SPRING 2022 / REAL-LEADERS.COM 39 HOW TO DEVELOP A MINDSET THAT WILL MAKE YOU SUCCEED P eter Diamandis had just finished reading The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles Lindbergh when an idea struck him. In the book, Lindbergh had risen to the challenge of becoming the first person to fly non-stop from New York to Paris because of a prize. To be exact, a $25,000 prize offered by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig. “Why couldn’t this same incentive be applied to groundbreaking innovations today?” thought Diamandis. “But let’s make it interesting; let’s offer hundreds of millions of dollars instead.” Despite Lindberg’s book being published in 1953, it contained a universal truth: Great things can happen when people are offered a reward for doing so. Diamandis seized the idea and launched the XPRIZE in 1994, with its first prize the $10million Ansari XPRIZE for private spaceflight. As a nod to Diamandis’ original inspiration, a copy of The Spirit of St. Louis accompanied the astronauts into space. The XPRIZE went on to create exponential breakthroughs, spurring the commercial spaceflight industry and inspiring the launch of pioneering COVER STORY
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