February 26, 2024 • 47 mins
Join us as we sit down with William A. Adams, a visionary in the technology realm whose epic journey has shaped the digital landscape. From his early days tinkering with computers to becoming a beacon of innovation and diversity in tech, William shares the spirit of 'Techquity'—his term for intergenerational wealth creation in the tech sector for women and minorities. Listen in as he discusses the critical role of equity ownership, be it through stocks, patents, or company stakes, for economic prosperity that keeps up with the fast-paced evolution of the tech industry.
In this heart-to-heart, William sheds light on the resilience needed to navigate the entrepreneurial landscape, marked by systemic barriers and financial biases. Hear about the grit and creativity that powered his ascent from founding a tech company to leaving a mark on global initiatives at Microsoft. William's advice rings clear for aspiring entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups: to harness technology in every passion, even in fields as time-honored as agriculture, and to dream big backed by unshakeable self-belief.
Our conversation wraps up with a forward-looking discussion on education's future in an AI-centric world, emphasizing the need to merge technological acumen with the humanities. William also introduces the LEAP program, aimed at fostering diversity in tech through innovative internships. He leaves us with a reminder of the communal benefits of progress, likening it to a tide that raises all ships, and urges us to create our own opportunities. If William's journey and insights stir something in you, remember to share this episode and help spread the message of equitable success in technology.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/night-beat-media-living-the-dream--2752105/support.
In this heart-to-heart, William sheds light on the resilience needed to navigate the entrepreneurial landscape, marked by systemic barriers and financial biases. Hear about the grit and creativity that powered his ascent from founding a tech company to leaving a mark on global initiatives at Microsoft. William's advice rings clear for aspiring entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups: to harness technology in every passion, even in fields as time-honored as agriculture, and to dream big backed by unshakeable self-belief.
Our conversation wraps up with a forward-looking discussion on education's future in an AI-centric world, emphasizing the need to merge technological acumen with the humanities. William also introduces the LEAP program, aimed at fostering diversity in tech through innovative internships. He leaves us with a reminder of the communal benefits of progress, likening it to a tide that raises all ships, and urges us to create our own opportunities. If William's journey and insights stir something in you, remember to share this episode and help spread the message of equitable success in technology.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/night-beat-media-living-the-dream--2752105/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:31):
Welcome to night Beat Media's Living theDream podcast with your host Gregory Tucker,
where we discussed the entrepreneur's journey ofturning a dream into reality, showing you
how to learn, overcome, andacquire strategic action steps. If you're ready
to turn your dream into a reality, then get ready to take action.
(00:55):
Here's your host, Gregory Tucker.Welcome to this episode. Today, we
have a very special guest with us. His name is William A. Adams.
He is a technologist and engineering trailblazer and a philanthropist. With over
(01:18):
thirty five years in the tech industry, William has run his own company.
He's been recorded in the Computer HistoryMuseum, which is the equivalent of the
Computer Hall of Fame, and servedas the first technical advisor to Microsoft's current
(01:41):
CTO, Kevin Scott. William hasfounded in overseeing global initiatives at Microsoft,
from the XML technologies as early asnineteen ninety eight to the d Diversity and
Inclusion Initiatives in twenty fifteen, theLEAP program with a focused on diverse hiring.
(02:12):
He was named Microsoft's D and Iand that's Diversity and Inclusion Program of
the Year in twenty twenty. TodayWilliam is focused on techquity, and we're
going to explore that a little later, the creation of intergenerational wealth through equity
(02:38):
based shares of technology for women andminority owned businesses. He is turning his
years of experience in wisdom into actionabletools for the creation of modern tech centered
businesses. When he's not writing code, giving talks, or otherwise building technology,
(03:00):
William enjoys woodworking, biking, andthe pleasures of family life. Let's
welcome William to our show. Hey, hey, William, thank you,
thank you for that intro. NowI read all of that, so we
know your titles. Now. Wealways like to ask our guest to tell
(03:29):
us about yourself. Yeah, wellabout me, give me one second here.
There was one of those issues Ihad spoke about. Yeah, there
we are, OK. Yeah,well about about me. I've been in
(03:49):
tech my whole life. I meanliterally, I got my first computer when
I was twelve years old. Andthat was way back in the day,
back in the seventies, nineteen seventies, and that was the birth of the
personal computers as actually before the Applecomputers came out just by a couple of
years around the same time. SoI grew up in tech. I was
(04:11):
self taught programming. I went toUC Berkeley eventually and learned a bunch of
stuff there, and my brother andI started a company in nineteen eighty four
called Adamation to do software, youknow, and this is the heyday of
soccer in Silicon Valley, the birthof like I said, Apple was roaring
(04:33):
by then. Some companies that arestill around, like Adobe, were created
and fermenting at that time. SoI just said technology, technology, Technology
starved our way through, made alittle bit of money, made some famous
sales, hooked up with Steve Jobsfor a while to sell his next computers,
(04:54):
and then eventually in nineteen ninety eight, I went off to Microsoft and
I was there for quite some time. I just retired from Microsoft last year
actually about a year ago. Butthis is things I've done. And at
Microsoft, I did all sorts ofthings technology related. But the crown and
(05:15):
you kind of read it. Intwenty fifteen, I started this program called
Leap because it was just a revelation. It's like, well, here I
am black guy in tech. It'stime to give back, not just you
know, not just to make money, but to give back to my community.
And I would clearly stay. Upuntil that point, I wasn't really
(05:35):
thinking about my responsibility to my community, my home tribe, if you will.
So I created this program because wewere like every other tech company saying,
oh, we can't hire women ofthe minorities. Where are they?
There's not enough of them. It'slike, no, there's plenty of us.
(05:56):
You're just not looking in the rightplaces, You're not thinking in the
right way. So that's what Idid. So since that time, I've
been much more focused on I knowthat having an equity share of technology is
what creates wealth. So that's whatI've been focused on doing. And since
I've left Microsoft, that's that's myfocus. So that's that's me. And
(06:24):
is that where the uh term tequitywould is something that you coined? Yeah?
Yeah, now you'll you'll find otheruses of that term out there in
the wild. But my I didthis about three years ago. I was
just thinking, it's like, howdo I, in a single word,
explain to people what I'm talking about? And tequity is like, well,
(06:48):
technology, okay, fine, weall know what technology is. It's computer
stuff mostly, right, Automation Equityis a harder one because people don't not
all people understand what equity is.Equity just means you own a piece of
the thing. Right. I ownstock in Microsoft, Therefore I have an
equity share. As their stock pricegoes up, my wealth goes up because
(07:11):
I own a piece of the company. Right. So tequity is combining those
two things and saying owning a pieceof technology from a share perspective, meaning
patents, shares, and stock runningcompanies that are tech based is a good
thing because technology is where all themoney is at right now. Right If
(07:32):
you go look at the Forbes listof top hundred billionaires in the world or
whatever it is, the top sixor eight are always tech bros, you
know, and that tells you something. One hundred years ago, it would
have been a bunch of industrialists,right, railroad barons, steel, maybe
tex stiles, bankers, stuff likethat. But today, and for the
(07:55):
last ten years and probably for thenext twenty years, it's all tech people.
That tells you the rising tide istechnology. So if you want to
rise with that tide, you needto own pieces of those tech companies so
that you can also rise. Right. So that's what tequity is about,
is just to inform people. It'slike you need ownership in technology, whether
(08:18):
it be just as simple as buyinga few shares of Apple stock next time
you buy an iPhone, you know, or when you do go to get
that job, make sure you getsome stock options in whatever company it is
you're going for, if it's atech company, or if you're going to
create a company of your own that'srelated to tech, you know, make
(08:39):
sure you own your patents if thereare any, you know how to do
your licensing deal set so you don'tgive away your equity share of that stuff.
So as that technology rises, yourwealth rises as well, and you
get a pass it on to yourkids. So yeah, that's what tequity
is all about, is to sayall that in one word, okay,
(09:01):
And one thing I would like togo back a little bit, and that
is when you were in the seventies, you're tooling away far as in your
garage or in a garage with yourbrother to my bedroom, because you know,
(09:24):
sometimes I kind of go back andshare a story my brother. He
was a tinkerer, and that wasone of the things right there that we
enjoyed sci fi movies. So alot of that gave us that feeling of
okay, let's see how this worksright here. So first thing is taking
(09:48):
away that little transistor radio in orderto see Okay, how does these pieces?
