What Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" quote & Jesus have to say about innovation & thought leadership

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Not too long ago, I came across one of Brené Brown's masterful TED talks where she referenced Theodore Roosevelt's famous "Man in the Arena" quote: (re-posting here since it's great prose)

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

In the last few years, you may have noticed there's a growing trend for top technologists publishing books related to their craft as a way to achieve thought leadership in their respective fields. Makes sense:

Many are the challenges of being heard in an increasingly noisy, Internet driven marketplace of ideas.

There's nothing wrong with writing books of course (I read them avidly as it turns out), but there's a fundamental disconnect between "thought leadership" and innovation. As Brené Brown puts it:

"Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change."

While putting Roosevelt and the queen of vulnerability together might seem antithetical, they do make the same point:

Innovation (or any change for that matter) requires risk.

Thought leadership as it turns out is about building your personal brand and establishing your credentials. You need other thought leaders to broadly share your insights and to present yourself as an expert. Controversial ideas, authenticity, and vulnerability can and often do get in the way of establishing your brand. As it turns out:

Risk (and innovation) is antithetical in many ways to the current model of thought leadership.

What do you do? There is no right answer, but for me the answer was stop worrying about appearances, enter the arena, and that means becoming vulnerable. I have given up the safety of a securing a middle class lifestyle by leaving a lucrative job and re-learning how to code in order to build an unproven software platform that no one may ultimately pay for until proven otherwise. At the same time, I get to watch our family's savings dwindle along with the prospect of a comfortable retirement.

Jesus also has something to say on this topic:

Matthew 6:25 "Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes?" 

I thought about this quite a bit earlier this year as we laid my mother to rest. At the end of my days, will it matter to me how much money I made or how comfortably I lived? No, what will matter is the impact on those around me, and how I tried to improve the world, be it successful or not. So for me, the question of should I focus on writing (note this is my first post in months) or coding is clear:

I choose to code.

I have faith that if I work hard enough for long enough, it will be enough. It's a work in progress though. It was hard when I quit coding last night at 2AM after finally solving a bug more experienced coders might have found much sooner in software nobody's decided to pay for (yet). Doubt creeps in...

At any point in time, you might look at your results and say "that's not world class" or "that's not good enough", but I'm going to keep going anyway, keep improving, keep trying: And let God be the judge of if it's good enough.

I know He'll forgive me if it's not... (although my broke family may not :-)

Matthew 6:21 "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

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-Tyler

Why Tesla' s Home Battery is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Photo credit: flickr/jurvetson

You've probably heard about Tesla's announcement of a new division, Tesla Energy and  the POWERWALL, a sleek and stylish battery for the home.  Not a big deal, right?

Wrong.

This battery, along with electric autos, recharging stations, solar cell modules, residential and commercial solar installations and financing are all part of a carefully orchestrated plan launched years ago by Elon Musk and his colleagues to dramatically accelerate the transition to clean renewable energy.

To understand the plan, you have to look at Tesla and SolarCity as part of a unified strategy

To solve for sustainable energy, the key questions Musk would need to ask are:

1. Where is the opportunity to make the quickest and biggest impact?

2. How does one attract investment in renewable energy to create the technologies, infrastructure, markets, and ecosystems required?

3. What critical parts of the overall value chain are inhibiting opportunities for economic profit?

4. How does one create the sustainable competitive advantage required to provide a source of cash flow needed to fund further investments?

Although some see SolarCity as primarily a solar residential installation company and Tesla as primarily a car company, the reality is that Musk’s companies have operations across much of the energy value chain. This distribution of investments and activities is not random. Musk’s focus has been on elements of the value chain that tend to have the biggest impact on sustainability and present the greatest economic impediment to creating a superior cost alternative to the fossil fuel value chain. It’s also not a coincidence that these components of the value chain also present the largest opportunity for sustained competitive advantage and profits.

What's the biggest obstacle to renewable energy?  Distribution.

For energy to be utilized cost effectively, it has to be distributed to energy consumers in a form they can use. Unfortunately,  over 70% of energy in the US is distributed via liquid, gas, and solid fossil fuels, not electricity.  If we wanted to reduce fossil fuel consumption by half, we would have to more than double electrical distribution capacity, which would require truly massive capital investment given that utilities spent nearly $100 Billion on transmission over the last 10 years in the US alone.

What solves the distribution problem?  Batteries
 
In addition to making electric cars a successful business, the growth of Tesla’s capabilities with respect to electrical storage stands to benefit the development of a distributed energy production model. For example, Walmart already has Tesla batteries installed at 11 locations in California. Once Tesla’s Gigafactory is complete, Musk will be able to use high volume battery production to both accelerate penetration of the automotive market with the mid-market Tesla Model III and help extend SolarCity’s market share leadership by enabling commercial and residential customers to become energy self-sufficient with energy modules containing both solar cells and batteries.

Batteries and distribution are just one part of a complicated energy picture.  I've put together an extensively researched whitepaper that details Elon Musk's motivations and strategy to accelerate the transition to clean renewable energy.

MAKING MONEY WHILE CHANGING THE WORLD:  Elon Musk’s 6 Point Strategy to Solve Global Climate Change by Transforming the Energy and Transportation Sectors

In this whitepaper, you'll see how Musk's strategy follows these 6 key principles:

1. Start with the big picture view
2. Start in a niche small enough to dominate
3. Execute like crazy
4. Only move into mainstream market segments when you can create real competitive differentiation
5. Prioritize investments in the elements of the value chain that “aren’t good enough”
6. Integrate across boundaries within the value chain to create economies of scope

Read the whitepaper, comment on this post or reach out to me directly.  I'd love to hear what you think.