If you can't respect that your whole perspective is whack. Maybe you'll love me when I fade to black.
- Jay Z "December 4th"
I know prophesying RIM's doom is what is in season now but with the announcement today of Mike Lazaridis' stepping down from the CEO position at RIM, I think its worth adulating what is indeed one of the most inspiring stories of enterpreneurship I have ever heard in my life. Indeed, it is this story of enterpreneurship that gives me the pride and confidence to call myself a Waterloo Warrior.
It was 1984, before there was Velocity, or the Communitech Hub or free office space and venture funding, before we developed this amazing eco system we have here. A 23 year old immigrant kid, with an idea and a $15,000 shoe string budget hustled a $600,000 contract from General Motors to develop a network computer control display system.
He did this with no venture capitalist over his shoulder or a frenzy to pitch every moving thing (not that much of Canada was moving anyway).
Then he built a transformational technology business, innovation by innovation until in 1999, it culminated into the unveiling of the Blackberry, which despite its current marketing woes, remains in my opinion, one of the most important boosts to productivity in business communication since Henry Ford's assembly lines, used by everyone, from the dollar a day poor of Nigeria to the most powerful man on the planet.
That's my kind of enterpreneur.
Once again, thank you for the inspiration Mike. Can't wait to see what you do next.
