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Bruce is European Vice President Twitter and was UK Managing Director of YouTube in its infancy.
His book: "The Joy of Work", is a Sunday Times bestseller, and “Eat Sleep, Work Repeat”, has been the UK most listened to business podcast.
Bruce grew up on a council estate in Birmingham. He started his working career in fast food restaurants to help him pay to become the first member of his family to ever go to university. After dozens of rejections, Bruce landed his first career role by taking a gamble and drawing a cartoon CV of his life.
20 years on, having worked in radio and magazines, he’s made his way to work in technology firms like YouTube/Google and Twitter. Today now runs Twitter’s business in Europe.
Bruce is passionate about happiness at work and workplace culture (and runs a podcast on this very subject: eatsleepworkrepeat.fm).
Show Notes
We wished we'd had longer with Bruce. He's a brilliant demonstration of what you can achieve if you truly understand your strengths. He seems very able in many areas but what sets him apart is his ability to understand and therefore reach his audience. He seems to always find a way to stand out from the crowd and when he doesn't, he persists. Bruce is a people person through and through. We talked about:
- His frustration with Greenpeace*
- Working hard but not compromising on his 8 hours sleep.
- Why he shies away from telling people he works at Twitter when on holiday
- The different hierarchies of Birmingham and London
- His period working for Capital Radio, the Fawlty Towers of media
- The cultural power of 'companions at love'
- The benefits of being a trouble-maker
- Discovering he was the third poorest kid at school
- Studying Economics because he wanted to solve injustice*
- Why Bruce's next job will be an eco-warrior
- How his mum encouraged him to work hard at school
- His prolific letter writing
- The influence comics played in his career
- His ability to get noticed*
- His super-skill of persistence
- How Bruce backs himself
- How Bruce always looks for the fast lane
- How to go from 'bottom of the class' to 'top of the class'
- Bruce's time at YouTube and his approach to promoting YouTube in the early days
- How he's unafraid of rejection
- 'The Joy of Work' becoming Sunday Times No. 1 best seller and how it was not an accident
- How the tyranny of numbers affects your relationship
- How comparison can lead to unhappiness
- How stress has become the operating system of modern-day work
- The increasing importance of creativity versus Our increasing inability to be creative
- How the science of open plan offices reduces face to face communication and increases emails
- Why he looks to create a climate rather than direct
- The problem with appropriating US norms
- His interest in the compelling science of laughter and how it can save your life
- How our fear of being judged leads us to become more agreeable and less authentic
- The importance of finding the kid within
Creators & Guests
Host
What is LifeDoneDifferent.ly?
Do you wonder whether there’s another way?
Another, more creative, more meaningful approach to living your life. Well there is and there’s a growing movement of people from all kinds of walks of life who are proving that the way we end up doing what we do in life is often a side effect of external forces. Rather than a deliberate, conscious and authentic set of choices that have come from you and your unique needs. What are you chasing? Success? Safety? Fame? Fortune? Recognition?
Have you stopped to think recently why you’re doing what your doing with your life? Are the stories that you're creating today the ones that you hope your grandchildren will be telling to their children? Are you creating your legacy?