“ When I was a young kid there was a widowed man who lived up the street . He was in his eighties . He ’ s a little scary looking . And I got to know him a little bit . I think he may have paid me to mow his lawn .
One day he said to me , “ come on into my garage I want to show you something .” And he pulled out this dusty old rock tumbler . It was a motor and a coffee can and a little band between them . And he said , “ come on with me .” We went out into the back and we got some rocks . Some regular old ugly rocks . And we put them in the can with a little bit of liquid and little bit of grit powder , and we closed the can up and he turned this motor on and he said , “ come back tomorrow .”
And this can was making a racket as the stones went around .
I came back the next day and we opened the can . And we took out these amazingly beautiful polished rocks . The same common stones that had gone in through rubbing against each other like this ( clapping his hands ), creating a little bit of friction , creating a little bit of noise , had come out these beautiful polished rocks .
That ’ s always been in my mind my metaphor for a team working really hard on
something they ’ re passionate about . It ’ s that through the team , through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other , having arguments , having fights sometimes , making some noise , and working together they polish each other and they polish the ideas , and what comes out are these beautiful stones .”