Can you put it back together?Exactly? Yeah? How was that
when you were growing up? Iknow you ran into some obstacles or there
were some challenges because you know,it's somewhat the norm for us in the
(10:15):
African American community because usually it's like, okay, let's pursue sports or pursuit
to that effect, or music,but not not technology. Well, you
know, it's an interesting one becausethat was early enough that technology didn't even
(10:37):
exist. I mean, when Ifirst knew anything about computers, I'm just
trying to think. I had acoach at the Boys and Girls Club named
Jackie Robinson, and he was atcollege and he was learning Fortram programming,
(11:00):
and he had brought home for meone time a computer print out and a
book on programming. And I wasnine ten years old. Okay, I
didn't have a computer at that time, but you know, that was my
exposure to computers. My father wasa type of writer repairman, so I
was used to the tinkering thing mechanicallyat least, and then this computer thing.
(11:24):
There's not a single child within afive mile radius of where I lived.
Who would have known anything about anyof that? Right now? I
was also into sports, you know. My brother was into My brother was
the big jock two and a halfyears older than me, you know,
so I followed his footsplit. Iplayed football, I played baseball, and
(11:46):
later in life, I ran trackand all that. So I got out.
But I was a shy, precrociouskid. I was playing baseball.
But at home, I'd tell mymom, Mom, I went for Christmas.
I want a physics set, Iwant a chemistry set. I'm gonna
build a box camera. You needto go out and buy me some films
(12:07):
so I can expose pictures in mypinhole camera. You know, I was
ten years old, right, Thisis the kind of things. Mom.
I'm gonna jack up your car soI can take the wheels off and put
them back on. You know.That's the kind of kid I was.
I had an erector set, whichwas an old school like metal bars and
(12:30):
things, construction set that I usedto build stuff out of. I would
build forts out of cardboard boxes andjust all sorts of fun stuff like that.
So that's the kind of kid Iwas. I was a tinkerer,
and I was very shy, andI had a protective brothers, so no
one would mess with me because mybrother would beat him up. Right So,
(12:52):
at school, even if they thoughtI was a little smart ass brainiac
kid. Sorry for my language,it's made it clear. You will not
touch my brother. I don't careif you have a problem with him,
you think he's smart, alec oranything. You come to me, I'll
beat him up, you know,but you will not touch my brother.
(13:13):
So I was never touched by anybodyever except for my brother, you know.
So then finally when the computer didcome along, it was natural for
me to just kind of take toit like a duck to water. You
know, it's like, here yougo. It was a computer given to
me by my uncle. He workedthe Navy doing weapons something or other.
(13:35):
He said, I've got this computer. You can have it. I got
this a new thing, So,you know, he gave me a computer,
I gave me some books. Youknow, here you go, good
luck, And I just took toit. You know. I taught myself
and everything. I wrote little gameprograms and did some hardware tinkering and whatnot.
My mom knew I was like that. She just let me do my
(13:56):
thing. But I still ran track, I still did baseball, still played
football, right A had a fewfriends. I did music, you know,
I was in the marching band inhigh school. And I still did
all this other stuff. So itwas just like that. There was no
We did not live in a bigblack community. If anything. We lived
(14:18):
in a big Mexican community, youknow, and we didn't mix to the
point where there was any sort ofattitude of, like, what you're doing
with those computers. By the timethe computer came along, we were in
a more upscale neighborhood and like afriend of mine, he did have a
computer by that time, so itwas more upscale. So it was more
natural that I might be doing somethinglike that. But I was isolated enough
(14:43):
that no one would be. Iwouldn't listen to anyone's attitude, and I
didn't care. Right, It's likeI was just doing my thing, you
know. It's like playing with takingapart TVs and radios and buying transistors tubes
at the store. Mom, Ineeded to go buy this tube to make
this radio work, you know.That's just what I did. So people
(15:05):
probably kept me on the arm's length. It's like, oh, that guy's
a whacko. We're not going toplay with you, and I don't care.
So I just did my thing.I never I never really experienced at
a young age anyone saying what areyou doing with those computers? You're not
going to be you know, Inever experienced any of that. Okay,
(15:26):
So a pivotal point in your career, were they when you started going to
Berkeley or we did that? Yeah? Yeah, it was certainly at Berkeley,
so nineteen eighty four. So Iwent out to college in eighty two
and buy eighty four, my brotherand I decided, oh, we're going
(15:46):
to start a company, because whynot, That's what everyone was doing,
right, going to do a company. And we had an aunt who worked
at IBM, who showed us howto write a business plan and all this
sort of stuff. So we justit was just a natural. I was
the manager of the computer store atUC Berkeley for a while, so I
(16:10):
was around the birth of the Macintoshcomputer from Apple. You know, we
sold a bunch of them. Weactually made a piece of hardware for so
you could have a joystick on amac and you know, so it was
natural and with all our classmates andwith all the just Silicon Valley around us,
starting a company is just what youdid right now, So we just
(16:33):
did. We we just say,all right, we're going to start a
company. We're going to do somestuff education for application, We're going to
teach people how to use computers.And so we did have some challenges in
the earliest days where we had ahard time getting a bank account. You
know, and I've told this storybefore. Where was it because of your
(16:57):
age? So I'm telling you Idon't know, but what they told us,
they just tried to discourage us,like, oh, companies fail and
blah blah blah. It's like,look, I mean I already had a
bank account, a personal bank accountlike Wells Fargo whatever. We just want
to open a business bank account.We didn't want to borrow money. We
(17:18):
just went to deposit money that wehad gotten from sales, right, And
this one banker like, no,no, not gonna happen. No,
It's like huh, I wonder Sowe complained to the Better Business Bureau and
all that sort of stuff, andthen we went off to some other bank
and they yeah, no problem,here you go, here's a bank account.
(17:41):
So you know, I'd love tosay, yeah, it was it
was because we're young, but no, I mean the other bank had no
problem. So something was I missthere, you know. And usually when
things like that knife heard, andsometimes I've experienced the things like that,
(18:03):
it tends to kind of put firein the belly. You look and say,
oh no, I'll show you now, I gotta show you. So
that meant to dig in deeper andI get to work harder. Yeah,
And that's that's probably what it didfor us. We were not discouraged in
the least. We were perturbed andlike, oh no, you don't you
(18:26):
know, you're not going to keepus down. And there's other there's other
places where you know, we didexplicitly get told we will not deal with
people like you. And that waslike the VC community at that time.
It's like, what do you meanpeople like us? You mean handsome young
(18:47):
black men with curly hair. Doyou mean you see Berkeley people? What
are you talking about? So therewere certainly Silicon Valley is is is not
a complete meritocracy. But we neverlet that get us down. We're just
like, well, we're smart people. We're just gonna do what we're gonna
(19:07):
do. So so but but thatwas the beginning, was you know,
college years where we just started acompany and then went on from there.
So would you say one of themajor assets or soft skills that you and
your brother possessed and that was curiosity? Oh yeah, I thought you were
(19:30):
going to go more. I wasgoing to say curiosity and your imagination.
Curiosity, imagination, fortitude, stubbornness, you know, veracity. I mean,
yeah, there's a number of attributes, but certainly one of the strongest
(19:52):
ones I would say is imagination.You had to dream big, right because
we we were out there young.I mean think we're like twenty something,
twenty two, twenty one, twotwenty three, pretty young, and it
wasn't quite the environment that we havetoday in terms of entrepreneurship. It was
(20:15):
much more wrong and at that time, most of the companies were more hardware
companies than software companies. But youknow, we had a dream. It's
like, we're gonna make it big, We're gonna be on the world stage,
We're going to create software that noone's ever seen before. And we
had to believe it. And it'slike we're we're freaking geniuses, you know,
(20:37):
let me show you. And wedid have stuff that for that day
was unique and different and no oneelse did have it, and we did
get sales in a very small pond. So yeah, you had to have
belief in yourself and this is truetoday. Right. You have to have
a vision, you have to haveus, you have to be right about
something, and you have to havea strong belief in yourself that your vision
(21:02):
is as powerful as anyone else's vision. Right, it's like why not me?
Right, It's like yeah, likethat, Now, would you share
with us some of your failures?Also? Let me get my list?
So, I mean, the failurescan be categorized in probably different ways.
