How to Be on the Right Side of History

This week I attended a webinar from the Founder Institute.

Founder Institute recently launched their Star Fellows program.  The webinar was hosted by Adeo Ressi, Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute and by Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards who is a space entrepreneur and futurist. He is a Co-Founder of the International Space University, Singularity University, SEDS, the Space Generation Foundation and Moon Express, Inc. a space transportation and lunar resources company located at Cape Canaveral, where he currently serves as President and CEO.

The initial statement of that webinar was

There is a once in a once-in-a-millennia opportunity for entrepreneurs to create space-related companies.

Why do we face this unique situation?  The first reason is because of exponential technologies inherent of the age of acceleration and the democratization of space access.  Now with cubesats that cost less than a hundred thousand euros, you can launch your own satellite, vs several hundreds of millions euros for a traditional satellite.

Dr Richards pointed out that the more you go far, the more is becoming challenging.  As a matter of fact, going to Mars is much more expensive and challenging than Earth observation.  He also explained that space is now gaining serious attention from investors.

He stated

“We need 1,000 more space startups!”

What are the various business opportunities where entrepreneurs can start space-related companies?

Near-term opportunities are Earth observation (monetizing pixels), navigation (for all automated machines, cars, drones, …) and telecommunications (connectivity for IoT and M2M applications).

Mid-term opportunities are propulsion, energy storage and any basic utilities that are required for space.  Space debris is also a great problem to be solved. Creating the different software applications is also an interesting niche.  Think for example at the amount of data that must be compressed and transferred to Earth.

Long-term opportunities are the exploration and the exploitation of deep space, i.e. asteroid mining, living, working and exploiting the Moon and planet Mars.

What are the various space challenges that require innovation, and where should entrepreneurs focus?

Astropreneurs must think big but start with near-term achievable goals.  They must have a relentless passion, a clear vision, the right team and a great execution plan.  It is also very important to have the right mentors and the right network.

What are the roadblocks, and how can entrepreneurs position themselves to overcome them?

Regulatory issues are today among the biggest challenges.  Astropreneurs must also have people that believe in them.  Superpreneurs have such mindset.

How to navigate the funding landscape for space related companies. What options are available for space entrepreneurs, and how does one get started?

Astropreneurs can start with some grants from NASA or ESA, and also get on board business angels who are passionate about space.  Some nations are today investing a lot of money in space and are great places to start a space-related company: UAE, Luxembourg, Japan, Brazil.  Dr Richards also mentioned Isle of Man!

VC’s will only come once you are able to show some commercial perspectives.

Dr Richards mentioned that there is now an incubator at Cap Canaveral where he has his premises.  He also said that Silicon Valley remains one of the best places because investors are ready for great ideas.

Everything is possible (under the limits of the laws of physics).  As a superpreneur, think about changing the world, make an impact!

Be on the right side of history.  We are at a milestone of humanity where finally mankind has the knowledge and technologies to colonize the space, have people permanently working and living in space.

Do you want to build a simple social app or do you want to be part of this fantastic adventure?

The answer for superpreneurs is obvious.

Build the world you love!

 

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The Precision Medicine

Yesterday, I attended the HealthCare Summit in Luxembourg.  This was interesting to know a bit more about a subject that I don’t know very much, i.e. the Precision Medicine. Precision Medicine or P4 Medicine means for Personalized, Predictive, Preventive and Participatory.  The idea is to have

The Right Therapy for the Right Patient at the Right Time

This requests to collect a lot of data:

  1. Clinical data (analyses, imagery, …)
  2. Research (studies, tests, …)
  3. Behavior (social media)

Bio-data-scientists collect all those data, and using Big Data techniques, doctors can adapt the therapy to each specific patient.  In the future, thanks to the progresses of nanotechnology, nanobots, i.e. robots designed at the molecular level, measured in microns (millionths of a meter) will have myriad roles within the human body.  They could for example reverse human aging.  This could of course also be achieved thanks to genetic engineering.

This leads Dr Catherine Larue, CEO of the Luxembourg Institute for Health to say

“Tomorrow we could have a world without disease!”

Another amazing development is Digital Operating Rooms for surgery operations.  The idea is to have a fully digital operating room and one can imagine having the surgeon being in the US while the patient is in Europe for example.  Worldwide specialists could then intervene on some serious cases without the need to transport either the patient or the surgeon.

