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Welcome to the second part of our extraordinary, unfiltered, unfettered real dialogue with David Gergen. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we dive into the key themes of his new book about leadership, called Hearts on Fire: How great leaders are made.

David Gergen has served as an adviser to four United States President Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and most recently, Clinton. He is the rare political leader to serve his country from both Republican and Democratic vantage points. Professor Gergen also teaches public service, and as the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the winner of two Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting.

If you want to check out the first part our dialogue with David Gergen, you can check out FYD episode 266, where he talked about his thoughts on the war in Ukraine, and the people with important roles to play in it.

David Gergen: Hearts on Fire

The conversation starts off on the topic of David’s new book, and how it is different from his previous work. His new book, Hearts on Fire, felt more like a love letter to the Native Digital generation, and encouraging them as they face the future ahead.

David explains that he felt as though people that are currently handling the reins are going in the wrong direction. But he could see potential in the new generation, and would like to share his knowledge to them and help them grow.

“There were a lot of individuals in my classroom. So I thought the world of them, and I thought they were really impressive. They have the capacity to change the world, or just manage to change this country. So this was a an attempt to call them, to summon who would like to get in the arena. I think they can make a huge difference.” – David Gergen

For David, his latest work was like a Legacy book; a message he wanted to leave for the next generation.

Turning Adversity into Purpose

A huge topic in this book is how to tackle adversity – not just to overcome it, but to use it to find your purpose.

David explains that a lot of the younger generations can do great things. But they are hampered by the fact that they have not figured out what their purpose is.

“We can draw hope from the quality of the people who are coming in these next generations. They’re just people who will knock your socks off when you spend time with them. But they’re still searching how they can make a difference.” – David Gergen

Like David said, he wanted his book to be a guide, or at the very least, share his own experiences so that the new generation can derive what they can do better in their life.

David Gergen on Passing the Baton

For David, writing this book was like passing the baton to the next generation. That said, he thinks that the older folks should be willing to do so, rather than clinging to power.

This also leads to the discussion about how leadership is evolving nowadays. We are no longer living in a world in which leaders are only formed in our nation’s most lead institutions. Rather, the current leaders of the generation come from the crowd themselves, like Greta, the Parkland students, and Malala.

To hear more from David Gergen and how the younger generation’s hearts of fire can help spark change in the world, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

David Gergen is a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he serves as a senior political analyst for CNN and works actively with a rising generation of new leaders.

In the past, he has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. He wrote about those experiences in his New York Times best-seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

In the 1980s, he began a career in journalism. Starting with the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in 1984, he has been a regular commentator on public affairs for some 30 years. Twice he has been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards, and he has contributed to two Emmy award-winning political analysis teams.

In the late 1980s, he was chief editor of U.S. News & World Report, working with publisher Mort Zuckerman to achieve record gains in circulation and advertising.

Over the years, he has been active on many non-profit boards, serving in the past on the boards of both Yale and Duke Universities. Among his current boards are Teach for America, The Mission Continues, The Trilateral Commission, and Elon University’s School of Law.

David Gergen’s Work

David’s work as director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School has enabled him to work closely with a rising generation of younger leaders, especially social entrepreneurs, military veterans and Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum.

Through the generosity of outside donors, the Center helps to provide scholarships to over 100 students a year, preparing them to serve as leaders for the common good. The Center also promotes scholarship at the frontiers of leadership studies.

A native of North Carolina, David is a member of the D.C. Bar, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the U.S. executive committee for the Trilateral Commission. He is an honors graduate of Yale and the Harvard Law School. He has been awarded 27 honorary degrees.

David has been married since 1967 to Anne Elizabeth Gergen of England, a family therapist. They have two children and five grand-children.

His son, Christopher is a social entrepreneur in North Carolina as well as an author and member of the Duke faculty. His daughter, Katherine is a family doctor, working with the underserved population at the Boston Medical Center.