(21:29):
There's failures to I don't know,failures to catch trends, failures to see
the writing on the wall, failuresto capitalize on an opportunity, failures to
leave something behind when you really shouldhave. And I'll give you an example
of that. We were into thisthing called Next Computers, which was Steve
(21:52):
Jobs had left Apple for a whileand created this thing called Next Computers,
and we were on that platform withtrying to make sales there for a long
time, and we failed to seethat it wasn't going anywhere and that we
should have shifted to being on Windowsor the Mac perhaps earlier than we did,
(22:15):
and we never did, so wekind of went down with the ship
as next went down. Now nextgot to they got bought by Apple,
so you know, they lived on. But we were pretty much done with
that at that time, and thenshifted to some other business that was one
(22:37):
and it's like, Okay, wefailed to catch we failed to see that.
We were a big fish in asmall pond, and the small pond
was drying up, and we didn'tget off fast enough to do whatever the
next thing was. I actually leftAdamation at that point and joined Microsoft.
That was nineteen ninety eight. Mybrother continued onward with another incarnation of the
company doing some other stuff, butI wasn't involved with it at that point.
(23:03):
There's there's plenty of failures of mylife at Microsoft itself, and they
get enhanced with things like how didyou deal with the personnel situations or product
situations, or how not to upsetthe wrong people, how to climb the
ladder or not climb the ladder,how to identify your your detractors and avoid
(23:27):
them or deal with them better.So there's a myriad things like that that
I've certainly gone through personally, butthere are they're just lessons. Hopefully you
learn from them and go on tofight another day. Right, And that
is one of those things. That'swhy I asked those questions right there,
(23:47):
is about the failures because that's partof that journey, because yeah, we
start out then there's the ultimate outcomeright there, but it's the journey in
between right there, right before gettingto your destination. Yeah. Yeah,
And let me just say one thinghere because it's kind of critical to how
I think. At some point,and this came much later in life when
(24:11):
I was abound forty, I wassitting on a beach and Yo, I
was about to go off to livein India for a while, and I
came to the realization I created thisthing called my life creed, which is
words I live by, you know. And the l in life is learning,
learning, intentional, fearless, empathetic. And the learning part was the
(24:34):
most important because I basically told myselfand tell myself daily life is about learning,
right, no matter what, nomatter how good or bad something is,
you have to learn something from it. It's therefore you to learn.
So I take that everything I dothere's something to be learned and that makes
(24:55):
for a more fulfilling life and itmakes for better progress. Right, Oh,
yes, definitely. Now, asone of the first black entrepreneurs in
Silicon Valley, you've had a uniqueperspective as far as on the tech industry.
What advice do you have for aspiringentrepreneurs, especially those from the underrepresented
(25:22):
backgrounds, who are looking to breakinto the industry. Yeah. I think
what I would say generally is toat this point, and this is,
you know, twenty twenty three,the age of AI is on the rise,
you know, which is pretty monumentalof a shift. First and foremost
(25:52):
is to understand that the the industryis no longer a singular thing anymore.
When I was coming up, theindustry meant the hardware companies, the software
companies like Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle. That was the tech industry.
(26:17):
Today tech is everywhere, So techis across all industries. So you
don't have to break into the industry. You just have to find the tech
angle to whatever industry you're interested in. So the way I tell people to
break in is essentially to say,what are you passionate about, whether it
(26:38):
be baking or makeup or hair designor farming or automobile repair. What are
you interested in? What is thetech angle to that? Right? How
can you leverage technology to make whateverthat thing is better? Right? And
(27:00):
then focus on that. So ifI'm into farming, I would say,
well, the hot thing in farmingright now other than automating tractors, you
know, and John Deere does this. They're GPS guided, you plot in
of course, and you just tellit to run, you know, is
gathering data from the fields, analyzingit and coming up with watering patterns.
(27:22):
Oh, the field is dryer overhere, and these fertilizer over there,
And you can tune the watering systemsand the fertilizer systems to be more targeted
and therefore use less of the inputs. Right. Don't pour water where it's
not needed, right, Don't don'tbuy fertilizer and put it on places where
(27:44):
it's not needed, because you're goingto overfertilize the other places. Right.
So a farmer, someone who's intofarming, who has a tech bent to
them, is like, leverage allthe get all the tech angles you can
get, because that's going to makeyour farming more efficient and you're yielding is
going to be better and you're gonnamake better profit or whatever your thing is.
(28:04):
So that's how I tell people toget into it. What I do
not tell people to do. AndI was just having this debate today with
someone, is we're past the timewhere you just go to college, get
a four year degree in CS andthen go look for the job. We're
past that time. And I knowplenty of people say, are you kidding
(28:26):
me? Don't discourage people from goingto college. I'm telling you, by
the time four years from now,if you think AI and things like chat
GPT, you're good. Now rollforward four more years. That thing's only
been out for a year. Idon't know if you know what chat gipt
is, but yes, yes,yes, yeah, So chat gpt has
(28:48):
only been out for a year,okay, and it's already got people and
it issy roll forward four more years. Where's that gonna be. If you're
chasing those tail lights, you're notgonna get anywhere, right. So that's
why I say it's like, Okay, go to college for your socialization,
(29:10):
for this, for that, studythe humanities, and in all the spare
time that you have, study chatGPT as a tool that you can use
to get stuff done, right,that's how you get into stuff because you're
gonna learn a lot faster that way, and you're gonna be more useful that
(29:32):
way. So by the time youcome out two years, four years down
the line, you're equipped with theright tools. If you don't do that
and you follow the standard curriculum thatthey currently have in colleges, you're gonna
come out and you're gonna be fouryears behind the times. Right, you're
not gonna be employable. And allthe people that did learn that CHAT,
(29:52):
GPT and other things tools like that, they're light years ahead of you.
You know. It's it's literally thedifference between between you going to school to
learn how to do animal husbandry andhow to deal with a horse and a
buggy and your neighbor going to learnhow to deal with the new horseless carriage.
(30:14):
Right, that's the difference, right. And it seems hyperbolic, like
I said, Oh, it's notthat traumatic. It's like, yes,
it is. It's literally one ofthose transition points in human evolution. But
right there, right, And that'sone of the key things that you had
mentioned, and that is it reallytakes some self reflection, you know,
(30:40):
inspection, and that is to lookand see what are some of your passions,
what really strike your curiosity, justlike the technology or computers struck your
curiosity when you were growing up,And that is something that people need to
look at right there, I think, And I'm not a I'm a trained
(31:07):
psychologist or behavioral scientist, but oneof the things it seems to happen,
and that is with chat GPT,because it is all over the news,
It's almost everywhere, and you seethe fear in any people's eyes that hey,
(31:30):
this is going to sideline me putme out of work, which as
you alluded to, and that isit is just another tool right there.
You know, when the car came, it didn't put the farmers out of
work, you know, far aswith the horses. The horses, you
know, they were still being usedright there, but it just allowed them
(31:53):
to carry more stuff in a fasterperiod of time or transit in a paster
period time. Yeah. Yeah,I mean the technology as a tool is
a challenging one, particularly when wedon't understand it, right. I Mean
we can all say chat GPT,but the number of people you know who
(32:15):
actually understand how it works, includingthe people who are building it, is
really small, right. I meanthe scientists that are building these things.
I know these people because you know, they're my friends at Microsoft and other
places. They're like, we don'tknow, We're not sure how this certain
(32:35):
behavior has come because some of it'semergent behavior. Throw enough computers at a
problem, give it enough data,something magic starts to happen. I mean
some of it we program, butmost of it were like, we don't
know how it did that. Youknow, So it can be kind of
tricky that way. But you canjust say it is a tool, and
(33:00):
it's going to evolve, and wecan just learn how to evolve with the
tool and will become more powerful andwill have more time to think more creatively.
