Categories: Articles

You Don't Know Jack (Dorsey). But You Should…

There are very few people that are truly prodigies and innovators.

Writer’s toss those words around as a way to substantiate and impress readers with a subject matter. It’s par for the course, but more often than not they are just words and not true definitions of the people being featured. One of the few people who is deserving of those titles is Jack Dorsey. Some think that Dorsey could be the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. So far, he has an impressive track record as the co-founder of both Twitter and Square. In my second business book, CTRL ALT Delete, I have a chapter titled, The Long And Squiggly Road, that looks at how non-linear our careers and lives have become. I encourage people to embrace the squiggle and even plan for it, when it comes to their professional careers. Whether Dorsey knows it or not, he is one individual who epitomizes the notion of being deeply engaged in a very squiggly career. As accomplished as he is, he always seem to just be getting started. That is a profoundly powerful position to be in.

To imagine the future, we must create the future.

In September of this past year, Dorsey gave this one hour presentation on the campus of Columbia University to students, alumni and friends of the school. With a passion for maps, punk music, art and coding, a young man from Missouri was able to change the way that we communicate, share, govern, broadcast information and pay for things. And still, he is just getting started.

Watch this and get inspired…

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.