leadership advice. from a young ceo who's never been a follower to a silicon valley fixture, former yahoo chairman of the board, maynard west. plus, the key to curiosity and the study of horseshoes with economist gary smith. our reporters jake ward from al jazeera and barron's john schwartz. this week, on "press:here." >> good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. when you think of a silicon valley start-up ceo, you usually think of someone like the fictional richard hendrics, the ceo of pied piper in the hbo

show "silicon valley." brilliant but entirely inexperienced in leadership. an engineer who found himself an administrator for the very first time. this morning, the opposite scenario. robert, ceo of start-up message bird, the fellow in the beard, has never not been a ceo. he founded a string of start-ups and took leadership roles in each of them, meaning the leader of message bird's employees has never himself been an employee. i thought it was so interesting, robert might want to expound on that. robert, the ceo of message bird, a company that splits its employees between silicon valley and amsterdam. i have your resume, ceo of message bird, ceo of zeipay, and then you ran a television show, and before that, you ran a car wash. do i have that right? >> that's about correct.

>> tell me about the car wash. >> um, it was a very simple business. i was about 12 or 13. so it was a long time ago. and i, you know, used the soap and car wash stuff from my mom, so i didn't have a lot of cogs, which was good, and i actually split the money i made with the kids in the neighborhood. so all i really did was the marketing. >> see, that's what i'm getting at. that's what i'm getting at. every kid decides, hey, i'm deg to sell lemonade or shine shoes, but what you then did is got employees and you did the marketing. pretty much a fair assessment? >> i had a good tag line. good and cheap. it resonated well. >> to my point, you have never essentially not been the boss. has it ever caused you any trouble as far as understanding how to be the boss? >> i wouldn't say trouble. it's complicated. to me, you know, i focused a lot

on raising the bar every day, raising my own bar and learning. i think the number one thing i have had to learn is that effective leadership isn't about command and control. which is something i definitely started out with, but more around giving and gaining trust to the employees. and fortunately, i have the ability to hire people that are smarter than me. and i have, i think, a talent for inspiring people and getting them onboard with my vision. i guess that saved me from my less educated leadership skills. >> did you ever want to be an employee? have you ever fancied the idea of working for someone else? >> yeah, for sure. you know, i often thought that missing some of -- i don't know what it's like. you would want to know what it's like. >> you might think it would help you as a manager to know what the rank and file wants or what their concerns are? >> for sure.

but i think that, you know, i'm in the situation that i am, and i surround myself with people that are other leaders and are respected leaders, and that way, i sort of learn from them and try to do my best every day. >> to john's question, if you were offered a prestigious job, vice president at google or something like that, do you think you could take it? do you think you could be someone down the org chart away? >> yeah, i wouldn't see a reason why not. >> my scenario is what happens if your company required you, offered an outrageous amount of money from apple or amazon, would you be willing to be part of a larger structure? i know it's an extreme hypothetical, but nonetheless. >> i mean, it's interesting. being acquired is really like a silicon valley thing. i'm from amsterdam and we think about it differently. in the valley, people think about exit strategy, the same month they're starting their company, so that's not really at

top of mind for me, but yeah. i think i would be -- >> high quality problem. >> right. >> you can deal with it, right? >> you know, i think i would be good. i think being a good employee is about being super motivated, ambitious, thinking big. those are things i do as a ceo and they are things i would do as an employee of a big company. >> also feels like that thing of being able to deal with having people who work for you who are smarter than you is a vital part of working in tech at all. do you find that at all difficult? because to be the leader, you have to have confidence in yourself. but at the same time, you have to say i'm not as smart as she is. she should be making this decision instead of me? >> for sure, the number one thing i learned is the business skills that i don't scale. and to make sure, when we were a small start-up, you know, i was doing everything. i was, you know, making the product, inking the deals, taking out the trash. today, we're a global company

with five offices. it's becoming more and more hard to do that stuff. you have to focus on finding people that are specialists in what they do, and that way, we can sort of have the business grow. >> how do you know you're doing a good job? do you ask your employees to rate you? do you have a board where you go to them and ask if i'm doing a decent job. who makes sure you're doing a good job? >> so, that's definitely changed. we boot strapped for the first six years. we didn't raise any outside capital, so my board meetings were very lonely, me watching the mirror. >> good job, buddy. >> you're good enough, and gosh darn it, people like you. >> you're doing great. >> today, different. we raised $60 million from excel, one of the best investors, with the largest round ever for a european start-up, so it's good to put the pressure on. they're very smart people.

