so early each night?

"I want to be the best I can be every week,” he said in an interview with Boston sports radio station WEEI. “I love the game and I want to do it for a long time. But I also know that if I want to do it for a long time, I have to do things differently than the way guys have always done it."

Later on in that interview, Brady said that all he does every day is basically watch film, practice football and spend time with his kids (and goes to bed just after 60 Minutes ends, so he can wake up wicked early and do it all over again). If you were to hang out with him for a day, you’d feel one predominant emotion after the seventh hour of breaking down film on Courtland Finnegan: boredom.

But the point is, Brady isn’t bored. He loves it. To him, watching game film and practicing football is like surfing down the Himalayas while simultaneously skeet shooting with a rocket launcher and setting off fireworks.

So What Does This Have To Do With Business?

Brady doesn’t have to play football anymore if he doesn’t want to. He’s made enough money to last 10 lifetimes and his legacy is cemented, and yet his stated goal is to play until he’s 50.

Clearly, Brady doesn’t play football to make money or to get girls or to chase records. He plays football because he loves playing football.

Companies need to hire people like Brady. If you are hiring someone in the music industry, they should love music. If you are hiring a developer, they should love to code, or at least to build things in general. If you are hiring someone to run your social media sites, they should consider their Instagram page a vital organ.

Ultimately, people that love what they do to the point they would do it even if they did’t have to – the Bradys of the world – are going to be the best employees. Themost critical question to ask in the interview process then becomes, “Can you tell me what you’ve done in your personal time that reflects an interest in whatever the job involves?”

If someone has done a lot outside of what they’ve been paid for in the field you are looking to hire them in, hire that person (unless they're a jerk, but that’s another story). If they haven’t, maybe it isn’t a great fit, for both you and them.

It’s that simple.

You aren’t always going to hire a Brady. But people who love what they do and show it by doing it outside of their regular working hours are always better hires than people who don’t, regardless of their level of experience or degree.

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