In the 1970s, a young engineer met with the creator of one of the most iconic video games of all time.
Their conversation inspired the engineer to invent a technology that revolutionized video gaming into the $200B industry it is today.
Here’s what happened in that meeting 🧶👇
1) Jerry Lawson was born and raised in Queens, NY. From a young age, his parents supported his early interest in science.
Jerry started repairing TVs and used his earnings to get a ham radio license and build his own radio station, all before high school.
2) He eventually found his way to Silicon Valley working for Fairchild Semiconductor.
As one the few black men in the industry, Jerry was also a proud member of Homebrew Computer Club - a group for the earliest computer hobbyists
(members included Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak)
3) One day Jerry, working as a field engineer, was sent to meet with a customer and help them pick electronic parts from Fairfield’s catalogue.
The customer happened to be Al Alcorn, the “father of Pong”
Pong was a smash hit, and Al had become somewhat of a video gaming legend.
4) During their conversation, Al shared an issue that he was struggling to fix.
Kids were stealing all the coins from one of the Pong arcade machines in Sunnyvale, CA by using a wire to shock the machine and force it to drop all its change.
5) For some context:
Back in the 70s, video games were *very* different than what they are today.
For most gaming systems, the software that contained the actual game with built into the system hardware itself.
6) Jerry didn’t offer any immediate solution to Al.
Rather, he thought quietly to himself about the problem, and asked more questions about Al's journey building Pong.
7) Inspired by meeting the legendary Al Alcorn and intrigued by the problem Al was facing, Jerry went off to his garage.
After months tinkering, he emerged with ‘Demolition Derby’.
His own arcade game, with "coin-defeat" mode that prevented the kids from shocking the machine
8) Jerry’s bosses at Fairchild got wind of his game and pulled him into their offices. He didn’t expect what was coming next…
They were thrilled.
They'd been hoping to get into the gaming industry and this was their opportunity. Jerry was promoted to Chief Hardware Engineer.
9) While heading up the new gaming division, Jerry drew further inspiration from "coin-defeat" mode.
What if you could remove the game software itself from the console, without shocking the user?
After months of engineering work, he came up with a prototype.
10) The first cartridge-based video game console was born.
Gamers now could buy and play any game they wanted; they didn’t have to stick to the games that physically came embedded in their system.
The video game industry would never be the same.
11) If you’ve ever played games on an Atari, Sega, NES/N64, or any system that came after, you’ve got Jerry Lawson to thank.
Jerry Lawson, you truly changed the game.
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After the global success of the iPod, Steve Jobs wasn’t used to hearing the word “no.”
But when looking for the iPhone launch partner, that’s all he heard.
He had one last meeting with the only company who hadn't rejected him yet.
Here’s how he negotiated in that meeting 🧶👇
1) First, a bit of context:
Before the iPhone, the wireless phone industry could not have been more different than what it is today.
Wireless network providers (carriers) had pretty much all the control.
2) AT&T (then Cingular), Verizon, and others set the rules. They told phone makers how to spec the phones. They owned the distribution. They even controlled the phone’s software.
Phone manufacturers had little autonomy to do what they wanted.
In 1959, a Swedish engineer at Volvo patented what would become one of the greatest inventions of all time
Volvo stood to make billions
But after a meeting with Volvo's President, he decided to give it away for free - and it changed the world
Here’s how that meeting went 🧶👇
1) After receiving his mechanical engineering degree from a University in his hometown of Härnösand, Sweden, Nils Bohlin joined aircraft maker Saab to work on ejector seats.
For 16 years, he continued to focus on safety and was eventually designing complete pilot rescue systems.
2) Nils was anchored to the idea of safety above all else, and brought this same mentality to a welcoming team at Volvo.
There, he focused his attention on all the driver and passenger safety systems, starting with seatbelts.
After bombing the LSAT twice, a young college grad started selling fax machines door-to-door to pay her bills.
15 years later, she became the youngest self-made female billionaire ($1.1B)
One meeting with the right person helped turn her life around, and here's how it went 🧶👇
1) Born in Clearwater, FL, Sara Blakely was raised quite differently than most.
Her father taught her that failure was not only expected, but should be embraced.
At the dinner table he'd ask: “What'd you fail at this week?” If she didn’t have an answer, he’d be disappointed.
2) So when law school didn’t work out, Sara took it in stride and devoted herself to becoming the best fax machine salesman in the greater Atlanta area. And she did.
But after 7 long years, she couldn’t help but think, is this all she was going to do with her life?