Of course, it's easy to think, 'I have an open mind. I'm ready to listen.' Unfortunately, we all have a bit of built-in arrogance. We've made it this far in life by trusting our instincts and imposing our own particular set of perceptions on the world around us. It's hard to let go of this.
Each time I conduct an interview, I try not to walk in with predetermined answers. I've always got some hypotheses that I'm curious about, but I never walk in with a particular result that I've already decided upon: 'The answer is Y' or 'These people are Z.' I go in with a springboard mentality: 'You show me what's cool here and where the energy is.' And when I do pinpoint the energy, that mindset allows me to turn on a dime and pursue it, often springing off in directions that I could never have predicted or imagined.