Author: Fab Testa

Dear Superpreneur,

During the Abundance 360 Executive Summit, Peter Diamandis invited Dr. Astro Teller to talk about moonshots. Dr. Astro Teller currently oversees X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory. Astro was previously CEO of Cerebellum Capital and BodyMedia. He holds a B.S. & M.S. in computer science and heuristic computation from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in AI from Carnegie Mellon. He is a recipient of the Hertz fellowship.

First of all, your moonshot is profoundly anchored into your MTP (Massively Transformative Purpose).

For Astro Teller, a moonshot must have three characteristics:

1. It must tackle a huge problem
2. It must be based on a breakthrough technology
3. It’s a radical solution allowing a 10X improvement

If you have some ideas of Moonshots, start by creating your 5-year Moonshot planner.  First of all, ask yourself what is your 5-year Moonshot? How can you achieve a 10X improvement in 5 years?  Then, what concrete objective can you achieve this year?  Now, continue your retro-planning by defining which goals you must achieve in the next month, in the next three months and in the next six months to get on schedule with your 5-year Moonshot.

Also discuss with your team or your mentor about the risks associated to your Moonshot.  How can you reduce them?  Which actions must be taken today?

A Moonshot is hard, very hard … grit is the key … So, keep going, don’t give up and build a better world for the next generation!

Build the World You Love,

Fab

Dear Superpreneur,

Hoping you had nice season’s holidays and enjoyed the New Year break.

CES 2018 is already behind and here are the major things that mattered. For the detailed review, please visit this good article.

• Smart home rising: more assistants and ‘AI’ everywhere
• TVs still dominate
• Rise of the robots
• Health tech goes beyond wearables…
• … while beauty tech gets awfully judgmental
• Silicon upgrades are making laptops better than ever
• More electric and automated vehicles
• VR strikes back

That’s all for today.  Don’t miss my next post where I will give a summary of    the main insights from Peter Diamandis’ Abundance 360 Conference that starts tomorrow until Tuesday.

Build the World You Love!

Fab

 

Dear Superpreneur,

As a new year is very closed, take some time to make your personal roadmap for 2018 and even beyond.

Firstly, you should list your objectives for the next 3 to 6 months.  What can be your next quick wins?  What are the short steps that you can make towards your goals?  Try to identify the tangible actions which make headway on your plan.  Perhaps you need next year to stabilize your incomes or to gain new experiences or even to add new skills.

Secondly, repeat this for the next 6 to 12 months.  One year out, what would you like to be doing differently?  Perhaps you would like to start on new skills trainings, or you have new ideas to share with others.  What about your business network and your reputation?  In term of leadership, do you need to demonstrate more skilled-action examples?

Thirdly, try to explore what your objectives are beyond 12 months.  Here you need to detail the plans that will take more time to implement.  You can also set goals in areas that might be more ambitious.  These plans should align with your long-term goals here below.  At this stage of your personal roadmap, you have to include your personal ambitions.

The next part of your personal roadmap consists of describing your long-term goals, i.e. the life beyond the business.  These plans must confirm alignment of the goals above – tie them together.  Are there other projects on which you would like to work on?  Are there skills you lack, that would help you growth?  Are there other opportunities you can explore? Is there another business that might be a better fit?  What skills do you want to develop that will open more doors?  Are you ready to lead a team?  How can you build a performing team?

Finally, work on your personal goals.  What are your work/life balance goals?  What do you want really do?  Do you want adventure or stability?  Do you want to stay where you are, or do you want to move somewhere else?  What ‘other’ parts of yourself do you want to develop (beyond career)?  If money were not an issue, what would you be doing today?  What types of adjustments  do you want to make in your life to allow more leisure, hobby time, or quality family time?

Work on each part first, then try to see if your short-term and long-term goals are coherent, and finally see if your superpreneur goals are well aligned with your personal goals.

When your roadmap is done, keep a copy on your desk so you can see it everyday. It will help a lot to get clarity in what you are doing, keep your priorities and to say no to all the distractions that are not aligned with your roadmap.

