#29 - Jack Dorsey On The Books That Helped Him Succeed

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Hey, this is Craig Cannon, and you're listening to Y Combinator's podcast. Today's episode is with Jack Dorsey, and it's from our 2013 Startup School. This is my favorite Startup School talk ever, and if you haven't read The Art Spirit, which is one of the books Jack mentions, I highly recommend it.
So quick note on the audio, it is a little bit rough in this one. I think it's still worthwhile to listen to, but if you'd prefer to read the transcript, that's at blog.ycombinator.com. All right, here we go.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:28)
Wow, this is a huge, huge crowd.
Well, thank you all for having me. Thank you for your time. I'm going to do something a little bit different, something I've never really done before, which is simply read to you from some books that have helped me along the way, helped me along the transition, helped me get started, but also helped me through many things. And there's so many lessons in these books. And please, if you get a chance, buy them yourselves and read through the entire things. But I'm going to give you some highlights and some of my experience with the passages. The first book is a book called The Art Spirit by Robert Henry, who was a painter, and I know there's a lot of affinity for painters in these parts. This is about creativity through the lens of an art student. And I'm going to read it through my phone because I could not find a bookstore that would sell me a paperback version of this today.
So, we're going to bring up iBooks. It starts off, art, when really understood, is a province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, anything. Well, it is not an outside extra thing. When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it. He shows there are still more pages possible. And I think that's so telling for everything that you all are about to do, all the challenges you are about to face. You are going to be the ones that open the book. The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful with him. For he is interesting to himself, and he is interesting to others. He does not have to be a painter or a sculptor to be an artist. He can work in any medium. He simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside of it. And one of the biggest lessons that I've learned throughout my career is how important the work is. How important not just the end product is, but the actual craft, doing the work, inventing within the work.
The work of the art student is no light matter. Few have the courage and stamina to see it through. You have to make up your mind to be alone in many ways. We like sympathy as humans, and we like to be in company. It is easier than going it alone. But alone, one gets acquainted with himself, grows up and on, not stopping with the crowd. It costs to do this. If you succeed somewhat, you may have to pay for it, as well as enjoy it for the rest of your life. And that's something, if you do something meaningful, you are going to have to pay for it in all the work. But at the same time, you will also be able to enjoy it for the rest of your life. We are not here to do what has already been done. Everyone in this room feels that. We are not here to do what has already been done. Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established.
These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. They can help you. All the past can help you. And I think in Silicon Valley, and especially in technology, it's so easy to fall in the footsteps of others, to do what they do, because you think it's the right way, because you think they've had the success, and you can copy that success. You have to find your own path. You have to find your own footsteps. An art student must be a master from the beginning. That is, he must be the master of such as he has. By being now master of such as he has, there's promise that he will be a master in the future. And what he means by this is purely you have to be a master of your own tools. That master is not a destination. It is a process, and it's constant practice that gets you there. It is not enough to have thought great things before doing the work. We have so many ideas, but what really matters is the work to implement those ideas.