Meet Robert Read, a scientist who volunteers his expertise and his time for the greater good. His career didn’t start out that way, but we learn today how he made the pivot from a world where patents and profits are the goal, to satisfying work creating and promoting inventions meant to serve mankind rather than a corporate culture.

 

Rob attended college at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His intention was to major in physics, but he eventually found computer science a better fit. During those early years, he was inspired by the 1981 Buckminster Fuller book, Critical Path. Those who have read it will hear some of its precepts loud and clear in Rob’s career story.

 

Rob was busy raising and supporting a family as he prepared to enter the University of Texas to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science. His thoughts, of course, turned to what he wanted to do when he finished. He considered academia and research so he might explore theoretical work. His time at U Texas was teaching him that unlike many or his peers, his goal was not to become rich and/or famous. He was interested in finding positive solutions through science to benefit all of society without an emphasis on money or notoriety.

 

After he finished his degree at Texas, he took an altogether different direction. He decided he would like to have a business of his own. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out. Still raising a family and needing a solid occupation, he turned to standard “.com” jobs. After a series of these, he again tried creating his own business, just to meet with the same results he previously experienced. He was now 15 years into his career and tired of pivoting, but he had not yet found his niche.

 

Fortunately, at this point, he learned of the Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program. He applied and won the fellowship which took him to Washington, D.C. He thoroughly enjoyed being an innovator for the federal government for 6 months. He found his work highly motivating because what he was doing had a lot of positive human impact. He was asked to stay on, and for 18 additional months he started a tech innovator-incubator program. He found this work to be enjoyable and it built his confidence. This entire period had helped to awaken his earlier desire to use science to benefit humanity rather than “making rich people richer,” as he says.

 

Buoyed by new self-confidence and a greater certainty about his direction, Rob began his non-profit organization, Public Invention. Amy asks Rob to tell us the differences between his nonprofit and those profit-oriented businesses he worked for previously. It is at this point in the conversation that the listener will understand how truly unique Rob’s work is. His organization is the antithesis of the pressure, profit and patent driven companies of the world. Instead, he and the volunteer scientists and inventors strive to create designs that may be freely used by everyone. The culture of the workplace (pre-pandemic), is strikingly different as you might imagine. He also shares a bit about the tester Public Invention created to evaluate ventilators for use during the pandemic. It is fascinating to hear the process they followed in order to bring this item to speedy completion.

 

His work at Public Invention has fulfilled Rob. He finds great joy in encouraging and assisting others to help mankind. He spends his days now reaching out and involving himself with projects of other like-minded individuals. His time is spent Zoom conferencing since the pandemic, but he still does hands -work. He tells us there is a big difference in leading people who are being told what to produce as opposed to leading those who are following their own passion and creating their vision.

 

Topics in this episode:

• Don’t hold back. Find the courage to move forward sooner rather than later
• How to swim successfully against convention
• How making a start on your project will eventually draw help, support and allies
• Why it’s ok if you don’t succeed but it isn’t ok not to try
• How synergy surrounds creative energy and why that’s important to personal fulfillment and continued success
• How to avoid being paralyzed by perfectionism

Links:

• pubinv.org
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-read-878987/