Opportunities in the Physical World

Many students of mine have gone on to successful careers in finance, and I’m proud of their accomplishments. I’m glad they were introduced to concepts like balance sheets, consolidated profit and loss statements, and cash flow schedules for the first time in my class.

But I am not personally passionate about financial business, or software development, or Internet commerce. I am passionate about PRODUCTS. There is something very special about seeing a physical product developed.

I think there’s never been a more exciting time to develop products in THE PHYSICAL WORLD. I’ll give you one example:

Recently the New York Times columnist Paul Krugman pointed out that advances in the technology and design of materials have made a new generation of renewable power technologies competitive with the fossil fuels that cause global climate change.

Windmills have been pumping water for a thousand years, but in order to make cheap electricity, you have to design a windmill that is enormous. In Denmark, a company is making windmills with blades more than 300 feet long – more than the wingspan of the world’s largest jet planes. And they’re positioning these windmills out in the ocean where the wind never stops blowing, on towers that rival the world’s biggest oil rigs. This is possible because of advances in materials like carbon composites, and new designs in generators and control systems.

Companies that create opportunities like these in clean power are going to be very profitable.

On a similar note, The Wall Street Journal reports that electric storage – batteries – is about to undergo its biggest improvement in decades. With new designs using materials like silicon and graphene, batteries are already competitive with gasoline, and much cleaner.

BMW, famous for engineering, just invested $250 million dollars in new battery research and production.

All these are happening because of advances in THE PHYSICAL WORLD – using science and technology to create huge new business opportunities.