by Jean Case
Loretta is perfectly comfortable speaking to presidents and before Congress. Once, at a White House event in the East Room that was full of dignitaries, she spoke before I did. Her speech was so powerful that I was a bit dismayed at having to follow her. She is unique in her ability to inspire.
Thanks to their own fearlessness, and allies like Eunice Shriver, Loretta and other athletes have been able to burst through the assumptions that leave too many people with disabilities on the sidelines. But every Special Olympics athlete who has achieved physical excellence first had to reject the doubts that had been planted in his or her own mind. Making a Big Bet can sometimes start by changing the way people—and oftentimes you yourself—think about the potential for one person to make a difference.
“The most effective way to do it is to do it.”
—AMELIA EARHART
As for Eunice, if you visit Washington, DC, and find yourself walking near the White House, don’t be surprised if you see a large medallion on the sidewalk in recognition of her extraordinary life and contributions. The Points of Light Monument walkway is known as the “Extra Mile” in Washington, honoring actions and commitments to service that have transformed our nation and the world. The Case Foundation considered it an honor to sponsor this tribute to Eunice, a true model of the Be Fearless spirit and actions.
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Whenever I am in or near an ocean, my mind turns to a hero of the ocean, my friend and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala. I still remember the first time I heard him speak. I sat transfixed as I listened to a young Enric, with his ponytail, Spanish accent, and passionate voice, describing his commitment to helping protect and save some of the last pristine marine ecosystems in the world. His Big Bet: work with governments to establish twenty marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2020, including some of the most wild and remote pristine areas of our seas.
Enric’s inspiration for his Big Bet derived from his previous role as a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Having published numerous papers highlighting the fragile state of marine ecosystems, Enric says, he realized he was “writing the obituary of the ocean.” Oceans make up more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, and Enric knew that restoring and protecting key portions of the ocean would not only help save the natural habitats and species, but that the oceans play a vital role in providing over 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe and absorbing over one-third of the carbon pollution in the air. As marine experts often say, “The ocean is the lungs of our planet.”
So he decided to act. Knowing that the work of establishing new MPAs would require collaboration with governments around the world, he joined National Geographic and outlined his plan. Then, one by one, he burst through assumptions and beliefs that getting governments to cooperate would just be too hard. He likes to say, “First I help them fall in love with the ocean, then I talk to them about what it takes to protect these amazing places.”
To date, more than eighteen sites have been established as new MPAs, constituting more than 5 million square kilometers of our oceans. Enric has brought a highly collaborative approach to his efforts, engaging a diverse set of stakeholders and organizations. With the last MPAs within sight, Enric is close to seeing his Big Bet become a reality—and with it a renewed consciousness that our oceans matter and are worthy of protection.
I saw Enric’s strategy play out firsthand when I joined him for an expedition to a pristine area known as the Gardens of the Queens, located off the coast of Cuba. For five days we went diving three times a day. The joint team of Cubans and Americans conducted fish counts as part of the dives and evaluated the health of the reefs. Although I had fallen in love with the ocean at a tender age, the passion that stirred within me while diving in this pristine site moved me to the point of tears behind my diving mask. It was as though I were witnessing the ocean from a time gone by, before human activity degraded the health of reefs. I am five foot five and at one point I had a goliath grouper swim by me that far exceeded my height. Large predators, including sharks, were abundant in these waters—many more than I had ever seen in one place. In that trip I witnessed firsthand Enric’s ability to move people to do all they can to protect these precious places on our planet.
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Many big ideas begin with an understanding of what doesn’t work, and new breakthroughs often benefit from what’s been tried before—good news for all of us who think, “I’m not creative enough.” Sara Blakely was getting ready for a party and wanted the shaping effect of pantyhose beneath her pants but without the feet because she was wearing sandals. She took a pair of scissors and cut off the feet, and that was the inspiration for Spanx. With no experience in fashion design or manufacturing—she sold fax machines for a living—Sara set out in her free time to learn everything she could, even traveling to visit manufacturing plants. One day early on, speaking to a doubtful buyer at Neiman Marcus, she took the (female) buyer into the bathroom to demonstrate her product. Neiman Marcus became her first client, Oprah Winfrey announced Spanx as one of her “favorite things,” and Sara was off. Today the company Sara started with a $5,000 investment generates sales in the hundreds of millions annually, and she has become a leading philanthropist for female entrepreneurs. “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know,” Sara advises. “That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.”
