“There is an inherent optimism that Silicon Valley represents. Innovation is inherently interesting because it is changing the status quo and it's forcing you to reimagine what the world could be.”— Bret Taylor  Bret Taylor has had a remarkable career as a tech entrepreneur. He founded FriendFeed, one of the first social networks, co-created Google Maps, served as the CTO of Facebook, and is currently the President and Chief Product Officer at Salesforce.   On this episode, Bret takes us through his career from his first company as a teenager to his various businesses and subsequent acquisitions. Bret started off developing web pages for small businesses at the age of 16 before heading to Stanford where he would fall in love with the power of technology.  “I saw the optimism of the technology industry as well as the excess of it. There was a lot of opportunity but after the dot com bubble, it was kind of refreshing because the people who remained were really devoted to the innovation and not just business opportunism.” Bret learned of Google’s Product Manager Program from Marissa Mayer, his friend from Stanford and fellow teachers' assistant, and took the opportunity to learn invaluable skills that would later come full circle in his current role. Now at Salesforce, Bret serves as President and Chief Product Officer where he’s introduced countless innovative ideas, including the companies’ Associate Product Management Program, similar to the one he participated in at Google years prior.  Today, Bret shares more details on the Associate Product Manager Program, talks innovation in the Valley, and shares his journey from entrepreneurial teen to President of Salesforce. — P.S. We have a new giveaway this week! Thanks to our partner, b8ta, we will be giving away five Luxome Weighted Blankets! Enter the giveaway at www.mission.org/giveway for a chance to win! — Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right!