Before reading this book, I knew very little about Biz Stone except that he and some other smart people started Twitter. Now it’s like he’s my sensai. While the book is chock full of behind-the-scenes intel on the making of Twitter—which is really cool to read about knowing how wildly successful the app is today—it’s as much a guide to how to live your life. To say that I was inspired by this book is an understatement.

There are some great anecdotes about the early days of Twitter, when their servers kept crashing and they became the laughing stock of the tech world. Biz describes the meeting with Mark Zuckerberg who wanted to buy Twitter. And how Square was invented by an ousted Twitter CEO. There’s endless trivia about the “fail whale,” how hashtags came about, why a tweet is 140 characters long and more.

But the biggest takeaways for me are these:

By remaining politically neutral and partnering with Product (RED) and DonorsChoose.org, Biz Stone built Twitter into a brand that stands for the greater good. “Technology is the connective tissue of humanity. Designed right, it can bring out the good in people.”

“If you look past the grind, you will find truths about how and why you get up in the morning, and what infuses color into the black-and-white of reality.”

Trust your instincts, know what you want, and believe in your ability to achieve it. Create your own opportunities. “If opportunity is just a set of circumstances, why are we waiting around for the stars to align?”