Business Lessons from sucessful entrepreneurs and business leaders: LunchLearning.com

Reading time: 4 - 6 minutes

Video Time: 55 minutes 17 seconds

Peter Diamandis (@PeterDiamandis on Twitter) is the founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, which is a nonprofit institution that organizes public competitions aimed at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. In this lecture, Diamandis speaks at MIT about technological change and the power that we have to enact that change. One of the most prevalent themes of the lecture is space exploration, and Diamandis asserts it is something we need to make a priority if we want to see scientific progress. As Diamandis touches on the history of space exploration and our first attempt to the moon, he declares that the reason we were able to achieve this goal was due to the belief that anything is possible. He states enthusiastically throughout the lecture that this belief is absolutely necessary for invention.
Diamandis explains in detail the Ansari X Prize, which was a competition that offered $10,000,000 to the first private organization that could build a reusable spacecraft and launch it twice in two weeks. The prize was won in 2004 by the team Tier One, with a spacecraft designed by Burt Rutan (Link is to a TEDtalk) called SpaceShipOne. Diamandis plays a video for the audience that highlights the journey of those involved in the Ansari X Prize. It’s incredibly inspirational, and depicts all the work, thought, and innovation that was stimulated by the project across the globe.
Diamandis explains the foundation’s new efforts towards promoting business and technology, and the goals of the foundation to continue to spur radical discoveries and breakthroughs in science. Diamindis explains that the X Prize Foundation is about inspiring humankind and “creating heroes.” He states that by putting a prize out there, it encourages people to believe that a solution or an invention is possible.
Diamandis describes how new prizes are being offered by both his foundation and by NASA, and that these could bring about “private races to the moon.” He continually emphasizes the importance of creating new industries, and discusses future X Prize possibilities in things like genetics, environment, energy, and education. He urges us to challenge ourselves and to take on “crazy ideas,” and calls on entrepreneurs to take those risks that are necessary for breakthroughs and radical change. He stresses the importance of promoting people to compete, and using this competition to make the world a better place. At on point in the lecture Diamandis asks the audience who thinks that in their lifetime they will have the chance to go to space, pretty much everyone raises their hands, and Diamandis declares that this is what’s most important; the belief is what makes things happen.
In 2007, the X Prize Foundation organized the Google Lunar Prize (@glxp on Twitter), which is still up for grabs. It’s another space exploration competition, and the goal is for a private organization to travel to, land on, and explore the surface of the moon. For more information on the X Prize Foundation, check out their website at www.xprize.org.
Enjoy, and happy learning!

Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 26 minutes 36 seconds

Let’s start off a week of science and technology-related videos with Neil Gershenfeld, who is head of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. In this short but information-packed video, Gershenfeld discusses the Digital Revolution that has brought about the existence of “Fab Labs.” What exactly is a “Fab Lab?” Well, the term is short for fabrication laboratory, which, according to Gershenfeld, is a place where you can make pretty much whatever you want. In this video, you’ll learn how these new labs are putting the process of invention at the fingertips of ordinary people.

Gershenfeld discusses how, several years ago, he taught a digital fabrication class at MIT which he called, “How to Make (Almost) Anything.” Gershenfeld marveled at how excited the students were to create things that fulfilled their own personal interests or desires. The examples that he gives of his student’s inventions, which include a web browser for parrots, and an alarm clock that needs to be wrestled before it shuts off, are hilarious but incredibly unique. These inventions illustrate the infinite possibilities of Fab Labs –which make it possible for anyone, anywhere to become an inventor.

Gershenfeld also describes how Fab Lab’s have been helping communities solve problems locally. Fab Lab’s are popping up all over the globe in places like India, Africa, and Norway. Be sure not to miss the end of the video where Gershenfeld gives examples of how people in other countries are using Fab Labs to solve local problems. One example he gives is how a community in India is making analytical instruments in their Fab Lab, so they can test their milk to make sure it is safe for consumption. These instruments, if purchased, would be extremely costly, but thanks to the Fab Lab, the people are able to make them for a very small amount of money. Gershenfeld also shows how Fab Labs bring technology to rural areas, when at one point in the video he points to a tiny computer that was made with only $10 worth of materials and can be hooked up to a regular TV.

In this video, you’ll learn that not only are the possibilities of invention endless, but they are also within your reach. No doubt, this Digital Revolution in personal fabrication will continue to change the world. For more information on Fab Labs, check out Neil Gershenfeld’s book, Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop– from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication.

Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes

Video Time: 48 minutes 21 seconds
***After the introduction, Ricardo begins speaking at about minute: 4:20***

This is yet another reason why I started LunchLearning.com…new ideas and new ways of thinking are so prevalent. . .so easy to grab and run with. . .IF we allow ourselves to live outside our own world. . .to experience and impact our lives and work lives through new learning and objectivity.

In this lecture at MIT, Ricardo Semler makes the argument that we should “Lead by Omission.” A method that posits we should look at managing our businesses essentially, without, management…that once you’re IN an organization or an industry, you become almost incapable of changing it through management. For entrepreneurs building companies, it’s almost a lesson in necessity, for well-established firms though, it’ll probably serve as a wake-up-call for what can be done with less.

It’s akin to a successful career or lifestyle: when we’re young we carry few lifestyle entrapments/bills, etc. Later in life as we add more “things” to our world, we also add entrapments, and more bills.

Think about it.

And the best part? This too, was a lunchtime lecture at MIT!

From Semler’s bio:
Known around the globe for his innovative, employee-centric management style, Ricardo Semler is a true visionary who advises businesses on how they can significantly improve performance by restructuring relationships with their people.

Ricardo Semler is president of Semco S/A, based in Brazil, and the author of two books: Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace and The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works

Ricardo urges audiences to take a realistic look at what works, what’s possible, and what makes sense in today’s world, given our technologies, the rapid pace of change and the increasing failure of current practice to adapt. Technology that was supposed to make life easier—laptops, cell phones, e-mail, pagers—has stolen our free time instead and destroyed the traditional nine-to-five workday. Why, for instance, haven’t we learned to go golfing on Monday morning when we’ve learned to take our work home on Friday night?