Revisit your roadmap every quarter, every semester and every year.

Don’t give up in your quest of your dreams and keep going!

Happy holidays and in 2018 keep building the world you love!

Best wishes

Fab

 

Dear Superpreneur,

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is heard everywhere and anytime, to say the least.  But do you have to fear AI?

First of all, one thing is sure.  AI is an exponential technology. Its implementation is made everywhere in anything.  This is going to be huge and fast.

What is amazing with AI (and robots) is that systems are interconnected and the learning of one contribute to the learning of all.  Autonomous cars will help each other to learn faster and faster how to drive perfectly.  The more cars will be on the roads, the safer they will become.  Today, Google cars are driving in a way that humans do not understand.  Google experts analyzed extensively the patterns followed by the algorithms and concluded that the way the AI drive the car is actually the optimal pattern.

Similarly, when an AI system defeated the best player of game of go, it used patterns that were never done before by any players.  After careful analysis, the playing experts concluded that the patterns are the best way to play the game of go.

We are actually seeing a move from narrow (weak) AI, bounds of human ability, to general (strong) AI, which leads to super intelligence.

Thanks to AI, small companies can now compete with large ones. Without AI, these small companies could not service the volume they do. They wouldn’t have the results they do at the scale they need. And they would not have the customers they have.

AI will enter our daily lives.  We will have AI personal assistants that know everything about us.  They will order what is missing in your fridge, they will arrange your dinner with your friends (of course, by communicating directly with the AI personal assistants of your friends).

The workforce landscape is also going to change rapidly.  But will the world move to more fragmentation or to more integration? Will we see more collectivism or more individualism?

Some answers are given into an interesting  study made by PWC. The study examine 4 possible worlds of work in 2030:

1. In the Yellow World, humans come first.  This is a world where social-first and community businesses proper. Crowdfunded capital flows towards ethical and blameless brands. There is a search for meaning and relevance with a social heart. Artisans, makers and ‘New Worker Guilds’ thrive. Humanness is highly valued.
2. In the Green World, companies care. Social responsibility and trust dominate the corporate agenda with concerns about demographic changes, climate and sustainability becoming key drivers of business.
3. The Red World is ruled by innovation. Organisations and individuals race to give consumers what they want. Innovation outpaces regulation. Digital platforms give outsized reach and influence to those with a winning idea. Specialists and niche profit-makers flourish.
4. In the Blue World, corporate is king. Big company capitalism rules  as organisations continue to grow bigger and individual preferences trump beliefs about social responsibility.

Which world will prevail?  Difficult to say without a crystal ball.  But faced to AI and its implications, it’s important to ponder the Amara’s Law:

“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

For leaders and superpreneurs, here are some advises:

• Act now
• Make no-regret moves
• Make a bigger leap
• Own the automation debate
• Focus on people, not jobs
• Build a clear narrative
• Search where the value is, because AI will provide ubiquitious knowledge and expertise

Your job as a superpreneur is then to see how to create value using AI at its best.  Don’t try to create products or services just to use AI.  But create new products or services which offer extra value thanks to AI.

Do you have to fear AI?  Probably not, but don’t overestimate AI in the short run and don’t underestimate AI in the long run.

Build the World You Love!

 

Fab

 

Dear Superpreneur,

The Blockchain Summit took place in London this past week.  All speakers agree that blockchain will make a radical change in the coming years.  They also promote to adopt an open innovation mindset.

“We are entering the Age of Internet of Value.  Soon gold, FIAT money, properties, coupons, … will be decentralized.”

As of today, money token is the most popular cryptocurrency, but new tokens are coming on the market very rapidly.  The asset-based token allows the owner to hold like a share of an asset and be remunerated on the cash-flows generated by the asset.  The right-backed token gives the owner a right which can also generate revenues.

What is amazing with cryptocurrencies and blockchain is that anything can have a value.  Imagine for example an autonomous car that can have its own bank account and which can be paid for valued services, and benefits are then returned to the investors.

