Two weeks ago I took two of my US friends on a trip around my former home in Switzerland. The place is wonderful, to say the least. It was a great day for me, because I could share the memories of my childhood with two friends who are leading scientists and fantastic innovators.

Yet, the visit made me think of a specific event I would like to share here and led to a message during this visit I never want to get. Here it goes…

After fifth grade, until I was allowed to drive a scooter, I walked to school every morning. It was approximately a 30 minute walk at 6:30 am, a very steep drop of more than 1000 feet in altitude. It was a tough walk, especially during rain or snow. Most of my colleagues in school did not live in our farm village, they had parents that lived in the city and thus had more money and better educations than the average parent from my village. That’s why our secondary school was in the valley, not up on the hill where we lived.

There was not a lot of love lost between the mountain guys like me and my colleagues near the lake. They were convinced that we were all dumb, and we were convinced they were all arrogant and phonies. In fact, even teachers bought into that myth of the less-intelligent farmer boys.

Well, I was walking down every day to a school I did not really enjoy going to. But, one particular snowy morning during 6th grade, I got lucky: A teacher from my school lived in the same village I did and pulled his car over. He worked in the same school I went to and must have felt badly about seeing me out in the snow. This teacher had moved up to our farm village because of the stunning views. Well, that morning the teacher did something very nice—he  gave me a ride in his warm car. I was all bundled up because of the cold, but I was worrying about something else. After five minutes in the car, I took the opportunity that led to one of the defining moments in my life. Collecting all my courage, I asked him, “Sir, do you think I can get into the University?”

This was a question that had puzzled me for months. We had filled out a questionnaire related to possible careers choices. There were two careers these questionnaires identified for me: Scientist or Engineer. The only problem was that I did not know a single person of either of these professions. I also noticed that I had to go to the University if I was serious about achieving that goal. Being a B+ student, that was quite a leap. On the average, less than 10% of Swiss people received University degrees during that time. Instead, most people took part of the great vocational educational system for which Switzerland is famous for.

Motivated by a new thought, I therefore asked a question that was supposed to change my life: “Sir, do you think I can get into the University?” I waited for his answer and it was very different than I expected. “No, you got to be very smart to go to the University! You should not set your hopes on that”. He knew, of course, that I had a lot of hurdles in front of such a career goal. He must have guessed correctly that my parents had little enthusiasm for higher education. He also knew that this would be a lonely path for me, since none of my childhood friends would share my educational background. So, his answer was understandable or even logic.

But, it insulted me and told me about limitations I was not previously aware of. “So, why does he think I am not smart enough? What does he know that I don’t know?” First, I was deeply hurt. So, I was destined to follow the path somebody else chose for me. I did not have people to share this with. Most of my colleagues from the school probably agreed with him and nobody of my town had ever seen a university from the inside – except for the town-doctor, the teacher and the pastor and perhaps another few people I did not know.

I lay awake several nights thinking, especially thinking about failure. But, then one day, I made a decision I never regretted. I decided to try it despite the risks! That’s where my career started. It was tough, to say the least! There were hurdles everywhere.

We had a math teacher that was just plain bad, for example. I am sure he tried to be a good teacher, but he did not understand math. Thank God, I had a French and German teacher who was tough and fair. I finally made it into gymnasium because of my scores in French and German, not because of my math. I ended up studying math, of course, as part of my education as an astrophysicist, and it was my favorite subject and the easiest for me to grasp.

I also had to learn about science as a serious discipline and not what my church was teaching with regard to science. Even though there was an appreciation for nature, the church despised science. “Since we got the Bible and Genesis, we know everything we need to know about science.” I heard that many times together with the strangest stories about how bad science really was. The fact that science provided new tools to understand nature in a new and wonderful way escaped them.

When I finally finished my PhD in 1996, nobody from my town and family cheered. But, I had made new and wonderful friends, and – most importantly – I had found my passion. I did it anyways, not because it was always easy, but because I was committed to go for it and I wanted to prove that teacher wrong! My teacher had inadvertently jolted my passions to life.

My recent visit my hometown reminded me of this experience. In fact, I stopped by a little store in town and dropped off a business card for this teacher who is now retired. I feel very fortunate to see myself an enabler to so many wonderful engineers and scientists. I work with some of the best people I know, and we are trying almost impossible amazing things! It’s about taking risks, doing things despite being told not to even try. That’s what great research and entrepreneurship are all about! It’s straddling the boundary that separates the possible from the impossible!

Most importantly, in thinking about this story I promised myself that I will never ever get a letter from a former student and colleague saying, “You said I couldn’t – but, you see, I did!”

I received a letter from Delta Airlines last week which congratulated me to a possibly dubious honor: I was informed that I flew over 1 million miles with Northwest/Delta since 1996. Flying is an enabling part of my life, which allows me to collaborate with friends from afar, attend international conferences, and also keep in touch with my extended family around the world.

Besides a nice Tiffany’s pen I got from Delta, the million miles provide a new spatial scale in my life, adding to the ones most of us know People are around 1 to 2 meters in height; 100 meters is what we can run fast; after 1 mile of running it we feel already a little bit out of air; 26 miles of running takes 4 hours or more; the distance between LA and DC is a little bit over 2600 miles; the circumference of the Earth is 40000 km. And then there is a new scale—1 million miles!

