Accountability vs. Ego: The Hidden Truth About What Really Drives Success | Judah Smith (Fan Fav)

Fan Favorite: This episode originally aired on Decmeber 5, 2017. At the age of 14, Taylor Wilson became the 32nd person in human history to achieve nuclear fusion. By the time he reached high school, he'd acquired a deep knowledge base in at least 20 fundamental fields of science and engineering. Taylor also developed a medical device that dramatically lowered the cost of cancer detection. Yet he humbly attributes his success to having insatiable passion and curiosity, not aptitude. Get to know the man that Time Magazine called the next Einstein in this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu. ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 12-5-17 SHOW NOTES 00:00 Global Power Shift Underway 03:29 Sovereignty and Global Identity Challenges 08:21 Religion as Society's Gravitational Center 11:33 "Individual Sacredness as Foundation" 13:52 Faith and Moral Foundations 17:20 Morality: Subjective Belief Systems 20:30 Trolley Problem and Moral Dilemmas 22:42 Cultural Divide and Nietzsche's Warning 28:55 Lawfare's Potential Political Cycle 30:56 "Balancing Law: Stability and Individual Thriving" 32:41 Forward-Focused Government Transparency 36:07 Black Community's Political Shift 39:36 Kobe's Inspiring Legacy 42:30 "Game Development Requires Precision" 46:54 "Invest in the Narrative" FOLLOW TAYLOR TWITTER: http://bit.ly/2iYBvDO http://bit.ly/2iYBvDO%20 WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/2AgORTb2 ********************************************************************** Do you need my help? STARTING a business: Join me inside ZERO TO FOUNDER here https://tombilyeu.com/zero-to-founder?utm_campaign=6762613-Scaling%20YT%20%26%20PC%20Ads&utm_source=IT_PC&utm_content=ztf_it_pc_ad SCALING a business: Click here to see if you qualify https://tombilyeu.com/scale?utm_campaign=6762613-Scaling%20YT%20%26%20PC%20Ads&utm_source=mindset_PC&utm_content=bdceo_mindset_pc_ad Get my battle-tested strategies and insights delivered weekly to your inbox:sign up here. https://tombilyeu.com/ ********************************************************************** If you're serious about leveling up your life, I urge you to check out my new podcast,Tom Bilyeu’s Mindset Playbook https://open.spotify.com/show/47VE90Cittmo6TGGFqg2xf —a goldmine of my most impactful episodes on mindset, business, and health. Trust me, your future self will thank you. ********************************************************************** Join me live on myTwitch stream https://impacttheory.co/4fitmnJ. I'm live daily from 6:30 to 8:30 am PT atwww.twitch.tv/tombilyeu https://impacttheory.co/4fitmnJ ********************************************************************** Looking for more inspiration? Check out The best Serial Entrepreneur podcasts https://podcast.feedspot.com/serial_entrepreneur_podcasts/?feedid=5651453&_src=f1_featured_email#show_more_btn from thousands of podcasts on the web and ranked by relevancy, authority, social media followers & freshness ********************************************************************** LISTEN TO IMPACT THEORY AD FREE + BONUS EPISODES on APPLE PODCASTS:apple.co/impacttheory http://apple.co/impacttheory ********************************************************************** FOLLOW TOM: Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/ Tik Tok:https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=en Twitter:https://twitter.com/tombilyeu YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices https://megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Tom Bilyeu?

  Let's talk about the moment your side hustle becomes a real business. Now, I see way too many founders stay stuck running their business like it's a hobby, and then they wonder why nothing ever feels real. It doesn't feel real because it's not. I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs build real businesses through Impact Theory University, and the first step in the path to building a legit business is registering it. And Taylor Brands will help you do just that in a few clicks. An LLC, a limited liability company, is an official business structure. It's inexpensive to form and very simple to maintain. It's how you open a business bank account. It's how customers know they're dealing with a real company. And Taylor Brands doesn't stop at the filing.

• 0:45Tom Bilyeu?

  Their dashboard tracks what comes next based on what your business actually needs. So EIN number, registered agent, licenses and permits, bookkeeping, business banking. I tell every founder the same thing. Just make it official. Click the link in the show notes to check out Taylor Brands and get started on your business today. This is a paid advertisement.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  You're listening to the Impact Theory Podcast, your source of empowering ideas and actionable techniques from the world's highest achievers. Join host Tom Bilyeu, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the billion-dollar brand Quest Nutrition, on a journey to unlock your potential and realize your vision of success. Welcome to Impact Theory.

• 1:28Tom Bilyeu?

  Hey, everybody. Welcome to Impact Theory. You are here, my friends, because you believe that human potential is nearly limitless, but you know that having potential is not the same as actually doing something with it. So our goal with this show and company is to introduce you to the people and ideas that will help you actually execute on your dreams. All right, today's guest is the youngest person in history to achieve nuclear fusion. At the age of 14, on a unit that he began building in his parents' garage with pieces he cobbled together from discarded parts, the internet, and uranium he mined by himself, he managed to smash together atomic nuclei at such

• 2:10Tom Bilyeu?

  High velocity that he achieved temperatures forty times greater than the core of the sun, becoming only the thirty-second person in human history to do so. By the time he was in high school, he'd acquired a deep base of knowledge in at least twenty fundamental fields of science and engineering, including physics, chemistry, radiation, meteorology, and electrical engineering. By the time most kids are getting their driver's license, he'd invented the world's cheapest neutron detector, designed to stop terrorists from smuggling in a dirty bomb, won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award, won a Thiel Fellowship, and developed a medical device that created diagnostic medical isotopes that dramatically lowered the cost of cancer detection.

• 2:53Tom Bilyeu?

  And since then, he's designed a radically new version of a nuclear power plant that he believes is far cheaper and safer than current plants. And if he's right, the implications are far-reaching. The US Undersecretary of Energy Christina Johnson said that someone like him comes along only once in a generation. As such, in 2017, he was named to the Helena Group, a global think tank aimed at tackling some of the biggest problems that we face as a civilization. Please, help me in welcoming the man Time Magazine called "The Next Einstein", vice correspondent and nuclear physicist Taylor Wilson.