Last but not least, there is today a need to have applications and services aggregating all the data coming from therapists, hospitals, wearables, fitness trackers, … so that the info can be used optimally.  Eventually, in the future, wearables will be coupled with micro-devices able to instantaneously inject drugs into your body to prevent some illness, stroke or other disease.

We are still at the early beginnings of this new medicine, and I will update in my next posts.

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The Founder’s Dilemma

Recently I met several founders and the discussions were around the so-called Founder’s Dilemma.  This refers to this famous Harvard Business Review’ s article back in 2008.

Does the founder want to become king or rich?  While there are some exceptional entrepreneurs succeeding to build a huge wealth while keeping almost full control (think about Bill Gates, Elon Musk, …), for the vast majority of others, leveraging their business with external investors is a must.  This is why I strongly believe that becoming rich is better than staying king.  As I often say

it’s better to have a small share of a big company than to keep a big share of a small company

Now, what does this mean for superpreneurs?  As superpreneurs, we want to solve some of the world’s biggest problems using exponential technologies.  We want also to explore deep space and allow the human kind to live permanently into the space.  To achieve such ambitious challenges, I give you an advice:  bring on-board bold investors that share your passion and your ambitions.

It’s good to have money, because running out of cash is the fastest way to have your dreams being stopped in the middle of the road.  But think that you are starting a long journey.  Your soul purpose is not just to create immediate wealth, but sustainable wealth and let something big for the next generations.  This is why you need to carefully select your financial partners and investors.  They must share your vision and your dreams, so that they will still be there even when you face major problems.  Because, believe me, your journey will be hard and you will face major issues.  But the ultimate goal is worth, really worth!

Depending of the stage of your venture, try to get on-board business angels at seed level and VC’s or industrial partners at series A level.  Focus on people or organisations having some experience or expertise in your market or in the exponential technologies you want to use.

A final note about industrial partners.  A good one can be a strong enabler and accelerator.  Your partner will immediately open the doors of a market or will give you access to a technology or an infrastructure at preferable conditions.  However, most of the time, they will ask you some kind of exclusivity.  Even if the exclusivity has some limitations (time or geography), generally I recommend to refuse the exclusivity or to grant it after some ‘trial’ period during which you can test your industrial partner and see if they really bring something on the table.  Indeed, some large organisations just want to take participations into promising startups to somehow stop or limit them by excessively control them.  For these incumbents, it’s a smart way to stop potential disruptors.  Hence, be careful with industrial partners and be sure what is their long term strategy, do they share your vision, are they willing to disrupt themselves with your help?

The Founder’s Dilemma will be one of your most difficult question to solve in order to go far and build something extraordinary.

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Do you really have a breakthrough idea?

As a mentor and as a business angel, I meet a lot of founders.  All of them are convinced to have a breakthrough idea and that they are going to generate a multimillion company, if not an unicorn that they will sell over 1 billion.  The reality is far less different.  In order to challenge them, I like to use 2 different check-lists.  The first one is described Josh Kaufman into his excellent book ‘[amazon_textlink asin=’1591845572′ text=’The Personal MBA’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’superpreneur3-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’be4cfb78-487c-11e7-a512-41674a09539c’]’

This first checklist is helpful in identifying the overall attractiveness of your project: urgency, market size, pricing potential, cost of customer acquisition, cost of value delivery, uniqueness of offer, speed to market, up-front investment, up-sell potential, and evergreen potential.

You have to rate each of the 10 factors below on a scale of 0 to 10, where zero is extremely unattractive and 10 is extremely attractive. When in doubt, be conservative in your estimate.  You may ask friends to help you so that you get a ‘neutral’ rating.

