Читать книгу Hacking Innovation - Josh Linkner - Страница 4

Back in the early ’80s, I got my first taste of hacking. Full disclosure, I was a nerd of epic proportion. As a socially awkward teen with few athletic skills, I spent my days practicing guitar or in front of a computer screen. Using my Atari 800 computer with 48k of memory and a dial-up modem that transmitted slower than I could type, I had a sinister idea. A mischievous plan to conquer the world.

Sort of.

Back in the day, when long-distance calls cost nearly as much as a luxury vacation, calling cards by MCI, Sprint, and AT&T were a status symbol. Using a special number, along with a 5-digit code, you could speak to someone in a different country. This sounds lame now, in the age of live video streaming from your watch, but back then it was wicked cool. Since I didn’t have any money, I decided to use hacking to see if I could score some free codes.

My approach was pretty basic – I wrote a very simple software program to do the dirty work. At the time, AOL was the gateway to the online world and they actually had a phone number rather than a website. You could dial their number from your modem and you’d hear the famous screechy noise, alerting you that you’d reached a computer and not the local pizza joint. So my software did the following: dialed MCI’s toll-free calling card number, entered a five-digit code (it started with 00000), and then tried to connect to AOL. If the call went through and AOL’s computer tone connected to my machine, my software would record the 5-digit code as valid. If it didn’t work, my system would hang up and try the next sequential number (00001). So I’d go to bed each evening, run the system all night, and wake up to 10-15 fresh and valid long-distance codes to use.

Thankfully, I was never caught and am not on any watch lists, as far as I know. At the time, I thought this was the coolest thing ever. I had no intention of selling these codes, or even using them myself. Sadly, I didn’t have anyone 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.