I will say. And when we'retalking about education, I said,
you know, go take the humanities. What's critical for this particular tool,
more so than any tool we've createdin history, is that we need to
(33:24):
program in and this is hard becausewe don't program it. We need to
program in ethics, We need toreduce bias, we need to ensure that
it understands and understands and serves humanity. Right. This is why my ability
(33:45):
to write code is becoming less andless important and my ability to communicate with
this thing and express to it thatit needs to be humane is becoming more
important. Right, So I'd ratheryou go to school and learn about philosophy,
(34:06):
psychology, you know, the varioushumanity, art, the various humanities,
because if we don't, this toolcould possibly snuff us out. Right,
if it's only motives or things likea profit motive or this person getting
ahead of that person, that doesnot bode well for humanity, right,
(34:28):
because it'll just leave us behind asan inefficiency. So we have to ensure
that the machine cares about us.Or when we ask it what's the best
way of feeding one hundred people,it's going to come up with the answer,
well, kill the other two hundred. So right, science fiction like
(34:50):
Spock, Yes, I mean wehad to be careful. We're now at
that point where all the stuff weknew as science fiction is today, right,
So we have to be careful,and we had to think about Okay,
this thing is capable of a greatmany things. Let's be careful what
we asked for. Now, I'mgoing to transition over to the leap program.
(35:15):
Okay, hitting up right there,could you tell us more about that?
Yeah? Sure, So leap cameabout because there's a challenge of,
well, this challenge of how doyou hire more women and minorities, right,
and particularly in tech, where weclassically say things like they don't meet
(35:38):
the bar, there's not enough ofthem, we couldn't find qualified people,
you know, it's just this litanyof reasons why we can't hire these people.
And I just wanted to break theback of that, that that trope.
You know. It's like, well, there's plenty of smart people in
the world that are women and minorities, we just have to look different.
(36:00):
And it's the realization that the waythat we get people into tech jobs typically
is a company, a large techcompany will have interns from college and that's
how you get in, right,It's like you interned with us. We
have a couple of thousand a year. We make offers based on internships,
(36:22):
and if you didn't come through ourintern program, then you're an industry higher.
Well, the industry higher means thatyou're just going to hire whoever is
already an industry, which invariably isyou know, not women in minorities.
So it's a vicious cycle. It'slike you didn't come through college and you
weren't around for ten years to bean industry higher. Therefore you're just never
in the pipeline. So Leep essentiallysaid, well, hold on, what
(36:46):
we need to do is produce aprogram whereby we can go to other industries,
find the people where they are,and they so happen to be like
coding academies or community colleges or variousother avenues other than the top fifteen schools
in the country. Let's get thosepeople in, let's give them a chance.
Let's give them an internship like environment. So sixteen week program and they
(37:10):
pretty much do what interns did,you know, some coding and working in
the team and all that sort ofstuff, and then let the hiring manager
make a hiring decision after that time. So that was the essence of the
program, was to run it incohorts. Started out with only eight ladies,
and then we've got a twenty,and then thirty, and then the
(37:34):
cohorts were fifty at a time orhowever many they are, and now they're
run around the world. So thatwas the lead program was essentially to create
an internship program for industry hires.Now it's called an apprenticeship program. So
we created that program and they're stillrunning it today. So from twenty fifteen
(37:55):
to nownce what eight years running,it's been getting women and minorities into the
company. And as someone who hascontinuously grown and evolved in your career,
what habits or practices have you contributedto your personal and professional growth? And
(38:21):
any recommendations you would have for orresources or habits for someone else to improve
their self improvement or in the areaof self improvement. Yeah, I suppose
they'll These will just sound typical.But first and foremost is a health regiment,
(38:44):
meaning fitness is important. I'm Muslims, so I wake up very early
in the morning, I do aprayer. I think spirituality is probably important.
You need something to anchor you.You know, it's hard to be
out in the world thinking big ideaideas and not have anything to fall back
on, like why am I doingany of this right? So, having
(39:06):
a point of view that's rooted insome sort of philosophy or religion or whatever
does it for you is useful.Having an exercise program where you're trying to
stay healthy, particularly in tech whereyou're sitting down all day long, it's
like you have to exercise or bythe time you're forty, you're suffering heart
attacks and strokes and other stuff becauseyou're just not moving right. So having
(39:32):
an exercise program these days, I'mI picked up a mountain bikes, so
you know, I'm riding bicycle,being challenged by my son, you know,
all that sort of stuff. Reservingtime for family if that's what you're
If you have that, I meanthere has to be a cut off point.
Now I don't always do perfect onthis one. You have to have
(39:54):
a cutoff point where it's like,okay, I'm now present, especially when
you're working at home. You know, you have to be able to say,
okay, I opened the door atsix o'clock or five thirty or whenever
it is, and once the dooris open, I'm now in the family.
I'm not at work right. Somaking sure that you're keeping your relationships
(40:15):
good. And then from a technicalstandpoint, I've been I code a lot.
So I write code, and I'vebeen writing code since I was twelve,
so it's just a habit for me. But I also read a lot
of code other people's code because I'malways trying to learn. I think I've
(40:37):
counted ten different coding languages that I'veactually used over the years. So over
the course of some forty years,I've learned, used, and perhaps lost
ten languages, ten different programming languages. I read papers on the latest and
(40:57):
greatest stuff, right, because,uh, if you knew something four or
five years ago, chances are it'sno longer the latest and greatest anymore.
So you've got to look up everyonce in a while, you know.
And then on top of all ofit, is I have a personal mission,
right, It's like tequity, forexample, whereas I've written down words
(41:20):
that I want to live by anda mission that I want to live by,
and I check in with myself regularly. Am I living that mission?
And that goes into even things likewhat I invest in philanthropically or where I
go. It's like, is thisrelated to my personal mission or not?
And if it's not, I don'tneed it. So that's what I do.
(41:45):
All of it seems like a lot, but it's not. It's just
regular habits, right, okay.And if that leads me, that kind
of goes into something else in thatcollaboration, Because you had mentioned that you're
use something to read other coders workin order to or their papers in order
(42:06):
to stay up to date faras withthe current trends, because that's something you
learned when you were working with nextis hey looking for those trends right there
and knowing when do you pivot?Yeah? What would you say it important
for developing collaborative partnerships for an entrepreneurout there. What advice would you or
(42:32):
suggestions you would do? Probably thestrongest one is about knowing yourself and knowing
your limitations so that you know howto find someone that compliments you. Right,
And I don't mean, hey,you have a nice shirt that you're
wearing, but I mean has theskills that you don't. Right, So
I know that I do not preferto do things like accounting, okay,
(43:00):
scheduling meetings, you know, allthese other sorts of things. So I
personally have a digital virtual assistant,and when I partner with somebody, I'm
partner with somebody else. We're doingwe're going to produce some content. And
she's excellent as a project manager,whereas I'm excellent as the technical advisor,
(43:22):
if you will. So I knowthat I don't like doing the project management
stuff. I can do it,but I'm not as great at that as
I am at the programming. SoI think it takes understanding. I mean,
you have to be honest with yourself, right, It's like you have
to understand what are you actually reallygood at, what do you enjoy doing?
(43:45):
And knowing the bigger pictures, Like, well, for any successful venture,
you need these five qualities. Soidentify the ones that you're not great
at and find people that are greatat those things. Right, Yeah,
and then the other part, ifit is, come to it, it's
worth the effort to come to ashared mission upfront with whoever that partners are.
(44:07):
It's like when you go to someoneand say, here's my vision,
this is what I want to workon, so you know up front where
you're trying to go. If youdon't do that, you just say,
hey, you want to work together, then it's going to take you a
long time and as soon as yourun into a problem or challenges, you're
going to be at each other's throats. No we should go this direction,
No we should go this direction.It's like settle that before you even start,
(44:30):
know which direction you want to goin jointly. Then it makes everything
else easier because it falls in line. No, that is that's some great
advice right there, and again wereally appreciate I really appreciate you taking the
time far as to come on andshare all these golden nuggets wisdom right there,
(44:57):
and someone it will be taken away, you know, getting a lot
far as from this right here,because that is something key, and that
is partnering when you're collaborating with someone, making sure that it's not just because
okay, you're duplicating the same effortsright there, because sometimes that can be
(45:23):
a detriment right there. And reallyto know yourself, you know, because
that's the hard sometimes that can bethe hardest person to really understand, and
that is self, right, Yeah, especially when you're trying to come to
grips with your true self, rightand not your elevated ego colored self exactly
(45:46):
exactly. Now. You also doa podcast, right I started to do
a podcast, Yeah, just startingokay, And what's the name of the
podcast. Well, it's the TechnicityPodcast. But we've only done one intro
so far, and we're now currentlyworking on the scripts for the what do
(46:07):
we call this the Winter season?Oh, but yeah, it's gonna be
talking about of course, tequity andin particular some of the subjects we talked
about today, like AI and effectsand what to do about AI and all
that. So, okay, now, if someone wants to get in contact
(46:27):
with you, now I have someof the contact information right here. Yeah,
there you go, William A Williamdash a dash Adams dot com.