I thought about this distance. What does it really mean?
- Seventy days of non-stop flying
- Forty times around the Earth
- Two times to the moon and back
- And, not even 1% the distance to Mars…

Most importantly, the 1,000,000 mile milestone reminded me of my first flight, when I was almost 24 (contrast: my eight-year old has flown on 20 planes already…). My family did not have the money or interest to travel and I therefore had admired airplanes only from the outside, especially when we picked up my aunt, who was a missionary in Papua New Guinea, in Zurich Kloten, Switzerland’s largest airport. I had also been in an airplane once in the Swiss traffic museum. So I knew roughly how planes looked from the inside.

My PhD advisor at the University of Bern allowed me to attend the now memorable Volga River Summer School organized in Russia in 1992. I was excited for many reasons – I had never been East of Switzerland, I had never been in a truly international conference, and I had never been on an airplane with the engine on. My first flight was a direct flight from Zurich to Moscow.

Actually sitting on the plane, everything felt like magic! The flight attendants looked stunning, the pilots like real-life heroes. I remember all the announcements, and I definitely remember the first time I really felt what the word “acceleration” really means – that pressure in your stomach when the airplane gains speed. I remember the lift-off from Zurich airport into the clear air! It was amazing how the world view changed from up there in the clouds.

In fact, I was so excited that I told one of these beautiful flight-attendants that this was my first flight ever. Apparently my story resonated with her and 3 hours into the flight she came with an invitation from the captain to join him in the cockpit. I felt like the luckiest guy around! There I was walking all the way up the isle to the very front and meeting my heroes – the pilots! With the help of the flight-attendant, the captain pulled the jump-seat out for me and asked me to sit down. He then proceeded to explain the controls in the cockpit, only interrupting for his communications to air traffic control.

The time flew by quickly and soon the pilot announced the descent into Moscow to the entire plane. He looked at me and said, “Don’t tell anybody about this, ok?”. After my nod, he made me buckle up in the jump seat. I could not believe it. I experienced my first landing ever into Moscow airport looking through the front window of the cockpit. The airstrip looked so small from up there, and there was a side-wind. The pilot talked me through what he was doing and produced the most perfect landing. People were clapping in the cabin.

After the successful landing, the flight attendant came back with some very nice candy. I thanked everybody and finally walked as one of the last people off the plane, together with the captain.

This was my first flight ever, and possibly the best one. I have been on hundreds of planes by now and have seen them day and night, in quiet weather and in storms, and before and after 9/11, an event which has dramatically changed the experience of flying. Flying is no longer my favorite activity, but an enabling part of my life and necessary element of a truly international career.

But, there are still the moments when I am still amazed by flight. Let me tell you about two recent ones:

Recently, I flew from Washington to Detroit with departure at 6:15 am. It was dark and cloudy on the tarmac. We took off through the clouds and, less than one minute into the flight, escaped into the black night-sky. The stars were amazing! I looked out the window and tried to identify constellations and planets that remained hidden to all the people on the ground. I just had attended a meeting of USRA and watched the first open-door flight of their Sofia telescope, a high-end infrared observatory located on a 747! How cool!

And then, I flew from Amsterdam into Zurich a few days ago. I looked out the window and saw a huge airplane I had never seen. I looked at the inscription on its tail wing and noticed that it was an Airbus 380 which was in Zurich to be presented to the press. This is a hugely impressive airplane, seating up to 550 people, the European answer to the Boeing 747 “Jumbo Jet”. Just like the 747, the 380 is almost overwhelming to look at – it is huge and it can fly?! Just a few hours ago, I had flown on an Airbus 330 from Detroit to Amsterdam and just loved its interior and especially its Linux-based entertainment system. The flight brought me back to my family after having spent some time with some of my friends and colleagues in the US. I remembered reading a book about Benjamin Franklin, one of the most important US statesmen and scientists who was one of the first truly international figures. He spent months on ships to sail from the US to Europe, and we can now do it in 1 night!

I keep thinking about airplanes and the tremendous opportunities to develop the next generation of such vehicles. Will it be possible to get from Detroit to Zurich in less than 2 hours? Imagine, for example, that you flew on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, being launched by a carrier WhiteKnightTwo into space. But, you are not going straight up, but you launch over towards Europe. You can fly upside down in weightlessness and then turn back over, reenter and land in Europe. It should be possible to do all this in 2 hours. Now, that would be cool!

I recently checked into a hotel after a long flight and flipped through the TV channels and got stuck watching a very unlikely program. It was about two dozen people at the end of their lives – their average age is 80. They live in and around Northampton, Massachusetts. These people have some of the most amazing histories and careers in their past, but they have the most unexpected hobby—they are the Young@Heart Chorus.

They taught me a lesson I want to write about: keep enlarging your horizon!

Imagine you stand in a parking lot at night in Northampton. And, there they are arriving—some of them are on canes, some in wheelchairs, and most are on their two legs carrying them the best they know how, sometimes bent over forward, sometimes limping. You wonder where they are going, their history in their faces, imprinted in their bodies. What could make them leave the comfort of their home? These elderly folks walk in the door and sit down. And, all of a sudden, within minutes, this group turns into a chorus that breaks out into “Road to Nowhere”,  “Stayin’ Alive” or “Walk on the Wild Side”. It is baffling!

