Lyft CEO David Risher on the lessons from his first job delivering newspapers

My first consistent job wasn’t glamorous—it was delivering newspapers. Today, it might sound quaint, but back then, it was a rite of passage.

I grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., raised primarily by my mom in the most modest house of anyone I knew. She used to say we were never poor—we just didn’t have a lot of money. So when I heard at 15 that The Washington Post paid $100 per month for a delivery route, I jumped at the chance.

This was during The Post’s prime, not long after its Watergate reporting made the paper famous. Every home in the area had a subscription. Politicians, lawyers, lobbyists, and staffers all woke up expecting their paper on the porch by 6:30 a.m. And even as the kid responsible for delivering it, I felt the weight of that expectation.

Every morning at 5:30 a.m., seven days a week, I was out the door. The bag over my shoulder was heavy, but the clarity of the hour was even heavier. No one was asking anything of me—just the work in front of me and the responsibility to get it done. I loved it.

Except Wednesdays. Wednesdays were brutal. The coupon inserts from Safeway and Giant turned an already heavy bag into something that lingered in my shoulders for days. And if it rained? Even worse. But people were counting on The Post showing up. Someone was going to pour their coffee, sit at the kitchen table, and reach for it—rain or shine, coupon day or not.

Looking back, the real lesson wasn’t just about showing up on time. It was about understanding that reliability is a form of respect. Everyone wants to be seen. When you commit to being there for someone and follow through, you’re telling them: I see you. You matter.

That principle sits at the center of what we do at Lyft. Every ride is a commitment. A driver heading out at 5 a.m. (and there are a lot of them) is honoring the same promise I made on that paper route: I’ll be there. They’re getting someone to the airport, to the hospital, to a job interview.

The stakes are higher than a 12-year-old delivering a Wednesday newspaper. But my commitment is the same—seven days a week, 24 hours a day, a billion times a year.

It’s a valuable lesson no matter what you do.

My First Job is a recurring series in which prominent business leaders share what their first job was and what they learned from it.