  1. Urgency — how badly do people want or need this right now? (Renting an old movie is typically low urgency; seeing a new picture on opening night is high urgency, since it only happens once.)
  2. Market Size — How many people are actively purchasing things like this? (The market for underwater basket weaving courses is very small; the market for cancer cures is massive.)
  3. Pricing Potential — what is the highest average price a purchaser would be willing to spend for a solution? (Lollipops sell for $0.05; aircraft carriers sell for billions.)
  4. Cost of Customer Acquisition — how easy is it to acquire a new customer? On average, how much will it cost to generate a sale, both in money and effort? (Restaurants built on interstate highways spend little to bring in new customers. Government contractors can spend millions landing procurement deals.)
  5. Cost of Value-Delivery — how much would it cost to create and deliver the value offered, both in money and effort? (Delivering files via the Internet is almost free; inventing a product and building a factory costs millions.)
  6. Uniqueness of Offer — how unique is your offer versus competing offerings in the market, and how easy is it for potential competitors to copy you? (There are many hair salons, but very few companies that offer private space travel.)
  7. Speed to Market — how quickly can you create something to sell? (You can offer to mow a neighbor’s lawn in minutes; opening a bank can take years.)
  8. Up-Front Investment — how much will you have to invest before you’re ready to sell? (To be a housekeeper, all you need is a set of inexpensive cleaning products. To mine for gold, you need millions to purchase land and excavating equipment.)
  9. Up-Sell Potential — are there related secondary offers that you could also present to purchasing customers? (Customers who purchase razors need shaving cream and extra blades as well; buy a Frisbee, and you won’t need another unless you lose it.)
  10. Evergreen Potential — once the initial offer has been created, how much additional work will you have to put into it in order to continue selling? (Business consulting requires ongoing work to get paid; a book can be produced once, then sold over and over as-is.)

When you’re done with your assessment, add up the score. If the score is 50 or below, this is not good and perhaps you should consider to skip and work on another project. If the score is 75 or above, your idea is then very promising — you can go full speed ahead. Anything between 50 and 75 has the potential to pay the bills, but won’t be a home run without a huge investment of energy and resources, so you will need to plan accordingly.

The second check-list is due to Peter Thiel in his best-seller book ‘[amazon_textlink asin=’0804139296′ text=’Zero to One’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’superpreneur3-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9851d0bf-487d-11e7-9d61-d56147506b48′]’

1. The Engineering Question
Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
2. The Timing Question
Is now the right time to start your particular business?
3. The Monopoly Question
Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
4. The People Question
Do you have the right team?
5. The Distribution Question
Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
6. The Durability Question
Will your market position be defensible 10 or 20 years into the future?
7. The Secret Question
Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?
If you answer seriously and honestly to both check-lists, I can guarantee you that you will avoid any waste of time starting a project around an idea which is not really a breakthrough one.   Why to work on a breakthrough idea?  Because in the age of acceleration, being a superpreneur is a must.  Everything goes too fast, and there is too much disorder.  Being average shall not solve the biggest problems the world is facing.  Superpreneurs want to make an impact and they have a MTP, a Massive Transformative Purpose.  You can read more about this into [amazon_textlink asin=’1626814236′ text=’Exponential Organizations’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’superpreneur3-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a5dd6b0b-487e-11e7-990d-697f9cb540a1′].
A final note: don’t be disappointed if you fail in one or both tests, and if you have to stop the project of your life.  Perhaps you can pivot and by changing the market, the business model or using exponential technologies, still make it happen, but then make it really breakthrough!
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Smart Cities to Live a Better Today and Build a Better Tomorrow

This week, I attended an event in Luxembourg about Smart Cities.  The Smart City concept results from the convergence of disruptive technologies in communication, energy management, connectivity and mobility to improve daily lives in cities.  One important goal is also to manage cities in a perspective of sustainable growth.

When we speak about smart cities, let’s talk about smart communities

stated Emile Eicher, President of Syvicol.  According to him, the Smart City results from an intelligent combination of communication, IoT, smart mobility, waste management, shared economy, smart living … and must lead to a better access to education, health and information.

Nina Wilson, CEO of Vodafone Procurement, based in Luxembourg, which was one of the event’s sponsor, said

Live a Better Today and Build a Better Tomorrow

So, what would drive the development of smart cities is the willingness to transform our lives and business within the perimeter of the city, which is the place where everyone wants to live in this age of acceleration.  Indeed, the rate of urbanization has increased everywhere, and especially in emerging countries.  For example in China, where the rate of urbanization increases massively in the last decades.  India, with a rate of 30%, is still low, but will increase hugely in coming years.

As a matter of fact, in developed countries, the rate of urbanization is very high, and the Smart City concept is then aiming to improve our daily lives and better use the city resources.

Ludovico Fassati, Head of IoT Vertical Market Development at Vodafone, stated that

Smart City is a IoT Ready City

He also presented the 3 levels of a Smart City

  1. Building the Smart Infrastructure
  2. Creating Smart Spaces
  3. Empowering Smart Citizens and Lifestyle

This requires to use the digital tools and data to improve efficiency, control security and citizen engagement.