This is why speakers urge entrepreneurs to focus now on the added value services that can be built on the blockchain rather than the blockchain platform itself.  Sometimes it’s not so complicated. Kickstarter for example is not more than 70 lines of codes. Main opportunities look to be in healthcare, identity, cloud storage and interbank workflows.

The Summit could of course not have discussed ICO’s.  If you consider investing in an ICO, make your due diligence: check the product/service behind, the team, the advisors, … Is it real?  Is there something concrete?  Or is it just wind that will quickly disappear with your precious money?

The best conclusion came from Alexey Voronin from Smart Valley:

“Today, almost 50% of ICO’s are fake.”

Be careful, my friends, but embrace the blockchain revolution by creating added-value services and solving big problems.

Build the World You Love!

Fab

 

Dear Superpreneur,

On 16 and 17 November, Luxembourg hosted the New Space Conference.  It was an amazing event and it would be too long to report the so many interesting topics that were discussed.  Yet, let’s focus on some worthwhile findings of the Conference.

1. Luxembourg is clearly showing their leadership in the New Space race with many more companies wanting to establish their European (or even worldwide) headquarters in the Grand-Duchy.  The major announcement came from Spire which just closed a C-round including Luxembourg and which will establish their headquarters there with 250 people to be hired.
2. Speakers agree that several forces are driving the New Space race and economy: (a) environmental issues and climate changes (b) pressure to build new infrastructures to access space (c) security of supply (d) increase quality of service (more automation and remote control) (e) market liberalization (services) (f) desire to explore new worlds and build permanent human colonies on the Moon and Mars.
3. The New Space economy requires an appropriate ecosystem (as Luxembourg is putting in place) involving technology players, standardization, legal framework(s), public and private investments and a clear vision.
4. For astropreneurs, as for other industries, it is important to have a North Star to follow, be a market maker and think big from the start, focus on the generation of revenues (the first source of money is customers rather than investors or grants), follow the technical trends to always offer the top-notch products/services, be responsible with the desire to impact the world.

As Steve Jobs said:

“Let’s go invent tomorrow, instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.”

It has never been a so good time to be a superpreneur in the New Space industry!

Build the World You Love.

Fab

Dear Superpreneur,

This week, the British Interplanetary Society was organizing its 15th Reinventing Space Conference.  The event was taking place in Glasgow.

Among the various subjects that were presented during the conference, with 105 constellations planned in the next 20 years, the growth of small satellites is clearly going to boom the space market. Small satellites will enable new services in earth observation, telecom, science & exploration and technology.

Among the various future constellations, OneWeb will be a real new paradigm in the space industry by producing 2 to 4 satellites per day with a total of 900 small satellites! OneWeb will also include a new design with electric plasmic propulsion for the first time.

With the growth of the number of satellites, in-orbit satellite servicing was also largely discussed with different projects like the one from Orbital ATK or Weintraus.

Sending more satellites into space requires new technologies for propulsion like high power electromagnetic propulsion or re-usable liquid propulsion units; and new spaceports like the projects in Norway or in Scotland.

Another major subject that was discussed during the conference are technologies related to asteroids and debris, for their observation, orbit determination, impact prediction, manipulation/removal and exploitation/disposal.

Last but not least, space exploration was debated.  There is a consensus that a phased approach is required to create economic opportunities, to develop the required technologies and finally to enable the discovery.  Today, the ISS is used to solve the exploration challenges.  The space community is also currently evaluating the potential for lunar resources and developing the standards and legal framework.  By 2020, the plan is to operate in the lunar vicinity and build a Deep Space Gateway as well as initiate the assembly of Deep Space Transport. Before 2020 and 2030, the Deep Space Transport could then be completed to conduct yearlong Mars simulation mission. After 2030, it should be possible to leave the Earth-Moon System and reach the Mars orbit. It will then be the beginning of sustained crew expeditions to the Martian system and the surface of Mars.

Before going to Mars, Yuzhnoye State Design Office of Ukraine suggest to establish a permanent lunar base.  They presented their project of a Lunar Industry Base.  Their concept is relatively well developed and amazingly impressive.  However, such a project can only become a reality if an international cooperation between the private and the public sectors is put in place.