>> you get a lot of suggestions from them? >> yeah, for sure, but also the employees. the thing is, our retention rate of employees is really good. people stay, they apparently love their job. we haven't done 360 reviews yet. we're about to implement that, both for like the mampgers throughout the org as well as for myself, so that will be a good learning moment. but you know, right now, they want to work at the company, i must be doing something right, and the company is growing, so i must be doing okay, and the board is happy. >> we have about a minute left or a little less. what is the one takeaway -- what's something you learned along the way about leadership that you didn't know? because this has been a learning experience for you because your first job, you didn't know how to be a leader. >> you know, there's really, like, there's so many things i have learned along the way. i think, you know, to me, there hasn't been a number one thing i learned. i try to take away as many learnings from people that i

meet every single day. sort of take that one thing that i think is effective. like the other day, one of the board members at excel told me that if i'm up at night writing that e-mail because something went wrong with product or we're working on a deal, and he said, you know, before you write the e-mail, you should think about in a year's time, is that going to be worth it, writing that e-mail? and i thought about that for a while, and i was like, that's really good advice. i think about little advice like that and sort of combine them into one. >> staying open all the time. >> staying open all the time. >> robert, the ceo of message bird. we appreciate you being with us. >> we'll continue our discussion with maynard west, former chairman of the board of yahoo, now on salesforce and visa, when "press:here" continues.

welcome back to "press:here." in our very digital world, our next story starts with a book. a very special blue book handed out to only the most deserving. a collection of letters to founders. letters doling out advice, jealously guarded, books printed individually in a little print shop in san francisco. and handed from tech insider to tech insider. get your hands on that book, and you have your hands on years of wisdom from maynard webb, a longtime silicon valley veteran and investor. i know how you can get that secret book. webb has a change of heart and

has decided to publish the secrets for anybody to read. meaning the secret book of wisdom is now at barnes & noble or at amazon. maynard webb sits on the boards of directors at visa and salesforce and was chairman of the board at yahoo. thanks for being with us. >> nice to be here. >> it's in letter format, which i think is interesting. i opened randomly to page 107. dear founder, if you're reading this letter, you're probably struggling with your business strategy and execution. it goes on, signed maynard. then the next one and the next one. why letter format? >> this is all my son's idea. he read an article on medium about a father who was dying. and wrote a number of letters to his son. to help him through his life. and there was one about when you have your first fight with your mother, read this. she's having problems as well. and it went on, when you have your first date, when you get married, on and on. then the last one is when you're

about to die, and you open it up and it says, well, i hope you're old. and anyway, he said, you know, dad, we help our companies all the way through stages. think about companies like a life cycle, and he said we always are looking for ways to codify this. we thought this was a beautiful way to catch it, whether you're a start-up -- >> because you don't have to start at page one. >> right. >> if you have trouble firing somebody, go here. >> or if you read the whole thing, that's great, but then you go back to it when you're in those moments when you need it. and some of our founders told us, you know, i wish i had this when i started the company, but now this late piece of it, i need a lot more. and the brand-new babies that are getting started don't need the later stage. so that's how we -- >> a lot of these letters were culled from your experiences at yahoo? >> all of them. they all have real stories underneath it that we are not trying to throw anybody under

the bus. we're here to help people. but they come from real life examples. so they're sometimes visceral when you talk about what you think you should do. >> it feels to me like there's a new set of skills that certainly the people who run very successful companies in your world are having to deal with in terms of teaching a certain whatever it is, philosophical culture to their employees. having to get up in front of congress sometimes and defend their work. are those skills addressed at all? >> some. we didn't cover getting in front of congress. this book was already in the works. but all -- look, i think being a ceo in today's world, whether you're at a start-up or at a big company, is more complicated than ever. and we cover a lot of those complications in the book. how do you inspire people, how do you make sure from the start you handle diversity and inclusion? which as you know in the

start-up world, needs a lot more work. how do you handle activist investors when you get bigger? those are things that weren't around a long time ago. >> is there a particular letter or letters that you think offer the most cogent or best advice? i saw some in there where you mention it comes down to people. never run over your team. >> yeah, well, when i started, the letter that i most wish i had read is when you need to know that anything is possible. because i probably didn't have my bar set high enough. i think when your board is driving you crazy, it would be a good place for ceos to go to look. when you missed your first quarter, you know, when you -- like, there's a lot in there, but i think that for me, it's all about people. and how you motivate and inspire them and how you don't keep people that aren't contributing and how you scale. >> maynard, i mentioned you were the chairman of the board at yahoo. give me the timeline.