• 3:33Tom Bilyeu?

  How's it going, bud? How you doing?

• 3:34Speaker 02

  Oh, how's it going?

• 3:35Tom Bilyeu?

  Yeah, good, man. Thank you for coming on the show.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:38Tom Bilyeu?

  Researching you is madness.

• 3:40Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 3:40Tom Bilyeu?

  So, creating nuclear fusion seems out of the realm of possibility, I think, for, certainly for myself, and I'm gonna guess for ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine-nine-nine percent of the people watching this show. What's the secret to doing the impossible?

• 3:53Speaker 02

  I don't know. Interesting hobbies, I guess. I, um, I just, I decided I wanted to do it, right? And that's kind of always been my personality. If I decided I wanted to do something, I was gonna do it. And, um, so I... I got into nuclear science when I was 10 years old and decided that there had to be a way for me to kind of access those nuclear reactions. And the easiest way to do that seemed to be to build a nuclear fusion reactor. So just took a few years of amassing the knowledge that required to actually do it.

• 4:22Tom Bilyeu?

  So I can believe, and I think most people can believe, that if they set their mind to it, that they can achieve it, but they don't necessarily know the process to go through to acquire the knowledge. What does that step-by-step process look like for you?

• 4:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, for me, of course, it helped that I was incredibly passionate about it. I was obsessed with this stuff. So I was basically sucking up every little ounce of knowledge I could. And, you know, being a child of the internet 10 or 15 years earlier, what I did probably wouldn't have been possible, right? I grew up in Arkansas and the kind of 10 or 15 years earlier, information I would have had access to was what is available in the local library. So having to access the internet and being able to email physicists and engineers all over the world was very helpful. And for me, my kind of personal kind of learning experience was studying the history of it. I really believe the best way to learn about a topic is to learn the history.

• 5:19Speaker 02

  Because even something as complex as, say, quantum mechanics, which is very non-intuitive, it's counterintuitive, can be understood if you understood the motivations of the people who came up with the theory, right? It was a pretty logical stepping process of going from this concept to this concept to this concept. And even though you end up with something that's very esoteric and weird and counterintuitive, it was just kind of guys that probably weren't that much smarter than you, making the logical leap between one theory to another theory. And so by studying the history of nuclear science from kind of the earliest experiments that demonstrated that there were these fundamental building blocks of nature called atoms, to being able to actually break down those atoms into their components, the electrons and

• 6:04Speaker 02

  the nucleus with neutrons and protons. Those experiments, I very closely followed in what I did and the experiments that I did when I was between probably 11 and 14.

• 6:18Tom Bilyeu?

  So I read the book, The Boy That Played With Fusion, and which was a book written about you for everybody at home.

• 6:26Tom Bilyeu?

  It's so surreal to hear the like, because he tells the book out of order, right? So sometimes he's like flash forward and it's sort of you contemporary and then he'll flash back. And it's you as a kid and I would lose like for a minute, I'd be thinking, oh, you're making these homemade fireworks, but you're probably in your teens and then I'd realize you were like nine.

• 6:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:45Tom Bilyeu?

  So like, when did you get comfortable with playing with things that are either radioactive or explosive? Was that?

• 6:54Speaker 02

  Good question. I became comfortable and I think my parents didn't. So I mean, I was always interested in stuff that, you know, for better or worse, was kind of a little bit volatile. Like, so as far back as I can remember, I was interested in science, but before nuclear science, I was interested in rocketry and space science and I wanted to build rockets. So part of that was studying energetics, right? Energetic materials, things like oxidizer fuel mixtures, things that go into rocket fuel, but you know, that can explode. And I've always kind of had a personality that's fairly cautious, which kind of seems weird because I play around with nuclear material and explosives and dangerous chemicals. But I realized pretty early on that if I wasn't incredibly careful,

• 7:39Speaker 02

  I wouldn't be able to do that every day and make it, you know, as far as I have.

• 7:43Tom Bilyeu?

  Now, going back to the notion of I want to follow the history and I want to figure this out. If you were to embark on something new today, do you literally go to Google and type in the history of whatever you're about to do or?

• 7:56Speaker 02

  Well, it's a process, right? So, you know, for me, learning a new topic, which I like to do pretty regularly. You know, I'm really lucky that I get to apply something, nuclear science, to a lot of different fields. So depending on the day of the week, I'm working on energy or I'm working on a medical application or I'm working on an engineering project. And in that way, kind of every day I get to learn something new about a different topic. And but yeah, to go back to that point, partly it's getting the overarching kind of themes of the field. And then for me, kind of digging into the personalities, right? So who were the people that made the discoveries? What was their training? What was their background? You know, some of the greatest discoveries in science happened from people that

• 8:41Speaker 02

  Weren't necessarily in their own field, but just kind of at the edge of their field, right? So a biologist that was kind of dabbling in material science.

• 8:49Tom Bilyeu?

  You talked about how a lot of Nobel prizes were given to people that were either right at an intersection or actually well outside of their field. Why do you think that is?

• 8:56Speaker 02

  Well, I think we all get into a sense of thinking, this is the way things are, and this is how they've always been. And it gets you into a kind of a rigid structure of thinking, right? And partly, that's a consequence of human psychology. Partly, that's a consequence of the way science is taught. But if you're a biologist, you're taught, this is what we know about biology. And you might can investigate a new, you know, probe deeper into a certain area or probe a new area, but it's usually when someone takes kind of a paradigm shift or takes a little bit of knowledge from an external field and applies it. And it's something no one's ever thought before, right? Because your average biologist doesn't know about the latest discoveries in material science. He just doesn't.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  That's not what a biologist's job is. But if he's able to take that discovery and be like, wow, I wonder if this effect, this force is the reason that you get this binding in this molecule. Maybe that's the reason that, you know, X happens. And so I do fundamentally believe that the best scientists, the best engineers, the best innovators are ones that are able to take their knowledge and apply it to other fields, or take knowledge from an external field and bring it into an area where it hasn't really been applied before.