Links

Connect with David Gergen

Website | Twitter | Harvard | CNN | WSB

Check out his new book: Hearts Touch with Fire

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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Free speech is often called the first freedom and the bedrock of democracy. Our guest today says that on one hand, free speech around the world has never been better. But right now, we are experiencing a free speech entropy in the United States. On this episode of Christopher Lochhead, we have a deep dialogue about Free Speech with Jacob Mchangama.

Jacob Mchangama is a global expert on free speech. Political satirist PJ O’Rourke says that his new book is. “The best history of free speech ever written, and the best defense of free speech ever made.” That book is called Free Speech: a history from Socrates to social media, and it is out now. Jacob is a Danish lawyer, and the founder of Justicia, a Copenhagen-based think tank that focuses on human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law.

So if you want to learn more about free speech, how it has evolved through history, and what it will look like in the future, stay tuned to this episode.

Jacob Mchangama on Free Speech

The conversation begins on Jacob’s work on free speech, and his new book about it. He was then asked about what his thoughts on the current state of free speech in the world today.

According to Jacob, we’ve never had it better. It may not be as apparent in the US, but if you consider the rest of the world, people get to speak out more than ever before. Most of which was born with the proliferation of the internet, and the wide reach it provides.

“You and I can speak there’s no censor, making sure that we don’t say inappropriate things. And you know, so technology, internet has given us unprecedented opportunities.” – Jacob Mchangama

Recession of Free Speech

It is really the golden age of free speech. Though according to Jacob, it is an age that is currently in decline.

As things enter a more stable period after a boom of ideas, a state of entropy starts to set in. It is no different with free speech, as Jacob explains:

“Every time there’s a period in history where free speech is now sort of secure and we’ve turned the corner, a process of free speech entropy sets in. “ – Jacob Mchangama

This comes after the European Union is in the process of adopting a law which would, which says that social media companies have to remove your illegal content within a short timeframe or risk huge fines. Social media themselves are almost self-censoring to a point, restricting certain content from appearing on people’s search results and feeds.

The Evolution of Free Speech in the US

Moving the topic to the US side of things, Jacob finds the US and its take on free speech fascinating. According to him, it seems that free speech has evolved and grown over the years, and yet the first amendment and its wording has remained the same.

The evolution stems on how the US society interprets these words, leading to the growth of its scope and reach. As Jacob puts it, nowadays it’s difficult to imagine what you could say to a sitting US president that would get you in jail, short of direct threats or incitement of violence. Yet in the old days, you could go to jail for making a snide remark about an incumbent president.

But this same flexibility and reach is what’s putting free speech in a tight spot. With the wide reach of the internet also comes rampant misinformation. The issue is some of the people peddling misinformation is hiding behind the notion of free speech, which makes it difficult to remove once and for all.

Though for Jacob, it will all boil down to how we, as a society, will decide on what’s acceptable or not.

“Ultimately, I think that the culture of free speech is probably more important than the legal language, or a legal statute, or constitutional protection. Because ultimately, the culture of free speech is what will inform where we draw the limits, and how we interpret the legal protections that we have.” – Jacob Mchangama

To learn more about Jacob Mchangama and the current state of free speech in the US and around the world, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Jacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of Justitia and a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in Washington. In 2018 he was a visiting scholar at Columbia’s Global Freedom of Expression Center.

He has commented extensively on free speech and human rights in outlets including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. Jacob has published in academic and peer-reviewed journals, including Human Rights Quarterly, Policy Review, and Amnesty International’s Strategic Studies.

Jacob is the host and narrator of the podcast Clear and Present Danger: a history of free speech and the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning book, MEN Ytringsfrihedens Historie i Danmark (BUT: The History of Freedom of Expression in Denmark).

He is the author and presenter of the short documentary Collision: Free speech and religion (2013). Jacob is a 2016 Marshall Memorial Fellow. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his work on free speech and human rights.

Links

Connect with Jacob Mchangama

Twitter | Wiki | Free Speech: a history from Socrates to social media

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we go deep into topics that traditional television could and would not go. Specifically, we talk about the war in Ukraine, and where all of this might end with our guest, Dmitri Alperovitch. We also talk about cyber threats, and how capable the US is against it.

