Tony Fadell

Tony Fadell is an excellent example of an innovator and entrepreneur. He has overcome many obstacles while pursuing his life’s task. Those creative processes have been researched and highlighted in this paper include altering creativity while letting go of security, navigating the current, and knowing when to let go or up the ante on tension while avoiding emotional pitfalls such as inflexibility, impatience, and grandiosity (Greene, 2012, p. 175-246.) In Mastery, Robert Greene highlights similar innovators and well-known entrepreneurs, such as Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright Brothers and Fadell have many commonalities besides being astounding problem-solvers, such as creating revolutionary products and breakthroughs to help improve the world.

Fadell is a true entrepreneur, innovator, and problem solver. He grew up witnessing his dad being an honest and genuinely helpful salesman; it was only natural that Fadell picked up and inherited his father’s entrepreneurial spirit (Fadell, 2022, p. 293-294.) It takes a driven person to start with selling eggs and end with creating a smart thermostat (Fadell, 2016b, 3:20; Fadell, 2022, p. xiv-xix.) He has experienced many highs and lows, he is not unfamiliar with colossal failures, yet he has experienced extreme breakthroughs resulting in revolutionary products and ideas (Fadell, 2022, xix-xx.) Fadell relentlessly pursued some ideas and products while other products and ideas relentlessly pursued him.

The Creative Task

Greene has many revolutionary processes for best executing creative tasks.  With Tony Fadell and the Wright Brothers in mind, these processes stood out: altering your concept of creativity, letting go of security, and navigating the current. It is almost impossible to change your idea of creativity and not have to let go of security because uncertainty is always involved in creative endeavors. Fadell talks about that in his book, Build, he has learned so much from having those colossal failures and he always moved forward and took all that knowledge with him to ultimately become more successful the next time (Fadell, 2022, p. 5-13.) Both Greene and Fadell talked and stressed the importance of always staying a beginner (Greene, 2012, p. 175-178; Fadell, 2015, 6:55.)  It keeps the mind young and it helps you see problems other people don’t see. It is a wonderful skill to find those pain points that are not obvious or at least not obvious enough for people to stop and find a solution for them. Many people move forward and accept it as a part of life and the real entrepreneurs and innovators stop and try to find a solution (Fadell, 2016a, 10:37-15:00.) For Fadell, his creative task was several things, from helping ship the Magic Link, the Velo, the iPod, moving forward with the iPhone, and then ultimately the Nest thermostat (Fadell, 2016b, 3:20; Fadell, 2022, p. xiv-xix.) For the Wright Brothers, their journey went from a print shop to mastering the bicycle, and then ultimately to what they are truly known for which is achieving flight (Greene, 2012, p. 214-218.) Between Fadell and the Wright Brothers it is hard to ignore the overlapping similarities of how well these men and their drive to solve problems, they truly had a high form of creativity.

Creative Strategies

Much like the success and failure in the journeys of the Wright Brothers and Tony Fadell, shows that once they see something that catches their interest, makes them wonder, or challenges their thoughts, they pursue that idea relentlessly. Even if they hit obstacles, they still pressed through. Fadell gave an insightful TED Talk in 2015, he talked about stepping back to see the big picture, to give a critical eye on how to add clarity for the user. Many times, it would come down to steps needing to be removed or added. He stressed that helping users and their pain points is the most important part of creating products. In that same breath, Fadell also stressed taking a micro view, because sometimes it is the small things that can help solve problems (Fadell, 2015, 9:42-13:50.)  Greene talks about setbacks being opportunities and altering your perspective, both the Wright Brothers and Fadell have mastered these creative strategies.

For Fadell, setbacks involved the failure of a product, which taught him to think big or to think small. An example he uses in his TED Talk was about all the different screws that came with installing a thermostat and how people were having problems, resulting in a poor installation experience. Thanks to Fadell’s experience and seeing how the product was not doing well they decided to think small, literally, and he created a personalized screw and screwdriver that was included with every product. Almost immediately, sales began to soar, and the user experience profoundly improved (Fadell, 2015, 11:56-13:50.)

For the Wright Brothers, their creative strategies involved the simplicity of solving problems, which involved a rebellious flight analogy in comparison to the popular flight analogy that was used at the time by all the other professionals who were also attempting to master the art of flight. Those others were so honed into the analogy that flying was like steering a ship, yet the Wright Brothers were flexible and used the analogy that flying was like riding a bicycle. What ultimately came to their advantage and succession of flight was that the brothers had a very limited budget, simplicity of the structure, and a passionate focus on the pilot’s experience (Greene, 2012, p. 214-218.)

Creative Breakthrough

Greene talks about creative breakthroughs, attention, and insight, as well as all the potential emotional pitfalls. He continued and talked about those obstacles that are hit and how many will be very quick to give up, however, true masters push forward and endure (Greene, 2012, p. 180-181.) There is always a chance that letting go might be the best option and like many things, it’s situation dependent. For Fadell, he had to let go several times, sometimes it involved walking away in frustration, like when Google bought Nest (Fadell, 2022, p. xix, 76-80.) Another time was when the product failed because it was so ahead of its time, like with the Magic Link, and the company was inflexible and impatient to alter and change that product. This caused Fadell to move forward and let go. He moved on to another company that was more flexible and saw the potential of a more straightforward product (Fadell, 2022, p. 14-19.)

For the Wright Brothers, their focus on the user and the flexibility of their budget helped give them the flexibility and patience to pave the runway for achieving flight. While not needing to explain the importance and value of achieving flight. The importance of Fadell and the innovations from all the companies, including his startups, have resulted in tremendous breakthroughs. He has had several scenarios where his product disrupted the stores. The stores had to create a new product aisle category, which speaks volumes for the solutions he was chasing after and solving (Fadell, 2022, p. 39, 124-125.)

Conclusion

While answering a question in an interview about his success, Fadell stressed it was not how he did it; it was how he was living through it (Fadell, 2016b, 0:01-0:10.) The journey of people’s lives is never in a straight line. There are many ebbs, flows, and side quests that appear in life and become a life’s task. Fadell mastered altering his creativity while letting go of security, navigating the current, and knowing when to let go or up the ante on tension while avoiding emotional pitfalls such as inflexibility, impatience, and grandiosity (Greene, 2012, p. 175-246.)  In Mastery, Robert Greene highlights the Wright Brothers, allowing the analysis of the many parallels Tony Fadell has with them. Extremely different inspirational men with extremely different aspirations, yet they are some of the world’s best innovators and entrepreneurs.

References

Greene, R. (2012, November 13.) Mastery. Viking Adult.

Fadell, T. (2022, May 3.) Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making. HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Fadell, T., O’Reilly, T. (2016a, July.) Breaking the Habit: The Art of Noticing the World Around Us and Making it Better. The Essential Keynotes Video Collection 2016: O’Reilly Media, Inc. Retrieved from O’Reilly at  https://learning.oreilly.com/videos/the-essential-keynotes/9781491971024/9781491971024-video257060/

Fadell, T. (2016b, January 19.) How iPod Inventor Tony Fadell Launched His First Product. Inc. Retrieved from YouTube at https://youtu.be/YSGnemJI7NA?si=0oQtuHB18RdLy-Nu

Fadell, T. (2015, June 03.) The First Secret of Great Design. TED Talks. Retrieved from YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uOMectkCCs