I have always had a penchant for storytelling. I am not sure why exactly. I remember coming home from school, and mom not being there — she had a two-hour commute to work. My brother and I had to dream up games to play and stories to enact while we waited for her arrival. We played our favorite superheroes and explored new worlds created by our minds.
Years later, I would use this skill to help motivate my teams, raise capital, and bring disruptive change to new industries.
For example, in my first venture, I once walked into the headquarters of a large bank with a box of Duplo Legos. They were curious about why I was carrying the familiar green container. After a few pleasantries, I explained how software was transitioning from monolithic design to a component-based approach. “This is how software will be built in the future,” I declared, while carefully snapping the little toys together on the table. I concluded, “You’ll soon be able to buy software like a ‘bag of blocks’ to help you develop mission-critical applications faster.”
At the time, explaining a new technology known as J2EE was like speaking to a caveman about laser beams. Today, if anyone dared tell that story they would get a strange look — everyone (now) knows software is all about “combinatorial innovation.”