fred omaroso had resigned and marissa mayer is ceo. is that -- >> well, i joined in 2012. when they told me there would be no drama because the old board was leaving. >> they lied. >> yeah, i wouldn't say that. things changed. let's put it that way. so i joined in 2012. and scott thompson was on board right about that time. and then he left. >> that is a whole half hour by itself. >> scott is a friend, and he resigned. and we had a settlement, and we had a new board. and my prize in that was they asked me to manage the committee. i'm like, that's high on my list of things i always wanted to do. i thought i was helping on product and tech. but anyway, pretty soon thereafter, we hired marissa. i led the committee that had to

get her compensation package done, which was quite a fun deal, and four days later, we announced her, and fred was the chairman. and off we ran. then fred stepped down. >> okay. and you become chairman. >> and they asked me to be the interim chair. anybody that really wants to be the chairman, you probably don't want to have them. want them to be the chairman. but i was asked to take over, and then i did that for until the final year of yahoo when i became the chair emeritus. >> we could spend a whole half hour -- >> we don't want to do that. >> i want to ask the question, what's the thing in which you said, you know, i wish i had done that? where was a pivot point there in which you think, or do you think you handled it continuously well, as best you could? you had a pair of 2s when you were dealt your cards. >> we had a market that still is exploding, and we had competitors that were way ahead of us, so that's not a good place to start.

and we felt great about hiring marissa and trying to do a fresh start with all of that, but i think we couldn't get past this big stake in alibaba that we had that was worth way more than the core business. and we had all of our people and all of our time focused on the core business, but our investors were focused on that. so that's why we had to break it apart. and let yahoo fight to live another day with all those great people in verizon's hands, and have them take care of the financial assets. >> that's right. for you, i mean, i look now at this landscape of ceos who are facing all kinds of weird problems, never mind having to get in front of congress, but i think about elon musk. and i'm not sure what letter covers his situation in your book. but it feels like -- >> that would be a new chapter. >> a whole new chapter. >> what advice would you give him? >> first of all, i think elon is

amazing. notmany of us in our lives have been able to create as much innovation as he has done. and we need to celebrate that and congratulate him on that. and then we need to make sure that he can focus on tesla and get it to be all it can be, because he's doing heavy lifting on all that, right? and i think it's good that he settled with the s.e.c. versus having a protracted long fight, and that he's going to still be the ceo. i think tesla is better with him than without him. and i wish him nothing but the best. >> it makes me realize, there is all of this drama in just the idea that you aren't allowed to publicly go blameless, which is a big issue for him. that that stuff ends up being as port as compensation and the s.e.c. >> more. like, there is no -- we all learned this early in my career, that once you're a leader, there's a different standard. >> yes. >> but in today's world, that's

24/7 by anybody walking by you. there used to be places you could relax, whether it was at a ball game or anywhere else. today, you're always on. >> i can think of another leader that we could probably give that advice to as well. 24/7, you're a leader. maynard webb is the author of dear founder. >> the horseshoes, houses, and hurricanes when "press:here" continues. a look back at one oft destructive wildfires to hit the north bay. the residents ) road to recover. plus- ?what should be in your )go bag ) if you )re toldo get out?! our consumer team prepares you for the worst. monday morning from 4:30 to 7.

welcome back to "press:here." the best thing about being a tv reporter is you get to ask why all the time. it is one of the best jobs you can have if you never outgrew being 5 years old. another good job to have if you're super curious is economist. dr. gary smith is much like me, asking why about just about everything. for instance, he studied the game of horseshoes and found there is such a thing as a hot streak. he studied real estate to see if house prices can predict bubbles. he's even studied whether hurricanes with feminine names are more dangerous. gary's latest interest is in artificial intelligence and why people seem to trust computers' decisions when they may not trust a human's. gary got his ph.d. in economics from yale, he's an economist professor now himself and the author of 80 papers and 12 books.