The challenges are multiple but the following 3 ones are the most urgent ones:

  • Data management is complex and requires a high level of investment
  • IoT and access to data requires a high level of security

With respect to both challenges, Luxembourg is already going in the right direction with the creation of a HPC (High Performance Computing) centre facilitating data storage and date access through the cloud.  They have also recently announced the creation of a fund of 200m€ dedicated to cybersecurity.

No doubt that Luxembourg will then play an important role in Smart Cities in the coming years.

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About The Necessity To Change The Education System

This week I attended an interesting event about EdTech, i.e. the digital transformation of the education system.  As of today, developed countries allocate 6% of their GDP to education.  This is significative. In France, Simplon is a coder factory with a social purpose.  They mainly target young people that are unemployed.  Their results are quite impressive and some students who don’t like school and stopped their studies, get educated in a few months while it would take minimum one year with traditional studies.  Most of them find a job afterwards.  Besides such kind of initiatives, MOOC and other online education are also becoming more popular.  However, online education does not provide interaction with the teacher, so some platforms offer human interaction sessions when students are blocked on some specific subjects.

As I already mentioned in previous posts, I strongly believe that entrepreneurs shall transform the world.  Faced to the challenges of the Age of Acceleration there is an urgency to act on the new generation, kids up to 10 years old, and create a new generation of superpreneurs. Young entrepreneurs that are bold, smart, ready to solve the major problems on the planet and beyond (deep space exploration).  Young entrepreneurs that are cautious about the big geopolitical and environmental challenges.

By 2050, we will be 10 billions on Earth.  This number may seem huge.  But actually, if each person stands on a pod of one square meter, the whole human kind could actually stand on the surface of a country of the size of Lebanon!   Hence, demographical expansion is not a problem in the coming years. The major problem is the use of the resources and the optimal distribution among the populations.  There is then a urgent necessity to change the education system and create that new generation of entrepreneurs, technologists and politicians that will build a world which has more coherency in terms of resource allocation.

This is a major challenge! EdTech could play a vital role in that perspective.

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Space Forum 2017

This week, Luxembourg hosted the Space Forum within the framework of ICT Spring event.  It was a great success.  First half-day was dedicated to space communications.  It appears from the different presentations that satellite operators must evolve their role from a pure provider of bandwith to a value-added partner offering solutions for multimedia/video, broadband access and IoT/M2M applications. New emerging markets are needing such solutions like smart cities, smart agriculture, aero-connectivity (drones and flying cars) and more generally connected vehicles.  5G shall play a crucial role and it appears that a viable commercially and technically solution is already happening.

Second half-day was focused on data fusion.  As of today, a lot of data is available from Earth Observation.  Moreover, in the Age of Acceleration information is ubiquitous.  Faced to this big data, there is a crucial need to aggregate all kind of data, and by using AI (deep learning) to offer added-value services for decision makers: predictive analysis using earth observation, tweeter feeds, macroeconomic data, etc … This is what Earth Lab, a promising Luxembourgish startup is working on.

It was also made clear that we are converging to some new data science using different technologies like AI, data analytics, quantum computing, neural networks to offer on-demand economical services.  There are opportunities for superpreneurs to create bold companies proposing such services in order to solve sustainability, demographic and megacities problems.  Big data science could also be used to offer location-based services.  Imagine for example to be delivered goods and services to exactly where you need them and how you need them!

There were also discussions how to integrate IoT with satellites.  There is a new world of possibilities: connecting remote assets (unmanned sites and offshore platforms for example), sensor networks in energy and mining applications, transforming transportation infrastructures (on-board mobility services), developing sustainable cities (better usage of resourves, safety and security) and connected vehicles.  However, as of today, several bandwidths and standards are used.  What about then the interoperability?

Second day was about planetary defense (how to protect the Earth against the risk of a collision with an asteroid?) and space mining.  Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company, and ispace, the company participating to the Google Lunar XPrize, having both offices now in Luxembourg, made a presentation.  But the great news came from Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, who announced the creation of a Luxembourg Space Agency and a Space Fund of 200 millions€ so that Luxembourg become much greater in space than on Earth, and that

“Luxembourgish shall become the official space language”

Another fascinating presentation was made by Off World.  They are developing a new generation of industrial robots to do the heavy lifting on the Moon, asteroids and Mars.

Last but not least, Virgin Galactic made an update about their commercial space flights.

As a conclusion, after those 2 days, it was made clear that the space race is on track again, and next challenges are 2-fold:  first of all, use space data to improve our daily lives on Earth, secondly, explore deep space with the ultimate goal to go on Mars.  This requires to master the exploitation of space resources, in-orbit manufacturing/servicing, space transportation and space stations.  A lot of work and opportunities for bold superpreneurs!

