Stone suggests that a lack of capital or resources can lead to better solutions, that the shortage will force people to become more creative to solve the problem.
Earlier this year, Corte Madera resident Biz Stone (his given name is Christopher Isaac Stone) authored a book called Things a Bird Told Me: Confessions of a Creative Mind, a business book.
Stone is better known for his contributions at Google, where he helped create blogging and podcasting, and Twitter, which he co-founded.
The book is a worthwhile read, not only to get a sense of how Stone became a business guru but, perhaps more important, to capture his business philosophy. It covers Stone’s career and gives glimpses behind the scenes at how Twitter was created. If you’re looking for a flashy read with lots of dirt on how competing geniuses don’t get along, look someplace else. Stone is honest to a fault, laying bare details of his life, including how debt was wearing him and his wife down.
There’s a pretty funny story about Stone and Evan Williams (from Twitter) meeting Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook so they could talk about Facebook buying Twitter. While Stone obsesses about the white, button-down shirt he’s wearing, Williams breaks a land speed record driving from San Francisco to Palo Alto in his Porsche. On the trip down, Stone and Williams figure out they don’t want to sell, but now they’re stuck with the meeting. They decide the best way to handle it is to make a demand so outlandish that Zuckerberg will turn it down instantly and they can go home, and land on $500 million as the magic number that will send them out the door. After an awkward walk through Facebook where Zuckerberg lives up to his rep as a nerd’s nerd, he asks for their number.
A week later, Facebook made a $500 million offer—and Williams had to convince his board to turn it down.
If Stone doesn’t sound like your average Harvard MBA, you’re onto something. He’s at his best when he offers up a little slice of himself. He’s endlessly upbeat. The guy makes Steve Jobs look downhearted.
Stone suggests that a lack of capital or resources can lead to better solutions, that the shortage will force people to become more creative to solve the problem. He also believes that being open to failure and the lessons it teaches us can help a company perform better.
But the most worthwhile observation in the book is when Stone says businesses have an obligation to become a part of the community. “Companies that don’t align themselves with a cause are at a competitive disadvantage. It’s not just the right thing to do. Industry is either going to destroy the world or save it. It’s in our nature as humans to save ourselves. It’ll be good business.”
He includes the real-world example of Walmart discovering that climate change was more than a myth that Fox News was trying to kill. So the company cut its packaging across all stores by 5 percent. This had the equivalent of taking 211,000 diesel-burning trucks off the road.
Your Marin moment
The SMART train, the North Bay’s commuter rail system, isn’t gaining any fans in San Rafael. SMART unveiled designs for downtown stations and the city council and residents found them wanting (to say the least), according to the Marin IJ’s Megan Hansen.
The design, by AECOM Technological Services and FMG Architects, calls for a canopy, a bench, ticket machine, trash can and street lamp.
Councilmember Gary Phillips, who sits on the SMART board, said, “That looks ridiculous and that’s our downtown. I mean, give me a break. That’s not even a starter.”
Phillips wasn’t the Lone Ranger in questioning SMART on its spartan design. Gerstle Park resident Hugo Landecker said, “What SMART’s proposing is an outrage and an insult to our community. We deserve better.”
Not to single out Phillips and Landecker, because there’s a significant sense of what Marin deserves permeating the county, from Sausalito to Novato and out to the coast in west Marin.
But guys, take a deep breath, it’s a train stop. It ain’t Grand Central Station. If you want bathrooms, a café and a massage lounge, write a check. Have you been paying attention to SMART? Putting the train on the tracks continues to be the challenge. Looking to SMART for something beyond that is optimism on a scale of Oprah Winfrey on speed.