All of a sudden, these old people turn into something bigger that is transformative to their own lives, but also the people around them. They do that in the face of their own mortality and ever-presence of their near end. I am still moved by the song “Forever Young” they sing one hour after they learned about the death of one of their members, Bob Salvini. The song is moving because of friends singing about one of their fellow chorus members. But, I think it moved me more when I see the faces of the audience, prisoners who are seeing the courage and joy that comes to this Chorus from their work together.

When looking back at their lives, these people were on active duty during World War II, they were mothers, executives, entrepreneurs, and teachers. Their career lifted off to big heights, and then they slowed down. They retired and they moved very close to the cliff that separates our living from the dead. So, why are they singing?

To me, there were two types of answers the old singers gave to that question. Some of these folks wanted to “do something”! They loved the sense of team and achievement. “If you stay on-stage – it’s just amazing” – that’s what one member said. “I used to work – now I sing. That’s what I do.” If anybody deserved to sit down and rest it would be these folks. But, they like to do something!

There was a second reason given by one of the members. On the desk, he had a book of Sonnets by Shakespeare. And then, was asked why he is part of a rock chorus. He took two attempts to answer that question, and then he just said, “It’s to enlarge my horizon.” This is a man who, statistically, does not have many years left to live or may have even overstayed his expected lifetime on earth. But, he chooses to spend his time to enlarge his horizon. What an inspiration!

There are a lot of people around us who have stopped learning. Some of them are astonishingly young – in their thirties and forties – and they are stuck in their ways forever. Some close down later in their lives. All they can think and talk about is the past. They don’t listen, they no longer learn. I can understand that that happens for people in their eighties and seventies, but what a tragedy if young people allow this to happen.

Aaron Dworkin, President and Founder of the Sphinx Organization quoted Ashley Montague in his amazing talk as part of our Distinguished Innovator Seminar, “The deepest defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become”.

It can actually be dangerous when learning stops well before one reaches old age. Rick Warren recently said in an interview, “Fundamentalists are people who stopped listening.” I think this is the best definition I have ever heard. Fundamentalists stop learning and they are even proud of it. Here, it does not matter what orientation these fundamentalists have, whether they are religious, or political. But, they stopped listening and they stopped learning!

To me, the good people from Young@Heart ask us something that is very much applicable to all of us today: are we using our time on the earth to enlarge our horizons, or are we on a trajectory in which we settle for much less than we can be? What a tragedy that would be!

The biblical story in the Book of Genesis talks about the story of an enormous tower that was a sign of human hubris, but also a description of one of the key obstacles humans face to this day. The project of the tower of Babel, as this construction is called, had a very interesting end. The Lord said, “Let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” That was the end of the project. “The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the Earth”.

There are a few important points in this story that have applicability today. I only want to take one of them out: people who cannot truly understand and communicate, cannot achieve great things.

Even though this point seems almost trivial at a first glance its significance is much deeper.

We all grow up speaking a language and that language is a reflection of who we are, what environment we grew up with, and what the culture is in that environment. But, we never learn that until we actually learn a language different than our own. For people who are built to do numbers, like myself, there is nothing easy about this! In fact, it’s agonizing and frustrating and success does not come easy.

There is a little advertised fact that I failed French in my matriculation examination (also known as high school diploma), and my only comfort was that Einstein did the same. This is pretty much the only topic I ever failed and I can start blaming my horrible French teacher and his archaic methods of instruction, and perhaps even his love for alcohol which seemed to affect the quality of his teaching. But, if it boils right down to it, that kind of stuff never affected my performance in other fields. French was just way harder for me than for some of my peers.

The first time I liked speaking French was during my military time and certainly later during my PhD when I spent a few weeks at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur – obtaining some of the most exciting work-experiences during my entire education. Speaking French, as unprofessional and incomplete as it was, opened doors for me. I did not just understand people’s words, I understood their thinking, their priorities, and also their culture.  I got interested in French, not just as a necessity for communication, but also as a means of understanding what’s behind the words. That, I think, is what the Babel lesson is about!

An even more profound consequence of learning foreign languages relates to the understanding of the native language. I would argue that nobody truly understands their native language before they speak another language. This second language does not have to be perfect, but they have to be able to communicate on somebody else’s terms and rules. It’s an eye-opener!

There are things that are absolutely common in all languages I have learned. They belong to a basic vocabulary that relates to being human. There are things that are far less fundamental, and it shows when comparing languages. Yet, there are subtleties that can only be understood when language is put into its cultural context. The toughest problems of understanding relate to historic texts where there are major effects of both the geographic and historic contexts. I admire the courage of people who take texts which are thousands of years old or written on different continents and cultural contexts, and interpret them – down to the word – in the contexts of their every-day language! People who speak and read a foreign language are much more likely to understand this point than others!

The point from the Babel story also has a very serious side. We cannot achieve great worldwide success if we don’t truly understand each other and each other’s languages. Yet, almost any challenges facing engineers today have an international flavor. The obstacles of Babel – the lack of understanding each other languages, the lack of understanding each other’s thinking – are therefore obstacles in many lives of engineers who have never learned any other languages and who are entering the work force today.