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The Superpreneur Mindset

In my previous posts, I explained that among all skills required to be a superpreneur, super-efficiency, boldness and smart thinking are probably the most important ones.

But all these qualities are not sufficient without the superpreneur mindset which includes the following core values:

  1. Not accept the status quo
  2. Strong desire to reshape the world
  3. Change how things are done
  4. Improve our society
  5. Make life on earth better for the next generations
  6. See a world of abundance rather than a world of scarcity
  7. Use and master exponential technologies
  8. Have a long term vision
  9. Be customer-centric
  10. Don’t be afraid about risks if the ultimate goal is important
  11. Create wealth with a 10x thinking

In future posts, I will explain each of those core values.  But for now, I would like to say that it’s unfortunate not to train at school such mindset to kids.  I don’t like generalities, but my feeling is that  education is today too much conventional and not disruptive at all.  Are we preparing our children to live in a world of acceleration?  Do they know what can be achieved thanks to exponential technologies?  Are they solid enough to work tomorrow in a globalized world?  Are teachers explaining the new geopolitical forces reshaping the world and the new powers that are emerging?  And last but not least, are our kids aware that climate changes are going to be worst and worst if we don’t collectively act today and urgently? But most importantly, are they trained that, with the correct mindset, using the exponential technologies and by developing the appropriate skills, they can become superpreneurs and impact the future?

I believe that it’s our mission to create a new generation of superpreneurs that will be able to tackle the most crucial problems, find solutions and create a better future for everyone.

If any reader is involved in education programmes, I would be happy to hear their comments.

 

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Cloud Supercomputing

I’m just back from NAB Show in Las Vegas.  While the show is mainly focused on the broadcast industry, I noticed a few interesting news around cloud supercomputing.  In fact, several companies are presenting solutions to process large amount of data within the cloud.  The processing power may be managed by different kinds of processors like CPU, GPU or FPGA.  The latter one is getting a lot of traction and seems a perfect solution for such kinds of applications.  NGCodec, a promising startup located in Sunnyvale, California, was presenting an innovative VR solution where the computing is located in the cloud.  NGCodec and Celeno have actually joined their forces to deliver a Wireless and Cloud Virtual Reality (VR) solution using NGCodec’s RealityCodec™, a low delay H.265/HEVC encoder IP core, paired with Celeno’s 5GHz 802.11ac WiFi. RealityCodec enables wireless and cloud VR by replacing the now-ubiquitous HDMI cable with a video encoder to transmit video via WiFi. Celeno WiFi’s dynamic channel-switching capabilities circumvent problems that arise when the spectrum becomes busy. Together, the result is 0.4% (250:1) video compression without the use of HDMI cables and with no perceived latency. NGCodec enables an untethered VR experience, which delivers higher fidelity and longer battery life than traditional mobile VR. When low latency 4.5/5G and fiber networks are available, the same solution can be deployed to deliver a Cloud VR/AR/MR experience.  A FPGA is used in the cloud to encode the signal, and another FPGA is used at the reception site to decode the signal and then coupled with the VR glasses.  This technology is supported by Amazon Web Services which is a pro fan of FPGA capabilities in terms of supercomputing.  NGCodec is a member of the Origami Ecosystem launched by the Belgian startup Image Matters, in which I’m involved.  Image Matters develops and commercializes electronic modules based on FPGA.  While most applications are in the field of video processing for various markets (broadcast, medical, earth observation, …), Image Matters modular technology has also numerous opportunities in cloud supercomputing.

I will follow up the developments in that area and will provide updates in future blogs.

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Inspiring Rules for Superpreneurs

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis (www.diamandis.com) is the famous author of Bold and Abundance.  He is also a superpreneur and amazing innovator.  A good picture about him is given by Tim Ferriss in Tools of Titans.  Peter Diamandis is one of the co-founders of Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company in which the Luxembourgish government invested.  Peter has a set of rules that should be an inspiration for any superpreneur.  You can download the 28 Peter’s Laws here.

I would like to detail some of them that can really help you to build breakthrough companies and impact the world.

