CLARA SHIH

Like many of my fellow entrepreneurs, I didn't create Hearsay Social with my co-founder Steve Garrity because it would be fun and easy, but because we're at our best when faced with enormous challenges.

Listen more than you talk.

My entire life, I have viewed every problem as an opportunity - I've had no choice.

Technology may be traditionally perceived as a male-dominated industry, but it won't always be that way. Every day we see more and more powerful women leaders boasting outstanding achievements.

The whole point of social media is continuity and continual engagement.

As entrepreneurs, we must constantly dream and have the conviction and obsession to transform our dreams into reality - to create a future that never existed before.

Technologies and specific vendors may come and go, but massive cultural transformations and new kinds of relationships? Those don't go away.

I wrote 'The Facebook Era' because I felt like it needed to be written, and I was one of the people who might be qualified to do so. Specifically, my background is that I developed the first business application on Facebook.

Social networks particularly will tend to converge and consolidate over time, especially because they're inherently governed by network effects. So the bigger ones will just get bigger, their value will multiply exponentially, and the smaller ones will become less and less relevant.

Social media teams can and do launch clever campaigns, but game-changing Social Business initiatives are typically driven by management teams.

The most important thing I've done at work has been to surround myself with amazing people who I trust and empower fully to do stuff better than I could.

My high school, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, showed me that anything is possible and that you're never too young to think big. At 15, I worked as a computer programmer at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab. After graduating, I attended Stanford for a degree in economics and computer science.

The immigrant experience had a profound effect on me. It taught me the importance of hard work and the value of being entrepreneurial.

If there can be three certain things in life, instead of two, it might be death, taxes, and data.

'The Facebook Era' articulated a radical vision for how social media would transform media, relationships, and influence, creating new opportunities for businesses in the process.

Social media isn't a one-way broadcast; it's a multiway opportunity for dialogue.

I don't watch TV or movies or play video games.

Companies can't delegate social media to the new college grad and think they have it covered.

Though decisions regarding work/life balance are important and vary widely from person to person, it may not be wise in the long run to optimize for doing the bare minimum at work.

Many companies talk about customer success, but how many actually put the customer first above all else, always?

Social media provides the modern-day version of mystery shopping and walking the halls.

I was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the United States with my family when I was 4. I spent most of my childhood in Chicago. My elementary school had no program in English as a second language, so I was placed in a class for students with speech impediments.

The need for strong partners and employees persists throughout the life of a company, but it is especially important in the beginning.

Rather than wringing our hands about robots taking over the world, smart organizations will embrace strategic automation use cases. Strategic decisions will be based on how the technology will free up time to do the types of tasks that humans are uniquely positioned to perform.

Looking back at my first job, even when I was asked to do something seemingly menial, unglamorous, or very difficult, I always went all-in. In my most trying moments with managers I liked the least, I did not give up, complain, or slack off.