Dmitri Alperovitch is one of America’s top cybersecurity experts. He is on the US homeland security advisory council, and the co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer of the $50 billion market cap CrowdStrike. Right now, he is also the chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator.

So when he talks about cyber threats and security, you’d best listen in.

Achieving Escalation Dominance

The conversation starts off with Dmitri explaining that the United States has the capability to take Russia off the internet. They could it temporarily, or even permanently – though it could prove complicated to do so. Both of which can be escalatory and provocative.

Dmitri’s point on this is that rather than slowly matching Russia’s actions with certain sanctions or retaliating in a similar manner, the US can use this to send a message and stop those attacks from further escalating in the first place.

“If they do launch those attacks, in my opinion, we need to be very thoughtful about our response. We need to make sure that we achieve escalation dominance, in that we stop those attacks that in their tracks that we send a very strong message to Moscow: that this is not going to be tolerated, this is not going to be acceptable.” – Dmitri Alperovitch

Life Without Internet

As to why this would serve as a great deterrent, Dmitri explains that while they could still send people to do cyberattacks on the US from other places, this would send a strong signal to make them think twice about it.

Because like the rest of the world, they are also dependent on this digital resource to run their country. Nowadays, energy sectors, healthcare, and logistics see the highest usage rate for it. So in effect, shutting down their internet capabilities could have a strong effect on their economy as well.

“The goal of the internet shutdown is not to stop cyber attacks; that is an impossibility because they can launch them from any place. And we’re not going to go around the world shutting down countries from the internet. That’s not an interest in the United States. The goal is to demonstrate the type of effect we can have on their economy, if they continue to judge those attacks from wherever they may launch them, from Russia or elsewhere.” – Dmitri Alperovitch

Though Dmitri warns that this should only be done as a retaliatory action or response to an attack, rather than a pre-emptive strike. Because if they decide to do the latter, it might suddenly invite attacks, so the US should consider things carefully first.

The Effectivity of Cyber Attacks

Dmitri describes cyber attacks as a perfect tool for inflicting damage but having the option of anonymity or deniability. One can execute it remotely, and still have impact on a far-away area or country. Though for something as overt as what Russia was doing, defaulting to kinetic weapons and outright war could achieve their objectives.

Though it is not to say that cyber attacks is ineffective in this case, as Dmitri shares what happened in the first few hours or the Russian attacks on Ukraine.

“One of the attacks that has not gotten a lot of attention was the hack of a US-based satellite provider called ViaSat that has a subsidiary that provides satellite communication services to Eastern Europe, particularly the Ukraine military. The Russians had actually hacked that satellite provider, or actors are believed to be Russian. They were able to essentially cripple satellite modems, thousands of them that the Ukrainians were using in the first hours of the war. My understanding is that that actually did have a significant impact on their ability to communicate in those initial hours and potentially even had operational impact as well.” – Dmitri Alperovitch

Disabled satellite communications meant that coordinating the military became a monumental task, and the Russians took advantage of this to mount their initial blitz.

To hear more from Dmitri Alperovitch and his thoughts and expertise on cyber attacks and cybersecurity, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Dmitri Alperovitch is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a non-profit focused on advancing American prosperity and global leadership in the 21st century and beyond.

He is a Co-Founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., a leading cybersecurity company. A renowned computer security visionary, he is a thought-leader on cybersecurity strategy and state tradecraft and has served as special advisor to the Department of Defense.

He is a frequent strategic cybersecurity advisor to CEOs and Board of Directors of public and private companies.  Alperovitch is also an active angel investor and board member at multiple high-growth technology companies.

In 2016, Alperovitch revealed Russian intelligence agencies’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), events which unveiled the full scope of cyber influence operations being launched against the 2016 US Election.

In 2010 and 2011, Alperovitch led the global team that investigated and brought to light Operation Aurora, Night Dragon, and Shady RAT, groundbreaking Chinese cyberespionage intrusions, and gave those incidents their names.

In 2017, Fortune Magazine named Alperovitch as one of “40 Under 40” most influential young people in business.

