Change is Your Friend w/ Tom Werner
How Can You Embrace Change In Your Life?
There are few industries that are more complex than the energy industry. The field intermingles government policy, free market principles, national security, climate change, and the desire for energy independence.
When I was growing up, we didn’t give it much thought until the energy crisis of the 1970s made you realize that there wasn’t an unlimited supply of the fuel that powered everything from your car to your furnace. This put pressure on the U.S. auto industry to offer more fuel-efficient cars and created a market opportunity for the Japanese car makers who had been making more efficient cars for many years.
Over time, energy supplies increased, prices went down and most people went back to their old habits.
But then, in the early 2000s, economic growth around the world and the rapid rise of the Chinese economy forced the world to realize that energy mattered again. In fact, if something didn’t change, energy supply would fundamentally limit economic growth.
So, governments around the world responded with policies to promote new alternative energy sources as well a higher efficiency standards for everything from cars to lighting.
If you look around your house or walk through your neighborhood, you can see the many changes that have occurred just over the past decade. LED lighting and smart thermostats in your home, solar panels on people’s roofs, and many more Teslas or other energy efficient vehicles on the roads.
So how did this all happen?
Well, on this episode I sit down with Tom Werner who is the CEO of Sunpower, a solar energy company headquartered in Silicon Valley. Tom has seen an incredible transformation of the energy business over the last 15 years and helped take solar from an expensive niche technology to one of the cheapest sources of energy that is now being used to build entire power plants.
Tom also dives deep into his own innovators journey and shares lessons that any entrepreneur can benefit from, such as:
Using the Butterfly Test to determine if the idea you’re pursuing is big enough.
Leveraging the power of your cohort and recognize that value and motivation that comes from not being the smartest person in the room.
The necessity of critical feedback - If you want to get better, you need people to hold you accountable and tell you how you can improve.
And learning how to fly high and fly low – As a decision maker, you need to be able to see both the forest and the trees.
This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Werner Sustainable Energy Lab on Marquette’s campus.
Please check out the episode in the above link. If you have an opinion on these topics, please feel free to email us through the contact page. The best ideas often stem from the intersection of different points of view. The episode is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!