Sara is an example of the rigorous entrepreneurial spirit we see everywhere. In our work with changemakers across the nation, we at the Case Foundation have come to appreciate that there are many arenas left for disruption—many status quos ready to be shaken up. I recall sitting across from two young entrepreneurs at the annual SXSW conference in Austin several years back. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, but we were spending our day in a hotel meeting space, with what felt like a revolving door of entrepreneurs coming through. But David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal really stood out. They had an idea for shaking up a well-established business sector: eyeglasses.
David and Neil were MBA students at the Wharton School when the cash-strapped David lost his eyeglasses and had to pay $700 for replacements. That got them thinking: Could there be a better way? Neil had previously worked for a nonprofit, VisionSpring, that trained poor women in the developing world to start businesses offering eye exams and selling glasses that were affordable to people making less than four dollars a day. He had helped expand the nonprofit’s presence to ten countries, supporting thousands of female entrepreneurs and boosting the organization’s staff from two to thirty. At the time, it hadn’t occurred to Neil that an idea birthed in the nonprofit sector could be transferred to the private sector. But later at Wharton, as he and David considered entering the eyeglass business, after being shocked by the high cost of replacing David’s glasses, they decided they were out to build more than a company—they were on a social mission as well.
They asked a simple question: Why had no one ever sold eyeglasses online? Well, because some believed it was impossible. For one thing, the eyeglass industry operated under a near monopoly that controlled the sales pipeline and price points. That these high prices would be passed on to consumers went unquestioned, even if that meant some people would go without glasses altogether. For another, people didn’t really want to buy a product as carefully calibrated and individualized as glasses online. Besides, how could an online company even work? David and Neil would have to be able to offer stylish frames, a perfect fit, and various options for prescriptions.
With a $2,500 seed investment from Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program, David and Neil launched their company in 2010 with a selection of styles, a low price of $95, and a hip marketing program. (They named the company Warby Parker after two characters in a Jack Kerouac novel.) Within a month, they’d sold out all their stock and had a 20,000-person waiting list. Within a year, they’d received serious funding. They kept perfecting their concept, offering an innovative home tr
y-on program, a collection of boutique retail outlets, and an eye test app for distance vision. Today Warby Parker is valued at $1.75 billion, with 1,400 employees and 65 retail stores.
It’s no surprise that Neil and David continued to use Warby Parker’s success to deliver eyeglasses to those in need. The company’s Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program is unique: instead of simply providing free eyeglasses, Warby Parker trains and equips entrepreneurs in developing countries to sell the glasses they’re given. To date, 4 million pairs of glasses have been distributed through Warby Parker’s program. This dual commitment to inexpensive eyewear for all, paired with a program to improve access to eyewear for the global poor, makes Warby Parker an exemplary assumption-busting social enterprise.
“It’s not about the amount of wealth you can accumulate or the amount of profits you can drive, it’s about the impact and change that you can create.”
—NEIL BLUMENTHAL
Attorney Bryan Stevenson has been bursting through assumptions all his life, but his most ambitious effort has been his vow to end mass incarceration for those who suffer the legacy of racial inequality. As he says, “I believe each person in our society is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.” His Equal Justice Initiative has gone from its scrappy origins to winning major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting the abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults. “There is this burden in America that people of color bear,” he explained in an interview with Pacific Standard. “This presumption of dangerousness weighs on you. And when we don’t talk about it, when we don’t name it, the burden only gets heavier. People of color have to navigate around these presumptions, and it is exhausting.”
He knows something of that exhaustion. He entered first grade in Delaware in a segregated school before Brown v. Board of Education took effect, and although schools were integrated the following year, he was still not allowed to climb on the jungle gym during recess. Each time he went to the doctor’s office, he and his parents entered through the back door.
Bryan saw firsthand that there was a divide that separated people in America, and he felt great empathy for those who failed because they never had a chance to bridge that gap. “An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation,” he wrote in his powerful book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. “Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it’s necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and—perhaps—we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”
Bryan has successfully argued several cases before the United States Supreme Court. In 2017, he won a historic ruling when the court deemed mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children seventeen or younger unconstitutional.
“The court took a significant step forward by recognizing the fundamental unfairness of mandatory death-in-prison sentences that don’t allow sentencers to consider the unique status of children and their potential for change,” said Bryan of the ruling. “The court has recognized that children need additional attention and protection in the criminal justice system.” This is just mercy: challenging all of society to put aside our assumptions and allow true justice to prevail.