In 2016, Politico Magazine featured Alperovitch as one of “Politico 50” influential thinkers, doers, and visionaries transforming American politics.

In 2013, Alperovitch received the prestigious recognition of being selected as MIT Technology Review’s “Young Innovators under 35” (TR35), an award previously won by such technology luminaries as Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jonathan Ive.

Alperovitch was named Foreign Policy Magazine’s Leading Global Thinker for 2013, an award shared with Secretary of State John Kerry, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

He was the recipient of the prestigious Federal 100 Award for his contributions to the federal information security in 2011 and recognized in 2013 and 2015 as one of Washingtonian’s Tech Titans for his accomplishments in the field of cybersecurity.

Alperovitch is currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center’s Defending Digital Democracy Project and Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council. He currently serves on the Advisory Boards for NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) and RSA Conference. He has previous served on Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) Industry Advisory Board. Alperovitch also serves on the boards of a number of cybersecurity companies, which are part of his portfolio investments.

Prior to founding CrowdStrike, Dmitri was a Vice President of Threat Research at McAfee, where he led company’s global Internet threat intelligence analysis and investigations.

With more than two decades of experience in the field of information security, Alperovitch is an inventor of 36 patented technologies and has conducted extensive research on reputation systems, spam detection, web security, public-key and identity-based cryptography, malware and intrusion detection and prevention. As a recognized authority on cyberespionage, cyber warfare, online organized criminal activity, and cybersecurity, Alperovitch has significant experience working as a subject matter expert with all levels of U.S. and international policy makers, intelligence and law enforcement agencies on analysis, investigations, and profiling of transnational organized criminal activities and cyber threats from terrorist and nation-state adversaries.

He is a well-respected technical and policy thinker on the most difficult global cybersecurity issues, and is a frequent speaker at military, intelligence, law-enforcement, academic and security industry conferences. Alperovitch has published and given numerous talks on the contemporary issues in cybersecurity policy such as cyberdeterrence doctrine, Chinese-sponsored cyberespionage and the use of cyber weapons on the future battlefield.

Links

Connect with Dmitri Alperovitch

Silverado website | Wiki | Twitter | LinkedIn

Geopolitics Decanted by Silverado Podcast

Apple | Simplecast | Spotify

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask the question: Who are You?  What do you want to be? What’s the difference between being and doing? And who better to help us answer those questions that the legendary Minter Dial.

Minter Dial is a B2C Branding Master, having had a legendary career with L’Oreal and the CEO of hair care brand REDKEN. He’s also an extraordinary storyteller; his first two published books be international prize winners. His new book, called You Lead, is definitely a must-read.

If you believe in the power of dialogue to change thinking, you’re going to love everything about this episode.

You Lead

The conversation starts off about Minter Dial’s new book, and how it has brought up several great points as you progress through it. One of the most thought-provoking ones is the idea of being yourself makes you a better leader. This makes sense, as one of the biggest causes of struggle and pain in life and one’s career is trying to be something you are not, just to accommodate others.

Minter explains that one of the issues that bad leaders face is that they probably do not have the proper people skills for the job. That disconnect, more often than not, stems from their lack of awareness about who they are.

“Essentially, there are probably very few good leaders. And the reason for that isn’t that they don’t have people skills, its that they haven’t done the work to figure out who they truly are. My observation is that a lot of people think they know who they are. They might have a broad idea of who they want to be. But they haven’t done the hard work that says more precisely “who I want to be.” “ – Minter Dial

The Ability to be Good

Christopher shares that one of his friends think that his superpower was the ability to go deep in anger. That he was able to embrace and utilize it to make powerful statements, but not let it consume his rationale.

Minter explains that he thinks that people are wired to be good, in general. The reason why we are like that is the need to be together rather than stand alone. The only way that would work is if we are good to each other.

“If you’re an evil person, as a CEO, you might do well in the short term. But as soon as you leave the vacuum that you’ve created, and all the damage that you have sown will cause an impossibility for the follow up act. And so it might be a short term approach. So the bottom line is, I think that we all have the ability to be good.” – Minter Dial

Sure, all people have dirt, a bit of evil and naughtiness in all of us. But it is important to be aware and understand how much of that we should bring to the table. But it’s also not good to hide it all. Showing some of your foils or imperfections shows that you are still human.

