moonshots ep42 anousheh ansari space transcript

I knew the passion I had for space then I wasn’t willing to give my life to go to space uh and take the risk and I knew there were millions of people like me who would do the same and as long as we understood the risk and still we were willing to take that chance and build something and and risk Our Lives to go to space I think it was our right to make that choice exploration and expanding humans footprint in the universe is important and I truly believe [Music] that I’m super excited to have a dear friend a colleague an extraordinary CEO entrepreneur anua Ansari anua made headlines around the world in 2006 when she participated in an 11-day space Expedition and became the first female private space Explorer first astronaut from Iranian descent first Muslim woman in space and the four fourth private

[00:01:00] space Explorer she was the benefactor of the $10 million onari x prise for space flight and is currently the CEO of the x prise foundation where she continues to lead our mission of creating incentive competitions to solve The World’s grandest challenges before joining X prise anusa served as the CEO of an iot company called prodia and she was previously the CEO of Telecom Technologies she serves on the world economic Forum of global futur and has received multiple Awards and Honors that would take me an hour just to list in 2010 she published her memoirs my dream of stars to share her life story and Inspire young women around the world an extraordinary friend and uh and a co-venture to the stars and solving the world’s Grand challenges Anusha it’s a pleasure to have you here Peter it’s great to be here with you thank you yeah of course so question for you it’s September 18th 200 six you’re

[00:02:01] at the bonor cosmodrome it’s about 8:00 a.m. you’re 150 ft in the air and you’re sitting at top of 40-year-old piece of Soviet technology on top of 670,000 pounds of explosives next to you are Mikel Turin of Russia your commander and then Mike la a mutual friend of ours a US astronaut and you’re about to fly to the space station what is going through your mind it’s uh it was a very interesting moment that I remember very clearly because we were sitting there we finished all our check um checklist and uh we were just listening to music classical music in our headsets something just like this and um and I was thinking to myself is this really happening am I really going to space and then you know the sense of gratitude because I was just thinking like like a

[00:03:00] flashback of my life of all the dots that had to connect all the people who I met including you that put me on the path that got me to be in that seat on top of that rocket it was I mean it was something that there I could have never planned and uh and just thinking about how many things had to come together to make that happen and I felt privileged and and um a sense of gratitude was the most strongest feeling I had at that moment so 3 2 1 the engines ignite and so is lifting out of the bonor cosmodrome what did it feel like I mean uh what was how would you describe that moment everything happens uh at least in my head happened faster than I thought so you lots of shaking and I’m strapped into my seat and just watching all the lights go green and red and green and

[00:04:00] red and making sure that they’re going in the right sequence so at that moment I was very focused on making sure that there no problems and everything’s happening uh the way it’s supposed to happen and then um you you’re going very fast you feel the G force is increasing on on your chest and all of a sudden you know the first stage is over and then everything stops like you’re going fast and you stop and it’s like a moment of silence and um and then uh the second stage kicks in and you feel the kick and and then you’re going up again but before that also we were in the dark because there was a nose cone over the um capsule and just before um the second stage that just when we um launch a few minutes after launch when the nose cone goes off it’s a big explosion and then there’s light coming in which was really special but then you know you go to the second stage and I think I think it takes about maybe 12 to 13 minutes to be

[00:05:04] in um microgravity and then the first thing I saw someone had dropped a pencil that we didn’t know on the floor of the capsule so I saw this you know pencil sort of rise up and start floating in front of me which made me giggle and start laughing and then you know other things you you we were strapped so I couldn’t feel the that I was moving up but um still you feel that your weightlessness and and it was so so so special and and I felt like a kid I was just King and I was going to ask you were you in those moments of the launch sitting there between the bike you know the launch in bonor and getting to 17,500 miles an hour you know 12 minutes later were you were you a kid or an engineer or scientist what what were you in those moments I was a kid I was a kid

[00:06:00] did did you feel ready did you feel like like okay I’m ready for this I did I I had trained almost 9 months in in uh Star City and done a lot of Sims and and studied everything um uh and um so I felt ready we had done so many simulation that uh I I wasn’t worried about what was would happen next and frankly you know that morning um I felt such a feel feeling of calm and and peacefulness because I felt that even if I die I’m dying doing something that I wanted to do all my life so how many people get to do that and so I wasn’t worried about the dangers or things going wrong I was just focused on the experience that I will have and that’s why I was a kid because I wanted to experience it fully with all of my heart and and I did and it was fantastic so I’m going to take you back you’re in

[00:07:01] Taran yes as a child yes what were your first memories of of space when did you and you and I share a very similar background in our childhood passions uh you know I remember mine I’m I’m curious do you remember yours remember when you sort of first said I want to go to the stars for me it was gradual but uh but constant and that was this fascination with the night skies and the Stars so so I would uh you know summer nights we would sleep outside on the balcony because we didn’t have air conditioning and um and I would love those nights because I could sleep and just and they would put these malaria Nets over the bed and I refused to have one because I wanted to look at the night skies and and just when I looked up at the stars it was like this whole new world this universe opened up to me and I could you know create stories and worlds and

[00:08:01] places to go things to do aliens to meet and it was fascinating to me and and I this constant question in my head that’s what’s up there what’s out there how can I go there and figure it out so it was that question that Drew me to want to become an astronaut wanting to go to space and sort of discovering what’s out there and and when did you first have the idea that that might be an option versus just you know sort of sitting on the ground and appreciating it did did anybody that you knew have that kind of a dream or a goal I mean is it is it possible for a a young girl from uh from Iran to have that kind of a Dream well um I loved sci-fi and and I read a lot of sci-fi stories especially um the um jeul Vern was one of the authors that I read as a child and so so all those fascinating uh voyages uh that

[00:09:03] I would go on so in my head maybe it was my ignorance I was like yeah of course I can go to space and then I used to watch Star Trek and I’m like there will be a Starship Enterprise and I can go to space with Starship Enterprise so I didn’t understand the complexity and the problems associated with it so um it’s sort of you know made it simple in my head that I yeah of course I can go to space that’s not a problem uh it’s only when I became an adult and I came to us I understood all the difficulties associated with it and and that it’s not it wasn’t possible unless I figured out a way to join NASA or one of the government space agencies everybody I want to take a quick break from our episode tell you about a health product that I love and that I use every day in fact I use it twice a day it’s called seed Health now your microbiome and gut Health are one of the most important and

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[00:11:01] moonshot to get 25% off your first month of se’s daily symbiotic trust me your gut will thank you all right let’s get back to our episode let’s take it from uh from there what brought you to the states and uh I want to take people through your entrepreneurial Journey you know as as women and entrepreneurs uh men and women look at what you’ve done it’s been extraordinary uh companies you you’ve built and uh the journeys and fulfillments you you’ve gone on um but uh talk about your your family’s transition from uh Iran to the US and and uh going to school and becoming an engineer if you don’t mind so I left Iran when I was about 16 years old I was just about to start um grade 12 and we left and we had this rare opportunity where finally my mom’s request to get a green card came through true and and they had accepted our application after

[00:12:01] 12 years so this is After the Revolution um you know this is uh during the Iran Iraq war so um that which went on for eight years but that was there for the first five years of that and and um so there was this opportunity and and I was excited but scared at the same time I was a teenager um I uh I had never left Iran before that trip and um so we left with a lot of anxiety and anticipation uh and arrived here um and I was studying U math and and Sciences in Iran and um ended up um well first I wanted to become an astrophysicist and and I got accepted um to University of Virginia and uh my mom convinced me that that’s not a really great career choice because all I could do is become a professor and that I didn’t even speak

