to call in Paris or São Paulo. I didn’t brag about my exploits, and until now, never shared the scheme with anyone. So why did I do it? To see if I could. It was the allure of the challenge, and the euphoric fix of outsmarting the big boys. I felt like I was important, someone of consequence.
I’ve been hacking ever since. Though that was the end of my cybercrimes, I’ve used the same unconventional tenets of hacking to craft a fairly interesting life. I started my career as a jazz guitarist, hacking my way onto stages throughout the world. Jazz itself is a form of hacking: it relies on defying rules and using non-traditional routes to bring the art form to life.
Then, in 1990, I started my first company as a hack. At that time, buying a discount computer was nearly impossible. Traditional retail outlets were expensive and time consuming, so I hacked a different approach. I found that I could mail order individual computer components and assemble them in my college apartment for a fraction of the going retail rates. This led to a company – Gator Computer Systems – which I built and sold over the next two years.
Ready for a new project, in 1995, I launched an Internet company that built websites and e-commerce solutions for corporate clients. This was pretty cutting-edge stuff at a time when only 2% of companies even had a website. I deployed hacking techniques in the way we hired, sold, and produced our work. This strange approach helped me build the firm fast and ultimately sell it to a public company.
By the time I sold the company in 1999, Internet adverting had become all the rage. I briefly thought about starting an Internet ad company, but quickly realized I’d be too late to that party. Instead of following the herd, I launched the first Internet promotion company, ePrize. Promotions is a large category of the marketing mix, but online, it was largely dormant back then. Taking this oppositional approach made all the difference as we scaled the company to nearly $100 million in revenue and 500 employees before selling it in 2012. Hacking our product offerings, corporate culture, sales methodology, and even fundraising led to terrific outcomes. The company’s success was fueled by a renegade, unorthodox approach.
Next, my partners and I decided to launch a venture capital fund in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Sure, we hoped to make some money, but more importantly we wanted to make a difference. Once an international center of innovation, Detroit has suffered for years, largely because it stopped innovating and became complacent. We set out to use venture capital investing as a mechanism to drive social change, to help rebuild our beloved, though troubled city.
Instead of investing in manufacturing companies, we focused our efforts exclusively on tech startups – social media, mobile apps, e-commerce, Internet of Things, cloud computing. People thought we were nuts, but we forged ahead with a hacker-like approach. Today, Detroit Venture Partners is thriving, helping to create jobs, diversify our economy, and foster an exciting work/live/play environment in downtown Detroit.
Recently, I co-founded Fuel Leadership, a company focused on disrupting professional growth and development. My partners and I are passionate about helping people perform better, which leads to successful communities and a vibrant economy. Traditional learning approaches have become stale, boring, and ineffective, and we know there’s a better way. Using the principles of hacking, we’ve set out to disrupt a tired industry and help professionals throughout the world perform better. It’s early on, but the traction we’ve enjoyed is directly related to our non-traditional approach.
But this book isn’t about me, it’s about you. I only share my background because the principles of hacking drove my success. I didn’t call it that throughout my journey, but looking back, there’s no mistaking the hacking patterns that were my foundation over the last 26 years in business. To be clear, I have more shortcoming than assets. I stink at details, don’t have an MBA, have the patience of a toddler, and never passed calculus. My secret weapon has been my willingness to hack, and it can be yours as well.
Today, I can’t write a lick of code. But I proudly consider myself a hacker. Hackers are change agents. They stick their finger in the eye of conventional wisdom. They break and then rebuild things. They imagine. They create.
NOT IMPOSSIBLE
Daniel’s life changed with the thunderous crash of an explosion. A boy living in the Nuba Mountains in war-torn South Sudan, Daniel lost both his arms when bombs fell near his village. Life in his situation was hard enough, but with no arms he needed constant help for even the most basic tasks. In a Time interview, he tearfully said, “If I could die today, I would, so I will not be a burden to my family.”
Struck by Daniel’s profound and heartbreaking remarks, Mick Ebeling decided to start hacking. More than 8,000 miles away in Venice Beach, California, Mick and his team at Not Impossible Labs met to discuss Daniel’s plight. This is exactly the kind of challenge they live for.
Mick was a successful film producer, animator, and special effects artist when he decided to reinvent himself. While he enjoyed his craft and was earning a great living, his heart led him in a new direction. He deeply felt the plight of those around the globe suffering with challenges that felt “impossible” to overcome. So in 2009, he launched Not Impossible Labs, which takes on seemingly impossible missions and then uses hacking principles to conquer them. Once a problem has been identified, they crowdsource solutions from inventors, technologists, and dreamers around the globe. They seek to develop innovative solutions that can ultimately be replicated and scaled, all for the sake of improving humanity.
According to the Not Impossible website, “The ability to obtain healthcare, literacy and technology shouldn’t ever be limited by finances, geography or physical ability. Along with our community of passionate and talented engineers, makers, idea generators, and storytellers, we’re making the impossible, Not Impossible.”
In Daniel’s case, Mick and the team got working on the problem of providing Daniel with affordable prosthetic arms so he could feed himself, contribute to his community, and regain his dignity. Using many principles and approaches we’ll cover throughout the book, Not Impossible Labs was able to create a solution for Daniel using a 3-D-printed prosthetic arm. Their journey was not without obstacles, but ultimately, they not only helped a young boy across the globe, they also leveraged their invention to help thousands of others. These low-cost prosthetics are now being used in developing countries, directly impacting thousands. The efforts have been magnified further by Not Impossible’s global reach and their ability to shine a light on important issues through masterful storytelling. This small organization, with a tiny team and limited resources has not only helped kids in war-torn regions, they’ve helped thousands of others around the world who were facing “impossible” situations of their own.
Mick’s unorthodox practices embody hacking at its finest: a burning curiosity and willingness to confront conventional wisdom. Democratized ideation from a diverse and vast array of contributors, rather than relying on single bets from entrenched “experts.” Conducting low-cost, controlled, high-volume experiments instead of launching a single, bet-the-farm initiative. Finding a hole in the problem and then exploiting it to its logical end. Believing that no barrier is impenetrable.
WHY AND WHAT?
Hackers hack for different reasons, from social validation to massive financial gain. Their motives vary widely, but what they share is an insatiable curiosity, a willingness to experiment with unconventional approaches in order to conquer their challenges, a desire to forgo traditional thinking in favor of fresh possibilities.
In this sense, hackers have been the source of progress for generations. Martin Luther King, Jr. hacked racial injustice and protesting. Galileo hacked the scientific norms of his day. Charlie Parker hacked traditional harmonic structures, becoming the father of modern jazz.
Lab researchers hack new drug therapies to eradicate disease. Nutritional scientists hack molecular structures to deliver food that tastes better, lasts longer, and delivers optimal health benefits. Entrepreneurs hack entire industries whose leaders are asleep at the wheel, in order to better serve customers and