Minter Dial on Radical Self-Awareness and Roundedness

Christopher continues with this line of thought, saying that it isn’t radical transparency that CEOs need, but radical self-awareness. To know your own strengths and weakness, so you know what to work on and keep yourself well-rounded. You are also then aware of what you lack, and can surround yourself with people that can fill those gaps.

Minter agrees with this assessment, and adds that sometimes, we tend to exclude people that could attribute to this roundedness. His example for this is journalists. If you’re building a tech team, you’d get the usual suspects: HR, finance, and marketing. But what a bout hiring a journalist? At first, you might think it’s an odd fit. But if you think of what journalists do rather than the industry they came from, they are probably really good at discerning the tastes of the people. They would have to be when writing up articles to entice people to read them.

His point is, learn to diversify in your choices, and it could end up with a more rounded group than you normally would.

To hear more from Minter Dial and how to figure yourself out, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Minter Dial is a storyteller, filmmaker, four-time author and an international professional speaker. After a 16-year international career at L’Oreal, he set off on his own and speaks and consults on Leadership, Branding and Transformation.

He has spoken at prestigious conferences around the world (and now online) to great acclaim. He works with major global brands such as L’Occitane, Google, Samsung, Remy Cointreau, Kering and Tencent.

Among his works, Minter is author and producer of the award-winning WWII documentary film and book, The Last Ring Home, A POW’s Lasting Legacy of Courage, Love and Honor in World War Two (November 2016). The book won the Book Excellence Award 2018 in the category of Biography.

His second book, Futureproof, How to get your business ready for the next disruption (Pearson-FT Imprint), co-authored with Caleb Storkey, bowed September 2017 and won the Business Book Award 2018 in the category of Embracing Change.

His last book, Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence (DigitalProof Press), came out in November 2018. It won the Book Excellence Award 2019 in the category of Technology and was finalist for the Business Book Awards 2019.

His newest book, You Lead, How Being Yourself Makes You A Better Leader (Kogan Page) bowed in January 2021.

Prior to setting up his own ventures, Minter led a 16-year international career with the L’Oréal Group – including 9 different assignments in France, England, USA and Canada.

Among these, Minter was CEO Worldwide of REDKEN, then of the Professional Division for the Canadian subsidiary. In his final position at L’Oreal, he was a member of the Executive Committee worldwide, in charge of eBusiness, Business Development and Education.

Minter’s leitmotif is to elevate the debate and connect people. Sportingly, he’s been a lifelong fan of the Liverpool FC and the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s a dedicated Dead Head, padel tennis aficionado and loves languages.

Links
Connect with Minter Dial

Website | You Lead | Minter Dialogue

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we continue our focus on the current situation in the world and in the United States. Because in times of great change and great uncertainty, we turn to great, though in some cases, counterintuitive minds. Today, we talk to one of the great minds of today, David Sacks.

David Sacks is a legendary entrepreneur, category, and company builder – and now, venture capitalist. He is the founder of Craft Ventures. In Silicon Valley, David is a living legend. You see, he was the co-founding CEO of Paypal, founder and CEO of Yammer, which sold to Microsoft for over a billion dollars. He has been an early investor and advisor to companies like Facebook, Twitter, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, Slack, and so much more. He’s also co-hosting an amazing podcast called All In, which has become one of the most popular dialogue podcasts in the world.

So if you want to listen to the thoughts of this legendary individual, stay tuned to this episode. If you want to check out our past dialogues with David Sacks, you can check them out here.

This episode was recorded on March 29^th, 2022

David Sacks Goes All In

The conversation starts off with what’s new with David, particularly, his relatively-new podcast. David explains that it started out as a conversation pod with his “besties”. It was something they did to pass the time during COVID. Little did they know, it would grow into what it is today.