[00:13:01] English I would be a good professor if I couldn’t communicate well and I should think of something else and I was at my core I’m always a problem solver I love solving puzzles uh I’m curious so engineering became my second choice which was in retrospect really a good choice because it helped me get to to my dream and and going to space I became an electrical engineer computer science this is in um late 1980s uh early 1990s so it was an area that was growing changing lots of job opportunities and um so I I became an engineer and started working for a telecommunication company um MCI a company that doesn’t exist anymore microwave Communications Inc yeah yes and and it’s interesting because um that you know that opportunity to work for them it was and learning about their history because

[00:14:01] their history is interesting they disrupted Telecom they disrupted the whole you know conglomeration of the big mels and and the and changed the face of you know telecommunication by doing that and the breakup of the Bel companies um so it that that story was fascinating to me and and really interested mean how a small company can really disrupt big conom so that maybe had something to do with my entrepreneurial desires later on so were you when you were being uh educated in Iran and in your family uh what did your mom and dad do my father was uh head of sales for the only wine producing company in Iran this before the Revolution he lost his job after the revolution so he was in sales and my mom uh worked as an administrator for in a university and also worked part worked

[00:15:00] two jobs to make ends meet um and uh her second job was in a uh laboratory where they did blood tests and other things so I remember I would go in because it was the evening shift she had so I would go sit next to her and see her putting blood in different things and putting it in the center fuge and so that fascinated me also it’s like all these equipment around me that I didn’t know what what they were for and was there a mindset in in your your childhood that you could do anything uh was that was that something that you sort of created through your through your reading and and watching whether this was lucky or not because my parents worked all the time um and uh I was sort of left alone to to entertain myself and do things on my own I sort and I had a very um big imagination in in my head so I could entertain myself with imagining things and making things up uh all the time so

[00:16:02] um I sort of didn’t understand the limitations uh in our household there was no issue with being a girl and and you know people telling me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl H and I left I was left alone so I could just I thought I could do anything I wanted I was you know practically being able to to do anything I wanted in the house so why not outside I would get in trouble not too much uh but but mostly I remember I ask a lot of question and and that drove my mom crazy and they would just pass me along to someone else like go go ask your your you know your grandfather so um I I I I always had a curious mind and uh so I think that sort of drove me to want to try different things and and think that I can do anything uh it wasn’t until I became an adult and and understood and then after the Revolution frankly and all the limitations that were put in uh in place

[00:17:03] you know against women and especially women in science like the fact that I wanted to study Physics and math became an issue and and it’s like your chances of getting into University will be very slim and uh the chances of you finding a job in the field would be very slim so it was until it wasn’t until later that I realize being a woman is putting me in a disadvantage especially in Iran and perhaps now in in the new world it’s an advantage especially as a female entrepreneur um I want let’s fast forward you meet your uh your husband uh Hamid uh his brother Amir and the three of you become sort of an entrepreneurial team um when did the first idea that you would start a company together come come in because you know you built three companies uh with some tremendous success I can’t claim that we had like a brilliant idea and all of us sudden it’s like let’s go build it it started slowly

[00:18:01] and it’s it started when we were very young um we were working uh for MCI and they changed their headquarters from Washington this was Hamid your husband was yeah Hamid and myself yeah so that’s where we met actually I I my brother-in-law and I Amir uh we went to University together and when I was a year ahead so when I uh looked for internship the last year I was in school he introduced me to the company my husband Hamid worked which was MCI and I it started as an intern and then ended up uh getting hired there and working together but um the company moved headquarters to Texas we didn’t want to go to Texas um ironically we ended up there but but uh we left and we we started our own Consulting business first we we we thought we’d try small and and uh learn about what are some of the big companies are thinking about and

[00:19:01] trying to build so um we came from the advanced Planning Group of MCI so we were always looking at what’s next that we need to build for the company so we felt that will be a good area for Consulting and and frankly it ended up being a good choice because we got sort of a view into what future the companies want to build and then our first big entrepreneurial Endeavor was to start building those products those software products for them and and creating them designing them and then building them for them so so this is where Telecom Technologies comes in correct and and we we did this under the Telecom technology umbrella and um we got to a point we saw an opportunity to leap frog that and instead of asking the companies what they want to try to see what are the gaps what they need instead of what they want and and that’s when we started our first uh products and building um ended up building the first soft switch which

[00:20:00] is a technology that enables voice over IP and um this is before Skype and any of the Voiceover IP uh software that we see right now or applications so um it was way ahead of its time but something that uh the companies the telecom companies were looking at in order to reduce cost of you know long distance and and uh internet was just starting to grow um so that’s what we built and that was a right choice uh because it ended up being a successful um product and exit yeah yeah so I have to ask you the question was there ever a twinkling in your eye during that time where you’re building Telecom Technologies and you’re playing in the Telecom market like if I can make it big here this can be what I can use Capital wise to get to space was that playing in the back of your mind well I can tell you exactly how it came about so I was one morning I was getting ready to to go to work and on CNN they were

[00:21:00] showing Dennis Tito and uh and Dennis Tito uh was the first this is 2001 yes before that it was 1990 I think eight or nine when we first contract yeah before he went yeah before he went this is a company that uh I had started with Eric Anderson uh and we were and Richard garot and we had negotiated a deal with the with the Russians that we could sell seats to go to the space station and Dennis was his was our first customer yeah and back then I didn’t know you I didn’t know X prise I didn’t know you none of this but I watched Dennis Tito because there was this controversy that um you know we shouldn’t let any uh commercial passengers to go to space station United State was against it uh Denis true space adventure had a contract with the Russians to go so there was all this controversy playing and the only thing I

[00:22:00] took I didn’t care about the controversy I’m like wow there is a way to buy a ticket to go to space I just need money now because I didn’t have the money of course so it became actually a motivation to grow the company grow it faster and exit until then I was just it was work and I was building a company um but that’s when actually I thought about exit because now I had a solution to go to space and I wanted to do it so interesting so uh you’re serving as CEO of Telecom Technologies yes uh I think Amir your brother-in-law is CTO and hamid’s head of marketing Hamid can sell anything to anybody he’s extraordinary in that regard um and Amir as well three of you uh and the time from which you said let’s build a software IP switch a soft switch um to the time the company exits roughly how long um I think um three and a half years four years I

[00:23:01] mean the the idea came about four years and it helped it took four years to build it and actually productize it and have sales on it because yeah um yeah about four years and I if I remember the company was sold uh to sonus networks I think uh for somewhat over a billion dollars yeah um and and uh and that’s where our story uh uh comes together now now it wasn’t just a sale of the company it was a asset sale of the company right they didn’t pick up the employees they just bought the contracts and the software I think they they did um actually H they they acquired the entire um company but um one thing that we negotiated was uh they didn’t put restriction on the shares uh that we all the employees and we all got uh except for you know some of our shares but most of the the employees were able to basically sell their shares and exit so

[00:24:02] it was like an asset s because you know they could realize a cash value for the shares immediately and they didn’t have to wait just to just to uh uh tell those listening where where we intersect I am at this point it’s 2001 um I am desperate I announced the xprize under the Arch in St Louis in May of two of 1996 5 years earlier and pitched 150 uh executive CEOs billionaires philanthropists around the world to say please put up the 10 million dollar you don’t have to actually pay it until someone flies to space and by then of course it’ll be worth it and everyone’s no no no no no and I remember where I was in my apartment on thir Street in Santa Monica picking up a copy of Fortune uh wealthiest 40 women under 40 uh and you were featured in that and I was just flipping through the pages and I remember uh reading a sentence in

[00:25:02] there that your one of your dreams was to fly on a suborbital flight into space and I must have read that sentence three times because I was like no no no it cannot be true wait wait suborbital and fly into space and who is this woman uh uh and then I tracked you down do you remember do you remember the first communication from me at all Yes uh so my assistant at that time we were in Hawaii we were we took some time off because we had had a proper vacation for God knows how many years by then um but um so we’re in Hawaii we had taken three months off and to to go and and relax and my assistant called me because at that time after the announcement a lot of people were calling everyone had an idea an investment you know so she was screening all the calls and then she called me and said there’s a person who’s calling they’re very persistent and they want to talk to you about going to space and and uh and then she told me

