Jack Dorsey Almost Worked For Facebook (FB) And Is Kind Of A Cold Backstabber: Book

Jack Dorsey almost took a job at Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB). He is kind of a self-promoter. He’s also sort of a back stabber. And he’s definitely got a Steve Jobs complex.

At least that’s what you’ll get from “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal,” New York Times reporter and columnist Nick Bilton’s upcoming book, excerpted on Wednesday in the New York Times Magazine.

After he was pushed out as CEO of the microblogging service that he co-founded – emphasis on “co,” as the piece illustrates that Twitter was born of a few collaborative brainstorming sessions – Dorsey toyed with a move to Mark Zuckerberg’s camp. But not before embarking on a media blitz that allowed him to paint himself as Twitter’s mastermind, even though he’d been reduced by co-founder Evan Williams to a toothless executive, bereft of any real power outside the realm of public opinion.

Indeed, Bilton closes his excerpt with a quote from a former Twitter employee, who said: “The greatest product Jack Dorsey ever made was Jack Dorsey.”

Around this time, the New York University dropout, who once sported punky T-shirts and a nose ring, pinned down his look: white buttoned-up Dior shirt, blue jeans, black blazer. Add to that the clear-framed sunglasses he wears in many of his posts on Vine, the video-sharing service launched by Twitter in January.

His signature poker face in each Vine video is telling, too.

In Bilton’s piece, we meet Dorsey the betrayer, who secretly calls for the ouster of lesser-known co-founder Noah Glass, then goes to drink with him at a bar and pretend that he knew nothing of Williams’ decision to fire him.