This is one of the biggest advantages of engineers and scientists educated outside the US or the UK is the fact that they are forced to learn different languages. They may have a harder time impressing during their first talk, but they will have an easier time finding the way to the minds of others. I actually think that it’s a matter of years that the first problem is resolved. Soon, we will have portable devices that will provide real-time translations of words and communications. But, it will be a long time until we can teach computers to make us aware of the cultural subtleties that are in a word, a sentence or a pronunciation. For my life-time, and likely for the life-time of students graduating today, that bigger challenge will be addressed most effectively through languages and foreign exchange.

This thinking is the very motivation of our International Program in Engineering. We need a broad, international understanding if we want to achieve success in big projects with global reach! For me, that’s what the Babel story is all about.

We can either stand in line or leap – but, it is hard to be good at both. There are subtle differences between people and their every-day manners. These differences reflect how people think.

Many people spend their entire career standing in line. There are many processes and systems built around the value of standing in line. Progress is measured by incremental progress relative to peers. There are lots and lots of very small victories – you got your own cubicle, she got a window seat, he got his own assistant. It takes a lot of time to win all these little victories and therefore there is a distinct age-structure that can be easily identified. Companies and societies with Union rules are the most extreme implementation of that. Or, the management structure of many big companies is all about standing in line. It’s all about being the same, not about being different. It’s all about earning, and not about being given.

Leaping follows very different rules. It’s not about what the others are doing. It’s not about being the same – it’s about what’s different. People who like to leap are interested in breaking out. They are about defining goals, not about incrementally achieving them. They would rather fail big than win small, sometimes to the frustration of people around them. They don’t focus on the number victories, but about their sizes. Entrepreneurs almost never like to stand in line – they love to leap.

There are happy careers to be had standing in line and some people love the structure and certainty that comes from this structure. And, there are wonderful careers to be had pushing the envelope.

But, there is a lot of pain and agony for all involved when the roles are mismatched. It requires a lot of patience and understanding for all involved. It even leads to frustration. A person who likes to stand in line will typically complain about the tremendous uncertainty around entrepreneurial ventures. They hate the many changes, the apparent failures, and the apparent disorganization. People who like to build their career on leaping feel an almost innumerable number of obstacles to anything they want to do. They feel like achieving any goal feels like swimming in molasses.

Some of the most important career choices for us therefore don’t relate just to what we are doing, but also how we are doing it. It’s not just whether we want to build space rockets. It’s about either building space rockets in a process-dominated, government bureaucracy dominated environment, or is it about building space rockets in a shop with the best entrepreneurial mind. It’s about being able to build the next-generation rocket with boundless opportunities, or building rocket #24 in a series for 100. Both are fun, but only if you hit the right job – a match between your personality and career goals and the culture and environment of goals.

Finally, I want to share why I started thinking about this. I spent Saturday in the Swiss mountains and was in a restaurant. I stood in line to pick up a coffee when some person accidentally dropped a small pocket of milk on the ground. I stepped out of line to pick it up to prevent a big mess and – to my amazement and anger – the 70 year old lady who had been in line behind me had cut into my spot and refused to let me back in. She won a tiny little victory and I am sure felt proud of it. After my annoyance had calmed down, I was so grateful that it’s not about the number of victories that make success, but about the size of these victories. Too bad for the lady that she failed to learn that simple fact during her entire life. You can cut in 100 times per year and – besides some annoyed people – not get anywhere.

This, by the way, was the third such event in one week for me. Frankly, I cannot remember three such events during the past decade in the US. I have talked to others and they had similar experiences. I am still trying to figure out what that implies for the difference of lives the US and Switzerland, but this post may provide a summary of my first attempt.

After all, great career leaps are often known as the American dream!

Life is all about choices and it’s worth thinking about the consequence of these choices. When doing that, we learn that the toughest part of our choices, however, is the fact that the majority of the most important ones are made with incomplete understanding of their consequences.

I was acutely made aware of this fact when I watched a TV show the first day after my arrival in Switzerland. The movie was about a farmer and his wife and two boys. They are from the Swiss mountains and, to say the least, have a tough life. In fact, they have three different farms at various altitudes. Their most comfortable house is in the valley at around 1600 feet above sea level. That’s where they live in winter and in early spring. But, in late spring they move all their cows and their children to 4300 feet above sea level. There is a lot of work there, and very little comfort, but a wonderful view of the mountains around them. In early summer they then move 5600 feet above sea level in an even simpler house. If you are a loner who loves the mountains – this is paradise. If you like hanging out with lots of people, and going into the city – this is hell.

These farmers’ lives are extraordinarily hard, with working hours that dwarf most laborers anywhere. They are up when the sun rises, and their evening lasts far beyond the sunset. They put up hay near each of the three farms. The good news is that in the valley they have machines. At their 5600 feet place they have nothing but their muscles, their century-old methods and tools handed down over generations.

