It’s something that any hard-nosed entrepreneur likely deals with when their invention / startup is on the edge of fail: should they simply throw in the towel, or forge ahead like no one’s looking? The father of the Segway, Dean Kamen, is also wrestling with that question. In a recent interview, he stated: "You end up lying there saying, 'I’m not stopping. It would be an act of shallow cowardice. Or you decide to quit and you say, ‘This is one of those ideas that just isn’t going to work.’ " He also noted that “it’s not nearly as glamorous as people think to keep working on something and to keep hitting roadblocks and to keep going.” On one hand, we could definitely see the rug being pulled from the two-wheeled transporter that never revolutionized public movement, but considering all the days in which it has lifted our spirits, do we really want it to?
There was some interesting information in it, including some of the common characteristics that Dean Kamen finds in entrepreneurial innovators and future innovators. I didn’t necessarily discern that the article was about giving up on the Segway. I read the article as one that inspires readers to understand the spirit of inventors, entrepreneurs, innovators - that it isn’t necessarily an easy road to take but that it is a worthy one.
Jane, you’re right. The original article was just on his thoughts on innovation. I have no idea where it got twisted into “OMG! DEAN WANTS TO GIVE UP THE SEGWAY!”…but that’s just plain wrong. The original writing was just about how tough it is to stick to a project when it seems to not go anywhere.
I read this article before the one that Jane posted, but somehow pulled the same thing out of it (assuming that the media misinterpreted what he said). If you read closer to what is exactly quoted, it seems the exact message he is trying to get across is about the life of an inventor/engineer.
I love the points that Dean makes, and its probably why I still listen to every word of his speeches even after 14 years of them! It seems more and more these days, kids are afraid to try ANYTHING that they might fail at, and are afraid to fail. Over and over again I try and stress to my kids that “its ok to fail, as long as you try”. The only failures that they know disappoint me are the times that they dont try at all. I loved the commercial that the guy who invented the Dyson vacuum made… something like “I failed 499 times when trying to make this vacuum, the 500th time I succeeded”. Im afraid for our next generation, that we wont end up with many revolutions, that they wont have the inventors that we need… because so many kids are afraid to fail. I think it takes something like FIRST or even just a good teacher to let kids know its ok, Invention is hard, Engineering is hard, Math is hard (not to quote that sad Barbie Doll)… if life were easy, we would all be living the fat happy lives of the useless people in Wall-E.
This is why you have to be careful with the media, both with what you tell them, and with what you believe from them. News reporters have a tendency to tweak stories just a bit, whether it is from lack of understanding, or trying to mold the story into something they want it to be. It’s great that we have a community here which is willing to look at things with a critical eye first, rather than deeming everything they hear as fact. (Except in the case of the manual… the manual doesn’t lie.)