The Venture Edge

Coming to you from Washington DC where I was speaking at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) annual conference.  Tonight was the highlightofthe conference, March Madness for the Mind.  Oops, can't call it that any more because the NCAA decided they didn't like the juxtaposition with their annual collegiate basketball tournament.  So this year, it's actually called Open Minds, a characteristic the NCAA can't claim.

Inventors are interesting people. I know a few and what I can say for sure is they’re definitely not normal. I don’t mean that in a bad way—if they were normal, they wouldn’t have the vision to connect things that don’t generally go together to come up with something new. Let’s face it, they see the world very differently from most of us, and it’s for that reason that not all the inventions they come up with are practical. In fact, the vast majority of inventions that receive patents never make it to the market at all.  

Just three years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the smartest and most interesting people on the planet--Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former chief technology officer and director of research.He's unassuming and approachable with a quiet confidence that hides the fact that he is a very wealthy man.  In 1999 when he left Microsoft, he was on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans.  He could have simply retired, enjoying his wealth; but having money is not that important to Nathan--in fact, he's notoriously frugal.  Money's only value lies in what he can do with it to solve some of the world's biggest problems.