[00:26:01] about you reaching out and I’m like I I immediately I perked up like yes let’s the set up a meeting immediately I want to know more so uh I think you were the first meeting we had when we got back to the States and to to Dallas actually and and you came in uh with uh Byron yes I brought I brought an astronaut with me so I have some credibility from just walking in with an astronaut and his pictures on uh in astronaut suit I was sold yeah it was uh I remember uh Byron and I flew down you were in Plano Texas uh and uh we came in uh your Hamid Amir hamid’s older brother uh was there and we’re we’re presenting and pitching to you and uh and we’re like you know um I had I can’t tell you how many how many

[00:27:00] hopes and prayers I was was riding on this meeting because it was like this has got to be her this has got to be the person and um uh you didn’t tell us yes right away do you remember that you you waited a few days I did I I mean I was sold I I was totally so I was trying to contain my excitement but but we did we do everything as a family so we couldn’t huddle in front of you so we said we’ll get back to you and then we had a conversation later on and I think I I was the most enthusiastic and and you know I I everyone else well you you really think this is great I’m like yes we need to do this this is it and Amir was very supportive too because Amir shares this dream of going to space with me so between the two of us we Twisted arms and we got the okay yeah it was our offer was listen if you fund this 10 million ion dollar purse because we had been successful in bits and pieces I

[00:28:01] used to go out and try and raise with Greg marinac and Bob uh and uh and Bob Weiss you know $25,000 at a time that was a huge success for us and we were able to fund the operations of the prize uh but you know getting the purse was uh insanely difficult and uh we pitched you and I think it was two days later I got a a call from Hamid who did all the talking I would not have been able to negotiate well he was the best negotiator yes and we called it the Ansari X prize originally you know before we were going to call it the Ansari prize but the X stuck around uh because it taken us so long and of course that allowed it to turn X prize into a platform versus a one-off one-off prize um you know uh fast forward uh you start getting involved uh we start visiting the the teams out there uh what

[00:29:00] are your what are your memories of uh of first going out to scaled composits and meeting ber ran I love those visits because it made it real for me and I could see people are actually building spaceships it was incredible um and I remember meeting Bert and and uh he’s a very unique individual and that’s for sure yes and he was uh showing us the sketch of some of the plans he had and um it looked nothing like rocket ships it was a plane and it was very different design very different approach and uh and and I was thinking to myself well would this actually make it up there and and I relied a lot on on you and Greg and and you had visited and worked with a lot of the teams and you felt that you know he probably was one of the top running uh teams in the competition and uh he was I think better fun than most other um teams as well um through Paul

[00:30:01] Allen of course and um so I was excited to see his design and and um uh he was he didn’t warm up to me at the beginning so I felt a little bit ignored but uh but but it was fine I I I was there to learn and it was a you know like a kid in a candy store I was just taking in all the information he was willing to share with was with us which he was very protective back then as well um rightfully so he didn’t want his IP to by any chance be compromised and and wanted to make sure that protect its design but he was very uh confident that he’s going to win this prize he he he’s like I’m going to win this prize and it was it was a you know a great compliment when he unveiled spaceship one and he said that the rules had stood the test of time um and so you and I went up there together uh first on September the

[00:31:02] 29th for the first uh flight uh Michael Melville’s flying this flight and um do you remember the aerobatics that that that the vehicle had on that flight yes oh my God my heart stopped I mean I first I didn’t know what was going on I was I was watching on the big Jumbotron you know the this cork screw P yeah so Mike had Mike had pulled the vehicle up so straight uh uh into a flight regime it hadn’t flown before and it started to Cork screw it it started to roll on on the on the long axis and I I don’t remember how many rolls it did uh I think it was like 27 rolls before before he got into space and used the reaction control system to uh to stabilize it and I I was listening on The Ground Control talking to him too and and uh it it they wanted him to

[00:32:03] abort and then he didn’t he’s like no I can make it and I’m like my heart is starving like it’s okay you can try again later you know one of the things I didn’t feel and I wonder if you did you know when I was going out to raise the $10 million prize one of the objection there were three objections always can anyone really pull it off why isn’t acid doing this and is someone going to die trying and there was a sense of feeling of are we incentivizing people to risk their lives and potentially die in the process did that ever hit you that that that you’re putting up the money might cause a team to build a technology that you know we couldn’t turn away but it wasn’t safe and they would kill themselves of course I I understood the risks and and uh felt the weight of it on me but it wasn’t something that would stop me because I knew uh the passion I

[00:33:03] had for space then I was as willing to give my life to go to space uh and take the risk and I knew there were millions of people like me who would do the same and as long as we understood the risk and still we were willing to take that chance and build something and and risk Our Lives to go to space uh I think it was our right to make that choice uh I if we play it safe we will never advance in anything so so I think it was an important step and I don’t know if you remember the Challenger accident happened before yes I do this flight yeah and and that was actually another wave of you know negative um sort of sentiment around our competition and that you know even NASA has accidents like this what makes you guys you know small teams um to to think that you can go to space and you will definitely kill people and and we wrote an I wrote an

[00:34:00] opet um on this as well and and and I talked to a few astronauts and to see how they felt about this and they all said that it’s actually dishonoring the memory of those astronauts who gave their lives because they’re in this knowing that exploration and expanding humans footprint in the universe is important and they’re willing to give their lives and and using their debt as an excuse not to do it is actually dishonoring their memory and and I truly believe that I I I do as well I mean you know uh risk is is the game that we that we enable to live you know Humanity at a at a higher higher level you know I remember uh something that most people don’t know is we we set the rules for the Ansari ex prise you had to build a three-person spaceship you know we figured as a pilot and two paying passengers and you had to fly it to 100 kilometers altitude land safely and within two weeks make the trip again you

[00:35:00] could replace up to 10% of the dry Mass um uh and it had to be you know 90% or more privately funded so in spaceship one where Mike Melville was sitting up front of the controls there were two empty seats in the back yes I wanted one of those seats I remember the day of the flight I was selling bir you know I’m happy to replace one of those bags if you want I’ll like then you can’t do that yeah we we gave the option to the teams that instead of risking three lives uh you know it was interesting it was important to have a human in the pilot seat it would not have been the same would it had we had an you know autopilot flying the vehicle uh than uh than Mike milville on that flight and in the back in the back two seats uh we had all kinds of memorabilia um uh I remember when I flew on there do you remember did you you fly some things um I I didn’t I don’t

[00:36:01] remember we’ll have to go back in our time machine and I I flew a copy of the Spirit of St Louis the book that Greg marinac had given me that inspired the unari xprize I flew ATL shrug I’m a huge irran fan and then I flew uh The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert heinlin which had inspired so much for me and then um we flew certificates that we used for fundraising with the X prize and bags of pennies that we gave out to people and so forth they had to they had to come up with uh I don’t know something like 400 pounds of ballast back there so he flies on September 29th and then uh the rules were you have to fly again within two weeks so what does Bert do next well he he definitely didn’t want to wait two weeks so he wanted to make a memory of the second flight so I think it was October 4th yes which is another date in history right it’s the

[00:37:00] anniversary of Sputnik yes October 4th of 1957 where the Soviets beat the Americans to uh orbit a satellite in space yeah so he notified us that that’s when his second flight will be and we were scrambling to make sure we get ready to cover it and and be there and bring everyone else there so it was uh it was an exciting two flights both of them I remember getting up very early and and and surprised by the line of cars in the darkness of the early morning Mojave um all these cars and headlights I’m like oh my God all these people are coming to watch the launch this is important to a lot of people yeah we had uh God probably I know 30 or 40 large satellite trucks and 10,000 plus it was like a giant party in the middle of the desert um and it was it was insane uh uh and what was crazy was you know Mike Melville had flown that Corkscrew flight 5 days earlier and what Bert and the