This struck a chord with me. Many of my neighbors growing up had a similar life and similar values. I cannot remember a single summer from the age of 5 when I did not work summer days in the hills. I was raking grass, walking with cows up the hill, or rushing the hay into the farm before the evening thunderstorm. That is the life of many people I knew growing up in Switzerland. I know exactly how these farmers think. But, there I am sitting on a couch walking off a plane with my American family.

How did this happen? I decided to get a higher education, eventually unlocking a tremendous world nobody of my community knew about. I have never regretted this choice, but I also have to say that I never quite understood quite how big the differences in my career path would be than that of my friends during kindergarten and the first few years.

So, how did this choice come about? Does one purposely choose to become a scientist, an entrepreneur in Michigan, rather than a farmer in the Berner Oberland? I don’t think so. It’s merely a secondary effect of a set of choices made for very different reasons – sometimes small choices had a huge effect. I have never regretted my choices to get a great education, try new things, and tackle some of the biggest professional challenges I have found. I have also never regretted taking the biggest risk in my life when I decided to get married and start a family.

For many of you 2010 has some very important choices. Many of these choices are easy, or, at least they seem easy: stay away from bad people, stay away from choices with very small benefits and huge risks. Yet, some choices in 2010 will be fundamental and ultimately life-changing. In fact, they have consequences you will only grasp in the long run – it will seem amazing what you achieved.

To all of you I wish you that you find the courage in 2010 to take big leaps, try new things, and always keep learning! Stay level-headed and optimistic as you start new endeavors, even as some of these experiments fail! You will reap most of the benefits of these choices in the long run!

This speech was given to the University of Michigan Board of Regents on December 17, 2009. The slides for this presentation are here. Also, a press-release about this talk can be found here.

Thank you! It is my great pleasure to talk to you about arguably one of the most exciting parts of our campus life today – a message that is spreading like wildfire around campus. It’s about empowerment and it’s about entrepreneurship.
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Entrepreneurship is not just the work of two startup pioneers in a garage, it’s a mindset that changes approaches and is applicable to both big and small businesses. Entrepreneurship is about achieving, about passion and about calculated risk-taking. It’s about leadership, about continuous innovation and about perseverance.

The motivation for entrepreneurship originates in some of the most important global changes that face our university, and especially students in the College of Engineering. We are educating students in a time of rapid innovation and global connectedness. Our students not only compete with their peers within the US, but with young professionals who are educated around the globe. Also, the technologies used by our students – the way they communicate, the way they  live – these technologies change even during their years here. They are more likely to use different communication tools in their freshman year than in their senior year just a few years later. As a University, we need to respond to that and differentiate ourselves. The value provided by the University of Michigan can no longer come just from our classes, but from the thinking and learning we give them on their way that allows them to get ahead. Entrepreneurial thinking is one such key tool our students want and our students need.

Here at the University of Michigan, the transition to a more entrepreneurial thinking is accelerated by forces that are equally fundamental, yet very close to home. We are unfortunately leading the Nation in unemployment rate, and we have done so for years. A map of Michigan’ unemployment rate tells an important story. But, it also talks about hope. The unemployment rate near Ann Arbor reflects some of the amazing things that have been going on, in part triggered by an engagement of our University which I had not encountered previously. A billion dollars of research expenditures from the University, and a tremendous focus on entrepreneurship through our partners, including SPARK, have caused our region to substantially escape a trend. However, the map also tells us a story that we have opportunities elsewhere in this State to create change in a positive matter.

These local forces have created openness to an entrepreneurial mindset to our University. Yet, we find ourselves in a conflict between two key values that initially may feel contradicting: on the one hand, we want to focus on the development of that entrepreneurial mindset in our students; on the other hand, we seek to create impact in our environment. We have thought about this a great deal and have concluded that we need these two values to grow together. We cannot create true change without a pervasive entrepreneurial mindset; 2-3 spinouts can be moved quickly, but not thousands of thinkers and entrepreneurs who see opportunity right here in Michigan. We also find in our classes that a focus on entrepreneurial mindset will bear fruits. Suddenly, students stop by and want to form companies. They are ready to try it, for real.

The University of Michigan is a big place and we can do amazing things. But, when it comes to entrepreneurship, any impactful and transformative program here has to be successful in two ways. First, it needs scale – we cannot just talk to 100 students on a campus of 10,000s. We need to think scale. Second, we need impact, and we need impact in a place where entrepreneurship is not as pervasive as in other areas. You cannot walk into a bar in and around Stanford without bumping into entrepreneurs, a massive and informal support system, capital and many symbols of success. In Michigan, we are building success without these boundary conditions. That has to become part of our planning.

The Center for Entrepreneurship, which I founded about two years ago, is a very small place by many metrics. It is now run by a serial entrepreneur, Doug Neal, and has a handful of staff. The Center is localized in the College of Engineering, but it is not limited to engineering. Entrepreneurship is by definition an interdisciplinary affair and we have therefore made sure that there are no conditions on any of our programs that discourage or even prohibit participation of students from any part of our University – and the sheer breadth of our participants are a testimony to the benefits of such a strategy. The Center now reports to me, the Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Programs, who is focusing on entrepreneurial programs for students, faculty and staff around engineering. We cannot do alone what we seek to do and are strongly dependent on our partners, such as the Zell-Lurie Institute in the Ross School of Business, the Office of Technology Transfer, SPARK, and many others. Our programs form a three-legged stool: they are either focused on academics, on venture acceleration, or on community engagement. We are convinced that we cannot be successful with only two out of these three aspects of our program.  I will address this later.

