Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Enlightened Approach To Success
by Jack Kelly
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of both Twitter and Square, said in a recent “The Boardroom: Out of Office” podcast that he’s not part of the Silicon Valley hustle-porn culture that champions working around the clock. Dorsey says that being a workaholic, working all-nighters and refusing to take days off “leads to burnout” and is “bullshit.”
Dorsey has a unique view toward work that contradicts the widely held belief that you need to work an inordinate amount of hours to get ahead. His approach is to be very focused on his goals and not just do work for the sake of being busy. Dorsey told the podcast host, sports agent Rich Kleiman, instead of grinding out hours of work, “I would rather optimize for making every hour meaningful—or every minute meaningful—than I would maximizing the number of hours or minutes I’m working on a thing”
A key to productivity, according to Dorsey, is having a consistent routine, starting from when he wakes up at about 5 a.m. “The most important thing about that morning is, I meditated, which means I calmed my head. I did some physical exercise.” He walks to his office and uses this time strategically and effectively. Dorsey listens to podcasts to learn new things and gain ideas and knowledge. He also uses the quiet time to think.
Starting off the morning with meditation, exercise, a brisk walk and learning new things makes Dorsey feel successful—even before he steps foot into the office. He then believes, no matter what else happens later on, “I already won the day,” as he engaged in activities meaningful and important to him.
Once Dorsey starts working in his offices at Twitter and Square, which are across the street from each other, he hones in on the tasks at hand and dispenses with distractions. “I just get so much more done and time really slows down. You can make this time so fungible and flexible if you really understand how to kind of focus on it.”
He told Kleiman that the biggest key to success is finding your purpose. He defines this as the reason why you’re here and what you want to do with your life. Once you’ve figured it out, it's “clarifying,” offering direction and meaning. Dorsey asserts that more important than coding and other things that people think CEOs should know and do is “problem solving.” This is the “only skill needed for success” and will increase the potential of better outcomes.
Dorsey has some other interesting routines. “All my days are themed. Monday is management. At Square, we have a directional meeting. At Twitter, we have our opcomm [operating committee] meeting. Tuesday is product, engineering and design. Wednesday is marketing, growth and communications. Thursday is partnership and developers. Friday is company and culture. It works in 24-hour blocks.”
Dorsey eats one meal per day, kept a journal since he was a teen and has embarked upon a silent meditation retreat in Myanmar. He tweeted that during the 10-day "vipassana" retreat, he shunned "devices, reading, writing, physical exercise, music, intoxicants, meat, talking or even eye contact."
His strategy has paid off handsomely. Dorsey rose from humble beginnings to become a well-respected dual CEO of two largely successful publicly traded companies, worth over $4 billion, and has used his wealth to give back to worthy causes.