Uh. And then you get toall my other stuff from there. Okay,
and I put X there because Twitteris now x oh yeah, good
(46:50):
old Twitter. Okay. So,in partying words, sir, in parting
words, what would you like toshare or a message of inspiration or encouragement
for listeners viewers that they can takewith them. I'll throw out two more
(47:14):
classic analogies. The first one iswe do not need to get a set
at someone else's table, We needto build our own tables. That's the
first one. And the second oneis a rising tide lists all boats.
So let's not be shackled to theshores where we drown. Let's build some
(47:35):
boats. And those boats can bebuilt off of technology, and that is
great words of inspiration right there again, William, thank you very much,
thanks for listening to night Beat Media'sLiving the Dream. If you enjoyed this
(47:58):
podcast, please live a comment orhit follow and subscribe on our late so
you can stay up to date onnew episodes until next time. When writing
the story of your life, besure you're holding the pen
Welcome to night Beat Media's Living theDream podcast with your host Gregory Tucker,
where we discussed the entrepreneur's journey ofturning a dream into reality, showing you
how to learn, overcome, andacquire strategic action steps. If you're ready
to turn your dream into a reality, then get ready to take action.
(00:55):
Here's your host, Gregory Tucker.Welcome to this episode. Today, we
have a very special guest with us. His name is William A. Adams.
He is a technologist and engineering trailblazer and a philanthropist. With over
(01:18):
thirty five years in the tech industry, William has run his own company.
He's been recorded in the Computer HistoryMuseum, which is the equivalent of the
Computer Hall of Fame, and servedas the first technical advisor to Microsoft's current
(01:41):
CTO, Kevin Scott. William hasfounded in overseeing global initiatives at Microsoft,
from the XML technologies as early asnineteen ninety eight to the d Diversity and
Inclusion Initiatives in twenty fifteen, theLEAP program with a focused on diverse hiring.
(02:12):
He was named Microsoft's D and Iand that's Diversity and Inclusion Program of
the Year in twenty twenty. TodayWilliam is focused on techquity, and we're
going to explore that a little later, the creation of intergenerational wealth through equity
(02:38):
based shares of technology for women andminority owned businesses. He is turning his
years of experience in wisdom into actionabletools for the creation of modern tech centered
businesses. When he's not writing code, giving talks, or otherwise building technology,
(03:00):
William enjoys woodworking, biking, andthe pleasures of family life. Let's
welcome William to our show. Hey, hey, William, thank you,
thank you for that intro. NowI read all of that, so we
know your titles. Now. Wealways like to ask our guest to tell
(03:29):
us about yourself. Yeah, wellabout me, give me one second here.
There was one of those issues Ihad spoke about. Yeah, there
we are, OK. Yeah,well about about me. I've been in
(03:49):
tech my whole life. I meanliterally, I got my first computer when
I was twelve years old. Andthat was way back in the day,
back in the seventies, nineteen seventies, and that was the birth of the
personal computers as actually before the Applecomputers came out just by a couple of
years around the same time. SoI grew up in tech. I was
(04:11):
self taught programming. I went toUC Berkeley eventually and learned a bunch of
stuff there, and my brother andI started a company in nineteen eighty four
called Adamation to do software, youknow, and this is the heyday of
soccer in Silicon Valley, the birthof like I said, Apple was roaring
(04:33):
by then. Some companies that arestill around, like Adobe, were created
and fermenting at that time. SoI just said technology, technology, Technology
starved our way through, made alittle bit of money, made some famous
sales, hooked up with Steve Jobsfor a while to sell his next computers,
(04:54):
and then eventually in nineteen ninety eight, I went off to Microsoft and
I was there for quite some time. I just retired from Microsoft last year
actually about a year ago. Butthis is things I've done. And at
Microsoft, I did all sorts ofthings technology related. But the crown and
(05:15):
you kind of read it. Intwenty fifteen, I started this program called
Leap because it was just a revelation. It's like, well, here I
am black guy in tech. It'stime to give back, not just you
know, not just to make money, but to give back to my community.
And I would clearly stay. Upuntil that point, I wasn't really
(05:35):
thinking about my responsibility to my community, my home tribe, if you will.
So I created this program because wewere like every other tech company saying,
oh, we can't hire women ofthe minorities. Where are they?
There's not enough of them. It'slike, no, there's plenty of us.
(05:56):
You're just not looking in the rightplaces, You're not thinking in the
right way. So that's what Idid. So since that time, I've
been much more focused on I knowthat having an equity share of technology is
what creates wealth. So that's whatI've been focused on doing. And since
I've left Microsoft, that's that's myfocus. So that's that's me. And
(06:24):
is that where the uh term tequitywould is something that you coined? Yeah?
Yeah, now you'll you'll find otheruses of that term out there in
the wild. But my I didthis about three years ago. I was
just thinking, it's like, howdo I, in a single word,
explain to people what I'm talking about? And tequity is like, well,
(06:48):
technology, okay, fine, weall know what technology is. It's computer
stuff mostly, right, Automation Equityis a harder one because people don't not
all people understand what equity is.Equity just means you own a piece of
the thing. Right. I ownstock in Microsoft, Therefore I have an
equity share. As their stock pricegoes up, my wealth goes up because
(07:11):
I own a piece of the company. Right. So tequity is combining those
two things and saying owning a pieceof technology from a share perspective, meaning
patents, shares, and stock runningcompanies that are tech based is a good
thing because technology is where all themoney is at right now. Right If
(07:32):
you go look at the Forbes listof top hundred billionaires in the world or
whatever it is, the top sixor eight are always tech bros, you
know, and that tells you something. One hundred years ago, it would
have been a bunch of industrialists,right, railroad barons, steel, maybe
tex stiles, bankers, stuff likethat. But today, and for the
(07:55):
last ten years and probably for thenext twenty years, it's all tech people.
That tells you the rising tide istechnology. So if you want to
rise with that tide, you needto own pieces of those tech companies so
that you can also rise. Right. So that's what tequity is about,
is just to inform people. It'slike you need ownership in technology, whether
(08:18):
it be just as simple as buyinga few shares of Apple stock next time
you buy an iPhone, you know, or when you do go to get
that job, make sure you getsome stock options in whatever company it is
you're going for, if it's atech company, or if you're going to
create a company of your own that'srelated to tech, you know, make
(08:39):
sure you own your patents if thereare any, you know how to do
your licensing deal set so you don'tgive away your equity share of that stuff.
So as that technology rises, yourwealth rises as well, and you
get a pass it on to yourkids. So yeah, that's what tequity
is all about, is to sayall that in one word, okay,
(09:01):
And one thing I would like togo back a little bit, and that
is when you were in the seventies, you're tooling away far as in your
garage or in a garage with yourbrother to my bedroom, because you know,
(09:24):
sometimes I kind of go back andshare a story my brother. He
was a tinkerer, and that wasone of the things right there that we
enjoyed sci fi movies. So alot of that gave us that feeling of
okay, let's see how this worksright here. So first thing is taking
(09:48):
away that little transistor radio in orderto see Okay, how does these pieces?
Can you put it back together?Exactly? Yeah? How was that
when you were growing up? Iknow you ran into some obstacles or there
were some challenges because you know,it's somewhat the norm for us in the
(10:15):
African American community because usually it's like, okay, let's pursue sports or pursuit
to that effect, or music,but not not technology. Well, you
know, it's an interesting one becausethat was early enough that technology didn't even
(10:37):
exist. I mean, when Ifirst knew anything about computers, I'm just
trying to think. I had acoach at the Boys and Girls Club named
Jackie Robinson, and he was atcollege and he was learning Fortram programming,
(11:00):
and he had brought home for meone time a computer print out and a
book on programming. And I wasnine ten years old. Okay, I
didn't have a computer at that time, but you know, that was my
exposure to computers. My father wasa type of writer repairman, so I
was used to the tinkering thing mechanicallyat least, and then this computer thing.
(11:24):
There's not a single child within afive mile radius of where I lived.