Responding to the two challenges of scale and impact, we have developed a multi-tier structure of programs we visualize in a pyramid. We have programs at the so-called engagement level, which are designed for their impact of breadth. It’s not about getting funding for a company today, it’s about thinking and teaching about that entrepreneurial mindset which is so central to it all. Members of our community who want to learn more about these values have programs available to them at the development level where basic principles are being taught. We strongly believe that entrepreneurship is a lab, not a class and thus we focus on experiential tools at this level. Then, we have the pinnacle programs which are for the rock-stars or “wanna-be rock stars” of entrepreneurship. Many of these people work on specific projects with true entrepreneurial outcomes and they need individualized support and interactions with specialists. In our top-tiers, we more often than not collaborate with the Zell Lurie Institute and the Office of Technology Transfer. We have other partners as well, often specific to certain disciplines.

After talking about the fundamental thinking behind our activities, let me give you some examples of our program-elements at the various tiers. First, I am focusing on the engagement tier and I am giving you 2-3 examples.  Two hundred to three hundred students each semester sign up for the distinguished innovator speaker seminar which brings in an entrepreneur each week to talk about his/her entrepreneurial experiences. These are the most amazing stories and I very much encourage you to go on the CFE website and listen to some of them if you cannot attend. We record all of them and make them available to thousands of people.

We have a great deal of community engagement events. We provide space and opportunities to connect our students, faculty and staff with groups such as the a2geeks, the coffeehousecoders and many others.

Our prime tool of our engagement program is the MPowered-run 1000 Pitches competition which has led to tremendous visibility and reach in Michigan and beyond. 1000Pitches is the largest collegiate entrepreneurship competition in the US and had 2165 entries this year, more than double the number of last year competition. I want to stress: 1000 Pitches is run by the students, not us. We help where we can, but they barely need it anymore!

At the development level, we focus on academic classes. Consider this student team, for example, who invented a novel type of magnetic joint as part of their freshman class. They have gone forward, taken dedicated practicum classes and have managed to attract funding for their company they have built. They are now in the prototyping stage.

We have asked over 100 growth companies in Michigan what they want from the U-M. The most common answer is “talent” and the second more common answer is “research”. With the Business Engagement Center, and DRDA, we are developing programs that respond to these needs: internship programs or instant innovation, a process to deploy the power of University research for our small companies.

We are also building a mentorship program with mentors from the US and beyond to participate in our ventures. Some of them become active, after a certain time; some of them provide wise council and get involved, often after a long career in a variety of companies.

Pinnacle programs are focused on the needs of our entrepreneurial rock-stars. We need pinnacle academic programs that are becoming best-in-class, and we think that our Masters in High-Tech Entrepreneurship is such a program. We are currently developing this with the wise council of people in our alum community, the Business School and also some of our peer institutions.

The Bay Area Trip and Tech Fest are designed to bring a group of U-M and Ann Arbor entrepreneurs together with our Michigan team from elsewhere. The purpose here is to connect these teams. We travel as a team and get some of the most amazing experiences imaginable. In fact, these trips are life-changing for many of our students.

We opened a student business accelerator, in many ways unique among peer institutions. This accelerator is localized in the Google building, down the hall from SPARK and Bodman, two major partners in the Ann Arbor entrepreneurial community. We have great stories about companies in there. Let me share just one that moved me. Remember how I talked to you about 1000 pitches? Well, this competition has sponsors and the sponsor for the best iPhone application was Mobiata. Mobiata has been featured in many Apple TV ads, and is expected to have over $1M of revenue this year. Well, one of the founders, Jason Bornhorst, took the microphone and said, “Listen guys, I won 1000 pitches last year. This year I am funding this award because I have been lucky to build a great company with a great team. This is for you with the challenge to do the same!”

I hope to have convinced you about the tremendous opportunity of putting our programs right in the center of the two goals we want to achieve: to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in our students, and to achieve economic impact in doing so.

I think we have great momentum, but I think we’re only at the beginning here. I spend much of my day and night hours focusing on four challenges that relate our students, our faculty, and also our University governance. I very much hope that we can focus on these topics in the not-too-distant future through a set of discussions that are important for all of us.

•    How do we make it stick and grow? We have entrepreneurship and innovation in our DNA, but how far can we carry it so it becomes a value that is synonymous with Michigan, as is deep research and breadth?

•    Our tenure and promotion processes have been highly successful over many years. But, how do we incentivize faculty who are doing the right thing?

•    We may have to take a look at some of our rules and processes we may find to be discouraging for entrepreneurs within and outside of the University of Michigan who want to engage in our activities.

•    How do we evolve our entrepreneurial ecosystem and broaden its scope and impact? I want our students to walk out of the classroom and into a café and bump right into someone who’s pursuing an entrepreneurial entity right now! That already happens – but we want it to happen more often!

My hunch is that we will all think about this again, at various levels of the University of Michigan experience.

How do we know if we are successful? We can see it in the lives of our students! With this final image of the MPowered President Lauren Leland and three of her members, I thank you for your interest and support and I look forward to answering any questions you might have.