“It’s been kind of a surprise. We started doing it at the beginning of COVID when we were all trapped in our houses and had nothing else to do. So it’s me and three friends, the four besties as we ironically say, and yeah, we’ve been doing this weekly pod. Amazingly, it’s climbed the charts. I think the new episodes tend to be in the top 30 or 40 podcasts. And it’s done really well.” – David Sacks

David shares that at first, they tried to focus on talking business and markets, as well as private investing in VC. But there was only so much you could talk about that without circling back on itself. So they eventually started talking about current events, politics and world affairs, and how it can affect the world of business.

Having a Healthy Conversation

David muses that what makes them different from other business and marketing podcasts, except for their discussion on current affairs, is that they get to have a healthy conversation. Unlike your typical podcast that has the host and maybe one or two guests to discuss a certain topic, the four of them talk it out amongst themselves, and sometimes even lead to heated discussions. Because it’s not simply an echo chamber, it’s a place where ideas are presented, and confirmed or challenged by the other hosts.

“One of the things people say they like about it is the fact that we can get into debates, vigorous debates about politics, and yet we’re all still friends. There’s that vibe to it. But there’s also people on the show breaking each other’s balls, that kind of stuff. And they like that vibe, too.” – David Sacks

Since it’s the same four people having the conversation each week, each episode feels like a continuation of the last. Which makes you want to listen to it and look forward to the next.

David Sacks on the War in Ukraine

When asked about his thoughts on the current situation in Ukraine, David responds that it can be difficult to say what exactly is happening at a particular time. Despite technology giving us easier access to information, there is just too much conflicting information being touted around.

That said, he felt that some US media is escalating the current situation to the point that as if we are already at the brink of World War III. As a man who preaches for peace rather than an escalation of conflict, David hopes that our politicians and leaders steer clear of the war and help pursue for peace in the region.

To hear more on David Sacks and his thoughts on the current affairs of the world, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

David Sacks is co-founder and general partner at Craft. He has been a successful founder and investor for over two decades, building and investing in some of the most iconic companies in tech. He has invested in over 20 unicorns, including Affirm, AirBnB, Bird, ClickUp, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Lyft, OpenDoor, Palantir, Postmates, Reddit, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish.

David is also co-host of the popular “All-In Podcast” with Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, and Jason Calacanis.

David first got involved in the technology industry in 1999 when he joined early-stage startup Confinity, later renamed PayPal. Serving as the company’s first product leader and then as COO, David built and ran many of the company’s key teams, including product management and design, sales and marketing, business development, international, customer service, fraud operations, and HR. He pivoted the product from beaming money on Palm Pilots to emailing money on the web, and introduced the business model. When the company IPO’d on the Nasdaq in 2002, David was 29 — the median age of the “PayPal Mafia” executives listed on the S-1. PayPal was later acquired by eBay and eventually spun back out into a publicly traded company (under ticker symbol PYPL).

In 2008, David founded enterprise collaboration company Yammer, which was one of the first SaaS startups to apply consumer growth tactics to enterprise software. Yammer’s viral approach made it one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups in history, exceeding eight million enterprise users in just four years. As Founder/CEO of Yammer, David grew the company to roughly $60 million in sales and 500 employees. In July 2012, Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion. It remains one of the fastest unicorn exits in SaaS.

Since Yammer, David has continued to be involved in the SaaS world, with an emphasis on “Bottom Up SaaS,” the strategy he pioneered at Yammer by combining product-led growth with B2B sales. Bottom-up SaaS companies combine the growth potential of B2C with the enterprise budgets of B2B, leading to explosive outcomes when ARR goes viral.

David is well known in Silicon Valley for his product acumen. AngelList’s Naval Ravikant has called David “the world’s best product strategist.” David likes to begin pitch meetings by seeing a product demo.

Links

Connect with David Sacks

Website | Bottom Up | All In Podcast | Twitter | LinkedIn

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

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This is an extraordinary time in history COVID recession, radical social change. The shift from native analogues to native Digital’s increased internal violence in the US and in many other democracies. In times of great crisis, we turn to great minds for deeper understanding and perspective. So, on this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask David Gergen: what’s really going on here in the world?