Who would have known anything about anyof that? Right now? I
was also into sports, you know. My brother was into My brother was
the big jock two and a halfyears older than me, you know,
so I followed his footsplit. Iplayed football, I played baseball, and
(11:46):
later in life, I ran trackand all that. So I got out.
But I was a shy, precrociouskid. I was playing baseball.
But at home, I'd tell mymom, Mom, I went for Christmas.
I want a physics set, Iwant a chemistry set. I'm gonna
build a box camera. You needto go out and buy me some films
(12:07):
so I can expose pictures in mypinhole camera. You know, I was
ten years old, right, Thisis the kind of things. Mom.
I'm gonna jack up your car soI can take the wheels off and put
them back on. You know.That's the kind of kid I was.
I had an erector set, whichwas an old school like metal bars and
(12:30):
things, construction set that I usedto build stuff out of. I would
build forts out of cardboard boxes andjust all sorts of fun stuff like that.
So that's the kind of kid Iwas. I was a tinkerer,
and I was very shy, andI had a protective brothers, so no
one would mess with me because mybrother would beat him up. Right So,
(12:52):
at school, even if they thoughtI was a little smart ass brainiac
kid. Sorry for my language,it's made it clear. You will not
touch my brother. I don't careif you have a problem with him,
you think he's smart, alec oranything. You come to me, I'll
beat him up, you know,but you will not touch my brother.
(13:13):
So I was never touched by anybodyever except for my brother, you know.
So then finally when the computer didcome along, it was natural for
me to just kind of take toit like a duck to water. You
know, it's like, here yougo. It was a computer given to
me by my uncle. He workedthe Navy doing weapons something or other.
(13:35):
He said, I've got this computer. You can have it. I got
this a new thing, So,you know, he gave me a computer,
I gave me some books. Youknow, here you go, good
luck, And I just took toit. You know. I taught myself
and everything. I wrote little gameprograms and did some hardware tinkering and whatnot.
My mom knew I was like that. She just let me do my
(13:56):
thing. But I still ran track, I still did baseball, still played
football, right A had a fewfriends. I did music, you know,
I was in the marching band inhigh school. And I still did
all this other stuff. So itwas just like that. There was no
We did not live in a bigblack community. If anything. We lived
(14:18):
in a big Mexican community, youknow, and we didn't mix to the
point where there was any sort ofattitude of, like, what you're doing
with those computers. By the timethe computer came along, we were in
a more upscale neighborhood and like afriend of mine, he did have a
computer by that time, so itwas more upscale. So it was more
natural that I might be doing somethinglike that. But I was isolated enough
(14:43):
that no one would be. Iwouldn't listen to anyone's attitude, and I
didn't care. Right, It's likeI was just doing my thing, you
know. It's like playing with takingapart TVs and radios and buying transistors tubes
at the store. Mom, Ineeded to go buy this tube to make
this radio work, you know.That's just what I did. So people
(15:05):
probably kept me on the arm's length. It's like, oh, that guy's
a whacko. We're not going toplay with you, and I don't care.
So I just did my thing.I never I never really experienced at
a young age anyone saying what areyou doing with those computers? You're not
going to be you know, Inever experienced any of that. Okay,
(15:26):
So a pivotal point in your career, were they when you started going to
Berkeley or we did that? Yeah? Yeah, it was certainly at Berkeley,
so nineteen eighty four. So Iwent out to college in eighty two
and buy eighty four, my brotherand I decided, oh, we're going
(15:46):
to start a company, because whynot, That's what everyone was doing,
right, going to do a company. And we had an aunt who worked
at IBM, who showed us howto write a business plan and all this
sort of stuff. So we justit was just a natural. I was
the manager of the computer store atUC Berkeley for a while, so I
(16:10):
was around the birth of the Macintoshcomputer from Apple. You know, we
sold a bunch of them. Weactually made a piece of hardware for so
you could have a joystick on amac and you know, so it was
natural and with all our classmates andwith all the just Silicon Valley around us,
starting a company is just what youdid right now, So we just
(16:33):
did. We we just say,all right, we're going to start a
company. We're going to do somestuff education for application, We're going to
teach people how to use computers.And so we did have some challenges in
the earliest days where we had ahard time getting a bank account. You
know, and I've told this storybefore. Where was it because of your
(16:57):
age? So I'm telling you Idon't know, but what they told us,
they just tried to discourage us,like, oh, companies fail and
blah blah blah. It's like,look, I mean I already had a
bank account, a personal bank accountlike Wells Fargo whatever. We just want
to open a business bank account.We didn't want to borrow money. We
(17:18):
just went to deposit money that wehad gotten from sales, right, And
this one banker like, no,no, not gonna happen. No,
It's like huh, I wonder Sowe complained to the Better Business Bureau and
all that sort of stuff, andthen we went off to some other bank
and they yeah, no problem,here you go, here's a bank account.
(17:41):
So you know, I'd love tosay, yeah, it was it
was because we're young, but no, I mean the other bank had no
problem. So something was I missthere, you know. And usually when
things like that knife heard, andsometimes I've experienced the things like that,
(18:03):
it tends to kind of put firein the belly. You look and say,
oh no, I'll show you now, I gotta show you. So
that meant to dig in deeper andI get to work harder. Yeah,
And that's that's probably what it didfor us. We were not discouraged in
the least. We were perturbed andlike, oh no, you don't you
(18:26):
know, you're not going to keepus down. And there's other there's other
places where you know, we didexplicitly get told we will not deal with
people like you. And that waslike the VC community at that time.
It's like, what do you meanpeople like us? You mean handsome young
(18:47):
black men with curly hair. Doyou mean you see Berkeley people? What
are you talking about? So therewere certainly Silicon Valley is is is not
a complete meritocracy. But we neverlet that get us down. We're just
like, well, we're smart people. We're just gonna do what we're gonna
(19:07):
do. So so but but thatwas the beginning, was you know,
college years where we just started acompany and then went on from there.
So would you say one of themajor assets or soft skills that you and
your brother possessed and that was curiosity? Oh yeah, I thought you were
(19:30):
going to go more. I wasgoing to say curiosity and your imagination.
Curiosity, imagination, fortitude, stubbornness, you know, veracity. I mean,
yeah, there's a number of attributes, but certainly one of the strongest
(19:52):
ones I would say is imagination.You had to dream big, right because
we we were out there young.I mean think we're like twenty something,
twenty two, twenty one, twotwenty three, pretty young, and it
wasn't quite the environment that we havetoday in terms of entrepreneurship. It was
(20:15):
much more wrong and at that time, most of the companies were more hardware
companies than software companies. But youknow, we had a dream. It's
like, we're gonna make it big, We're gonna be on the world stage,
We're going to create software that noone's ever seen before. And we
had to believe it. And it'slike we're we're freaking geniuses, you know,
(20:37):
let me show you. And wedid have stuff that for that day
was unique and different and no oneelse did have it, and we did
get sales in a very small pond. So yeah, you had to have
belief in yourself and this is truetoday. Right. You have to have
a vision, you have to haveus, you have to be right about
something, and you have to havea strong belief in yourself that your vision
(21:02):
is as powerful as anyone else's vision. Right, it's like why not me?
Right, It's like yeah, likethat, Now, would you share
with us some of your failures?Also? Let me get my list?
So, I mean, the failurescan be categorized in probably different ways.
(21:29):
There's failures to I don't know,failures to catch trends, failures to see
the writing on the wall, failuresto capitalize on an opportunity, failures to
leave something behind when you really shouldhave. And I'll give you an example
of that. We were into thisthing called Next Computers, which was Steve
(21:52):
Jobs had left Apple for a whileand created this thing called Next Computers,
and we were on that platform withtrying to make sales there for a long
time, and we failed to seethat it wasn't going anywhere and that we
should have shifted to being on Windowsor the Mac perhaps earlier than we did,
(22:15):
and we never did, so wekind of went down with the ship
as next went down. Now nextgot to they got bought by Apple,
so you know, they lived on. But we were pretty much done with
that at that time, and thenshifted to some other business that was one
(22:37):
and it's like, Okay, wefailed to catch we failed to see that.
We were a big fish in asmall pond, and the small pond
was drying up, and we didn'tget off fast enough to do whatever the
next thing was. I actually leftAdamation at that point and joined Microsoft.
That was nineteen ninety eight. Mybrother continued onward with another incarnation of the
company doing some other stuff, butI wasn't involved with it at that point.
