Would you pay someone $2,000 not to work for you?

At Strategic Coach®, we get lots of compliments on the quality of our team. This is no accident: We’ve been honing our ability to find and foster talent for a long time. But here’s a hiring process that even we think is courageous:

Zappos.com, the online clothing retailer, has a four-week training program, and at the end of it, they’ll pay you to not take the job. If, after all that training, you’re still not completely on-board with the company’s commitment to “WOW” customer service, they’d rather buy you out than have you stay.

Right now, the amount starts at $2,000—and it keeps going up, because so few people say, “No, this isn’t a fit for me.” (And if you do say no, you can’t re-apply.) Their number-one priority is that you’re aligned with and passionate about their 10 Core Values, which they’re very, very clear on.

We certainly agree that if you’re going to build a company with a 10x bigger future, you absolutely have to have team members who are aligned with you. Maybe $2,000 is how much it costs to find out if they are.