David Gergen has served as an adviser to four United States President Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and most recently, Clinton. He is the rare political leader to serve his country from both Republican and Democratic vantage points. Professor Gergen also teaches public service, and as the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also the winner of two Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting.

So when it comes to the world of politics, there is no other better suited to make sense of everything that is going on. So if you are interested, stay tuned to this episode.

David Gergen on the State of World

The conversation starts off with David getting asked about what he thought about the current situation of the world today.

David says that it’s looking pretty grim at the moment.

“We’ve just had a cascade of crises over the last 20 years and it is sort of bewildering. How many have hit us? And you know, some have come and gone and some would remain with us. The latest one? Ukraine. I it’s just really hard to see a good outcome in this.” – David Gergen

A lot has happened over the past weeks in the development of the Russian Invasion of the Ukraine, and David shares that it may last for a while until both sides have exhausted their arsenal, like two punch- drunk fighters. But he still hopes that Putin sees reason at cuts his losses, and start accepting peace talks sincerely. Because as it is, their current situation doesn’t only affect them, but the rest of the world as well.

Choosing Sides

When asked about the weird rise of support for Putin from some politicians and celebrities, David agrees that the trend is not mainstream, but it is visible now. He also comments that this line of thought is dangerous, and could only serve to prolong the war, as Putin might continue thinking that he is justified for doing so.

“I think the degree to which people move over to Putin’s hog(wash) will only prolong this war, and very, very likely would politicize it. We will pay a price for that for a long time to come, because we’ll never settle down. We’ll never get back to a smoothly running democracy again, if we keep playing games.” – David Gergen

He adds that we should all double down with our original stance and that is one of morality. Putin is being a tyrant, and we must support Ukraine in any way we can.

On Bush and Biden’s Responses to Crises

David was then asked how he compares Bush’s actions right after 9-11 and Biden’s response in the current Ukraine crisis. He first makes a point that both took a stateman’s approach, which is to protect the United States first and foremost. In Bush’s case, he protected the people of Islamic faith that reside in the US, while simultaneously planning a precision strike on the people responsible for the attack.

As for Biden, he did his best to keep us out of war. He prevented us from being directly being involved by not deploying troops to Ukraine. Now, whether that turns out to be the right decision as a policy, I think is still uncertain. Whether it proves to be the right thing or not will remain to be seen in the coming days.

To hear more from David Gergen and his thoughts on the current state of the world, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

David Gergen is a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, he serves as a senior political analyst for CNN and works actively with a rising generation of new leaders.

In the past, he has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. He wrote about those experiences in his New York Times best-seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

In the 1980s, he began a career in journalism. Starting with the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in 1984, he has been a regular commentator on public affairs for some 30 years. Twice he has been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awards, and he has contributed to two Emmy award-winning political analysis teams.

In the late 1980s, he was chief editor of U.S. News & World Report, working with publisher Mort Zuckerman to achieve record gains in circulation and advertising.

Over the years, he has been active on many non-profit boards, serving in the past on the boards of both Yale and Duke Universities. Among his current boards are Teach for America, The Mission Continues, The Trilateral Commission, and Elon University’s School of Law.

David Gergen’s Work

David’s work as director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School has enabled him to work closely with a rising generation of younger leaders, especially social entrepreneurs, military veterans and Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum.

Through the generosity of outside donors, the Center helps to provide scholarships to over 100 students a year, preparing them to serve as leaders for the common good. The Center also promotes scholarship at the frontiers of leadership studies.

A native of North Carolina, David is a member of the D.C. Bar, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the U.S. executive committee for the Trilateral Commission. He is an honors graduate of Yale and the Harvard Law School. He has been awarded 27 honorary degrees.

David has been married since 1967 to Anne Elizabeth Gergen of England, a family therapist. They have two children and five grand-children.

His son, Christopher is a social entrepreneur in North Carolina as well as an author and member of the Duke faculty. His daughter, Katherine is a family doctor, working with the underserved population at the Boston Medical Center.

Links

Connect with David Gergen

Website | Twitter | Harvard | CNN | WSB

Check out his new book: Hearts Touch with Fire

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