(23:03):
There's there's plenty of failures of mylife at Microsoft itself, and they
get enhanced with things like how didyou deal with the personnel situations or product
situations, or how not to upsetthe wrong people, how to climb the
ladder or not climb the ladder,how to identify your your detractors and avoid
(23:27):
them or deal with them better.So there's a myriad things like that that
I've certainly gone through personally, butthere are they're just lessons. Hopefully you
learn from them and go on tofight another day. Right, And that
is one of those things. That'swhy I asked those questions right there,
(23:47):
is about the failures because that's partof that journey, because yeah, we
start out then there's the ultimate outcomeright there, but it's the journey in
between right there, right before gettingto your destination. Yeah. Yeah,
And let me just say one thinghere because it's kind of critical to how
I think. At some point,and this came much later in life when
(24:11):
I was abound forty, I wassitting on a beach and Yo, I
was about to go off to livein India for a while, and I
came to the realization I created thisthing called my life creed, which is
words I live by, you know. And the l in life is learning,
learning, intentional, fearless, empathetic. And the learning part was the
(24:34):
most important because I basically told myselfand tell myself daily life is about learning,
right, no matter what, nomatter how good or bad something is,
you have to learn something from it. It's therefore you to learn.
So I take that everything I dothere's something to be learned and that makes
(24:55):
for a more fulfilling life and itmakes for better progress. Right, Oh,
yes, definitely. Now, asone of the first black entrepreneurs in
Silicon Valley, you've had a uniqueperspective as far as on the tech industry.
What advice do you have for aspiringentrepreneurs, especially those from the underrepresented
(25:22):
backgrounds, who are looking to breakinto the industry. Yeah. I think
what I would say generally is toat this point, and this is,
you know, twenty twenty three,the age of AI is on the rise,
you know, which is pretty monumentalof a shift. First and foremost
(25:52):
is to understand that the the industryis no longer a singular thing anymore.
When I was coming up, theindustry meant the hardware companies, the software
companies like Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle. That was the tech industry.
(26:17):
Today tech is everywhere, So techis across all industries. So you
don't have to break into the industry. You just have to find the tech
angle to whatever industry you're interested in. So the way I tell people to
break in is essentially to say,what are you passionate about, whether it
(26:38):
be baking or makeup or hair designor farming or automobile repair. What are
you interested in? What is thetech angle to that? Right? How
can you leverage technology to make whateverthat thing is better? Right? And
(27:00):
then focus on that. So ifI'm into farming, I would say,
well, the hot thing in farmingright now other than automating tractors, you
know, and John Deere does this. They're GPS guided, you plot in
of course, and you just tellit to run, you know, is
gathering data from the fields, analyzingit and coming up with watering patterns.
(27:22):
Oh, the field is dryer overhere, and these fertilizer over there,
And you can tune the watering systemsand the fertilizer systems to be more targeted
and therefore use less of the inputs. Right. Don't pour water where it's
not needed, right, Don't don'tbuy fertilizer and put it on places where
(27:44):
it's not needed, because you're goingto overfertilize the other places. Right.
So a farmer, someone who's intofarming, who has a tech bent to
them, is like, leverage allthe get all the tech angles you can
get, because that's going to makeyour farming more efficient and you're yielding is
going to be better and you're gonnamake better profit or whatever your thing is.
(28:04):
So that's how I tell people toget into it. What I do
not tell people to do. AndI was just having this debate today with
someone, is we're past the timewhere you just go to college, get
a four year degree in CS andthen go look for the job. We're
past that time. And I knowplenty of people say, are you kidding
(28:26):
me? Don't discourage people from goingto college. I'm telling you, by
the time four years from now,if you think AI and things like chat
GPT, you're good. Now rollforward four more years. That thing's only
been out for a year. Idon't know if you know what chat gipt
is, but yes, yes,yes, yeah, So chat gpt has
(28:48):
only been out for a year,okay, and it's already got people and
it issy roll forward four more years. Where's that gonna be. If you're
chasing those tail lights, you're notgonna get anywhere, right. So that's
why I say it's like, Okay, go to college for your socialization,
(29:10):
for this, for that, studythe humanities, and in all the spare
time that you have, study chatGPT as a tool that you can use
to get stuff done, right,that's how you get into stuff because you're
gonna learn a lot faster that way, and you're gonna be more useful that
(29:32):
way. So by the time youcome out two years, four years down
the line, you're equipped with theright tools. If you don't do that
and you follow the standard curriculum thatthey currently have in colleges, you're gonna
come out and you're gonna be fouryears behind the times. Right, you're
not gonna be employable. And allthe people that did learn that CHAT,
(29:52):
GPT and other things tools like that, they're light years ahead of you.
You know. It's it's literally thedifference between between you going to school to
learn how to do animal husbandry andhow to deal with a horse and a
buggy and your neighbor going to learnhow to deal with the new horseless carriage.
(30:14):
Right, that's the difference, right. And it seems hyperbolic, like
I said, Oh, it's notthat traumatic. It's like, yes,
it is. It's literally one ofthose transition points in human evolution. But
right there, right, And that'sone of the key things that you had
mentioned, and that is it reallytakes some self reflection, you know,
(30:40):
inspection, and that is to lookand see what are some of your passions,
what really strike your curiosity, justlike the technology or computers struck your
curiosity when you were growing up,And that is something that people need to
look at right there, I think, And I'm not a I'm a trained
(31:07):
psychologist or behavioral scientist, but oneof the things it seems to happen,
and that is with chat GPT,because it is all over the news,
It's almost everywhere, and you seethe fear in any people's eyes that hey,
(31:30):
this is going to sideline me putme out of work, which as
you alluded to, and that isit is just another tool right there.
You know, when the car came, it didn't put the farmers out of
work, you know, far aswith the horses. The horses, you
know, they were still being usedright there, but it just allowed them
(31:53):
to carry more stuff in a fasterperiod of time or transit in a paster
period time. Yeah. Yeah,I mean the technology as a tool is
a challenging one, particularly when wedon't understand it, right. I Mean
we can all say chat GPT,but the number of people you know who
(32:15):
actually understand how it works, includingthe people who are building it, is
really small, right. I meanthe scientists that are building these things.
I know these people because you know, they're my friends at Microsoft and other
places. They're like, we don'tknow, We're not sure how this certain
(32:35):
behavior has come because some of it'semergent behavior. Throw enough computers at a
problem, give it enough data,something magic starts to happen. I mean
some of it we program, butmost of it were like, we don't
know how it did that. Youknow, So it can be kind of
tricky that way. But you canjust say it is a tool, and
(33:00):
it's going to evolve, and wecan just learn how to evolve with the
tool and will become more powerful andwill have more time to think more creatively.
I will say. And when we'retalking about education, I said,
you know, go take the humanities. What's critical for this particular tool,
more so than any tool we've createdin history, is that we need to
(33:24):
program in and this is hard becausewe don't program it. We need to
program in ethics, We need toreduce bias, we need to ensure that
it understands and understands and serves humanity. Right. This is why my ability
(33:45):
to write code is becoming less andless important and my ability to communicate with
this thing and express to it thatit needs to be humane is becoming more
important. Right, So I'd ratheryou go to school and learn about philosophy,
(34:06):
psychology, you know, the varioushumanity, art, the various humanities,
because if we don't, this toolcould possibly snuff us out. Right,
if it's only motives or things likea profit motive or this person getting
ahead of that person, that doesnot bode well for humanity, right,
(34:28):
because it'll just leave us behind asan inefficiency. So we have to ensure
that the machine cares about us.Or when we ask it what's the best
way of feeding one hundred people,it's going to come up with the answer,
well, kill the other two hundred. So right, science fiction like
(34:50):
Spock, Yes, I mean wehad to be careful. We're now at
that point where all the stuff weknew as science fiction is today, right,
So we have to be careful,and we had to think about Okay,
this thing is capable of a greatmany things. Let's be careful what
we asked for. Now, I'mgoing to transition over to the leap program.
(35:15):
Okay, hitting up right there,could you tell us more about that?
Yeah? Sure, So leap cameabout because there's a challenge of,
well, this challenge of how doyou hire more women and minorities, right,
and particularly in tech, where weclassically say things like they don't meet
(35:38):
the bar, there's not enough ofthem, we couldn't find qualified people,
you know, it's just this litanyof reasons why we can't hire these people.