[00:38:02] team this was the genius of the group he had was they figured if they just flied a more shallow flight profile it would be stable so they didn’t have to modify the vehicle at all so I don’t know if you remember our our Charles Lindberg who won the Ansari X prize uh an extraordinary pilot Navy pilot remember who that was yes Brian Benny um yeah Brian uh and flew a picture of perfect flight um and I I remember Brian was told us that uh the morning he you know these guys are getting up at 3:30 4 o’clock in the morning for their flight and he had barely gotten any sleep the night before uh and his mother-in-law steps up to him to give him a hug and she’s got a large uh Big Gulp soda in her hand and she’s coming to wrap her hams around him and he’s thinking in the back of his mind what is she going to do with that giant big gulp soda where she going to put it and she puts it down his

[00:39:00] flight suit so he does the flight to space with all of this soda sticky on his back and he does the calculations of like you know extra six ounces of weight how much less altitude is that going to be anyway all crazy crazy and that was an amazing amazing date in history for us it was so uh but it was just the beginning of your Space Adventures mzelle yes so uh so let’s take you back to the connection for the for the cosmodrome um uh how did you get into cosmina training okay my entire life revolves around X prise so um we were celebrating the first anniversary of winning of the competition the Anor X prise and we had a big party and invited who’s who of space agencies and uh buz Aldrin was there and and um and also of course um uh all the EX prise family and uh we had also invited um Eric

[00:40:00] Anderson and he brought the next person who was supposed to go to space it was a Japanese businessman and they were there and Eric told me that um you know that he doesn’t have a backup and you know I know how interested you are in space do you want to be a backup and just learn about the Russian space program and and uh hide works and because this was something on my list of I wanted to do I what year is this roughly this is 2005 so and for a backup you mean go to uh go to Russia and train uh in Star City correct and um so I my original plan was to go to space with spaceship one and uh and then I knew that I have to wait until they get it commercialized and all that so I didn’t know how long that would take and this opportunity came and the only question I asked is like I will I be in the same room as the other astronauts will I be training next to them and said yeah you’ll be part of the

[00:41:00] whole crew you’ll be a backup crew so I that was the only question I asked and then I packed my bags and then I was um off to Russia to to train for nine months and and be I want you to describe I want you to describe uh the luxurious accommodations uh that is the Star City training facility so how would you describe it visually it’s um I don’t think it has changed much since gagaran flew to space1 yes yes and and you and Hamid came with me for my um qualification because they had to make sure I can enter the program so you both came with me to Star City and and I remember um there was this capsule the Old Source capsule in the big Hall that we entered and uh you and I were sat inside and Hamid poked his head head in and it’s like you really going to fly this thing this place I’m like yes it was so old

[00:42:03] everything push button and and and old screen and the operating system was dos so it was pretty old I I remember every I mean everything was cement and uh and asphalt and the stairs were crumbling on the way up uh it was a uh it was definitely um uh it was a it was a one star yeah trip going back in time yeah yeah for sure for sure and so you’re you’re going through training and um and you’re expecting that you’re going to be uh in you know on the ground watching as the launch vehicle takes off for 11 days on Space Station but uh that that dream of standing on the ground and watching it was dashed wasn’t it definitely fortunately um and it happened very

[00:43:01] quickly um so before that uh if you remember there was a launch uh so um for the crew uh before us and uh I got the opportunity to go watch the launch and if I had any doubt in my mind that I wanted to go to space my God watching the so launch just made it that much stronger in my heart I’m like I’m gonna do and started negotiating like so when is the first spot that I can sign up to go and uh while I was thinking about that um finish the training and the entire time I was training I decided that I’m going to train as if I’m going to space because uh I wanted to giving it your all I was giving it my all and and I even designed my patch which was very presumptuous of me but like eventually I’m going to go to space so I started designing my patch and everything and then um the training ended I remember very clearly the training ended it was the last day we finished our last Sim and um Hamid was

[00:44:04] coming to help me pack to you know get ready to go home and then the astronauts were going to quarantine um to bonor um and on my way to the airport um they I got a call from Eric and and’s like I ER Eric’s the CEO of Space Adventures at this time yes yeah and Eric calls me like do you want to go to space and I’m like Eric this is not funny though I I’m so depressed yeah exactly I’m so depressed right now I was very depressed like the last the best time I had in my life and it’s coming to an end and uh and he’s like no I’m serious um the person who was supposed to go had a medical condition and they had just disqualified him and that they said that Anusha has passed all the trainings she’s scored very high and and she’s probably even more ready to go and uh and it’s just a matter of if you want

[00:45:01] to go and I screamed so loud I think yeah BW how long how many days before flight is this so This was um three weeks 3 weeks before so you’re ready to go back to Plano Texas and instead uh you turn the car around and head back uh head back there yes and I and and my first call after of course Hamid was there and I as soon as I saw him like guess what it’s like you’re going to space I’m like yes I’m going to space so so I got really um you know I didn’t know what to do I had only three weeks so I couldn’t prepare anything and my first call was to you Peter it’s like Peter I’m going to space what can I do what should I do what experiments should I do and I remember you told me is just write about your experience write a blog and and I’m like I don’t know how to write blogs like just write whatever comes to your mind and I and and I said okay and you had to actually pull some

[00:46:01] strings and get permission for me to actually publish that blog for ex prise true xise it was an extraordinary and and so uh how many days on the space station were you get so you launch how long to get to the space station how long you there coming back down give people a flight profile because folks may not know what it’s you know it’s like you know how quick you can you can hail your taxi and get to the space station and back so back then um um uh it would take two days to get to the space station so you spend two days inside the capsule which is uh not the best part of the trip because the capsule is pretty small I was with other two crew mates and uh you know inside the capsule you’re sitting and your knees are to your chest and it’s very tight uh and and then you can get out of your seat once you’re in orbit but you know there’s just a little bit more room for two people standing close together and that’s the space you have for for two days together and that’s also the time when your body is going through a

[00:47:00] lot of changes so I had motion sickness I had like tremendous headache my back hurt you know the body’s adjusting so it it was that was the bit you know the the hardest part of the trip I would say and then after two days you get to the space station and uh compared to the capsule it’s like a luxurious you know castle with with all the different modes and I was really happy to get there and stayed 9 days on the space station and uh returned to Earth with a different crew uh who had just completed their six month your favorite moment like the favorite thing like what do you when when you close your eyes and you remember being there what is it you remember there are two very special moments that I remember of course the first one is when I saw Earth for the first time from and I was still in the capsule so it was after we got to orbit um and they had just told us that we can

[00:48:01] open our um seat belts and um I sort of slowly flew up and I had the you know port hole next to me so I flew up a little bit to the portal and I looked out and it was Daylight and I could see Earth and it was such an emotional moment for me and and I I just it was so beautiful and it was like there was this energy and this warmth coming from Earth and I was in the capsule so it wasn’t like I was actually feeling it but but it was there I could feel it and and and and I started you know laughing and and and at the same time crying it was bizarre and my teardrop started accumulating under my eyes and then one of them started floating and I saw my teardrop floating and then that made me laugh again so it was just back and forth uh you know a really big strong mix of emotions and then after I got

[00:49:01] enough of watching our planet and then started getting dark as we turned I uh I decided I’m going to fly I can do a Superman now and and I push my uh feet down so hard that I flew so fast I hit my head to the top of the other module and and then I was somersaulting all the things they told you not to do at the beginning being in space I was doing I was just I was a kid I I was a kid in a candy store I was just experiencing all these Sensations and feelings and sights and um and of course I got very sick after that did you uh did all the motion sickness eventually go away yes I had to get a shot um uh I got so bad I I had to have a shot and that makes you drowsy so um one regret I have is the first two days inside the capsule I was uh very drowsy because of the medication but by

