There are people who want the comfort and structure of a job where they're given tasks and told what to do. I think it's actually a minority of people. The majority of people don't want that, but I'd say that the companies I've built are full of people with something to prove.
Mark Pincus
I believe in the opportunities for social gaming. It's overlapping with mobile gaming and lots of video gaming, but it's still different. It's all getting more blurry as hardcore games and console games talk about being social.
The overall tectonic shifts that are going on in games and more broadly in media are that everything is moving to becoming free, social, and accessible. But we're just at the beginning of that. We can get to a day where short-session play can enhance, if not replace, text messaging as a way to stay in touch with people.
My approach is that you have to earn the respect of people you work with.
Even if I'd wanted to work at Goldman Sachs, they weren't going to hire me, because I was saying things like, 'That's a dumb question' when I was asked something stupid in the interviews. I just didn't have a lot of respect for authority.
I still believe that we can offer you a much deeper, more engaging, more compelling play experience on a PC than we can on a mobile device, but one can enhance the other, and one can expand the other. I don't think they necessarily will compete with each other, just like how we find a place for movies in our lives, and TV and radio.
We're busy people; we need media that's multitask-able. I want games I can play while I'm watching television. 70% of Americans are on the Internet while they watch TV. We all multitask now, and we need media to reflect that.
In my early career, there were more negative lessons than positive ones. But I don't think I was looking for the positives enough.
I seek out a lot of advice from other CEOs.
About every other week, I sit down with all of our new Zynga hires and I talk to them for about 90 minutes, have an open Q&A. There is no formal presentation. I talk about our values, where they came from and why they are so important, and I ask them to challenge those values.
The strength of your company is how wide a variety of people can be successful in it.
I've grown a lot, and I'm learning every week.
We need a modern people's lobby that empowers all of us to choose our leaders and set our agenda. Imagine voting for a president we're truly excited about. Imagine a government that promotes capitalism and civil rights.
From the beginning... I wanted to build a company that could sustain not for two years or four years or even ten years but be something that really matters over time the way Amazon and Google and others have.
I think we live in a unique time - the verbs that make up our online and mobile lives haven't been completely invented or imagined for us. That was kind of a life path I was on.
People were hanging out in these places, and just like at cocktail parties, they needed something to do together. I thought, 'How can we fit games into someone's life?'
The art of it is, the more we can bring complex game mechanics to a mass market, the more engaging the games will be. But at the same time, we have to simplify everything: the mass market has a lower attention span; they're not seeking that experience from the outset.
I regularly encourage employees to break rules. I also say to employees that leadership starts with complaining and dissatisfaction. But it doesn't stop there. It comes from saying you're dissatisfied with something and then fixing it and making it better for everybody.
Zynga made social gaming and play a worldwide phenomenon, and we remain the industry leader.
I got involved early on in social media - I created one of the first social networks - and for me, social gaming was a natural evolution of that.
I think you're defined as a company by what you choose to do and what you choose not to do.
Clearly as you move to being a public company, probably even more than growth, there is a huge value based on predictability.
I need to aspire to be a great CEO and not just a great product engineer.
I've been good at product entrepreneuring.
You can manage 50 people through the strength of your personality and lack of sleep. You can touch them all in a week and make sure they're all pointed in the right direction.
I like to bet on people, especially those who have taken risks and failed in some way, because they have more real-world experience. And they're humble.
In a world of shared data services, where you have third-party networks selling ads on your behalf and displaying them in real time to your users, it's very difficult for you to control everything.
My only agenda is, I would like to see mainstream America more empowered to set an agenda.
As an entrepreneur, you can have an instinct, and your instinct is right, but your idea you're substantiating that into is wrong, and the world is not ready for it.
I'm fearful the Democratic Party is already moving too far to the left. I want to push the Democratic Party to be more in touch with mainstream America, and on some issues, that's more left, and on some issues it might be more right.
The more you can be self-aware and honest about yourself, the more you can cultivate that in other people.
When I entered the workforce, I was frustrated. When you're starting your career, somebody else is 'The Man' or 'The Woman.' They go into a room and make the decision, not you. You don't feel empowered. I wanted to break through that.
It takes sometimes years in the market to get the tuning to the right place where your game is as compelling at level 100 as it was at level 10.
I think I give myself high marks being an entrepreneur and entrepreneuring a big idea about how popular social gaming could be. But I learned a lot of hard lessons on the CEO front... and do not give myself very high marks as a CEO of a large-scale company.
I think it is rewarding to manage, but it is not what I am passionate about. Managing more than 200 people, maybe 150 people, isn't fun to me and is not my skill set.
You are as good as your product. When you are used and loved by everyone, your brand equity is high. When you are not, you're not.
There are people who have formed guilds in 'World of Warcraft' who may have played together for years before actually meeting, but because of the adventures they had together, they formed really deep-rooted friendships.
It's okay to be misunderstood - as long as you're not misunderstood by your consumers.
There's a lot of opportunity for game developers to show value to people, things they want to spend money on. I think offers are just another kind of ads.
I was in banking because it was high-paying, intense, a real meritocracy, and the afterwork part was fun, but I found everything to do with banking so boring.
I really thought to myself, 'If I'm going to do anything in this world, I am going to be the best I can be.' I have a tennis coach that has taken me as far as my body can go. I hired a private skiing coach during my birthday week. I have a private yoga instructor. I just don't understand why you wouldn't give yourself every advantage.
Video games and outdoor sports - that was my childhood.
When you go to our political system, I feel like it's intentionally kept in the last century. In every other facet of life, we turn to social media for instant response time, complete transparency.
I just don't feel respected in the political process as a large donor or as a citizen voter. I just feel patronized. Everything I get is like, 'Hey, you couldn't possibly - it's too complex and sophisticated what really goes on,' and, 'Hey, leave it to us, and we will go and represent you and fight the good fight, and just give us money.'
We can't wait until elections to fight for what we care about. We can't hope for a benevolent leader who may choose to listen to us. We need a network that lets the best ideas and leaders rise to the top through an open, inclusive democratic process.
