Ahmed Badruddin

I’m neck deep in work. Behind where I want to be and more work piling than I know how to handle. Staying up late, waking up early, the typical, inhuman hours. Two days ago I was on Amazon ordering a book on jQuery to learn more about jQuery. I had to order one more book to qualify for free shipping. I have a very long wish list on Amazon but I wasn’t feeling very excited about reading any of the books on that list, which is unusual. I found an interesting book called “How Breakthroughs Happen” by Andrew Hargadon. Both books arrived today, and despite my busy schedule I began reading “How Breakthroughs Happen”. I couldn’t put that book down. I think it is a must read for startups, engineers, entrepreneurs, designers, managers, scientists, and students.

I think part of the reason I fell in love with the book instantly was how relevant it was to me, doing an an early stage GreenTech startup. The book shatters myths on innovations, explains the difference between invention and innovation, analyzes prior technological revolutions as well as companies that changed the technological landscape. Even though it’s now 4AM, I feel so energized after having read the book and want to share some of my favourite excerpts from the book.

• Innovation is as much social as it is technical
• Technologies are formed of tightly coupled arrangements of people, ideas, and objects. Innovation is a process of taking apart and reassembling these elements in new combinations
• It is one thing to know of a technology. It’s something different to know how to apply it, what else it can do, and how to adapt it to new settings
• In 1900, the automobile industry was in its infancy. There were fifty-seven firms devoted to building cars in the United States, and those firms built 1,681 steam-powered, 1,575 electric-powered, and 936 gasoline-powered vehicles. At the time, owning a car was an extravagance afforded mainly by the rich. By 1905, however, the industry was taking shape, offering glimpses of what it might look like when it matured. in those five years, for example, the design standardized around the internal combustion engine, reducing understainty on the part of entrepreneurs, investors, and potential owners alike. And by 1906, Henry Ford knew the direction the market was going: “The greatest need today is a light, low-priced car with an up-to-date engine of ample horsepower, and built of the very best material… It must be powerful enough for American roads and capable of carrying its passengers anywhere that a horse-drawn vehicle will go without the driver being afraid of ruining his car”. He wasn’t the only one with that vision. The idea of a low-cost car was no different than the idea of a low-cost computer today. The problem, like today, was building one.
• A closer look at the origins of mass production reveals the role of recombinant innovation at the Ford Motor Company. Ford invented neither the automobile nor the technique he used to mass produce it, but he did bring these ideas together in a way no one else had before
• Flanders and Wollering stayed long enough to show Ford the value of dedicated machine tools for the production of accurate parts at high volumes, but not so long as to set in place their old understanding of how to use them. [They left after 2 years at Ford]
• Too many times entrepreneurs have attempted to walk in the footsteps of Edison, Ford, or whoever – determined to be as boldly individualistic as history tells us these long geniuses were. But they weren’t. What set them apart … is the recognition that innovation requires not just a new idea (built from combinations of old ones) but also the collective effort necessary to make that new idea work. Innovation requires building a community of like-minded and wholly committed individuals who see their shared future in the success of the emerging technologies and industries

So today I got my favourite junk mail of all time. It was from signed by FBI Director Robert Mueller on behalf of the FBI’s Anti-Terrorist and International Fraud Division. Apparently the FBI is helping me transfer $800,000 to my bank account from some lottery I won outside the US.

All they want is for me to write a check of $500 to an obscure gentleman because of all the costs the FBI incurred while investigating this money transfer for me.

Man, that is so nice of the FBI.

I was recently contacted by Microsoft Hohm to write a guest blog. Here’s a link to my blog entry on their site, where I talk about the role of Design thinking in energy efficiency. Check it out!

http://blog.microsoft-hohm.com/news/10-02-17/Design_Thinking.aspx

Towards the end of every year, I do a recap of how the year went and plan what’s next for me. In my annual planning, I spend a lot of time thinking about my personal goals and breaking them down by career, health, social, community, self development, and financial. A lot of that has been taken by learnings from books by Steven Covey and David Allen. I then make a powerpoint presentation, with slides for each area, goals, action plans, accountabilities, schedule, the whole nine yards. I don’t share that powerpoint with anyone. Once all my goals are locked, I just go at it, and perhaps look at that powerpoint file once every 2-3 months. This allows me to focus on execution through most of the year and allow life to take its course after I have defined the initial direction.

This has served me well in the past few years. I look back at 2009, and it’s been a great year. What I am most proud of in 2009:

Towards the end of 2009, I sat down to think about the next year and how I was going to push myself even further. This was also at the same time I was really getting interested in Green/Clean technologies – technologies to help us become more energy efficient and sustainable. It started off as something I was just interested in and would tweet about here and there, to something I got really passionate about and started going to green networking events and organizing my own GreenTech Panel event, to something I would think about day and night. I began to see so many possibilities and ways software and technology can be used to increase energy efficiency and optimize energy consumption.

Somewhere  deep in those thoughts, the entrepreneurship bug bit me. My childhood dreams of starting, owning, and running a company were reawakened and they took over my 2010 planning. My 2010 plan was condensed into the following statement - To Dream, Dare, and Deliver. Dreaming of possibilities, daring to go after them, and delivering on them.

Dreaming in itself isn’t enough. Without action, we can’t realize our dreams. Hence, the need to dare. It takes a lot of courage to quit a great job and comfortable life to start a company. That first step requires tremendous strength and conviction. Daring by itself isn’t enough either. Strong planning and execution is required to go from where you are when you take that first step to where you dream to go. Therefore, the need to deliver. And that has the most unknowns because there are so many factors beyond your immediate control.

I think there are a lot of opportunities to build novel technologies that can improve people’s lives and reduce their carbon footprint. Over the next few blogs, I will write more in depth about the problem space I am targeting and at a high level, some solutions I have in mind. As people are becoming more environmentally conscious, the market is shifting and our culture is evolving. Every change and evolution creates new business opportunities and unfulfilled consumer needs. I want to be part of that first wave of solutions and innovations that will transform how we consume energy.

I am excited and scared at the same time. Excited because there are plenty of opportunities out there. Scared because there is an equal number of ways I can fail to realize my dreams. I don’t know how I will fare but I won’t know unless I try. What excites me is impacting and creating value for society. Ultimately, that is how we will be remembered, how we build the legacy we leave behind. When we create businesses, we create jobs, we expand the economy, we satisfy a customer need, we create value.  It’s real. And one of the best feeling is taking an idea and bringing it to life. There was a time when people risked their lives to open new frontiers of knowledge and sciences for mankind. We have evolved to a point where the amount of risk we have to take is far less than what our ancestors had to take. We don’t risk religious or political persecution anymore when trying to innovate or proposing new ideas and ideologies. Taking those times as a baseline, we’re fortunate to live in the times we do, and have the opportunities we do. We have little excuse not to take some risk to seize opportunities.

I will be moving back to Canada to start the company which I am excited about. However, this has been the toughest thing I have had to do. I made some of the best friends I have ever had in Seattle and I really love Seattle for all that it’s given me. I’m sure I will visit many times, there are many memories attached to this city. The plan is to start heading back sometime in March.

I am also aware of the sacrifices needed to live the life of a tech entrepreneur. I will live a more frugal lifestyle. I will barely get sleep. There will be many emotional ups and downs. I might fail and lose all my life savings. But.. it will be worth it because of my strong belief in the following:  as long as you work hard, love what you do, and create value for others, good things will happen.