[00:50:00] the time we got to the space station I was uh you know adjusted I was ready I was excited so my body went through all its changes before getting to space station which was the best part I could just enjoy the experience out there yeah no that’s uh that’s awesome you come back down and uh uh we begin our journey to together on the X prise so you’ve been a trustee of the X prise since your family stepped up to underwrite the first onari X prise and uh I’ve been a a you know extraordinary uh co-conspirator I’ll say in this in this journey um and we were lucky enough to pull you in as CEO how many years ago now uh about three years ago three and a half years ago okay like I tell you you know it’s the first three years of your next 300 with together like I’ll offer you all the longevity services in the planet as long as we keep you as our CEO um and I want to I

[00:51:02] want to talk a little bit about mindset which I I tend to focus on in this uh in this podcast because I think it’s uh what I like to say is that uh what enables the most successful people on the planet is their mindset it isn’t the money they have it isn’t the technology they have it’s the way they process information and see the world so um let’s kick off with a conversation on on a passion and Purpose Driven mindset because I I think uh you’re someone who very much exudes passion and purpose uh would you you know what’s your advice to people when when they’re saying I’m not sure what I want to do I’m much sure my purpose is do you have any advice for folks to help them find their passion and their purpose yeah I think um it’s good if people leave some room for exploration and and experiences that’s the only way you can uh find your passion so as I said I have a very

[00:52:01] curious mind so I love trying new things and sometimes I like it sometimes I don’t like it uh I think that’s very uh essential to being able to find your uh purpose and your passion and a lot of people uh are looking so hard that even if it’s there they miss it because they think it’s formulaic and there’s like they need to take a test to find out what their passion is and it’s not like that because passion comes from an experience that leaves an emotional sort of footprint on you and then you you you know you you want to have it again and you want to have it in a bigger way or something that maybe it’s an idea that you watch something and I again I love sci-fi stuff so I always got ideas from just watching what the future could be and then trying to make it happen so I think curiosity and and allowing yourself to experience different things and having an open mind to these new

[00:53:01] experiences is a big part of finding your passion uh and and you know risk-taking is core to all of it because if you want to play it safe you will never try something new and if you never try something new how would you know if it’s a if it’s something you like or your passionate about so those are I think very important factors I love that and it it goes back to another mindset to focus on which is a curiosity mindset right uh which I think you exhibit in Spades um I is there you know do you think you born with a curiosity mindset or is that something you develop over time um I think we all are born with curiosity mindset but some um start putting limits on it and sort of killing it as kids we’re always curious every child is curious because they’re just Lear learning and and you can either develop it and let it grow or you can sort of Sten it and kill it and and a

[00:54:02] lot of our system sometimes parents sometimes Society plays a big role in really killing that sense of imagination and curiosity in in young people um and that’s one thing that if I have a chance to give advice is don’t let that die in you because that’s the best gift we have as human beings is this imaginative mind that uh the Curiosity that we have allowing us to imagine things and then building it later uh it starts with that that whole concept and and it’s very unique to human beings I don’t know any more any other species that we’ve studied enough that has this type of um you know capability I love that and and that was that was part of your patch uh what was your mission what did your mission patch there imagine be the change inspir so I had these three things on top of my patch so the first part was imagination because without imagination you don’t go anywhere you have to first see it

[00:55:00] imagine it and then do it so the second part is the action part be the change so if you want something don’t wait for other people to do it for you you have to do it you have to make it happen you have to create it uh so it’s part of uh the famous Gandhi uh quote of be the change you want to see in the world so you have to manifest that yourself and then the last part is when you do the first two parts inspire Inspire others to do the same because this world will be a much better place a more fun place to live in if everyone followed those steps everybody let me take a quick break from our episode to talk about something important for your diet now as you know I’m a huge longevity and health Champion part of my focus is on exercise sleep and diet and when it comes to diet I’m super careful on what I eat but throughout the day when I need energy I’m looking for a snack and one of my favorite options is macadamia nuts and there are four

[00:56:00] reasons I want to share them with you first macadamia nuts are high in mono unsaturated fats which are the good fats for your heart it lowers LDL and raises your good cholesterol second they taste great and they’re rich in fiber which helps with digestion and gut health third macadamia nuts contain antioxidants and flavonoids which protect your cells from damage and inflammation and finally macadamia nuts have a low glycemic index which means they don’t spike your blood sugar they truly are the king of nuts I get mine from House of macademia which offers the best macademia nuts in the world they’re sore sustainably from South Africa they offer a huge range of delicious nutritious products uh including roasted and dipped macadamia nuts macadamia nut bars Macadamia oils which are actually better than olive oil for cooking if you want to try house of macademia products for yourself you can get 20% off your first order by using the code Peter 20 at checkout just go to

[00:57:02] House of macadamias docomo of academia.com peter2 and then again use the code peter2 to get that 20% off trust me you’ll love them as much as I do now back to our episode you know one of the things that I uh I I love is is the fact that the xprize has a significant number of women in leadership positions and uh I’ve often said you know it’s uh it’s time to give women uh you know men have screwed up enough let’s hand it over uh what’s your advice to women out there who are uh you know interested in in non-traditional what has been historically nontraditional female careers and or want to be entrepreneurs and leaders um you know what do you say to all of them so I think um uh this whole concept

[00:58:02] the podcast about mindset and I think mindset plays a huge role whether you’re male or female but in women I think uh a lot of times we limit uh our limiting belief system is what limits us we’re scared to try big things and part of it I think has to do uh with the fact and again I grew up in a different culture but girls are always told to be perfect by their parents especially their moms usually it’s like uh you have to look perfect dress perfect your hair has to be perfect everything has to be perfect and when you’re trying to be perfect you don’t try things that you may fail at uh I remember uh my grandmother used to discourage me from playing in gamees where I had to run and I could fall down it’s like you’re going to have a scar on your skin and if you want to ever be in a beauty pageant you can be in a beauty pageant I’m like who wants to be in a beauty pageant I want to run I want to climb I want to go up the tree um so I

[00:59:02] think those types of things as a child puts a sort of this limiting belief system that there are certain things a perfect girl cannot do and I think we need to get rid of that and and and uh you know try everything and and not be afraid of failing so uh anyone who wants to try something worthwhile they need to prepare them elves for failure and to me I even don’t like the word failure because to me anything you want to do that’s new you’re going to make mistakes and things won’t work the way you thought so to me they’re lessons they’re not failures and and you just need to understand what went wrong so next time you don’t make the same mistake or make adjustment to do it better so I think those things are very important in in uh in a in women who want to be in leadership position I also so um uh I Al especially I want a lot of women in the

[01:00:00] um stem and Tech uh oriented businesses because I think our society will be run by technology and the fact that the voices of women leaders are missing in at the design tables at the discussion tables uh the world is being built uh in a way that it won’t be women friendly uh so so I think it’s important for women to be at the discussion table at the design table at the leadership role to to do that and the last thing I would say is and this is true for me when I did things I didn’t think about being a female engineer or a female CEO or a female this or female that I was me I was a human being I I was doing things the way I believe should be done the way uh I would if I switch places my leadership has always been that if I were the employee what would I want to see and I would try to do that or when I worked for someone else what things worked and

[01:01:00] what things bothered me so I never went to business school I don’t have a MBA so everything I did was from intuition and just doing the things I liked in other leaders and not doing the things I didn’t like in other leaders so uh it it was it’s something that I recommend for women and when you look for a mentors I don’t think you just need to limit yourself to female mentors um I think female mentors can understand some of the challenges that women leaders face but you can always learn lessons from anyone and I would actually like that diversity of experiences when you’re trying to tackle a problem that’s facing you I love that I love that let’s talk moonshots um that’s our business in next prise uh and uh you know is this is the idea of going big and or going home

