The story

Possibility doesn’t generate itself. It’s created in conversation.

Every one of these was a moment in a conversation. A moment where something was said, and the next ten years reorganized around it.

1. I haven’t forgotten about you.

   Andrew Rasiej, walking out of the New York Sports Club

   I’d taken a job at a gym on purpose, to be around people who were up to something.

2. If you can make that happen, go for it.

   Michael Dorf, Andrew’s partner in the first New York Music Festival

   Right before making me Online Director. more to the story…

3. Do you know how to get to Tribeca?

   A stranger walked past eight million people to ask me a question, and it stopped me in my tracks. It was the moment I knew anything truly was possible. more to the story…

4. Sorry, but I gotta do this.

   Me, to Adeo Ressi, after a call from a 408 area code

   Out of every opportunity that came from the festival, I’d picked Adeo. We were a few weeks into his second website client, one of the first consumer electronics sites on the web. Then Apple called.

5. Yeah, you should come to Apple.

   Duncan Kennedy, Manager of Apple’s Interactive Music Group

   I wasn’t interested in the job. What sold me was what he said about the place: we only hire really smart people, you build lifelong relationships, you do really cool stuff.

6. Put this on the Internet.

   Ray Muldaur, MIS Director of the Television Academy

   Handing me a coax cable three days into my job at Apple.

7. Razorfish, Los Angeles

   I helped Richard Titus grow the office from 13 people to 75 in a year.

8. Napkin to net in 100 days

   I helped launch David Pakman’s first startup.

9. I want to learn that song on my guitar so I can teach it to my kids.

   Henry Poole, cofounder of CivicActions

   After the first time I ever played music in public. Years later we built the Balance Score together.

10. We have a job we think you’d be perfect for.

    Aaron Pava, cofounder of CivicActions

    I came in as a resource advocate and left as CEO. more to the story…

11. See what you can do with this.

    Michael Hoffman, CEO of GatherVoices

    Handing me an introduction to ChildFund International. I prototyped a moderated video messaging service.

12. 84 deliverables

    Operation Stand Down Tennessee walked out of one 24-hour Design-a-thon with 84 finished campaign pieces, the most we ever produced.

13. A forest is not scenery. A forest is infrastructure.

    Freddie O’Connell, Mayor of Nashville

    On the permanent preservation of 300 acres of Nashville’s Highland Rim Forest.