This may be one of the conclusions of the Conference.  Space exploration and exploitation are the responsibility of the humankind.  It can’t be a one-country show!

Build the World You Love!

Fab

 

 

Dear Superpreneur,

For this post, I would like to share with you the Elon Musk’s predictions for the future (elonmuskpredictions).  How many of them will become a reality in your lifetime?  Please comment.

Build the World You Love!

Fab

 

Dear Superpreneur,

As you probably heard, Google is releasing in November their wireless earbuds called Pixel Buds.  Please read this article for a full review.  The breakthrough feature that might make the Pixel Buds the invention of the century is the possibility of real-time language translation:

“While the earbuds will work with any Bluetooth-enabled device, Pixel owners do get a little extra special treatment: the company says users will be able to activate Google Translate to get real-time translations of conversations. People can talk into the earbuds, and the phone’s speaker will translate into a desired language, or vice versa. It works with 40 languages. Multiple crowdfunding projects have attempted to create a similar feature, but none have worked well. Maybe Google Translate will be good enough to pull it off. This is definitely a feature we’ll want to test.”

Why this is so important?  In our globalized world, communication is key to remove barriers between people, communities, local groups, … While English is today the universal communication language, many people on Earth still do not speak English.  When you are travelling either for pleasure or business, having the opportunity to understand and being understood is just a must.  In that respect, the Pixel Buds can really be a major innovation of this century.  Just imagine a life where wherever you go, you can be understood by simply speaking your mother tongue, and you can understand virtually everyone on the Planet.

Now, there is a caveat.  Learning a language and being able to communicate into a specific language is not only a matter of vocabulary or grammar, it’s also (and this is very important) all about knowing a culture, a country or a region … Knowing foreign languages open your mind, easing your ability to be open to other cultures, other people, other communities, other religions.

While the world is today globalized, fragmentation is happening like with the Brexit or the current trouble in Spain with Catalonia.

Hence, while Pixel Buds can actually be a major invention of this century, they should be seen as a nice tool but probably not replacing a deep and good knowledge of a language and its culture.

Build the World You Love!

Fab

Dear Superpreneur,

This post is largely inspired by something that was published some time ago by the Founder Institute.  After working with top social scientists to test over 30,000 entrepreneurs and correlate those results with the real world performance of thousands of companies, the Founder Institute had found that most successful entrepreneurs fit into one of the following 6 profiles.

The Hustler

The Hustler is an enthusiastic go-getter who can sell just about anything. They are supremely confident and conscientious and won’t let anything stand in their way.

Key assets: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion

Typical Hustler: Zig Ziglar

The Innovator

The Innovator constantly seeks to challenge old ideas, and find new and unconventional ones.  He is an always forward-thinker and adventurer.

Key assets: openness, emotional stability, agreeableness

Typical Innovator: Evan Williams

The Machine

The Machine simply gets things done. Equipped with an aptitude for solving problems and a high level of efficiency, they always deliver quality, quickly.

Key assets: fluid intelligence, openness, conscientiousness

Typical Machine: Bill Gates

The Prodigy

The Prodigy is blessed with an inborn business sense and instinct. Natural intellect, a stoic demeanor, and strong social skills help guide them to success.

Key assets: emotional stability, agreeableness, fluid intelligence

Typical Prodigy: Elon Musk

The Strategist

The Strategist is a creative and tactical thinker. He is always calculating a game plan. Their habit of long term thinking leads to success.

Key assets: fluid intelligence, openness, emotional stability

Typical Strategist: Steve Jobs

The Visionary

The Visionary combines new and innovative ideas with the drive and enthusiasm needed to rally the masses behind him/her.

Key assets: openness, fluid intelligence, extroversion

Typical Visionary: Oprah Winfrey

So, do you fit the entrepreneurial profile of an Innovator, Prodigy, Strategist, Visionary, Hustler, or Machine?  The reality is that, as a superpreneur, probably you must combine all profiles while having a dominant one.

Please give your thoughts in the comments.

Build the World You Love!

Fab