[01:02:01] something that was inherent in in your mind as an as an entrepreneur did you gravitate to this idea of going after the world’s biggest problems I mean I think I don’t think that’s for everybody right I think some people just like to stick in their knitting and and do the 10% incremental work and other people are like unless I’m changing the world I’m not interested you know is that do you agree with that or what’s your experience here I agree and so here’s the way I look at it it being an entrepreneur starting something new is very risky it requires a lot of sacrifice is hard uh I think sometimes people make it sound like it’s always fun and games and parties and you get to Be Your Own Boss so you can sleep as late as you want is the farthest from the truth um it’s hard it’s you’re all you have to be all in if you want to succeed you have to be dedicated passionate and and you need to be ready for a lot of failures and and uh

[01:03:01] adjusting and getting up you know uh and taking the next step so if you’re doing all of that it’s not worth it for a 10% increment if you want to do that go work for a company and that’s what they do large companies will they do incremental change if you want to be an entrepreneur you need to take big leaps and and and make sure that your time and energy and the sacrifice you make from your personal life which you will have to make is worth it so that would be what I would do and and that’s why a lot of things projects uh or products that we built was way ahead of its time so we were changing something to to stick on the on the focus on on women leaders and entrepreneurs I have to imagine it’s difficult to have a trade against family a trade against kids kids a trade against you know how you spend your time uh what do what do you tell uh young women in their 20s and 30s who are you

[01:04:02] know going all in on this well that’s exactly the sacrifices that you have to make you have to have a passion strong enough that you feel like it’s worth it because as I said you’re giving up a lot to be able to do what you do so you need to be sure that this is something you really want to do deep down in your heart and unfortunately it is a sacrifice right now but it doesn’t have to be Peter I think in the future as Business Leaders uh look at things other than just quarterly profits and even that I don’t think it’s it’s an issue just being open to uh creating and accommodating um people of different background and different needs to be part of a a um Team whether it’s a leadership team or a design team that

[01:05:01] diversity and inclusion will give you a much stronger better product service or company at the end of the day so I think it’s worth making some accommodations to create that environment that invites everyone invites women invites people of different race and background um and I think Business Leaders will get to a point that they will understand that and Embrace that and um this whole notion of putting people in boxes eventually will go away that would be my ideal world where we don’t have to put people in any box that a woman or a man or a uh you know African-American or a gay or or I don’t know why we create so many labels we’re just humans I mean I I love the way you run you run the organization did did you have any uh uh mentors or anybody you know role models that you looked up to inisha that really shaped your your life here um not people that I worked with as a kid um my idol was

[01:06:03] Albert Einstein I I read about how he came up with the theory of relativity and to me that was mindboggling how could someone sit in a you know small office patent office and imagine how the universe functions and imagine it so differently than what was believed to be the way the world works and the fact that you can have such strong imagination and be able to just see things like that in your mind and then try to prove it to me was that’s what I wanted to do I want to go beyond what’s in front of my eyes to be able to see and imagine things and then go prove them or go build them and that was my Fascination and and why I so strongly believe in this um magical gift we have uh which is the gift of imagination um but uh in terms of a mentor as I said the way I sort of try

[01:07:02] to shape my leadership style is around what I liked uh from other leaders around me and what I disliked and and um and build on that uh very human Centric type of a approach not textbook approach let’s turn to X prize um uh We’ve launched $300 million in prizes uh uh you really have done an extraordinary job in in building the structure for growth going forward um I give everybody a quick overview of of like what does the xprize do at its fundamental if they haven’t heard about the xprize how would you describe it so um I I describe it through actually why I was drawn to it so X prise launches massive competitions uh to really focus the world’s attention on a problem that has been left UNS solved and it’s important to humanity and then incentivizes the best Minds

[01:08:00] from all over the globe to focus on solving it and the way we incentivize them to really break down with very clear objectives how you would solve this so demonstrate these three things go 200 kilometers do it twice within two weeks the way you described it so very clear objectives that people can get WRA their mind around okay I need to build this that does a b and c and this way they they they are you know excited and and they come together and form teams to build what we want because we only uh award the winners once they built and demonstrate that they’ve accomplish what we we asked them to accomplish so it’s very different that some of the awards and prizes that award either ideas or past work this is very future forward looking and at the core the thing that really draws me to xise is the fact that our our mission is to build a hopeful abundant future for everyone and and the

[01:09:03] world needs that and and that’s uh what we try to do with accelerating Innovation and breakthroughs and solving the world’s problem we are driving the world toward this vision of an abundant and and hopeful future for everyone do you do you think that xprize uh sets big enough challenges um do you know how do you think about this because I I I’m always you know saying is that going to happen anyway or is this going to be a big enough prize and you know should we be going more into into you know the area of crazy so to so to speak you know where do we balance between an incremental prize and a prize that’s so crazy that it will never get one I mean these are the things you know I think of about then you have to run an organization you know I just have the I have the luxury of of being chairman and throwing ideas over the transom to you

[01:10:01] so it’s a really good question and a question that we ask ourselves as you know you ask yourself and as a team leadership team we ask ourselves too and uh in the past we’ve been very opportunistic to find that intersection of an idea that there’s enough um interests from a sponsor to actually help us launch it because we can come up with a lot of crazy ideas and people will tell us you’re crazy and and we won’t be able to get it off the ground uh so we have to have a different approach which we’re working on which is the next phase of ex prise but today the way I think when I look at the world there’s so many immediate problems that we can’t just focus on crazies without understanding that people have shorter term needs and and again shortterm for X prise is not next year or the year after it’s like 5 years year Horizon 5 to 10 year Horizon is shortterm for us and our long term is always looking at you know 20 25 years 30 years in Into the Future

[01:11:03] um so I think we need to balance both um and uh and we need to have a good mix of very challenging uh prizes where we probably won’t have to set a time limit that you have to win by this time and um that will basically allow teams to work on their own uh over long period of time and eventually get there and then there are some immediate issues around climate energy biodiversity Health that requires still um big risks and big steps and no one else is doing and xise can accelerate those breakthroughs and I think that’s also very important for us to do so I think we need to have a good mix of both so any favorites that you know of your ex prise children like you know with and I’m curious if if you’ve like any of the ex prises we’ve launched that you’ve said man that’s that just isn’t going to happen or you know or

[01:12:03] anyone’s that you’re like wow that’s amazing yeah I love all of our ex prises but I’m a techie I’m a geek um so I definitely love our Avatar competition uh and it’s a favorite of mine so tell people what what do you have to do to win this Avatar this all nipon Airways Ana Avatar Express part that I love is that the actual price initially was like they W they were thinking of is it possible to build a transportation like the one you see on Star Trek yeah quantum teleportation quantum teleportation yeah that that’s what I really wanted to but uh but we had to see what can be done in the span of 10 to to to 15 years and um so it ended up being an avatar competition where you’re not you know dematerializing yourself but but you are trans uh uh you know transferring your senses uh your actions your all of your

[01:13:01] um emotions through an avatar uh to a remote location and it would feel as if you’re there and taking those steps and actions and and feeling like you’re there actually so it was a um bringing a lot of different Technologies together and integrating them in and advancing them in a way that will give that sense of being in a different location um without physically dislocating yourself so it’s um haptics AR VR AI robotics um Vision systems all of it coming together and building an avatar and then uh you will have a suit that you wear and uh put on your goggles and the suit and the gloves or whatever and then you would feel like wherever your avatar is you would feel it’s there and um you would be able to pick things up and and sense things and move around uh like you were physically

