The innovation choice

A friend told me about a startup that he knows about that is building a door (OK, it was Chef Charlie Ayers and the startup is working away above his restaurant in Palo Alto -- he built Google's cafeterias and has brought innovation to food and culture that many thought was impossible).

So?

"The door charges your phone or devices every time you walk through it."

Now, most people will say "that's impossible."

My answer? "Tell me more."

I've been telling my friends who have done things like build the iPhone or started Activision or done other remarkable things about what Charlie told me.

Even the innovators are often skeptical of this idea. Think there's no way to make that safe. Many joke "oh, great, I won't have kids after I walk through that door."

Yet there's someone in Silicon Valley who is working on just that: a door that charges your phone when you walk through it.

Oh, and why this photo? Because something funny is going on behind that door. General Motors is working on its autonomous driving systems here. I still remember when Ford's CEO told Shel Israel that no one would buy a self-driving car (that was about five years ago, that guy is gone now and Ford is spending a huge amount to get its cars ready for the self-driving world).

Last night several of us said we can't wait for a self-driving car (and several of us have given Elon Musk $1,000 in the expectation that he'll do exactly that when we get our Tesla Model 3's in a year or two).

I wonder how many other "not possible" ideas are being worked on?

I choose to believe it's possible.

Innovation is a choice.

Same with our country. So many think it's impossible to take a truck driver and retrain him/her for a new economy. Or that it's impossible to fix global warming so might as well just ignore the problem. Or that the costs of the fix will cost too much and mean giving up too many jobs.

I start out with the assumption that it's possible.

After all, if it's possible that we have self-driving cars and doors we walk through to charge our phones or mixed reality glasses, then it's possible for our great country to give everyone a shot at being part of the new economy.

Call me a dreamer if you want.

But in Silicon Valley we start with that assumption: that anything is possible. Innovation is a choice.

I bet someday we're gonna have that door in our homes. Here's to the dreamers who think the impossible is possible.