The INSANE Lifestyle of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

You are watching The Story. Every Monday we bring you a deep dive into the fascinating lives of incredible people. The insane lifestyle of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Welcome to ALUX.com! The place where future billionaires come to get inspired. If you're not subscribed yet, you're missing out. Hello Aluxers and welcome back. If you're one of Jack Dorsey's 4.1 million Twitter followers, you might have some idea about how the tech entrepreneur lives his life. But today we're taking a deep look and uncovering all the controversial and sometimes shocking elements of his lifestyle that you may have never heard before. Since co-founding Twitter, Dorsey has become one of the most successful figures in Silicon Valley, but his lifestyle is not one you might expect from a typical billionaire. Today we're telling the story of the insane lifestyle of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. So who is Jack Dorsey anyway? Let me see if I can tell you in 280 characters or less. Just kidding. But of course, Jack is best known as the co-founder and CEO of Twitter. He came up with the initial idea for Twitter when he was an undergrad at NYU and ended up dropping out of college one semester short of graduating. He was only 29 when Twitter launched in March of 2006. He is also a co-founder and current CEO of Square, which offers a device that allows for mobile debit and credit card payments. When Square went public in October 2015, Dorsey owned 24.4% of the company. However, he first became a billionaire in 2012, and today his net worth is just over $5 billion. With that much wealth, you can imagine Dorsey lives a life of luxury, but it's probably not what you'd expect. Dorsey's lifestyle is truly insane, but let's start with the basics. Since 2012, Jack has lived in a relatively modest two-bedroom, two-bathroom San Francisco mansion that cost him $10 million. The view alone is worth at least a million bucks. His home is located on a cliffside with direct views of the Golden Gate Bridge. When Dorsey decided to expand his property portfolio, he didn't look very far. In fact, he bought the house next door. In late 2018, Jack paid $21.9 million for the five-bedroom, three-bathroom mansion that also has breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay. The house had been left vacant for 15 years and needed a bit of work. He's already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on renovations. Where he lives is probably the most luxurious part of his lifestyle. But now let's look at one of the most controversial aspects. It has to take plenty of energy to run two very successful tech companies, and we all know that energy comes from food. So it might surprise you to know that Dorsey barely eats at all. Dorsey follows an extreme diet of intermittent fasting. He skips breakfast and lunch every single day. He eats one meal Monday through Thursday between 6.30 and 9 o'clock at night. From Friday through Sunday evening, he fasts completely and only consumes water. The first time he tried it, he said he was having hallucinations by the third day, but now he says fasting helps him to focus. He also says eating just one meal a day makes him more efficient. When he does eat, his typical meal consists simply of a protein like grilled chicken and vegetables. The only sugar he eats comes from mixed berries, dark chocolate, or a glass of red wine. Dorsey is constantly experimenting with his fasting schedule as well, to see what's most effective, so there are variations in his routine, but he strongly believes in intermittent fasting. Now that we've covered his diet, let's see how he spends his day. Jack always aims to go to bed by 10 pm and wake up between 5.30 and 6.30 am. We know he doesn't eat breakfast, so how does he start his day? Sticking to a consistent routine is very important to him. He begins his day with a cold shower, followed by an hour of silent meditation. On days he has off and in the evenings, he hops into his infrared sauna space, sauna, and sits in temperatures as high as 125 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. He'll then go directly from the heat to a three-minute ice bath in his tub, which is set to negative 37 degrees Fahrenheit. He repeats this hot and cold process up to three times. Before walking out the door, he also likes to drink about 28 ounces of water or a mixture of lemon juice, water, and Himalayan salt. On the three days a week he goes into the office, he walks the five miles to work, which takes him about an hour and 15 minutes. He says this walk makes him feel alive, but what about when he gets to work? Jack works from home two days a week, but Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he walks to Twitter's head offices first. He works there from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., then heads across the street to the square offices. He stays there until 6 or 7. He works at a standing desk and has a near-infrared bulb shining on him, which is said to support cellular regeneration and anti-aging effects. At the end of the day, he takes a lift home and eats his dinner. This is followed by a 7-minute workout and a visit to the sauna. He then fits in up to another hour of meditation before doing some reflective journaling and writing his to-do list for the next day. When he's ready for bed, he monitors his sleep with an aura ring, which tracks his sleep quality and recovery speed. With such a regimented schedule, even Dorsey needs a break every now and then. Let's see how Dorsey likes to escape the day-to-day. As a billionaire, Dorsey can clearly go wherever he wants, so a 10-day silent meditation retreat to celebrate his 46th birthday might seem like a strange choice. In late 2018, Dorsey traveled all the way to Myanmar to practice silent vipassana meditation. The 10-day stretch of silence began the night of his birthday, November 19. He meditated daily from 4.30 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. with minimal breaks. Cell phones and other gadgets were banned, but Jack did hold on to his Apple Watch, which he put into airplane mode and used to track his heart rate. The participants were expected to sit perfectly still and silent and focus on their breathing. Over the 10 days, reading, writing, physical contact, and any form of communication were strictly forbidden. One night, when they were meditating in a cave, he was bit by mosquitoes 117 times in the first 10 minutes. It's definitely not everyone's first choice for a vacation, but Dorsey highly recommends it, saying it brought him to an incredible level of focus and clarity. So what can we all learn from Jack's insane lifestyle? One lesson we can all learn from Dorsey is that the path to success looks different for everyone. Dorsey's lifestyle and his methods for achieving clarity and focus may seem too extreme for you, and that's perfectly fine. You have to figure out what works best for you and your lifestyle. Like Jack, you can make a consistent schedule to follow based on your particular goals and priorities. We don't recommend taking risks with your health just to copy what one successful person has done. Like Jack, you can pave your own unique path with your specific needs in mind so you can perform at your optimum level. And if you want to dive deeper into the story behind how Jack Dorsey and his 3 co-founders launched Twitter, check out the book Hatching Twitter A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal. The book was written by Nick Bilton, a columnist and reporter for the New York Times. He goes into detail about all of the drama behind the scenes of the early days of Twitter. And if you'd rather keep that 25 bucks in your pocket, you can check it out on Audible for free. Just go to alux.com slash freebook and sign up to get the audiobook version for free thanks to our partnership with Audible. While researching his story, we came across this incredible quote from Jack that we'd like to share with you and it goes like this. So many great ideas never get off the ground because those who think of them get overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. Jack reminds us that the most important thing is to just start. You don't have to launch a company overnight, just keep it simple, start small and move forward. Now that we've taken a closer look at Dorsey's insane lifestyle, we'd like to know Do you think Dorsey's eating habits and lifestyle are ultimately good or bad for his health? Let us know what you think in the comments. And, of course, for sticking with us until the end, here's that bonus you're waiting for. Jack was actually ousted as CEO of Twitter back in 2008, just one year after its founding. The reason was reportedly that he was devoting too much time to his extracurricular activities and neglecting his primary duties. He would leave work early and show up to meetings late due to conflicts with yoga, sewing classes, drawing classes, and more. But he was later reinstated as CEO in 2015. Thank you for spending some time with us Aluxers. Make sure to like and subscribe so you never miss another video. We also handpicked these videos which we recommend you watch next. You can talk to us on all social medias or ask a question on our website ALUX.com. Thank you for being an Aluxer and we'll see you back tomorrow.