• 10:10Tom Bilyeu?

  Do you ever feel like your own thinking gets in a rut on a given problem?

• 10:14Speaker 02

  Oh, absolutely.

• 10:15Tom Bilyeu?

  What do you do to address that?

• 10:16Speaker 02

  You can't help but have that happen, right? And partly for me, it's going out and talking to other folks that are doing other things, right? So I'd say, you know, in my day job, I spend a lot of time meeting nuclear physicists and nuclear engineers and folks with that background. But I try to spend, you know, a certain amount of time talking to folks that are just radically different than me, right?

• 10:38Tom Bilyeu?

  You actually seek them out?

• 10:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. I go, whether it's to an academic institution, a university, Department of Energy National Lab, a company, you know, within industry, and try to talk to folks that are doing really different things than what I'm working on, in hopes that they might have a solution that I can apply to one of my problems, or vice versa, you know, that I have developed something that might could apply to their area or their problems.

• 11:05Tom Bilyeu?

  I imagine now that's a lot easier for you. You've got Luxury brands are not charging you more for better cashmere. You're paying for the storefront, the ad budget, the name on the tag. But Quince cuts all of that out. They work directly with ethical factories. They skip the middlemen and sell 100% Mongolian cashmere, starting at just 60 bucks. 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Now, I gave one of these as a gift last year. It was a big hit and gifting is really the test of a brand. You might tolerate a lot of stuff in your own closet that you would never give to somebody else. I've got their joggers and a couple of their tees as well. And I can tell you their whole line is high quality. Give the gift of quality this holiday season.

• 11:50Tom Bilyeu?

  Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. It's now also available in Canada and the UK. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, make sure you tell them that it was on Impact Theory. That's the best way to support the show. I'll call you back. That's the most expensive sentence in business. You mean it when you say it, but by the time you remember, they've already found somebody else. That's why today's episode is brought to you by QUO, spelled Q U O. The business phone that's built so you never miss a call or a customer. QUO writes up your calls for you and one click turns any of them into a task with a name and a due date.

• 12:34Tom Bilyeu?

  The follow-up actually happens instead of living in your head. When you can't pick up at all, QUO's agent does. It answers questions, gets the details and texts them a link to book an appointment. By morning, you've got the summary and you can jump right in. It's also an official connector in Claude and ChatGPT. Ask who called while you were out and it's handled. QUO is the number one rated business phone on G2. It's trusted by over 90,000 businesses. When money is on the line, always say hello with QUO. Try QUO for free plus get 20% off your first six months at quo.com/impact. That's Q U O dot com slash impact.

• 13:17Tom Bilyeu?

  So much credibility behind you. You're really well-known in the space. Take us back to when A, you're not known in the space, B, you probably sound like the nine-year-old that you are. Like, how do you call people, convince them? Like, what is that process? Because people struggle even to get a mentor.

• 13:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:35Tom Bilyeu?

  Like, how did you, how did you find mentors? How did you convince people to give you equipment?

• 13:39Speaker 02

  Right. Well, and you're right, that was a struggle. Basically, until I achieved nuclear fusion, right? There's, I guess you call it a credibility gap, right? Like, people are like, why, you know, why am I talking to this kid? You know, what is, what does he know? But I also have a personality where, you know, and I might have said this before, you know, if I set out to do something, I, I pretty much do what it takes to, to make it happen. And so, and sometimes it's just being bold. Like, I don't think most, you know, PhD nuclear physicists or nuclear engineers, say a professor at a university or director of a lab, gets very many emails from a 10-year-old. And so partly, it's just being bold enough to do it. And then for me, you know, if I could get in the room with them,

• 14:22Speaker 02

  I, I, you know, try to convince them that I sort of know what I'm talking about at least.

• 14:26Tom Bilyeu?

  And do you prepare? Like, do you, if you know you're about to meet somebody, do you prepare ahead of time so you go in and like, you know who they are and what their hot buttons are? Or is it just you're so passionate about what you're doing that you want to convey that?

• 14:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I, and, and it's not even maybe that I'm trying to convey anything. I'm just, I love what I do. Like, I love this stuff. I love nuclear science and science in general. And so, being able to be in the room with someone who has knowledge about something that I don't is the best feeling in the world. Being able to, you know, absorb that knowledge from them, you know, that transfer, that osmosis of, of, of knowledge. I, I think that is one of the best experiences in the world. So if I have the opportunity to be in the room with someone who knows a whole lot about a subject, that's, I'm in my element. I, I really enjoy that.

• 15:12Tom Bilyeu?

  Let's say that 100 people wanted you to mentor them. You obviously can't mentor them all. What would you look for? Like, people ask me all the time how to get a mentor. So what's your answer to that question?

• 15:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, there, there are a few answers, I guess I'd have to that. But the most important thing to me, and something that's been, you know, incredibly helpful to me over the years, is realizing that, you know, you can have intellect, you can have aptitude. And you have to have a whole lot of luck, as with all things. But at the end of the day, what drives, I think, what drove my success and continues to drive my success and the success of others is curiosity, right? Being passionate, passionately curious about a subject, right? Because if you're not really passionate about it and you're not really curious, you may, you may learn what it takes to do something, or you may learn what it takes to get that next promotion or that next kind of achievement under your belt. But if you're truly curious and you're truly passionate about something,

• 16:09Speaker 02

  it doesn't feel like work, right? You'll do what it takes to become good at something. And so I always get excited when I meet students or people that contact me and they're just incredibly passionate, right? Because with that passion, they can learn what it takes to be, you know, good at science and good at innovating and good in, you know, engineering.

• 16:29Tom Bilyeu?

  If you were going to give somebody two or three bullet points, because I'll assume that the people that are, that even know who you are, like they're, they're going to have a level of enthusiasm and passion for this. So beyond that, like what becomes the next filtering criteria? Like for me, I'll tell you right now, if the person doesn't have the grit and tenacity that you've talked about, like that's huge. But now, like, how do you convey that to somebody, right? I don't, I can't detect it in an interview, which means that I, have you seen Fight Club?

