Jack Dorsey, Founder and Chairman of Twitter and Co-Founder and CEO of Square, Inc. was interviewed recently on the Charlie Rose Show. Charlie Rose, a world-class conversationalist and discussion facilitator, interviews current and former heads of state, senior governmental officials from across the world, best selling authors, leading innovators and senior leaders in every imaginable walk of life. Charlie’s interviews consistently feature fascinating movers and shakers, innovators, and high-impact leaders who are making things happen around the world.
During the interview which aired January 10, 2011, Jack Dorsey openly discussed the creation, current status and predicted future of two of the hottest companies in the world, Twitter and Square:
“My biggest strength is simplification. That’s what I love doing. I love making something complex, simple. I see myself as a really good editor. Taking all the conceptual and technical debris away so that you can just focus on what is most important. There are so many ways that Twitter could go… so many features… so many opportunities… but only one or two features will take us to the next level.”
Twitter has rocked the world since it’s inception in 2006. Twitter now has nearly 200 million world-wide users who tweet every day! Dorsey believes the number of Twitter users will rise well above the 600 million current Facebook subscribers. Dorsey and the Twitter team are currently working to monetize Twitter.
Dorsey’s latest venture is called Square, which can quickly and inexpensively turn your mobile phone into a credit card reader. Dorsey explained how and why Square was created:
A Co-Founder of Square is a glass artist who lost the sale of a $2,000 vase because the customer, who wanted to buy the vase, had only a credit card available for payment. The glass artist had no way to accept payment via credit card when showing the vase to the customer. The customer was not carrying $2,000 in cash or a check book. In a later discussion, the glass artist and Dorsey decided to solve the problem by inventing an extremely simple, very inexpensive way to accept credit cards payments using virtually any mobile phone in the world.
What is the essence… the reason for such phenomenal success… the underlying goal and driver of both Twitter and Square? Dorsey said this:
“My goal is to simplify complexity. I just want to build stuff that simplifies our base human interaction. Twitter was around communication and visualizing what was happening in the world in real time. Square was allowing everyone to accept the form of payment that people have in their pocket today, which is a credit card. We have built the simplest way to accept credit cards.”
Dorsey then made this powerful statement which is relevant to, and can be applied to every business, and to the personal and professional success of every person in the world:
“Let’s simplify this entire world. Let’s speak to what people are using today. Almost everyone is using plastic cards to pay for things. Let’s make it easy and take more and more of the friction out as we can.”
Excellent advice from someone who doesn’t just talk about simplifying complexity and creating world-class products and companies! Jack Dorsey has done it and continues to do it. As a result, he has created two of the hottest companies in the world. By focusing on simplifying complexity, Dorsey is creating phenomenally successful products that are simple to use and user driven.
I suggest you find 30 minutes that might otherwise be wasted watching some TV show that you will forget 10 minutes after it is over. In the interview, Dorsey explains the fascinating stories of how and why Twitter and Square were created. The interview is a great summary of the incredible power of simplicity as well as the past, present and predicted future impact of Twitter, Square and other such technologies and tools that provide faster, simpler, real time information and communication.
Simplify Complexity! An excellent success strategy with high personal, professional and economic rewards! A success strategy worthy of your time, focus and effort!
The full interview is available at http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11404.