The most common trait that Big Bets share is that they often fly in the face of conventional wisdom, or defy belief before they are proven. And often the same is true of the people who make them—just like their big ideas they can often be underestimated. If you’ve ever heard, “It can’t be done,” then maybe you know you’re onto something big! The stories in this chapter teach us that great ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, including those the world would sometimes count out. Can you stand in the face of disbelief in you or your idea and use the doubters as a source of motivation? Can you answer their doubts by saying, “Just watch me”?
FOUR
PEEK AROUND CORNERS
Invention isn’t ruled by public opinion. “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they’d have said, ‘Faster horses,’ ” Henry Ford famously said. The visionaries who create new realities must be able to peek around corners and see what others can’t. When the automobile was introduced, people’s minds turned immediately to the downsides of this new contraption—to the risks. It’s always that way with new things. Think of the fears in our modern era about driverless cars. Many of history’s most significant innovations have come from visionaries who had to then wait for the world to catch up.
When an advancement reaches mainstream acceptance, it is easy to lose sight of what life was like before. Who can imagine life without an Internet connection anymore? But as recently as 1995, only one in four families owned a computer! When America Online was founded in 1985, the country was far from being online. Only 3 percent of Americans were online at the time—and they were online an average of just one hour a week. Few jobs required computer skills, and no one walked around with smart devices in their pockets. I can recall with great clarity the number of times we heard, “Why would I ever need email?” or “My business doesn’t need a connection to the Internet.”
But we were on a mission to democratize access to ideas and information, so we presented a compelling offering to the world. And we persisted in our vision. It took us nine years to get the first million customers, but just seven months to get the second million. Today some people don’t even use computers anymore; they use next-generation tablets or smartphones.
Peeking around corners involves either watching where the trends are headed or deciding to start a new one. Amazon is a singular example of this. At a time when people were nervous about putting credit card information online, Amazon got consumers so comfortable with online purchasing that people now allow companies to store their credit card information, track their purchases, and make personal recommendations for other items they might enjoy.
Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has been a friend for many years, dating back to the earlier periods in technology when the company was a young start-up with a really Big Bet. In many ways, Jeff’s life story is the embodiment of both the Be Fearless principles and the American Dream. Jeff was born to a seventeen-year-old mom who was still in high school. When Jeff was four years old his mom married a Cuban immigrant, and those of us who know Jeff have seen firsthand the incredible role both of his parents have played in his life. Growing up, Jeff spent summers with his grandparents on a ranch in Texas, where even as a small child he did chores; as he grew older, his work on the ranch began to shape his sense of resourcefulness and confidence. “We fixed windmills, and laid water pipelines, and built fences, and barns, and fixed the bulldozer,” he said in an interview with Business Insider. He speaks of lessons taken from his experiences on the ranch, from the down-to-earth nature of problem solving to the importance of teamwork.
Jeff studied at Princeton and found success on Wall Street. He was a young hedge fund manager in 1994 when he told his parents about his idea to start an Internet company. His father’s first question was, “What’s the Internet?” But Jeff was captivated by the numbers. After reading that the Internet had grown 2,300 percent in one year, Jeff looked around for a product to launch, researching twenty different categories before settling on books. His parents were his first investors, handing over most of their savings. They weren’t betting on the idea, Jeff said later, because they didn’t understand the idea. They were betting on their son—even after he warned them that there was a 70 percent chance they’d lose their entire investment.
Jeff didn’t know how his venture would turn out when he left his lucrative Wall Street career to jump into the emerging tech market. But as he later explained, “I knew when I was eighty that I would never, for example, think about why I walked away from my 1994 Wall Street b
onus right in the middle of the year at the worst possible time. That kind of thing just isn’t something you worry about when you’re eighty years old. At the same time, I knew that I might sincerely regret not having participated in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a revolutionizing event. When I thought about it that way . . . it was incredibly easy to make the decision.” It was his Big Bet.
“There’ll always be serendipity involved in discovery.”
—JEFF BEZOS
It turned out he was on to something. Within a month, Amazon.com was doing $20,000 in sales. A year later, Jeff was able to raise $8 million in capital, and in 1997 the company went public. The following year, Amazon started selling music and videos, and soon other products too, including electronics, household goods, and toys.
As Amazon has grown into one of the most successful companies in America, Jeff’s revolutionary model has generated some controversy. Economist Paul Krugman has claimed that Amazon “has too much power, and it uses that power in ways that hurt America”—a view shared by others who blame the company for declines in retail sales. But others would argue that Jeff didn’t create this decline. He just recognized a trend and capitalized on it with a company that appealed to what consumers wanted: more choice, more convenience, and more competitive prices.
