Categories: Articles

The Opportunity Of A Lifetime From Ev Williams

Do you know where Clarks, Nebraska is?

It’s a village in Merrick County, Nebraska. In the 2010 census, the population was 369. That’s where Ev Williams is from. Actually, that’s not true. He didn’t really live in the village. He lived on a farm near that village. From there, he moved to a city that had about 20,000 people and then went on to study at the University of Nebraska. Ev Williams has an impressive resume. He started Blogger (which Google acquired for an undisclosed sum – people say that it’s somewhere between $20-$50 million), he then went on to Odeo which became Twitter and is currently working on Medium. Like I said, it’s a strong resume. People always complain about their lot in life. What do you think the odds were of Williams becoming the individual that he is today? People often complain about their lack of opportunities in life. The most successful people will tell you that they created their own opportunities. In another stunning episode of Foundation with Kevin Rose, he spends a little over an hour having an amazing conversation with Ev Williams.

Watch this… then go out there and create your own opportunities:

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.