Tag Archives: twitter

Twitter’s Biz Stone Reminds Me To Keep Going With Project Enough

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Yesterday I saw Twitter co-founder Biz Stone speak at PRSA.

When we got into the media briefing room Biz immediately seemed like he wanted to leave. He said the minute he walked in the door his wife was going to berate him for being late and hand him a screaming ten month old. You got the feeling he cared a lot more about his own family life than he did being at a PR media briefing. I respected him for that. I also respected him for the world that he showed us yesterday–from being a college dropout obsessed with the democratization of information to creating a technology that would change the course of history.

Biz Stone answering questions, being down to earth.

He said two things that resonated with me on a personal level:

1. Opportunity can be manufactured and you manufacture this for yourself.
2. To succeed spectacularly you must be willing to fail spectacularly.

For me that means you’re willing to walk away completely empty handed from whatever you’re doing. And he reminded us that to do that–you need to care about what you’re doing on an emotional level.

Biz gave metrics that he felt companies should measure themselves by. One of them was joy. Can you imagine a company that looks at joy as an indicator of success?

I believe joy is directly related to self esteem. I believe self esteem is related to contribution. I also believe companies can build the self esteem of its employees by recognizing employees and giving them opportunities to challenge themselves and contribute. Today most companies don’t do this. Research shows a happy, proud employee will contribute much more than an employee that feels like a number.

Self esteem is something I write about a lot. I also built a “movement” around helping to build the self esteem of women with Project Enough.

Biz Stone’s talk about a service oriented approach to business reminded me of my own journey. I’d like to think that sharing personal stories about my own challenges with anxiety, depression, body image and self esteem help other women who are going through something similar.

My storytelling is my giving back. Most people would rather die than write about being humiliated as I did last week on the website Eat the Damn Cake. I get joy out of putting all my experiences and thoughts on my writing table and putting the pieces back together, but I also want to help other girls and women–to let them know they’re not alone–to provide them tools and resources and knowledge.

The talk made me think about Project Enough and why I keep coming back to it. I feel that this was a “movement” that started with a shift within me. I didn’t know if this was the right thing to do or not–and realized quickly this project was in no way about making money. This is a project to spread awareness and most of all joy–> to women, who suffer with body shame and low self esteem. And yes I just used the word “suffer,” because you do.

Biz said there was compound interest in altruism and I believe he’s right because when one person comes back to me and says thank you for writing that (or saying that), I can relate and I’m going through X, I feel that emotional compound interest. I also hope that other people experience that as well.

Biz’s talk was inspiration for me to continue with Project Enough and see what it can become.

Enough Stage to Go Around–Even at Sales Conferences

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Lately I’ve noticed a lot of behavior that can be attributed to what one might call the “not enough theory.”

What does that mean?

That means I’ve noticed a lot of cryptic tweets aimed at other people–in a negative way. It feels like someone (more than one) is trying to collapse the stage from under someone else.

Instead of tweeting whatever seemingly “in-context”140 character witty quip that was tweeted, the tweet translates as “don’t listen to him, listen to me!”

Why else would public lashings take place (especially in a hashtag of a conference the hater is not present at)?

My point is we need to get away from this “not enough to go around” mentality. Because, well it’s just not true.

There is absolutely enough to go around. There is enough of a stage for all of us. You don’t have to try and take mine out from under me.

There is enough for me, there is enough for you, and everyone in between.

http://www.madagnes.com/imgs/WmsbgStage.JPG

People who feel emotionally and intellectually wealthy do not try and polarize attitudes toward other people. People who hoard, whether that’s objects, attention or friends, exude a different energy and attitude from those who feel emotionally and intellectually wealthy.

It’s dangerous to hate people–firstly because it’s bad for your health, but secondly–others are always watching you. And whether you are right in your hatred, or wrong, publicly lashing others makes you look emotionally and intellectually poor. Emotionally and intellectually poor people do not light up a room. They are not business magnets.

I am not trying to create any kind of “West Side Story-like social CRM” twitter war. So please don’t ping me later warning me of publicly vocalizing my thoughts.

I am only trying to live in a world that is transparent, honest and good. Those of you who know me–like really know me–know this is the way I live my life, and the people I surround myself with.

I’ve lived in Bed-Stuy, I’ve lived in Manhattan.

In my experience, wealth has nothing to do with money. And everything to do with spirit.

My Video Response To Malcolm Gladwell Controversy–Does Egypt Need Twitter?

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Last week I saw quite a few tweets flying around that I found unsettling. They were in response to Malcolm Gladwell’s comments on the Egypt Protest in his article in The New Yorker “Does Egypt Need Twitter?”

 

For example here is a tweet I saw from marketing blogger @JeffJarvis: .

And this is my response.

Social media is an important new channel, but people have been staging coups for centuries.

The medium has changed, but the message has not. Let’s not forget the important issue here–the actual people and social turmoil. That’s the story.

Not the importance of social media. And let’s not beat up journalists who are not afraid to bring us back down to earth. We are very disconnected from the reality of a situation on the ground like what’s happening in Egypt, so it’s easy to get lost in the headlines. The story is the poverty rate in Egypt is 40%. That’s really high. And I feel compassion for these people.

I’m not saying freedom to use the internet is not important–it is.

But I am saying the media focuses on the headlines that
will draw audiences, and pay advertisers. Let’s not believe everything that we read without being critical thinkers…
including headlines about Twitter and Facebook.