• 16:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:56Tom Bilyeu?

  Okay, so Fight Club, they make them stand outside the door for four days in the rain, right? So I'm always trying to think, like, what's my version of that? Because I want to know, is the person going to stick with it?

• 17:05Speaker 02

  Right, well, you're completely right about that. I mean, passion can only take you so far. I, I do find, though, that folks that have passion, that takes them the extra, you know, the extra distance to become good at something. You know, for me, when I meet someone, whether it's someone I'm interviewing to hire them or be a student, you know, and that kind of mentor relationship.

• 17:27Speaker 02

  Aptitude is important, but not that important. Finding if they're passionate, finding if they have taken the time to learn about the subject. They don't have to be an expert in the subject, but if they've taken the time to at least get a basis in what they're talking about, I think that's important. You know, there's a lot of people that, and to some degree, I was that person. You know, before I found nuclear science, I was interested in biology. I was interested in space science. I was interested in rocketry. I was interested in all these different fields. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I think, you know, you sometimes bump around things until you finally find the thing that sticks. And maybe it goes to what you're saying about grit and tenacity. You know, finding someone who's really stuck with something long enough to really, you know,

• 18:11Speaker 02

  get a grasp for it, maybe not become an expert, but at least kind of know what they're talking about. That's usually a good kind of dividing line between, I think, the people that have the, you know, the right stuff and the people that may still be finding, you know, what they want to do. But yeah.

• 18:26Tom Bilyeu?

  All right. You said something that literally the brakes screeched in my brain. Aptitude matters, but not that much. People watching right now, I promise, they're thinking, this guy did nuclear fusion at 14. Like, he's just a genius. Do you consider yourself a genius?

• 18:41Speaker 02

  Um, I don't know. I, look, I, I think, I probably do have some natural aptitude for science, just like some people have natural aptitude for, you know, music, a musical ability, or writing, or all these things. But that's never been, to me, what set me apart, right? There are a lot of smart people in this world. To me, it was just being profoundly curious, right? Because, um, you know, if you're, it's kind of the difference between learning something in the classroom or outside the classroom, right? If you're forced to take a class on philosophy, right? You have to get that credit to graduate. And you sit in that class, you're probably not going to become an expert in a philosophy, right? There's just, there's not the motivation there to become good at it,

• 19:26Speaker 02

  no matter how much natural aptitude you, you may have. And in that way, you know, if you're truly passionate about something, like I was in nuclear science, it never felt like learning, right? And so I was able to put in the, you know, however many, you know, tens of thousands of hours it took to, you know, basically get the knowledge just to form a basis to do science, which is a lot. I mean, it really is a lot, but it doesn't feel like work if you're, if you're really enjoying it, if you're really, you know, passionate about it.

• 19:56Tom Bilyeu?

  One thing I found fascinating reading the book was that your younger brother Joey actually typically outscores you on like aptitude tests.

• 20:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:05Tom Bilyeu?

  But has struggled to find like that thing he cares enough about to have the kind of success you've had.

• 20:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I like to tell people that. I mean, I think Joey is smarter than me in pretty much every way. Like Joey is a very smart guy. But unlike me, he, and still to this point, I don't think has discovered what he really wants to use that aptitude for. I was lucky. I found what I wanted to do when I was 10 years old. I don't think most people who are 25 or even 30 or 35 have discovered that yet. But I was just, and I think every day, like, I am so lucky to have the parents I had, to have the resources I had, and to discover that and have that spark when I was 10 years old. It's just about, you know, finding something that you really enjoy, whether you're 10 or, you

• 20:53Speaker 02

  know, 40, right? It happens at different points for everyone.

• 20:57Tom Bilyeu?

  And what do you, do people ask you about, like, how do I find my passion? Or how do I develop a passion at all?

• 21:02Speaker 02

  Um, yeah, I mean, it's hard to say for me. People ask me, how did I become, you know, interested in nuclear science? And it's hard to pinpoint, you know, one specific thing where it's like, I read that, or I talked to that person and I knew. I think more than anything, it was just being incredibly curious about the way the world worked, sucking in all the information I could about the natural sciences and physics and chemistry and engineering, and then stumbling across nuclear science. And just for me being like, wow, this is kind of, to me, I think a combination of three things. One, it's really cool. It's like really powerful, right? To me, nuclear science is the most interesting thing because

• 21:44Speaker 02

  it's, is humans just about the most energy dense process that we can access, right? Like, the amount of energy contained in a gram of uranium relative, you know, to the massive amounts of fossil fuels that the energy in that uranium represents. That's an incredibly powerful thing, and that was really compelling to me. So that was one pillar, if you will. The other was aptitude. I kind of started to do it, and I was like, hey, I'm kind of, I kind of got a knack for this, right? I got a knack for applying equations to, you know, designing experiments.

• 22:20Speaker 02

  That's the second pillar and then the third pillar would be realizing that it was something I could do that I enjoyed, that I thought I could make an impact with, right? Because there are a lot of things we can do as hobbies that are fun, right? Like sports or wide variety of activities. But when you feel like you can make an impact, a positive impact on the world using that, I think for me, that's when it kind of all congealed. This is probably what I would be doing, you know, for at least the next 10 years, if not longer.

• 22:49Tom Bilyeu?

  It's interesting that you bring that up. One of the most fascinating things about your story was the way that you reacted to your grandma getting cancer and then talk to us about that. How did that manifest itself in what you pursued?

• 23:03Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I think everyone, when a terminal illness hits, feels very helpless, right? You feel like, you know, why has this happened? There's not really much we can do, especially with a disease like cancer with, you know, the medicine of the time of the day. But I kind of realized that nuclear science was a powerful tool and there existed opportunities within nuclear science, this whole field of nuclear medicine, to really make an impact on the way we treat and diagnose disease. And I think it was in that moment and because of that event, that I realized that this was not only something that I would enjoy and have fun doing, but could also make an impact with. And it kind of gave a mission, you know, kind of a mission to what I was doing.

• 23:48Speaker 02

  And so that, looking back, I think that was very formative and why I chose to do, you know, what I did. Yeah.

