Dean Kamen Reveals ‘Toughest Question’
Segway scooter inventor Dean Kamen freely admits it: He often suffers sleepless nights wrestling over whether to quit a project that’s not panning out.
“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,’ ” said Kamen, speaking by phone from his home office in Manchester, New Hampshire.
When to quit — said Kamen, also the inventor of health care technologies and the Slingshot water purifier — is “the toughest question there is” for any entrepreneur who survives on creativity and instinct.
“It’s not nearly as glamorous as people think to keep working on something and to keep hitting roadblocks and to keep going,” he said.
Kamen, who works hard to inspire future innovators with his FIRST program to promote high school math and science, said every entrepreneurial innovator he’s ever seen shares a few characteristics.
“It’s not that they’re brilliant or well-educated,” Kamen said. “They work all the time. They don’t let failure demoralize or destroy them. They pick themselves up and keep going and eventually, every once in a while, one of your ideas actually breaks through and works, and it makes all that stuff seem worthwhile.”
Photo by DEKA Research & Development Corp..
Click and Inc on January 20th, 2009 11:26 am
Life is full of constant failures where maybe one thing works out, but you can’t give up. Those failures make us real and make us keep fighting and once something does breakthrough, the victory is even sweeter. Good luck.
Sarah Cook on January 20th, 2009 1:54 pm
How often have I had the same struggles. It is hard to balance the realistic appearance and the hope that the right work will make things fall into place. Often, I end up going with my gut – that is, my passion. If I still have the drive, I go for it. If I can feel my passion getting stale or feel as if it is a (negative) fight to keep it going, I let it go.
Cassy on January 20th, 2009 7:15 pm
Failure doesn’t mean you stop but its a key to work harder, to aim your goal and ambitions in life.
As what the line says try and try until you succeed.
Jaclyn on January 22nd, 2009 1:25 pm
I think wether your an entrepreneur or a regular joe with a 9-5 job…you eventually find yourself asking the question…”do i keep going or do i quit”. and this can apply to anything wether it be financially or a personal venue…it always come’s up in your life sooner or later and usually several times in your life. and it can be one of the hardest questions you ever ask yourself and answer.
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