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BLG Leadership Insights Social Media

Fortune Favors The Bold: The Facebook Epic

In September Mark Zuckerberg, creator and founder of Facebook, was interviewed by The New Yorker contributor Jose Antonio Vargas. Zuckerberg said that he liked the Aeneid and later he texted Vargas a few of his favorite lines from the book.

“Fortune favors the bold.” was one of the lines Zuckerberg enjoyed.

A few weeks after the article was published the movie The Social Network was released. The movie depicted Mark Zukerberg’s life at Harvard and his rise to internet fame. Zuckerberg ultimately came off as a tragic hero–smart and deserving, but also socially stunted and brutally mean. On the screen it looked like fortune favored friendless, detached, types who would do anything to fit in.

But that’s the movies. For all of Zuckerberg’s flaws, tics, and documented use of profanity, he was nonetheless bold. He stole or adapted the idea for Facebook from fellow classmates, dropped out of Harvard to move to Palo Alto, and took loans out to keep everything moving.

He might not have made monumental sacrifices, but they were still bold moves for a college student.

Fortune favoring the bold is a good thing and the cornerstone to our idea of humanism. It means we can all have a say in shaping our own destinies–we can all work hard hard to gain favor. It’s not always easy and, as Zukerberg’s story illustrates, it’s not always a job that lets you have friends.  But that might not be the whole truth. “Fortune befriends the bold” says Emily Dickenson.

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BLG Leadership Insights

Palm’s Face lift: Leaders Have to Look for other Leaders

Palm was at the center of the PDA revolution in the mid-90s. However, once smartphones entered the arena, offering PDA functions with the addition of cellular connectivity, Palm started to lose their unique place in the market. Palm couldn’t compete successfully in the world of smartphones–especially with Apple, RIM, and Nokia boldly leading the way. Palm’s leadership needed to innovate or retire.

Palm’s old CEO, Ed Colligan, initially dismissed the iPhone and entered the smartphone battle far too late–leading to Palm’s slow downfall. The smartphones Palm managed to create weren’t innovative enough to attract consumer attention and they often simply repackaged their older, less innovative, phones.

In 2007 Palm, knowing their internal limitations, hired Jon Rubinstein who, in his Apple days, was the creative force behind the iPod and the iMac. In the past few weeks, Rubinstein has succeeded Ed Colligan as CEO and plans to reinvent Palm and make it like Apple a cutting edge company. Rubinstein’s influence has led to Palm’s new smartphone offering, the Pre, which offers WebOS and a touch screen. Palm will finally start to compete with other smartphone companies.

Ed Colligan will still have a financial stake in Palm but his decision to bring Rubinstein on board, with the promise of future leadership role, was a wise move. Colligan didn’t know the pulse of the smartphone industry and Palm paid the price for it. However, once Colligan realized that innovation was more important than recycling PDA designs he influenced change and hired Rubinstein who was highly sought after. Leadership isn’t always about being the most innovative or up-to-date person–it’s about knowing who is and creating performance-momentum.