TheThreePercent

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending an event in Palo Alto where Serious Materials CEO, Kevin Surace gave us his rapid-fire fact safari on climate change and how to address it.

The Serious Materials story is a terrific one of solving global problems while creating local opportunities.  Recently, Kevin’s team famously bought an old-line window manufacturer in Pittsburgh which had just shut its doors and laid off over 100 people, turning it into a center for making Serious’ amazing ‘green’ windows.  It was a great story, and if you watch any of the national news networks, you saw it when President Obama showed up to give a speech at the plant’s reopening earlier this year.

But what struck me about last night was Kevin’s own personal transformation.  He started as an electrical engineer but found himself writing code and working in software and computer hardware companies for a big part of his career.  When I asked him after his talk what took him from software to advanced building materials, he said, “I just decided to do it.”

There is the adage, “Do what you know.”  And many advisers and financiers of entrepreneurs often urge them to focus on opportunities where they have deep knowledge.  That makes sense.  But it is also true that sometimes it takes someone who is willing to leap into the unknown.  And like Kevin, when you do that, eventually you will have acquired that necessary deep knowledge.  Better, you will have a unique perspective, combining insights from your previous experience with your new experience.

When it comes to climate change, maybe it is a good thing we have leaders like Kevin, who understand personal transformation.

Later this week, I’ll be posting the next installment of “People Worth Backing.”  The person featured in that piece is another great example of the transformational entrepreneur.