On Change

The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

(Socrates in The Way of the Peaceful Warrior)

How long did the best of us to battle for some environmental standards in the oil extracting industry? Actually, when it comes to the new methods of extraction - shale gas and oil - the battle still lies ahead! How long it took to force the car companies to add catalytic converter to their exhausts, not to mention improving fuel standards and the refinery methods for dirty diesel fuel! The special interest groups have been simply too overpowering for way too long.

Along comes a company - Tesla - that turns all this upside down. They simply invent a completely new system, and suddenly every established player has to fight for survival not to be taken out by this new technology. Electric cars beget solar technology just as solar technology begets electric cars. Maybe it takes 10-20 years years to completely uproot the current system, but eventually zero emission will win not just because it is much cleaner, but also because one day it will become more cost efficient. Interestingly, the battery-powered technology was always there but somehow it took us 100 years to rediscover it.

The success story of solar and electric vehicles can't be stopped anymore, so it can serve us as a lesson in revolutionizing a corrupt system from the outside. What irks you these days? Maybe you have tried to reform an existing flawed system for way too long? Perhaps today is a good day for you as well to start something entirely new.