There seems to be a sharp contrast and an almost insurmountable chasm between entrepreneurship and politics today. In fact, the characteristics of entrepreneurs and politicians, their values and their thinking, appear to be in sharp contrast. There is nothing fundamental about this contrast. Both politicians and entrepreneurs are thinking of a better future, and how to create that future. One can also easily construct situations in which positive cross-fertilization can occur between these two groups. For example, entrepreneurs can help governments find business solutions and lead change. Or, politicians can help create better entrepreneurial environments.

Yet, such cross-fertilization is astonishingly rare in US politics, and we are all suffering from it.

There is a lot of evidence for the lack of entrepreneurship in politics. Logical thinking does not seem to constrain politics in any fundamental fashion. Consider two examples: US export control and US healthcare.

US export control is fundamentally flawed, as discussed previously and also acknowledged by the Technology CEO Council. We have a system which has destroyed tens of thousands of US jobs in many industries because it has rendered US companies less competitive in a global market place and left them burdened with additional bureaucracy. It has hampered or even destroyed international collaborations in science and technologies. But – did it at least make the US more competitive? No! A comprehensive Department of Defense study has concluded that US export control regulations (ITAR) have made the US less safe not more. At one of the congressional hearings a witness stated: “If you guard your toothbrushes and diamonds with equal zeal, you’ll probably lose fewer toothbrushes and more diamonds”. I have so far only found one group of people who like the US export control group – foreign industry. The Director General of the European Space Agency told me during the lunch, “I am sorry to say, but we love ITAR. It has tremendously improved European space industry!”  We are facing the biggest economic downturn in decades where such lack of competitiveness has to matter.

The US health care system has been criticized around the globe. It has some of the very best technologies, some of the absolute best and brightest people, but it achieves the worst value per investment of any civilized nation. Its performance lags two or three times that of other comparative nations. There appear to be two groups of people benefiting from the status quo – perhaps more. First, it’s a bunch of tort lawyers who are going after doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. And, secondly, the same insurance companies are protecting their turf with a vigor that reminds me of “big tobacco” when the cancer connections were made. Not all opinions have value; some of them are exclusively driven by self-interest and plain ridiculous, even if spoken by an elected official. People are dying in the US today because of this broken system. Furthermore, in the nation’s current economic situation we simply must care about wasting half of our dollars that are spent in health-care – most civilized countries in fact achieve the same or better results with half the per capita spending.

So, why are we not changing these things? They seem to reflect a non-partisan, ugly, messed-up, waste of money and waste of great people. So, where are the entrepreneurs who identify opportunity and need for change and create a better future? The short answer is that entrepreneurs are not in politics today.

In fact, most entrepreneurs I talk to have a deep frustration with politics. Clearly, there is very little entrepreneurial thought and even less entrepreneurial action in politics. Entrepreneurs try to measure, look at data, and understand. They act, and they lead. Yet, entrepreneurs cannot see that same passion in politicians and their ugly apparatus. They are baffled by the abundance of words, hyperbola and plain or perhaps willful ignorance. So, entrepreneurs turn away perhaps muttering, “Let’s not boil the ocean!” And they are off doing something they like better than thinking about politics.

This has tremendous consequences. First, we do not see many entrepreneurs run for office.  I know there are smart and very valuable lawyers, and I have great friends who are lawyer entrepreneurs, with extremely good points of view. But, we are a poor society if lawyers constitute more than 70% of a given legislative or even executive branch. We are in a society in which we need scientists, engineers, nurses and farmers, business people – people who know numbers; know how to achieve; know how nature works and understand the difference between small and big issues. Second, entrepreneurs don’t sufficiently explain their worries and goals. If it boils right down to it, there are many legislative and tax changes that would substantially stimulate entrepreneurship, yet political actions in this arena are rare and far between.

I have therefore decided that I will no longer vote for professional politicians. I will also put my money where my mouth is. I have made donations to entrepreneurs from both parties whom I personally know and who understand entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not a partisan value. We need entrepreneurs in both parties, and at all levels. Right now, we need new thought more than we need experience! We need passion and willingness to demand excellence from their government!

We cannot give up on politics – it’s too important!

This speech was given on Saturday as part of the 1000 pitches awards ceremony.

I could not be more excited about participating in this event. Congratulations to all students who pitched, to all finalists!
I have been there from the beginning and have seen this competition move from an idea to the biggest, best run entrepreneurship competition in the entire US. This is mostly because of the convergence of a very creative idea with the action of a bunch of committed individuals associated with MPowered.

One lunch-break in November I sat in a team meeting in one of the many University cafeterias on Campus. All of a sudden, one of the MPowered evangelists came to my table and told me about MPowered and 1000 pitches. He would not leave our table until I convinced him that I was the MPowered faculty advisor and that I made everybody in my research team submit pitches.

That event made my day and possibly my week! It was so important to me because I experienced first-hand that 1000 pitches, and what MPowered and Michigan Entrepreneurship is all about—creativity in action.

