What Interview Question Made a Sequoia Candidate Cry?

Michael Moritz has always found one question quite revealing in an interview: if a person could go back and do one action differently, what would they do? A man interviewed for Sequoia burst into tears when asked it.

The man had grown up in America as the son of a Hispanic immigrant. His father was very proud to have made it here, and proud that his son was bright and getting good marks at school. Probably around age 12, the boy and a pal went to a corner grocery store and stole some candy. The shopkeeper knew the father and complained. The father took the boy by the ear back to the candy store, made him apologize, and made him empty his pockets. So chastened, and so embarrassed by bringing shame upon his family and his father, the man burst into tears.