What I do now as a quantum physicist turned entrepreneur
This year, I have realized I’m completely unemployable.
Maybe this is a function of being in Silicon Valley too long. But the best part of Silicon Valley is that you can do a lot of things and try and even if they fail, you learn a lot.
That’s the secret in Silicon Valley is trying a million things, finding the thing you’re good at, and continuously improving your skills until you find something you’re good at. Or a combination no one has before.
Sure, 1) is still working in quantum technology. Though I’ve moved up and down the stack, worked on superconducting qubits. Now I realized I have a greater talent than just doing the coding. I understand the technology deeply after being in the industry for almost 15 years, but I can communicate it. That makes me an asset to selling. And what is a business if you can’t sell the product? The best app in the world will fail without selling.
2) is this overlapping of talents. You may get paid well if you’re in the top 10% of the world in one field. Say programming. But what if you’re also in the top 10% of something completely different that can be combined in a novel way?
I noticed that we had trouble hiring marketing agencies who deeply understood the message we wanted to tell about quantum computing’s impact on tech. And since I’ve been blogging about it since 2015, well, I was the one doing this instead.
And I thought - wait, if I have that problem, maybe someone else does.
And yes - robotics, AI, hardware, and other companies doing novel, groundbreaking technical work need this.
So, One Quark Media was born to help founders market their groundbreaking technology. I do not want to see innovations die in the lab because of this!
Named after my best dog, Quarky.
3) Being an influencer is actually lucrative. But not only that, it’s accelerated by career.
Forget brand deals. It’s always fun to get a free laptop, but really talking about science opened doors to presenting at conferences and speaking, as well as meeting amazing new people. Every day, I learn new things about thermodynamic computing, optical systems, and so much cool stuff - just because I talk about the cool stuff I am doing.
And the influence I gained can also be used for good. I was able to start working with Giga Global because of the influence I built. Way better than a laptop.
My Extraversion for Introverts course: https://www.introverttoleader.com
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