Having a disruptive innovator and entrepreneur like Terry Rich on Changing the Game was nothing but a great privilege, not only because he’s a trail blazer on his field, but also due to his amazing personality and communicability.
Terry is maybe the most giving person I’ve ever met, having given away over a billion dollars over his life, a charity enabled by his seemingly natural gift for increasing the profitability of any project he’s involved in.
His insight on everything, from business and baking to gaming and TV makes him an invaluable guest on the show, and it would be hard to put every great take away he’s given into this article.
So, here are some of the main takeaways.
The Start of Innovation
Terry’s first lesson in innovation came from his father when he was just a kid, born to a relatively poor family of farmers. Despite his family’s financial struggles, Terry recalled how he never “felt poor”, largely thanks to his father’s encouragement in trying new things.
And that, he explained, is where innovation starts, when you go out of your way to try something new.
He would take that same spirit of adventure with him after college, when he started working on this strange new thing called cable television, which was still on its infancy at the time, to the point where his employer could only pay him with stock options instead of cash.
You can probably picture how that ended up being much better in the long run.
Not only that, but through his work, Terry was able to leave quite a mark on the world early on, helping establish names like MTV, CNN and HBO, along with many other names you may be very familiar with.
Unfortunately, not all that is good lasts forever, Terry’s company was eventually bought, and the buyer cashed the whole team out. From there he got to start many of his own companies, and even run the lottery for the government on three separate terms.
Today, Terry’s work is centred around talks on matters of ethics and honesty in business relations.
Act Upon It
So let’s dial back a bit and talk about Terry’s time in cable. He talked about how his time on cable TV gave him the possibility to work creatively in establishing new projects along with HBO, much of which included satellite broadcasting.
However, he also said something that is not repeated enough: it is not creativity that makes money, but you’re acting upon it. Terry didn’t have a monopoly on good ideas. We all get at least one idea that, if brought into being would change the world and make a lot of money.
The difference is that Terry actually put those thoughts into action, something that not all of us do, often out of fear, or a lack of motivation.
A pre-requisite of innovation is to take your ideas seriously enough that you actually try to give that first step in executing them
Finding Happiness in The Present
Terry seems to always keep his father fresh in mind, especially when it comes to the advice his father gave him growing up.
During our talk, one the many pieces of wisdom from his father that Terry shared was the importance of working hard now to ensure a comfortable retirement. Most importantly, he shared how he found the other side of this advice: Be happy as you build your future.
That is, don’t waste your time on a job you hate, find something you like doing and you won’t have to prep yourself to work hard, it will come naturally because you want to be there and do better.
But not just with work, take some time to enjoy things you normally don’t get to do, go to concerts, museums, play with your kids, have a nice evening at a fancy restaurant with your spouse.
Happiness happens on the way to success.
Catching Up with The Times.
Now, the more cynical among my readers might think that being a legend of cable television in the days of online streaming means that Terry Rich is past his prime, but this man has proven to be a master of keeping up with the times.
This is largely due to the fact that Terry never stopped having ideas, and more than that, he rarely ever discarded any idea as being “stupid” or “useless”.
So, whenever he has to brainstorm with his team for a new idea, the first thing Terry establishes is that there is zero judgement, no idea is stupid, the whole point is to allow the imagination to wander.
Then when a large number of ideas are brought to the table, the process of selecting the ones that better fit into their current objective starts. And this is where diversity also comes into play.
After all, the more varied the stories and backgrounds of the people brainstorming, the more varied their ideas will be, as their imaginations are composed of more diverse elements.
Conclusion
What we’ve covered here is just a drop in the vast ocean that was my conversation with Terry Rich, a man that not only knows how to make money and innovate in business, but also how to have a lot of fun doing so.
The main takeaway I got from this episode is the power an idea gets when you decide to put it into action. When you think that most people have probably had a million-dollar idea at least once but didn’t take it seriously is both fascinating and a little tragic.
So for today’s though exercise, I’d like to propose something a bit more complex: I want you to pick up a notebook and write down as many ideas you’ve had along the day then pick one as your next project.
What do you think would happen if you started taking your ideas seriously?
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