I spent a lot of time watching pitches on the web. Sometimes I laughed, but often I ended up in awe because I saw the power of creativity shining through. You, the pitching students, have something many others only dream about. You can see a solution where others see a major problem; you can see boundless opportunity where others are focused on big challenges. This happens not because you are blind, but because you are driven by inner courage, by hope and by creativity. It’s this creativity which is indeed the fuel for future businesses and solutions to some of the biggest challenges this world is facing – heath challenges at home or around the world, poverty, hunger. But, this cannot be the only thing.

For something worthwhile to happen, creativity needs to be put into action. First, you have to talk about your ideas, form teams, and try them. And then you have to act to make these ideas a reality. Putting creativity into action takes time, and you have to overcome challenges. It’s tough, frankly! But, it is a journey that is worthwhile every step along the way. Very likely, you will not do this journey all by yourself. You have already found team-members or you will find some in the future. Larry Page once told me, “if you do something great, you will find people to help you. If you do something small, you’re on your own.”

For many of you, this journey to creativity-in-action is happening at the University of Michigan. On behalf of my team and many teams in and around the entire University of Michigan, I assure you that we will do whatever we can to help, to connect and to support! In fact, we want you to graduate from this University knowing that there would be no place you would rather follow your dreams than right here at the University of Michigan. I know, MPowered feels the very same way, and has shown through action how they can and want to be part of this next step as well.

So congratulations again to all of you—the empowered students—who are fueled by their creativity and imagination. Congratulations also to MPowered, you are the best! Together, let’s commit that we will put this creativity into action! That’s what 1000 pitches is all about and that’s what we want the University of Michigan to be about. Go Blue!

There is a tremendous amount of unrest caused by the release of hacked emails from the University of East Anglia. I had never heard of this University prior to this event, but I sure know a lot of the issues surrounding the discussion. I have been receiving mass-emails from proponents and opponents of global climate change. After digging through the evidence, I actually don’t find any major new knowledge or breakthrough. Instead, I am left with a deep sense that most people don’t understand science, or its pursuit. Doing science is more like orienteering, and less like a 100 meter dash. Doing science is messy!

Many aspiring scientists, especially young PhD students and research fellows, get into a major identity crisis once they learn what science is all about. They enter a science discipline with a vision of scientific success: standing on a big stage and telling everybody how the world really works, the Eureka moments after midnight, a patent, world-fame that comes from discoveries and innovations. They think of science as a series of successes – smaller and bigger scale – that stack up to them becoming wise or famous!

But, then they start working on a research project. They get excited and are making progress, and – all of a sudden – the entire project dies! It’s shocking and unsettling! Perhaps, a fundamental assumption of the theory is proven wrong; perhaps there is inherent uncertainty in an experimental process; or, a new paper may come out that announces that scientist X in university Y just published results of the study they were working on.

To most budding scientists, this leads to a major crisis. Now, they have to decide whether they want to be a scientist! As they go forward, they notice that science is about search, and struggles. It is about false starts, about failed projects. It’s not about victory lapses – it’s about the long pathway to an interesting conclusion, and all the agonizing questions and defeats that come from it.

They learn that Eureka-moments are not great random events rather they are the end of a struggle and a series of failed attempts and disappointments. The level of experience of a scientist is not primarily defined by successes, but also by how she deals with failures and obstacles. Because, there are many more dead-ends in science than there are great papers, great speeches and awards!

So, when I read the emails of the University of East Anglia, that’s what I see. It’s the frustration that comes from not being able to fully describe data, the frustration of not understanding everything there is to know – yes, the frustration of ignorance in some cases, the frustration that comes from some “so-called” skeptics who would not be able to pass a Physics 101 exam and are still being listened to. In that frustration, they may miss real argument, and good questions!

But, the aspect most criticized in these emails was highly politically incorrect statements about the peer review. I don’t know a single scientist who has not been involved in the same discussion. Senior wise men can turn into swearing menaces when they are told that their research results are just not up to par. In some cases the referee is justified – and in some cases the referee never understood what the paper is all about.

I talked to Eugene Parker whose seminal papers have transformed astrophysics and are at the nucleus of new scientific communities such as space science, plasma astrophysics and many others. He has written about the many struggles he had to get his most important papers published. In some cases, only his close relationship with the journal’s editor allowed him to get the papers out. But, as passionate he is about intelligent reviewers, Parker believes in the value of a peer-review system. And, without doubt, so do the people who are widely cited in these emails. They cannot change the peer-review process, and neither do they really want to change it. But, they are sure angry at it at times!

There is one simple fact shining through these emails: all scientists are people. I have previously written about the dangers for scientists to compromise on the very principles good science is about: open discourse, listening to minority opinions, and not getting swept into a political debate. Most of the messiness of science comes from that very fact. Hurt pride, jealousy, and hubris does not just drive politicians and business people, they can also affect scientists.

Yes, science is not an orderly, straightforward path. It is littered with messy turns and twists. For me, that has been the only reason I have become a scientist. If it was predictable, everybody could be a successful scientist!

I only have two additional pieces of advice related to this story. First, to the officials of the University of East Anglia: fire your IT Department and seriously review processes to protect your people. Second, to the hackers who published these emails: level the playing field by going after the oil companies as well! I would like to see what kind of emails they are exchanging with their lobbyists and with members of Congress. That would be a fun comparison!