Prepare for one of my most important podcasts from someone who knows the science behind the environment. Want to improve the environment?
You may remember Balint, a fellow scientist who
- got a PhD in physics
- became an entrepreneur
- got passionate about improving in business, and
- teaches experiential project-based learning.
from his first podcast interview of me, which covered leadership and education.
We continued our conversation and spoke the way only physics PhDs can. I shared what I’ve posted here about my developing plans to start a movement on leadership and the environment. We decided to record another conversation on it for his podcast on how to act on the environment—yes, you, personally.
He posted it, “Call for action to you – for a new path to reduce climate change,” today.
From the show notes:
In this episode we’ll talk about leadership again but this time on applying it on one specific topic, on sustainability. We hear constantly about facts on climate change, the consequences of our not taking actions, the green technologies’ slow adoption. “If information was the answer, we’d all be millionaire with perfect abs†says Derek Sivers. Maybe there’s another, potentially more effective way to decrease climate change, by talking less and acting more, a certain point Josh makes, which he thinks has been almost completely overlooked.
Enjoy this episode.
Just one more thing since it’s a call to action: let me know or Joshua if you want to do something on this topic, e.g. joining an accountability group, or contributing in any way to this initiative.
- The importance of climate change topic – [2:40]
- Joshua’s view on sustainability and climate change – [3:57]
- Do you turn on the aircon on a hot summer day or you bear some uncomfortableness? – [5:10]
- The most common perception of behavioural change for reducing climate change – deprivation – [7:05]
- His practical recommendations – [8:36]
- Joshua’s journey to becoming environmentally conscious – [15:11]
- We need to do different things if we want to see different actions – [19:10]
- A simple technique I developed for changing my behaviour even before facing pain – [21:28]
- How about a website for the listeners to sign up for personal challenges to start taking action? – [23:25]
Books / companies / links mentioned
- “Leadership Step by Step: Become the Person Others Follow†by Joshua Spodek
- New York University
- Spodek Academy
- Spodek Academy’s offer for the listeners from episode 22
- Tesla
Contact
- Company Website
- Personal Website
- Twitter: @Spodek
From Balint’s About page:
What is THE HARDWARE ENTREPRENEUR and what is in it for you?
In this podcast I interview hardware entrepreneurs, who build physical products, to bring you the stories of how they started their companies and how they run them to enable you to start yours.
Why?
Our Earth runs on resources and is based on atoms rather than on bits. Our real progress thus depends mainly on our producing, selling innovative physical products, so hardware products. Hardware is Internet of Things, that is IoT, devices connected to the internet, or 3D printers, drones, robots that are in today’s headlines, and which actually have quite a lot of software running on them. But they can also be any physical product, e.g. a sustainable pencil that is purely hardware with no software element. Hardware is…different, different than software. Challenges are everywhere, in designing, manufacturing, getting funding, hiring, innovating, delivering to the customers.
I found that resources are scattered around on the internet in blogs, discussion forums or in a few recently published books on hardware. I consider the total amount of available resources little especially for this complex hardware field. Where do you get real, practical knowledge? Either by going through building a hardware company or by hearing it first-hand from others, what they have gone through when building their own companies.
I started this podcast exactly for this latter reason, to bring you stories of entrepreneurs of atoms, that is of hardware companies. We will uncover what their motivation was, what challenges they encountered, then overcame them regarding funding, strategies, business models they iterated on and found, as well as tackling some of the aforementioned topics, e.g. manufacturing, innovation, hiring, etc.
Who and where is the host?
I’m Balint Horvath, founder and host of The Hardware Entrepreneur podcast. I’m an entrepreneur and cosmopolitan, originally from Hungary and currently based in the heart of Europe, in Switzerland, where green is green regarding its pastures, mountains and where fresh innovations make the country as one of the top places for innovation.
You might know Switzerland as the place to be for high-quality chocolate, but it is also a place where next to green pastures, mountains, fresh innovations are born out of research labs of large companies, from startups or small-medium-sized companies. This makes this country as one of the top places for innovations, ranking it actually as Nr. 1 in the world for innovativeness.
My background and what drives me
As for my background, I am a physicist and an electrical engineer, with a PhD in the former, an M.Sc. in the latter fields. I have been always fascinated by technology and how things work which led me to a path to explore engineering and physics first in academia, then in the industry, in my last role as R&D Program Manager for Manufacturing. Inventions and ones that can be turned into innovations creating business opportunities are what excite me and if you want to find out more about my journey, I encourage you to listen to the first episode.