• 23:56Tom Bilyeu?

  I have two questions off that. One, do you, do you ever feel helpless?

• 24:01Speaker 02

  I don't like feeling helpless. If you really delve into my psyche and probably my many neuroses, I think feeling helpless is not something I really enjoy. I like to have, you know, it's probably a control thing, I don't know. But I'm very lucky that as a scientist and engineer, that I can really take these tools of knowledge about the way the world works and apply them to solving problems. And I think that's the reason I am a very profound optimist. Like, I am very optimistic about the future of humanity, about the future of this planet, about all the things we do, you know, as dark as it seems sometimes and as miserable as this world can be and all the problems that we face.

• 24:48Speaker 02

  I have to remind myself that we are the one species on this planet that has the ability to use this thing, you know, our brain, to overcome problems, right? You know, any other animal on this planet, an asteroid is headed for Earth, they're gone, they're gone. But we exist as a species in this unique time in our evolution where we can change that. We could launch a rocket carrying nuclear weapons and divert the course of that asteroid. And that makes our species very unique, that ability to solve problems. And every day I get to meet very, very bright, very impressive people from all backgrounds and all walks of life

• 25:33Speaker 02

  who are working on solving these kind of problems. And when you do that, there's no way you can be pessimistic about the future.

• 25:39Tom Bilyeu?

  You've said that you have too many things you're interested in to tackle in one lifetime. How much does impact? So you talked about that with your grandmother. How much does impact factor into that decision making of how to rank sort of hierarchically the things you care about?

• 25:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I'll just have to admit, like, I don't think I always do a great job of prioritizing what I do, right? Sometimes I do it because it's interesting. Sometimes I do it because I feel like, you know, it'll inspire someone to do something else. I don't do great at prioritizing it, but I do try to think about what is the impact of what I'm doing, right? How does it contribute? Whether it's engineering, whether it's solving a problem like energy or disease or security, or whether it's just simply, you know, doing science. And doing science for me is, you know, the most fun thing I do.

• 26:27Tom Bilyeu?

  The reason I ask that is, for me, a lot of times, you know, people are... So I'll say, you need to work hard, smart, and long hours, right? That's my, like, obsession, those three things. But what's hiding in that always and forever for me is, love what you do. Like, once you love what you do, I'm not like, I'm not saying go enslave yourself to the wheel of pain. I'm talking about something that you love doing. And there's a lot of stories in the book about where you wouldn't eat, people would have to bring you food because you would just get so in on something.

• 26:55Speaker 02

  I don't like that, yeah. No, and it's true. I mean, when you do something you love, you kind of lose yourself in it sometimes.

• 27:02Tom Bilyeu?

  So going back to your profound optimism for the future. One, what are you working on that you're most excited about that you think is going to have the biggest impact? And then what does our future look like?

• 27:16Speaker 02

  Well, the future is a very interesting place. I'll say that much. It's exciting. You know, it's always said that, you know, to predict the future is a very dangerous occupation. And I agree, you know, trying to predict, especially in the long term, where humans or civilizations are going to be in two decades or three decades or four decades out, that's very hard. You know, technology follows exponential trends and it usually branches off from an area that most people or if anybody sees coming. But what excites me and partly why I do what I do is because I get this little window into the future. You know, whether it's research that I'm doing or someone I'm advising or a group doing work that I've come in and kind of taken a look at.

• 27:58Speaker 02

  I get this very like early look at kind of what the next technologies that are on the horizon are. And it's very exciting. I think as far as what I work on and the biggest part of my day job, you know, is energy.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  The ability to-

• 28:14Tom Bilyeu?

  You're probably paying two salespeople to do one salesperson's job. That's where today's sponsor Pipe Drive comes in. An intelligent AI-powered sales CRM loved by growing sales teams. Pipe Drive just launched meeting intelligence built right into the CRM. Before every call, it pulls deal history and past conversations into one brief. During the call, it records and takes notes. After it, it drafts your CRM updates to review and approve. So there's less admin and more selling. Switch to a CRM built by salespeople for salespeople and join the over 100,000 companies already using Pipe Drive.

• 28:57Tom Bilyeu?

  My link gets you an exclusive 30 days free instead of the usual 14-day trial. There's no credit card payment needed. Just head to pipedrive.com/impact to get started. Again, that's pipedrive.com/impact and you can be up and running in minutes.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  You create energy sources that are non-polluting, that don't have emissions, that don't have harm to the environment. While at the same time being able to electrify the, you know, one in fifth person on earth that doesn't have electricity, that's very exciting because there are literally billions of people on earth that don't have access to any electricity. And if you can provide that electricity to them at a lower cost and a much lower environmental footprint than what exists today, I think that's a very exciting future. Something that goes into that also or comes out of that is access to information, right? I said this before, but what I was able to do at 10 or 14 years old and growing up in Arkansas,

• 30:00Speaker 02

  would not have been possible without the internet. It just wouldn't. I would have been at the mercy of what was available in my local library, or if I was at a college campus, what was available in the, you know, libraries of that college or university. And, you know, you think about the one in fifth person on the planet that doesn't have access to any electricity. Once they have access to energy, it's a very logical step to get them telecommunications, to give them access to that internet of information. And it's exciting to think about the people like me in places like rural India or Sub-Saharan Africa that don't currently have access to the internet,

• 30:42Speaker 02

  that would be able to learn so much, become passionate about a subject, become well-versed in a subject, and then able to innovate the next major discovery that's going to change our lives. So, of course, there are downsides to that. Downsides that'll need to be managed like all new technology. But the ability to electrify and integrate into the network of telecommunications we have today, those, you know, probably really several billion people is going to be incredible. And that's probably one of the things I'm most excited about.

• 31:16Tom Bilyeu?

  So I know that you've been working with Vice a lot, which is actually how you first got on my radar. My wife and I were watching a segment on energy and they had you on it. And I'm like, who is this guy? Like, I was obviously freaking out about the credentials and just how young you were. What do you think is media's role in what you're trying to do, bringing the youth voice? Like, is that part of why you're focused there?