[01:14:00] there nice uh you and I were in uh in Israel for the attempted Landing of the Israeli uh Google lunar X prise team so uh this was an interesting one right uh we had challenged gotten Google to put up $30 million for the first team who could land on the moon send back photos videos Rove and send back more photos and videos and the competition uh ran out of time yeah that was one of our audacious competitions to ask a team to actually build a system and launch it and land on the Moon that was U tall order uh but uh many teams attempted I mean I was really encouraged by the number of teams from different countries who actually built hardware and uh and they were trying to negotiate catching a right on some someone’s rocket to get to the moon but um we were in Israel and and one of our team space

[01:15:00] iil uh who uh continued their work even past the expiration of the competition announced that they’re going to make an attempt and uh and I the the part I loved that when they launched they actually had the little card that they were going to use to show that they’ve launched and and how close they get uh to to the moon and they had x prise on it because the team I remember the team members were young kids when we had Ansari exerprise and they were inspired and their interest in space was picked because of that prize and then they became a team competing in our Google lunar x prise uh so we had you know shaped their lives and they they sent us a photograph of a selfie taken by the spacecraft in its trans lunar injection and so the Moon is behind the spacecraft and the photo shows the X prise logo in the foreground with the Moon that was amazing I love that that was amazing and just being there and hearing their stories and and

[01:16:00] the excitement they had created in their Community the kids that were looking at them like they were Heroes because we always call our teams Our Heroes but now they were the heroes of the nation they were the a small team of young entrepreneurs uh Landing a lunar lander and they almost made it there they they they were like this close they did land it just uh with a high velocity impact yes yeah we’re we’re in Israel at Mission Control and it’s just it’s just crowded you and I and Mission Control along with uh you know we had the the president of the country was there and the head of their of their space program was there and uh they’re in orbit around the Moon which was a big accomplishment itself getting into lunar orbit and uh they hit the the engines to break and they’re coming down and uh nothing Hardware it was a software glitch damn software and um they unfortunately uh

[01:17:02] didn’t do a soft Landing so close and I think they’re funded to go again they’re funded to go again and the best part was many of the teams who didn’t even uh go that far they all have received contracts from different um space agencies because they all had a lot of innovation so that’s what we do at X prise even if even our failures are big successes because we advance technology we create Innovative approaches to things that have not changed for you know uh decades so that’s the beauty of EX prise competitions hey everybody this is Peter a quick break from the episode you I’m a firm believer that science and technology and how entrepreneurs can change the world is the only real news out there worth consuming I don’t watch the crisis ass use Network I call CNN or Fox and hear every devastating piece of news on the planet I spend my time

[01:18:00] training my neural net the way I see the World by looking at the incredible breakthroughs in science and technology how entrepreneurs are solving the world’s Grand challenges what the breakthroughs are in longevity how exponential Technologies are Transforming Our World so twice a week I put out a Blog one blog is looking at the future of longevity age rever ival biotech increasing your health span the other blog looks at exponential Technologies AI 3D printing synthetic biology AR VR blockchain these Technologies are transforming what you as an entrepreneur can do if this is the kind of news you want to learn about and shape your neural Nets with go to demand.com back/ blog and learn more now back to the episode how would you define an a moonshot mindset anusa you know uh if you were to say that some of the most successful people entrepreneurs on the planet have a moonshot mindset uh what

[01:19:00] is that what does it take to have a moonshot mindset I think um you have to start with a clean sheet of paper and then start from the the end point the destination and and push yourself to think about what do I want to see what is it that I want to build if I had no limitation whether it’s money resources engine ing technology nothing if the world was perfect and I could snap my finger and create something what would that thing look like and once you have that Vision then you can step back and and figure out how to get there and how to build it because a lot of people start with something that’s there and how they can improve it and you will never end up in a moonshot if you’re starting by trying to improve something but if you look at a problem or something that’s you know just you want want to build and and start with the end in mind and envision it without any limitation I think it will ultimately

[01:20:00] end up in a moonshot thinking it’s a practice I think um I love sometimes when um you get there through conversation because if you get just two or three crazy people around and you start throwing ideas there and then someone say what if this and what if that so another thing about moonshot is I don’t think you sit there in a room by yourself and and and create your moonshot you come up with an idea in order to make it into moonshot you need to Bounce It by a few crazy people around you yeah I I agree with you it’s in conversation I would say sometimes it could be in conversation with the author of a book right so uh reading a book and hearing ideas and having that rattle in your brain so for me the original andari ex prise came out of a reading of the Spirit of St Louis that Greg Marinette gave me me and then calling a few people like Byron lenberg and uh and Jim Jim Burke and and Greg uh and then asking

[01:21:01] them what they thought of the idea and when they told me it was a crazy idea I said good it’s like you know and I think that’s an interesting point right because uh if you go with your moonshot idea and you bounce it off of people and they tell you it’s a crazy idea will never work uh how do you deal with that I think you’re asking the wrong person because I was always told anything I wanted to do I was told nice but you can’t do that I said I want to go to space and nobody believed me so I I don’t pay attention whether it’s moonshots or other things I live my life without caring what other people think it just has to sit right and be right with me inside my heart something I want to do and then you know I say well even if it’s crazy I’ll try it and I will never have regrets because I know I tried it and then I failed at it but if I never try it one I don’t know if I will make it and two I will always

[01:22:02] wonder what if I did it let me ask you you know why why would you say moonshots matter um uh you know do are we taking enough are entrepreneurs taking enough moonshots are countries are philanthropist taking enough Moon shots and why do they matter I don’t think we are taking enough Moon shots and it matters because that’s how we make fundamental change in society and if we learn one thing with the pandemic is change happens nobody is safe you can’t live in whether you like it or not so to me when you take the chance when you do something at least you control or not control but you at least predict uh the change a little bit and you you know you decided to take the chance so you have you feel at least some agency in the change that’s happening to your life because you chose to go in that direction take that path um so big changes in society happens

[01:23:02] through moonshots um I think nothing um that has really transformed Societies in a positive way was done with just incremental thinking so moot definitely matters and and I think um it’s a shame I don’t see people with me means taking Moon shots it’s usually people who don’t have much to lose so they take bigger chances and and to me it’s it’s good and it’s always you need to have that but if you mix that with people who have lots of uh Capital to invest in something where a 1% of that Capital can really help Drive moonshots um it’s a shame that they can’t take even on a pet peeve I mean there’s so many individuals who’ got 50 or hundred billion dollar like what are you going to do with that money have you

[01:24:00] not figure it out you can’t take it with you and if you leave it to your kids you’re going to destroy their lives so what are you going to do with it and uh you know it I’m it really does drive me nuts there’s a few people uh you know elon’s been taking big bets despite let’s put Twitter aside for the moment um and you know Mark Benny off has done an incredible job Eric Schmidt’s done but there’s a lot of just money sitting on the sidelines just accumulating why do you think that is why are why are you know the world’s billionaires really being quite conservative and quiet is there like something happen when you get you know three commas I think it’s the scarcity mindset that Peter you talk about because they’re always thinking that I may lose it so if you’re thinking that I may lose it that you continuously trying to protect it and nothing is enough because you could lose it and and guess what things happen in the world that you may

[01:25:00] lose it anyway so why don’t you spend at least a fraction of it yeah so if you’re if you’re a few billionaires listening to this conversation you know take just one of your billion and and launch $100 million x prizes and I guarantee you we will do really a lot of great work with the capital you put forward yeah and and we do I mean we have 26 years of experience to show how we bring 10 to 30 times the money invested in a prize uh in terms of investment in ideas and innovation in that field so to me if you want to have an impact in the world if you want to leave a legacy um what better leverage for your philanthropic dollar than 10 to 30 and it’s fun it’s definitely fun I mean you had fun as the as the benefactor of the anari ex prise yes I loved every moment of it I loved the board meetings i w loved the visioneering session I absolutely love the visioneering events and uh it was

