美国合伙人

还记得之前那部非常火的电影,中国合伙人,讲了新东方三个创始人一点一点打造NYSE:EDU的传奇故事,从年少懵懂,到人生低谷,再至一讲成名,扶摇直上,兄弟撕逼,言归于好,其中的五味陈杂,展现的淋漓尽致。

利益面前,确实,大家都一样高。

曾几何时,我以为这种事情在美国会少点,直到读到了Biz Stone那本The Little Birds才明白,原来故事不分地域,在哪儿都是那么的相似。

Twitter一直都是Silicon Valley的一个传奇,记得听Stanford讲课的时候,有个人就说,We are not twitter guys!赤裸裸的羡慕嫉妒恨啊。无论是早年blogger的创始人Ev Williams,还是现在大红大紫的Square的创始人Jack Dorsey,亦或是高中辍学却文笔出众从Humanity出发的Biz Stone,真的是很明星的一个团队啊,尤其是Ev Williams,Raise Money基本都是顺风顺水,跟最近在The Hard Thing About Hard Thing里面读到的Marc Andreessen一样一样的呢。

然后,就是这一段传奇的撕逼了。首先Ev Williams在Twitter创立一年(他自己去玩了一年)之后,回来取代了当时的CEO,也就是最早做起来Twitter的程序员,现在的Square CEO Jack Dorsey成了CEO,自此Jack出走Twitter创立Square,Ev和Jack反目。然后接下来就是Twitter的Board直接Fire(后面是让Ev成了CTO然后Peace 6个月后离职,Ev创立Medium),最后在Ev走之后,Biz Stone也离职Twitter创立Jelly,然后Twitter IPO。最搞笑的是,Ev现在又回到Twitter当CEO。这里面错综复杂,你撕我撕真是说不清道不尽。就是Biz在书中所写的,it is about billions now. 金钱面前,曾经的共患难又算得了什么呢?

不过撕逼归撕逼,里面还是读出来不少好东西的,一个从Humanity角度出发的Technology从业者的心得。读书笔记记录如下:

  1. We make our own opportunities. We are the people who make something happen to ourselves.

  2. This is why launching your own company or actively building the company you work for is all more creatively fulfilling and potentially lucrative than simply doing what is expected of you. Believing in yourself, the genius you, means you have confidence in your ideas before you even exist. Inventing your dreams is the first and biggest step toward making it come true. Once you realize this simple truth, a whole new world of possibilities opens up in front of you.

  3. Creativity is a renewable resource. Challenge yourself everyday. Be as creative as you like, as often as you want, because you can never ran out. Experience and curiosity drive us to make unexpected, offbeat connections.

  4. Emotional investment is something that is key to a successful startup and bigger than sound quality. If you don’t love what you’re building, if you’re not an avid user yourself, then you will most likely fail even if you’re doing everything else right.

  5. Constraint inspires creativity. Blank spaces are difficult to fill, but the smallest prompt can send us in fantastic new directions.

  6. Willingness to take risks is the path to success.

  7. A successful software platform should, first and foremost, serve the consumers. Second, it should enrich the developer community so they can make a living while creating fun projects using parts of our code that we’d decided to make public. Finally, it should feed back into overall value of Twitter, making it a better company and service.

  8. There are three reasons an entrepreneur sells his company: One, you’re about to be crushed by competition or sued into oblivion. Two, you’re tired or done and just want the money already. Three, your company’s potential, when paired with another company, is orders of magnitude bigger than you can possibly imagine attaining alone.

  9. Trust your instincts, know what you want, and believe in your ability to achieve it. Rules and conventions are important for schools, businesses, and society in general, but you should never follow them blindly. And it always helps to have a like-minded partner in crime.

  10. What really makes a technology meaningful – to its users and its employees – is how people come to use it to effect change in the world.

  11. Three principles for twitter: empathy, altruism and humanity.

  12. Success metrics of a company: First, having meaningful, positive impact. Second, truly loving our work. Third, generating strong revenues.

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