• 31:40Speaker 02

  Look, I think, you know, as far as, you know, some of the stuff like Vice that I've done and continue to do, I think the more that scientists communicate what they do to the public, the better off we are. You know, unfortunately, scientists aren't typically the greatest communicators. I mean, they're great at communicating with other scientists, but as far as communicating with the general public, right? They're not great. And if you think about it, that's probably the one career field on earth that it's the most important to communicate. I mean, typically, scientist funding comes from the public. And the work they're doing directly impacts the citizen, the voter, the consumer. I mean, think about things as diverse from, you know, the environment to healthcare decisions.

• 32:21Speaker 02

  The research that scientists are doing are directly affecting, you know, the average person. And if there doesn't exist an ability to communicate that, you're kind of losing that knowledge to the place where it's most important that it goes. And, and look, I think science is really, really cool. I mean, I think you would agree. You know, science is this amazingly cool thing. It happens with the biggest, coolest toys humans have ever built, and some of the coolest places on earth, by some of the coolest people. And mind you, not people that are, you know, seven-year-old white men with crazy hair and lab coats. I mean, it's a very diverse group of people that do science. And the

• 33:03Speaker 02

  more we communicate that, and the more we enter that into the zeitgeist, into popular media and popular culture, the better off we're gonna be because- Not only are citizens and the general public going to be better informed on the issues, but the more young people that are going to be inspired to go and do science. And in some ways, I kind of hope that's my greatest legacy. And I want to do a lot of really big things with my life. I'm very ambitious. I will try to do as many as possible or I have the ability to do. But I can only do so much. But if I can inspire 100 kids or 20 kids to pursue science and technology as a career,

• 33:45Speaker 02

  the amount of innovation they'll be able to do, the amount of problems they'll be able to solve, and the amount of good they'll be able to do in the world, that's a force multiplier on what I'm able to do. And so in some ways, I'm more excited about that than any of the work that I do, is being able to be that voice to go out and say, "Science is really flipping cool, and we should really do something to promote this so young people realize that."

• 34:08Tom Bilyeu?

  All right, you said that you're really ambitious. There's a lot of things you want to do. What are, other than energy, because I totally get it, loud and clear on energy, but beyond energy, what are a few key things that if you don't accomplish by the time that you leave this earth? Or if you do me a favor and end aging, which I would really appreciate, like what are those key things you're like, they just absolutely have to happen?

• 34:32Speaker 02

  Energy is kind of the biggest thing I focus on because energy underlies so many things we do. I mean, energy is the currency of our everyday lives. You know, the currency of our economies, the currency of manufacturing, the currency of healthcare, sustainable food production, water resources. All these things are basically just a function of energy. And if we can dramatically, like by an order of magnitude, lower the cost of energy, increase the access to energy, all while doing it in a very environmentally responsible and sustainable way.

• 35:04Tom Bilyeu?

  So you already have that design. Like, why isn't that happening?

• 35:08Speaker 02

  The reactors are under in development.

• 35:10Tom Bilyeu?

  Development in like a, and now we have to get the government to buy in on it? Or development like, hey, the government's already bought in and now we're actually making them?

• 35:19Speaker 02

  A lot of just basic R and D. I mean, building a reactor is a hard thing. It's not as straightforward as going to Lowe's and like picking up PVC pipe and a pump and things like that. There are a lot of things with reactor development that require a lot of validation. You know, you have to subject materials to an environment for a prolonged period of time to see how they're going to perform. I'm happy with the progress. I think it's going to be something that is really going to come of age soon enough to make a difference, especially in the specialty customers. You know, these reactors have the potential to be a utility scale solution, right? But what I'm most excited about are those specialty customers.

• 35:58Tom Bilyeu?

  What keeps you up at night?

• 35:59Speaker 02

  What keeps me up at night? Well, that's a good question.

• 36:03Speaker 02

  Look, I think, you know, there are a lot of advantages to technology, right? Like, we've created these amazing lives that compared to lives 100 years ago or 1,000 years ago, are prolonged, that are free from a lot of the problems that, you know, our early ancestors faced. But they haven't been without their downsides. You know, technology typically is always a two-headed coin, right? Nuclear technology is the prime example of that, right? We created the ability to split the atom, created the most destructive weapons humans have ever built, nuclear weapons. And it also created this technology, whether it's nuclear power, whether it's nuclear medicine,

• 36:47Speaker 02

  whether it's some of the other applications of nuclear technology that really have made our lives better, have made really big advancements in the way we live our lives.

• 36:56Speaker 02

  There are a lot of these so-called dual-use technologies that I think going forward in the future, we have to keep an eye on. Biotechnology is one of those. The ability to synthesize an organism on command, to basically be able to program its genetic code to serve a function, is going to have profoundly impactful.

• 37:20Speaker 02

  Importance on our lives, I mean, the ability to synthesize drugs, the ability to synthesize new materials, the ability to treat disease and create a life of abundance is all going to be enabled by those kind of synthetic biology projects. But it also creates the possibility that you could create a designer bug, right? A disease vector, a pathogen that could target an individual or could target a group or become way more pathogenic than something that exists today. And that's a scary possibility. The same possibility exists with artificial intelligence. And we were talking about this earlier,

• 38:04Speaker 02

  but I don't know where I fall on the issue of general artificial intelligence. Narrow AI, narrow artificial intelligence is relatively easy. You know, artificial intelligence applied to a problem, you know, whether that problem's security or that problem's healthcare or that problem's food management. You know, the application of artificial intelligence to that is much easier to not only know where it's going, but try to mitigate the risk and mitigate the negative consequences of it. General AI, this idea of superintelligence or a singularity or the ability to create a computer that exceeds the cognitive capacity of the human brain,

• 38:47Speaker 02

  that's something that's much harder to predict where it's going. And because it's harder to predict, it's harder to mitigate the negative, you know, consequences of that. I don't know where I fall on this. Do I think it's a doomsday scenario? Do I think it's a existential threat to human existence? Probably not. But I still think it's something that we have to keep an eye on. Just like, you know, we were in 1939 with the dawn of the Manhattan Project and the dawn of a new era in understanding of our universe. We embarked on a crash program to develop nuclear weapons. And literally, in a couple of years, we went from a theoretical concept to the ability to create the most destructive weapons humans have ever created. And

• 39:34Speaker 02

  In that way, I think we sort of stand like we stood in 1939 with nuclear weapons, potentially with computing technology. It will have positive outcomes. It will transform the way we live our lives in a positive way. It may also have negative outcomes. So it is very important for the scientists doing the research, the organizations funding the research, and governmental bodies, whether those are national or international, to keep an eye on it, always reevaluating where the technology is going.