[01:26:01] not a chore to go to any of these meetings was like I couldn’t wait until the next one next year my theory about why billionaires don’t fund this you don’t have to be a billionaire if you’re sent a millionaire and you want to put up a $10 million prize that’s aligned with our vision happy to have the conversation but I I think um I think there are two things I think about one is that they that I’ve told this to Steve Forbes and Kip Forbes and the Forbes Family I think that the Forbes list gamifies wealth retention and so I don’t want to drop from number 13 to number 43 by giving away a few billion dollars and you know we need a counterveiling force here we need the equivalent of the uh uh the you know the Forbes contribution list that has them raise up the ranking there that’s one reason the other reason I think is that when you get to that point of wealth um uh you like directing where the money goes I think you like uh saying no let’s

[01:27:02] use that design for a rocket ship and I’m going to invest in this individual versus letting you know the crowd compete against each other any other reasons why even that I mean for me was the that last point it was the opposite because I was an entrepreneur and I always looked at putting money in building things that I directed but then I also was fully aware that I would go hire a team tell them the designs what we wanted to build and you know wait three or four years or longer and usually it would cost more and I would not end up with what I want it exactly but uh you know the big appeal of a competition to me was that I will put my design out there of what we want the people the teams to build and I don’t pay anything until they actually build it and show that it works I mean as an entrepreneur what better way to innovate you know to build something you you want

[01:28:00] to build is ask everyone the crowdsource it to the entire world and ask them to build it for you without paying them and then someone else pays them to build it for you and you only pay up to the winning team to the best design that to me like it’s no brainer and if you want to have an impact in the world you know just creating that many different Innovation and companies out there that’s the best Legacy you can leave I I tell you I I went to space so people know I’m an astronaut so usually that’s an attraction but when I go speak at universities the students who come up to me many of them were maybe in high school or even younger during ansar ex prise and they were inspired by that idea and they ended up going to aerospace engineering or taking um you know a field of interest in in in space because before that they they never heard of space in any exciting way they

[01:29:01] uh never thought that there will be a path for them and all of a sudden we created the opportunity and they like oh I can be part of this whole new Marketplace a whole new set of jobs that are opening up and I don’t need to just think about working for NASA which would be a limited opportunity so it really has driven a lot lot of people in a field that they wouldn’t go study in and and they’re excited and they’re um they come to me and thank me for sponsoring it and I get that more than oh you’re an astronaut so what better Legacy I want to thank you too anua I mean I would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle had you guys not stepped up I mean I had I remember before before we announced you as the as a sponsor I would have teams calling me up you know all through the week saying do you have the money yet I’m building our spaceships do you have the 10 million I said no I don’t but trust me I will find I’ll find it someone out there has to be intelligent enough to do this

[01:30:00] so was it worth it was it worth putting up the money for the prize oh my God uh every penny and more uh I I’m so happy we were the lucky ones to be the sponsors of this prize I look at there now uh and this whole industry that has been built around space I truly believe and I know there has been even scientific Papers written that trace it back to that you know that pivotal moment of the competition and making it this paradigm shift in people’s mind changing mindset that it is possible that yes entrepreneurs can build spaceship and go to space and I think that was the pivotal moment just like you know the your inspiration the the Spirit of St Louis there was that pivotal moment for Aviation X prise was the pivotal moment for the this whole new age of space and commercial space exploration I mean people are having conference as space investment

[01:31:00] conferences nobody would invest the penny when we launched the competition in Space the old adage was the best way to become a millionaire in space was to start as a billionaire and it was it was so true it was like you know the only way you can go raise money from somebody is if they had not invested in space before because they would have lost it all um so uh at the end of this podcast I ask every guest a question which is the following and I’m going to ask you because I think it’s beautifully self self- referential if uh if I could snap my fingers and uh and fund and launch any X prize you want what would be a a Grand Challenge a problem that uh that you would want solve do you have an do you have a passion or favorite xprize out there I have several it’s such a hard question all right well I will accept more than one okay so one is definitely space related and it’s a very futuristic it’s one of those crazy ones I I space is big and I want to

[01:32:02] travel fast and go far so I want a different type of um engine I want a warp engine or something close to it that allows us to travel much faster and go further that’s one so you want faster than light speed or do you want approach I’m happy I’m happy with the fraction of light speed but so you’re you’re open to sub you’re open to sublight but uh but something else like where do you want to get by when um like do you want a couple of day travel to Mars do you want to go yeah yeah that would be a good speed for you that that would be good speed for me okay so and I’m sorry weekend a weekend on Mars would be great um but other than that the other two things and one I don’t know if there is an X prise in it but it’s it’s something I love to do um one that I I know it there’s an xise I want to find a solution for

[01:33:01] abundant uh sustainable clean um almost free energy because I think if we have access to that so many problems and everything can be solved um so that’s one and my last one let’s let’s let’s double click on that one so uh uh almost free uh abundant sustainable clean energy um and but we’re talking about going Beyond solar and wind yes yes so in other words it’s uh easy uh and it’s uh sort of can be go anywhere so this sounds like conversations you and I have had with a few individuals out there in the cold fusion 0 energy is that is that the an area of passion yeah I I if if it’s cold fusion can be done yes if not is there another way but um but I think you know whether it’s food

[01:34:00] water uh you know circular economy anything yeah energy tips everything right so if abundant if you have abundant energy you have abundant clean water you can desalinate anything pull water out of the atmosphere and then half the disease burden of planet Earth is due to unclean drinking water so energy tips water and Medicine health and so forth everything everything and the last thing is I have a deep passion for empowering young young people and uh I want to find way a really um strong way to give young people a voice especially in the geopolitical situation that we live in because I think their voice will bring sanity and balance in the world versus uh leaving it to uh Power hungry uh politicians that live all over the globe now I I I love that and I agree there’s a level of Purity and hope uh that comes with those voices what age group if you were going to

[01:35:01] empower them uh what age group would you focus in on I would focus on probably uh 15 16 to 25 you know I’ve often thought I I’ve had conversations when I was in uh uh Dubai other parts in the world often thought that having a competition to send the youngest people into space uh would literally put them on a pedestal to be able to speak to the to the passions of of uh of making the world a better place so you know it’s how do you elevate them but how do how does their voices get heard uh around the world because they’re so smart and they have access to so much information they’re much more capable than when I was their age and they can do so much but um they’re not taken seriously uh they’re not uh invited and involved in a lot of decision making because we think

[01:36:00] they’re kids and they’re much more on than we believe they are and and we need to uh Empower them and and uh give them the an opportunity to make their voices heard um and acted on not just hear their voices because we can also put them you know behind podiums and they can talk and then we walk away and do whatever we were doing before but really empowering empowering them in having a voice that will be actioned uh you know uh we talk about in ex prise our Global visioneering mechanism of uh sourcing from the experts out there which X prizes we should go out after I wonder if we should have a category of it where we ask uh 15 to 25 year olds what they think we should be going after independent of the uh traditional you know experts which sounds like a four-letter word to me sometimes absolutely we’re bringing a lot of interns into our conversations

[01:37:02] and and hope to build a strong youth program uh and continue to build it up but I remember at visioneering when our uh benefactors would bring their young um you know kids they loved it they they had a blast yeah well anua sorry uh Dr Anan sari we have a few honorary degrees that have come your way um uh allow me to say from my heart of hearts uh thank you for being in my life thank you for stepping up uh and uh underwriting the anari ex prise equally important thank you for coming back to the Mothership and and leading us and being my partner uh in in uh in creating change in the world to go back to your patch design um thank you Peter you have been a great influence in my life you have a very strong gravitational field and you’ve changed the trajectory of my life for good and I appreciate that thank you so much thank

[01:38:01] you Nisha have a beautiful day thank you [Music] too