And I just wanted to break theback of that, that that trope.
You know. It's like, well, there's plenty of smart people in
the world that are women and minorities, we just have to look different.
(36:00):
And it's the realization that the waythat we get people into tech jobs typically
is a company, a large techcompany will have interns from college and that's
how you get in, right,It's like you interned with us. We
have a couple of thousand a year. We make offers based on internships,
(36:22):
and if you didn't come through ourintern program, then you're an industry higher.
Well, the industry higher means thatyou're just going to hire whoever is
already an industry, which invariably isyou know, not women in minorities.
So it's a vicious cycle. It'slike you didn't come through college and you
weren't around for ten years to bean industry higher. Therefore you're just never
in the pipeline. So Leep essentiallysaid, well, hold on, what
(36:46):
we need to do is produce aprogram whereby we can go to other industries,
find the people where they are,and they so happen to be like
coding academies or community colleges or variousother avenues other than the top fifteen schools
in the country. Let's get thosepeople in, let's give them a chance.
Let's give them an internship like environment. So sixteen week program and they
(37:10):
pretty much do what interns did,you know, some coding and working in
the team and all that sort ofstuff, and then let the hiring manager
make a hiring decision after that time. So that was the essence of the
program, was to run it incohorts. Started out with only eight ladies,
and then we've got a twenty,and then thirty, and then the
(37:34):
cohorts were fifty at a time orhowever many they are, and now they're
run around the world. So thatwas the lead program was essentially to create
an internship program for industry hires.Now it's called an apprenticeship program. So
we created that program and they're stillrunning it today. So from twenty fifteen
(37:55):
to nownce what eight years running,it's been getting women and minorities into the
company. And as someone who hascontinuously grown and evolved in your career,
what habits or practices have you contributedto your personal and professional growth? And
(38:21):
any recommendations you would have for orresources or habits for someone else to improve
their self improvement or in the areaof self improvement. Yeah, I suppose
they'll These will just sound typical.But first and foremost is a health regiment,
(38:44):
meaning fitness is important. I'm Muslims, so I wake up very early
in the morning, I do aprayer. I think spirituality is probably important.
You need something to anchor you.You know, it's hard to be
out in the world thinking big ideaideas and not have anything to fall back
on, like why am I doingany of this right? So, having
(39:06):
a point of view that's rooted insome sort of philosophy or religion or whatever
does it for you is useful.Having an exercise program where you're trying to
stay healthy, particularly in tech whereyou're sitting down all day long, it's
like you have to exercise or bythe time you're forty, you're suffering heart
attacks and strokes and other stuff becauseyou're just not moving right. So having
(39:32):
an exercise program these days, I'mI picked up a mountain bikes, so
you know, I'm riding bicycle,being challenged by my son, you know,
all that sort of stuff. Reservingtime for family if that's what you're
If you have that, I meanthere has to be a cut off point.
Now I don't always do perfect onthis one. You have to have
(39:54):
a cutoff point where it's like,okay, I'm now present, especially when
you're working at home. You know, you have to be able to say,
okay, I opened the door atsix o'clock or five thirty or whenever
it is, and once the dooris open, I'm now in the family.
I'm not at work right. Somaking sure that you're keeping your relationships
(40:15):
good. And then from a technicalstandpoint, I've been I code a lot.
So I write code, and I'vebeen writing code since I was twelve,
so it's just a habit for me. But I also read a lot
of code other people's code because I'malways trying to learn. I think I've
(40:37):
counted ten different coding languages that I'veactually used over the years. So over
the course of some forty years,I've learned, used, and perhaps lost
ten languages, ten different programming languages. I read papers on the latest and
(40:57):
greatest stuff, right, because,uh, if you knew something four or
five years ago, chances are it'sno longer the latest and greatest anymore.
So you've got to look up everyonce in a while, you know.
And then on top of all ofit, is I have a personal mission,
right, It's like tequity, forexample, whereas I've written down words
(41:20):
that I want to live by anda mission that I want to live by,
and I check in with myself regularly. Am I living that mission?
And that goes into even things likewhat I invest in philanthropically or where I
go. It's like, is thisrelated to my personal mission or not?
And if it's not, I don'tneed it. So that's what I do.
(41:45):
All of it seems like a lot, but it's not. It's just
regular habits, right, okay.And if that leads me, that kind
of goes into something else in thatcollaboration, Because you had mentioned that you're
use something to read other coders workin order to or their papers in order
(42:06):
to stay up to date faras withthe current trends, because that's something you
learned when you were working with nextis hey looking for those trends right there
and knowing when do you pivot?Yeah? What would you say it important
for developing collaborative partnerships for an entrepreneurout there. What advice would you or
(42:32):
suggestions you would do? Probably thestrongest one is about knowing yourself and knowing
your limitations so that you know howto find someone that compliments you. Right,
And I don't mean, hey,you have a nice shirt that you're
wearing, but I mean has theskills that you don't. Right, So
I know that I do not preferto do things like accounting, okay,
(43:00):
scheduling meetings, you know, allthese other sorts of things. So I
personally have a digital virtual assistant,and when I partner with somebody, I'm
partner with somebody else. We're doingwe're going to produce some content. And
she's excellent as a project manager,whereas I'm excellent as the technical advisor,
(43:22):
if you will. So I knowthat I don't like doing the project management
stuff. I can do it,but I'm not as great at that as
I am at the programming. SoI think it takes understanding. I mean,
you have to be honest with yourself, right, It's like you have
to understand what are you actually reallygood at, what do you enjoy doing?
(43:45):
And knowing the bigger pictures, Like, well, for any successful venture,
you need these five qualities. Soidentify the ones that you're not great
at and find people that are greatat those things. Right, Yeah,
and then the other part, ifit is, come to it, it's
worth the effort to come to ashared mission upfront with whoever that partners are.
(44:07):
It's like when you go to someoneand say, here's my vision,
this is what I want to workon, so you know up front where
you're trying to go. If youdon't do that, you just say,
hey, you want to work together, then it's going to take you a
long time and as soon as yourun into a problem or challenges, you're
going to be at each other's throats. No we should go this direction,
No we should go this direction.It's like settle that before you even start,
(44:30):
know which direction you want to goin jointly. Then it makes everything
else easier because it falls in line. No, that is that's some great
advice right there, and again wereally appreciate I really appreciate you taking the
time far as to come on andshare all these golden nuggets wisdom right there,
(44:57):
and someone it will be taken away, you know, getting a lot
far as from this right here,because that is something key, and that
is partnering when you're collaborating with someone, making sure that it's not just because
okay, you're duplicating the same effortsright there, because sometimes that can be
(45:23):
a detriment right there. And reallyto know yourself, you know, because
that's the hard sometimes that can bethe hardest person to really understand, and
that is self, right, Yeah, especially when you're trying to come to
grips with your true self, rightand not your elevated ego colored self exactly
(45:46):
exactly. Now. You also doa podcast, right I started to do
a podcast, Yeah, just startingokay, And what's the name of the
podcast. Well, it's the TechnicityPodcast. But we've only done one intro
so far, and we're now currentlyworking on the scripts for the what do
(46:07):
we call this the Winter season?Oh, but yeah, it's gonna be
talking about of course, tequity andin particular some of the subjects we talked
about today, like AI and effectsand what to do about AI and all
that. So, okay, now, if someone wants to get in contact
(46:27):
with you, now I have someof the contact information right here. Yeah,
there you go, William A Williamdash a dash Adams dot com.
Uh. And then you get toall my other stuff from there. Okay,
and I put X there because Twitteris now x oh yeah, good
(46:50):
old Twitter. Okay. So,in partying words, sir, in parting
words, what would you like toshare or a message of inspiration or encouragement
for listeners viewers that they can takewith them. I'll throw out two more
(47:14):
classic analogies. The first one iswe do not need to get a set
at someone else's table, We needto build our own tables. That's the
first one. And the second oneis a rising tide lists all boats.
So let's not be shackled to theshores where we drown. Let's build some
(47:35):
boats. And those boats can bebuilt off of technology, and that is
great words of inspiration right there again, William, thank you very much,
thanks for listening to night Beat Media'sLiving the Dream. If you enjoyed this
(47:58):
podcast, please live a comment orhit follow and subscribe on our late so
you can stay up to date onnew episodes until next time. When writing
the story of your life, besure you're holding the pen
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