“Rule # 3: Multiple projects lead to multiple successes”

While we have often been told to focus to one project at once, I am on agreement with Peter Diamandis.  Look for example at Elon Musk.  He didn’t find any company able to launch rockets at affordable costs, and then he created SpaceX.  He could not find any electric car that he would love himself to drive, so he created Tesla.  He is using many top-notched and innovative manufacturing techniques developed for SpaceX for the manufacturing of Model S and Model X.  He also founded SolarCity and you can recharge your car using solar energy in your home.  Hence, working on multiple projects can actually lead to multiple successes, moreover if the various projects are part of a global strategy.  In the case of Musk, his long-term vision is to establish a permanent basis on planet Mars, and all the technologies developed in SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity will be required at some point.

“Rule #17: The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!”

The creation of Planetary Resources is the perfect application of this rule.  Mankind has always dreamed to live in the outer space.  But how to achieve it?  Peter and the other co-founders of Planetary Resources have a simple but bold vision.  Let’s extract the resources required to build equipment, machines, living spaces, … directly from space.  In particular, the asteroids have thousands of tons of the minerals and other materials that we need.  Thanks to 3D printing, a fascinating exponential technology, it is then possible to build anything we want directly into space.  In-space manufacturing is at early stage today but it will be a major area in coming years.  In one sense, we can state that the founders of Planetary Resources are creating themselves the future!

“Rule #20: If you think it is impossible, then it is … for you”

This rule should be the motto of any superpreneur.  If you want really impact the world and create something extraordinary that can solve big problems we are facing today, then yes, probably, many people think that it’s impossible.  Tim Ferriss tells it differently

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do”.

Don’t we think that war will always exist because fighting is deeply anchored in the human nature?  The survival crocodile brain …  Well, perhaps, but why some superpreneurs could not create Universities/Schools that learn the peace?  War is teached in military academies.  But why peace could not be teached too?  Why is it impossible to train a new generation of super diplomats that are master in peace?

Google, Airbus and many others are working on flying cars.  Imagine a world where there is no traffic jam any more, simply because we use the third vertical dimension in addition to the current 2D earth surface with the roads.  Impossible should challenge you, as a superpreneur, rather than stopping you!

“Rule #22: The day before something is a breakthrough it’s a crazy idea”

When I was a child I loved to watch Star Trek.  Do you remember Captain Kirk and his team using a small pocket phone where they could see each other?  This was certainly a crazy idea in the sixties.  A few decades later, Steve Jobs created the iPhone and everybody said that it was a breakthrough idea.

“Rule #27: The world’s most precious resource is the persistent and passionate human kind”

Elon Musk spent 10 years before having his first successes with SpaceX.  He was persistent and passionate.  I had the chance to participate in the mass digitalization of the cinema in Europe through a Belgian startup, and we took almost 7-10 years before really become a sustainable large company.  We were persistent and passionate.  I should probably add persistence and passion together with super-efficiency, boldness and smart thinking as prime qualities/skills to be developed by any superpreneur.

Another interesting set of rules which can inspire superpreneurs are the Google Innovation Rules, as follows:

  1. Focus on the user
  2. Share everything
  3. Look for ideas everywhere
  4. Think big, start small
  5. Never fail or fail well
  6. Spark with imagination
  7. Be a platform
  8. Have a mission that matter

Rule #1 points out the importance of the user experience.  You can have the best idea but it will be useless if the user experience is miserable.

Rule #2 is the essence of the sharing economy.

Rule #3 is just nothing else that cultivating curiosity, open-minded spirit which is prevalent in the globalization characterizing the age of acceleration.

Rule #4 is another way for the [amazon_textlink asin=’0887306667′ text=’Law of Category’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’superpreneur3-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6d4d4a0d-26e4-11e7-86d9-49bd123a40a3′]

Rule #5 admits that if you do not fail often, you are not trying hard enough

Rule #6 points out the importance to be super creative and this shall ignite breakthrough projects.  This is very like Peter’s Law #22

Rule #7 argues that anything should be a platform.  It’s true that most of the biggest business successes today are built around a platform.  Look at the GAFA companies. Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are all platforms.  However, I bet that some tomorrow major successes will not especially be platforms.  Think for example at Planetary Resources mentioned earlier.

Rule #8 is nothing else that any superpreneur should try to impact the world.  Larry Page, Google’s founder, said it once very clearly

“I now have a very simple metric I use: Are you working on something that can change the world? Yes or no? The answer for 99.99999% of people is ‘no’. I think we need to be training people on how to change the world.”

As I hope you should now understand from my blogs, a superpreneur is someone who would answer ‘yes’ to Larry Page’s question!

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