• 40:05Tom Bilyeu?

  Out of curiosity, if you have kids, what would you do to help them foster the kinds of passions and things that have been such a boon for you?

• 40:16Speaker 02

  Look, I definitely want to have kids. I'm excited to see what they do. In a way, I hope they don't do at least nuclear science, if science at all.

• 40:26Tom Bilyeu?

  Why is that?

• 40:26Speaker 02

  I don't know. I think it's important for me, and I talked about this before. I am so incredibly lucky to have lived the life I did. I think in a lot of other circumstances, I would have not ended up where I ended up. The fact that I had parents that never tried to shepherd me into any certain area. They always kind of looked to me of what my interest was and tried to fuel that passion. And like I said, that changed over the years. And then I found nuclear science. But that ability to support whatever my passion was and do it wholeheartedly and take me to space camp and take me to national labs to meet nuclear scientists

• 41:09Speaker 02

  and giving me a little bit of leeway when it came to doing experiments while still trying to keep me safe. I think if I was born in a lot of other situations, I wouldn't have had that. So for me, if I have kids, when I have kids, I would hope that they can develop their own passions and I can support that because I think they will be the most successful when they find something that they love and are able to use what talents they may have on that. And so I'm excited about that future.

• 41:38Tom Bilyeu?

  How would you do that, though? Is it like a shotgun approach of just making sure that they encounter a lot of different things? Or do you have a specific methodology?

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Well, I'm not a parent yet. We'll see when I get to that point what my methodology is. And I'm sure I'll have a perfect plan and how it actually turns out. But yeah, look, I think partly it's making sure and encouraging curiosity, right? So giving them access to libraries of information, giving them the access to the information, encouraging that curiosity. And then, once they found something they were interested in, giving them as many resources as was humanly possible to pursue that. You know, if they're interested in space, I'm gonna take them to space camp. I'm gonna make sure that that is a priority for me as a parent to get them there and expose them to people that are doing what they're, you know, what they're interested in.

• 42:31Speaker 02

  I've always believed that it's very hard to be inspired to do something when you can't really see yourself doing it, right? Like, if you're a, you know, young girl of color and the only scientific mentors you have are these old white guys in lab coats, it's gonna be very hard to be like, you know what? I see myself in that person. I wanna be a scientist. This is cool. And I think in that way, getting young people exposure to science and what science actually is, is important. So taking them to labs, showing them people doing the science and showing them kind of the diversity of the people that are doing science. I think that's very important because that's when that spark happens, like, oh, that guy or that girl is kinda like me.

• 43:14Speaker 02

  You know, she, she looks like me and she's having a whole lot of fun doing what she's doing. I think that's what I wanna spend my life doing. I think that is an incredibly powerful and underutilized tool for, for inspiration.

• 43:26Tom Bilyeu?

  How do you respond when somebody in your lab says that something can't be done?

• 43:30Speaker 02

  I usually question them very, very long and hard about that. And that happens, you know, like I'll, whether it's a student, whether it's someone that I'm working with, you know, whether it's a colleague that, that I've engaged in a partnership. Sometimes people are like, Taylor, that just, that, that's not possible. And I guess every once in a while, especially if it starts to butt up against the laws of physics, that response might be valid, but I give them a long, hard look, a long, hard questioning session of, is it really not possible? Or have you just not thought up a solution? Or have you not given it enough time? Or is that just the... conceived way of thinking about the subject.

• 44:11Speaker 02

  You know, it's it's um, it goes back so so Elon Musk founded SpaceX in the early 2000s. Because early on, he had this idea that he wanted to send a greenhouse to Mars, which is kind of a crazy idea. If you think about it, but this idea that streaming back the pictures would inspire people. Well, now, fast forward over a decade. And SpaceX, his space launch company, has been able to create a class of reusable orbital booster. Really, for the first time in the history of spaceflight, a fully reusable first stage orbital booster.

• 44:49Speaker 02

  That's something that even maybe six or seven years ago, if you went to the rocket community and asked, people would say it's crazy. It's not the way things are done. It's probably not possible. And if it's possible, it's going to be way too expensive to be economical. And Elon and the team at SpaceX was like, this is something that is important. This is how we're going to reduce launch of the cost of launch. It's crazy to be throwing away these boosters after every flight. That would be like throwing away jumbo jets after every transatlantic crossing. And they said, we're going to do it and we're going to do it and we're going to prove it's possible. And we're going to make the economics work.

• 45:29Speaker 02

  And I think it's thinking like that, that is not always found within science, that's not always found within industry. And the more crazy folks you have that push people like that, the more kind of radical innovation like reusable rockets will have. Because again, Elon didn't know what he didn't know, right? He didn't know that's not the way it's done. He didn't spend his career in a rocket company, in a propulsion company, doing rocket engineering, doing aerospace engineering. And so he didn't know that. Reusable orbital class vehicles wasn't the way things were done. And because of that, was able to create a company that is now doing that and has dramatically dropped the cost of launch to orbit.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  And so I tried to encourage the people around me, just, you know, if you don't think it's possible, just give it another try. Sketch it out, maybe try a different way. And if you come back to me again, or maybe, you know, three times from now and don't have a solution, then, then maybe I'll, I'll accept that it's, it's just not going to happen right now.

• 46:29Tom Bilyeu?

  All right. And how do you, I'm guessing in your career, you failed a lot, like creating some of the things you've created just seems inevitable. How do you think about failure? How do you deal with failure?