thanks for being with us this morning. i have to go back to the hurricane thing. feminine hurricane names more dangerous? >> there was this famous paper published in the national academy of science or some darn thing and it claimed female named hurricanes were more dangerous. they went back and looked at hurricanes with female names and male names and it seemed to be true, except the problem was that all hurricanes used to have female names, and back in the old days, there was no warning system, so they were more deadly because there was no warning system. >> i'm fascinating when statistics, when you say california has more people in poverty, which is terrible, than any other state, but we also have more people named steve than any other state because we have a lot of people. there are lots of little statistics that people throw out which you have to say, hold on a minute. >> it's a lot of fun to pop some of those balloons. >> it feels like the artificial intelligence that you're writing up is a case in which those

statistics give rise to these conclusions using automated systems, but those -- i think the technical term is confounds. these confounding patterns produce ruls that are not true but look very true. >> the other thing is, back when i was first starting out, this thing called data mining which is you look at a butch of data, you ran, you find some correlations and you thing you found something. unencumbered by ideas, logic, theo theory, common sense, wisdom, you found a pattern and that's enough. when i was starting out, that was considered a sin, and to be accused of data mining was like being accused of majorism. and one of the sayings was if you torture the data long enough, it will confess. nowadays, data mining is a virtue. >> it's everything. >> you go through and find these correlations and think they're meaningful. the truth is you look at any data set, you can always find correlations, even among random

numbers. you can't tell whether they're meaningful just because it's there. there's all those crazy correlations like the amount of beer consumed in the u.s. and the number of marriages. does drinking lead to marriage or marriage lead to drinking or is there some coincidental correlati correlation. >> like most people who eat carrots will eventually die. >> a number of lawyers in nevada and number of people who kill themselves by tripping over their own two feet. you find all these ridiculous correlations. when the computer comes back with one, you think computers are smarter than us, so we have to trust the computer. >> we're giving our decisions to the computers. >> that's the danger. computers are doing really crazy stuff. you'll apply for a loan, and the computer says we checked your phone, and you answered your phone really quickly. that's a bad predictor of paying off your loans. >> i kid you not, there are ones doing that. >> i didn't make that up. >> there are industries saying we can predict things like -- you didn't make that up.

i can't remember who it is, but i want to say somebody is working on something in which, okay, you have no credit history, but based on your behaviors, we can tell whether you're going to pay back a loan or not. he said it's possible they're torturing the data and going about it the wrong way. >> admiral insurance was going to price car insurance based on words you use on facebook. and they said, we don't stick to any constant set of words. the correlations come and go. which means they're totally transitory, but they were going to do it. the day before they launched, facebook stepped in and said we have some clause, 34-c, you're not allowed to do that. but facebook has its own algorithm so they're probably going to do it at some point. >> i'm in the midst of writing a book that follows in the footsteps of the dilutions you wrote, and one of the problems is coming up with a good solutions section. because one of the classic solutions we think about when we think about complicated

situations, is make them more transparent, but even the people who bild a.i. systems have no idea how they work half the time because they're just producing statistical results in a way that is totally impenetrable. >> you have these black box algorithms. and the most popular ones right now are the deep drone networks and they come up with some recommendations, and they work beautifully, but for other things like whether to sell your car insurance, whether to give you a job, who knows. nobody knows what's inside that black box. >> so what should we do here? >> i don't know. >> i'm reassured a little bit. >> how do you get the deep drone network to understand what it's doing? >> when it comes back and says you don't get the job, i don't know. >> in this information age, is there just too much data? how do we corral it or harness it and put it to better use? >> the thing we need to keep in mind is the human, the common sense, the wisdom, the logic, the theory.

so when it comes back and says you don't get a loan because you answered your phone too quickly, we shouldn't say, oh, computer says it, computer is smarter than us, they must be right. we say what the [ bleep ]. >> yeah, we'll have to bleep that out. let me ask you with about 30 seconds left, you seem to like popping bubble. a lot of your research is based on calling other people's research that word you used a second ago. do you enjoy that? >> i think it serves a useful purpose. it is fun, but it serves a useful purpose. people put things out there that are poppycock or possibly harmful, somebody needs to step up and say it's not right. >> dr. gary smith is the author of "a. impi. delusion" and we appreciate you being with us this morning. "press:here" will be back in just a minute.

that's our show for this week. my thanks to our guests and thank you for making us part of your sunday morning.

damian trujillo: hello and welcome to, "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today we celebrate 50 years of the chicano student movement. some activists are on our show on your "comunidad del valle." male announcer: nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. ♪ damian: we begin today with a day of empowerment. it's called the women of impact. mary beth riley is a principal at notre dame high school in san jose and astrid dominguez is a senior there at the same school. welcome to the show. both: thank you. damian: all right, so tell us first of all about notre dame. i guess the idea is to empower young girls to become the leaders of tomorrow. mary beth riley: yeah, that's right. we have been here in san jose since 1851. we're the oldest private school for young women in the state of california.