This morning I had the pleasure of attending my first NWEN event. It was terrific and I cant wait to attend more events in the future. There is just something totally exciting about the idea-space - the place where people turn ideas into real companies.
Rich Barton, the CEO of Zillow, was the speaker.
How can some people can be so young, so attractive, so talented and so successful? Sometimes the high-flying entrepreneurs are just so frustrating :) I wanted to dislike Mr Barton just to exercise my envy-muslces but he was so down to earth and likable, I couldnt' do it. Now I just want to find a way to talk with him over drinks, he seems like a person that would be great to talk with.
CEO's and the cutting edge
I have wondered in the past why people are so drawn to hearing CEO's talk. It is like a movie-start thing. Is there any value other than the entertainment/idolization aspect?
Listening to the speech today, I realized the value I get out of these events: ideas. People closer to the cutting edge give us a view of the world as they see it, which is a perspective that few of us have. (Using my elephant-blind man metaphor, they see the elephant in a different way than we do.)
I picture tech as a continuum, like the number line we learned in grade school. Everyone starts out at zero and the techies and inventors create things that push out to the right. The Creatives live out at the cutting edge, the point of newness, which is somewhere to the right on this line and continues to move further right with each new innovation.
Some people are way out there close to that edge while the rest of us linger closer to zero. We are moving to the right as well but not very quickly and ofttimes, not very eagerly.
One's perspective on how things look (or are) depends a lot on where you sit on this number line. It is hard for us to appreciate what those people see out at the edge (much like it is hard for them to remember what it was like back near zero).
Talks like today allow CEO's, who have a unique position between inventors, business people and the media, to share their viewpoint. This is a very valuable thing that I didnt fully appreciate before.
But enough about that. Was the speech any good?
Rich's speech
Rich had a speech with a title that was generating a lot of curiosity: "Pygmalion, The Wizard of Oz, and Chevy Chase". Here are a few highlights.
The story of Pygmalion captures the idea that inventors create a big, hairy audacious goal. They dream and dream big which provides the reason for an organization.
The Wizard of Oz gives us the qualities of a good leader. Leaders need wisdom (brains), and they need courage. Most importantly, they need heart. People want to follow leaders who have compassion, who care about them, who convey a sense of humanity.
The third topic was Caddy Shack (much of the talk invoked movie references). Chevy Chase's character who says, "Be the ball, Danny." Leaders need to use their instincts, they need to be the ball. Use your instincts and act quickly. Things change too fast to rely on wisdom or debate so leaders have to make decisions based on their gut.
It was a good speech, thoughtful and funny in equal parts plus Rich has great delivery. I am glad I went and finally can associate a person with "Rich Barton", a name I have heard often this past year.