• 46:40Speaker 02

  If I was in the lab today, I would probably fail. I will have probably profound failures in the future. Hopefully none that are, are large and dramatic and, and, uh, uh, end up on the 12 o'clock, you know, the 10 o'clock news. But inevitably I will have lots more failures, but that's what drives innovation. I mean, some of the coolest things I've done in the lab have been failing to do what I originally set out. My original hypothesis or my original experimental design turned out to be just completely worthless. I couldn't do it or I screwed it up, but the outcome was something that actually was kind of interesting. That goes back to some of the greatest scientific discoveries in history came from people that

• 47:23Speaker 02

  had kind of really bad experimental design, but discovered something that they never intended, that they never thought of. And so in that way, you know, people talk about, you know, failure being the catalyst of innovation or failure being, you know, the way we learn, all this stuff. And nowhere is that more, um, uh, prominent than in science. I mean, science is built on failure. If I knew when I set out to conduct an experiment, what the outcome was going to be a hundred percent, there would be no reason to do the experiment. So a lot of times in science and in engineering too, um, you know, you're not going to succeed or you're not going to prove your intuition. But what you do develop, what you do create, what you do discover is going to probably

• 48:07Speaker 02

  be something in some cases even cooler than what you set out to do. So yeah, failure is integral. And I know people say that all the time. That's almost become a buzzword, like you have to fail to succeed and all this stuff. But like, that is a core tenet to science is, um, you know, we. You have to remain curious. Like if you get convinced that you know everything and that you know, you know, everything about what you're doing and you stop being curious, that's the moment you stop becoming, you know, stop being a scientist. I mean, to be a scientist is to not know. It's the probably only profession on earth where you're rewarded for not knowing what you're doing. And so, maybe it's a good excuse, but I think it's a whole lot of fun as a job.

• 48:50Tom Bilyeu?

  I love that. All right. Before I ask my last question, where can these guys find you online?

• 48:54Speaker 02

  Um, that's a good question. Um, I try to kind of, uh, not spend too much time on social media. Um, but, um, I do have a website and probably in the future will be, you know, kind of updating or at least restarting some of these social media channels. Cause, um, I think what I do on a daily basis is cool to look at. So one of these days I need to start, you know, getting that out there and I'll let you know when I do.

• 49:17Tom Bilyeu?

  All right. Sounds perfect. Final question. What is the impact that you want to have on the world?

• 49:22Speaker 02

  Well, look, I think there are a lot of things I want to do. Uh, we've kind of touched on a lot of them. I think energy, you know, if we can really reinvent the way we use and produce energy, that's going to be probably more transformative than a lot of the things that I can do with my life. So if I can have at least a small part in kind of transforming our energy economy, that'll be important. Um, but more than that, I think, you know, if, if we can inspire a new generation of young people to pursue science and technology as a way to make the world a better place, that'll have more of a profound impact on the world than anything else. Cause science is cool and science is the one thing I think that's really going to get us out of these problems that we face today. You know, we, we're in a rut. Like we have some big problems that we face

• 50:07Speaker 02

  domestically and internationally and in the globe in general. And, um, science and technology represents the tools to get us out of those holes, to dig ourselves out of these problems and really make the world a, you know, better place in the future than it was in the past. Um, so the more young people that are working on that and getting to use these really cool sexy toys, um, the better the world's going to be. And so if I can have a part in that, that would be something I would, I would try to do.

• 50:33Tom Bilyeu?

  Taylor, thank you so much for coming on the show, man. That was incredible. Guys, all right, on this one, I'm telling you, the notion of profound curiosity, that is something I want you to burn into your soul. What I love is this guy is the one telling you that aptitude matters, but it doesn't matter nearly as much as you think. And if he was gonna have to trade it for something, and the funny thing is, in his family, he has the examples, where his brother was actually outscoring him on all the aptitude tests that they were taking. But because he had that thing, he had that passion that he had discovered. He had the profound curiosity which he used to get mentors, which he used to propel himself forward. All of that, that was the real juice. Cultivate that in yourself. Go out, encounter a lot of stuff. Let his story be the story of that.

• 51:17Tom Bilyeu?

  Let people right now that don't know what they want to do, really look at that and think about what are the ways you can engage with something to discover the things that you really want to do in your life. Then don't take no for an answer. Show his level of tenacity. Get after it. Convince people. Persuasion. This guy is able to persuade people. And I think more than anything, with his infectious enthusiasm for what he does. Fall in love with something. Get really good at it. Put in the time and effort. Don't take no. Rethink. Get outside your comfort zone. Think about other things. Come at it from a new angle. And what he said about failure is incredibly awesome. And it may be oft repeated, but it is literally the foundation of so many things, not just science, but hearing it from somebody who's had that level of success

• 52:01Tom Bilyeu?

  to say literally, "What I do is all about failure," is pretty incredible. I hope you guys were listening as closely as I was. All right, boys and girls, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. And until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  Taylor, thank you, man. That was awesome. Really, really good.

• 52:18Tom Bilyeu?

  Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for watching and being a part of this community. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. You're gonna get weekly videos on building a growth mindset, cultivating grit, and unlocking your full potential. Let's talk about a pattern that is guaranteed to be killing your progress. You know what you need to do. You need consistent nutrition. We all do. You need vitamins, probiotics, greens.

• 52:43Tom Bilyeu?

  All know that we should be doing more of it. When your morning gets chaotic, you skip it. When you travel, you skip it. When your routine breaks, everything tends to break. And that inconsistency compounds against you every single day. AG1 is designed to solve the execution problem. One scoop, eight ounces of water, and you're done. You're getting 75 plus ingredients, vitamins and minerals, pre and probiotics, nutrient-dense superfoods, everything that used to require six, seven different supplements, and perfect planning now happens in one drink that takes about 30 seconds to make. Right now, AG1 is giving you $87 worth of free gifts with your first subscription. You get a welcome kit, travel packs, vitamin D3 plus K2, and flavor samples.

• 53:28Tom Bilyeu?

  Click the link in the show notes or visit drinkag1.com/impact to claim this offer.