Don’t Let Good Be The Enemy Of Great When It Comes To Working Out!

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Here comes the sun!: Fellows Friday with Manuel Aguilar

Manuel Antonio Aguilar, director of technology for Quetsol, has made it his mission to bring sustainable light and power to rural villages in Guatemala and beyond.

What exactly does Quetsol do?
We aim to alleviate rural poverty by providing micro-scale appropriate-technology solutions. Specifically, we sell solar kits — combinations of small solar panels, batteries and other components — that give our customers renewable electricity to power light bulbs and charge mobile phones, laptops and a variety of other devices at a price that’s cheaper than candles. Besides a 10-watt unit that powers a LED bulbs and mobile chargers, we’re launching a 75-watt system that powers large devices like TVs, radios, and computers. We also have a 30-watt unit in the works, which will power a laptop.

Our entire target demographic is rural villagers whose primary access to light is candles — we design with their needs in mind and in collaboration with them. We ask our customers about the design, and according to their feedback we evolve the products and make necessary adaptations. We’re soon going to open-source everything, so that not only will people be able to fix the systems themselves, but build them from scratch if they want to — not just in Guatemala and Latin America, but anywhere.

A happy group of children play with their new Quetsol lighting kit. Photo: Quetsol

How did you get involved in this project? What’s your background, and how did you get excited about identifying these people and these needs?

I grew up in Guatemala City and went to Harvard to study astrophysics and physics. Afterwards, I worked for a few years in finance, which got me thinking a lot about natural resources and consumption and the way the world is being currently administered, at least with regard to natural resources. It also got me thinking about the severe lack of basic services giving rise to dire humanitarian consequences — poverty, health problems, lack of education. When thinking about how to best spend my talents and time, I thought, “What better way than to help solve these problems for my own country and people?” It seems the gravest difficulties are the ones we pay the least attention to. Because they seem so insurmountable, we just kick the can down the road. I got tired of having that attitude.

I know it appears that astrophysics to solar energy is a big leap. I was always really interested in astrophysics as a personal, philosophical, spiritual pursuit, but life is so short, and the problems facing us so big and so easily solvable at the same time. I couldn’t justify to myself locking myself away in a closet without looking at them.

Why did you choose to focus on solar energy?

Poverty has a whole host of variables nonlinearly correlated with each other, but energy is a key variable. Not having access to lighting at night has been demonstrated time and again to severely limit educational progress, yet it’s a relatively easy to solve problem. Water and agriculture are also key, but I don’t know much about them. I did know that a solar panel could easily accomplish all the basic tasks of lighting and communication. And the personal computer is the window into all available information. So we figured solar energy would offer the most value for money.

Our customers also have mobile phones, which are an important economic tool. Guatemala has a very robust telecommunications system, and phones can be acquired quite cheaply. People spend money on prepaid minutes and charging the handsets, which sometimes involves walking up to two hours in one direction, two hours back for the nearest power outlet. So it’s a great loss of productivity, and the cost adds up as well, at 70 cents or so per charge. Being able to charge a phone at home is a great relief.

How did you identify your villages?

When we started doing the market research, we wanted to find out exactly how much people were spending on what in terms of light and power. Simultaneously, we did product research. How would it cost to produce each unit? With my friend and cofounder Juan Rodriguez, I drove around to random villages, knocked on people’s houses and said, “Can we ask you a few questions?” They would be very nice and let us in. After we had gathered all the information, we said, “Definitely. There’s demand. The economics work. We’ve got to do it.” With our idea, we entered and won a business plan competition sponsored by AIDG, an NGO that was created by Peter Haas, currently a Senior Fellow. This gave us $50,000 of initial financing. Adding that to $25,000 of our own money, we got started with $75,000, with which we purchased the first round of inventory and covered operating costs. We’ve continually grown, selling six units the first month to close to a thousand a year later.

So this is an entrepreneurial business model, not a charitable humanitarian project.

That’s right. All our clients pay for their units. Not many can come up with the $240 up front, so eventually, we formed a partnership with a large microcredit NGO, which had 60 branches all over the country. The NGO offered the credit to the customers, and when they purchased units, we would get paid immediately, while the foundation handled the repayment obligations. This left us free to handle our technical servicing and guarantees.

People get very excited the first time they are able to charge their phone in their own home. Photo: Quetsol

Why is it important that this be a for-profit business rather than a technology that’s given away?

It’s been demonstrated time and time again that people tend to not value what they’re getting for free. But when people have a financial stake in something — or, to use the industry parlance, they have skin in the game — then they take care of it. They feel responsible. Yes, of course, we need profit to produce more inventory, and pay for the growing infrastructure that it will take to cover those half a million homes in Guatemala without light, and eventually Latin America and beyond. That takes economic sustainability, which can only come from revenue.

Quetsol does have a charitable side: we’ve structured a foundation which will allow people interested in donating — we’ve had a lot of interest — to get those fiscal benefits, too. And Quetsol the enterprise will sell to Quetsol Foundation, which gets a discount. But even the foundation has a policy of no giving away. So, for example, we have a community of a hundred households. Then, rather than give away a hundred units, for example, we’ll heavily subsidize them, so each household will pay something like 25 percent. That pool of money then goes towards getting a large system for the community as a whole — for a school or for a clinic, for example. This way, people will feel they’ve made an investment, while still contributing towards the community as a whole.

How will the open-source aspect of your business plan work, and how will that benefit you as well as people who are using it?

We will be publishing a booklet on how the technology is put together, and distribute it free in booklet form and on the internet, hopefully in the first quarter of 2012. Open source benefits everyone. It will benefit our customers because they’ll have all the information available to them. We do offer a full-service warranty, so it’s our obligation to make sure the technology works or otherwise repair or replace. But it’s valuable to learn how your own machines work. More importantly, open-sourcing it will allow others around the world to do it. There are 1.5 billion people without access to electricity. If Quetsol were to try to provide light to all of them, many more generations of children would have to live in darkness. I would rather disseminate quickly to everyone. How does that help us? Well, it helps us achieve the mission — which is NOT to make the most money possible, but to solve the problem. And making money is a requirement if we want to solve the problem. It’s the means to the end. We’ll reach this goal faster if there are many companies doing what we do.

What’s it been like to be a TED Fellow?
It’s been an incredibly inspiring opportunity to meet some of the world’s most gifted people doing some of the most world-changing and beautiful work. The most powerful aspect for me has been getting exposure to incredible ideas woven in such a multidisciplinary way – it literally feels like your brain is opening and expanding at a TED conference.

The Fellows program itself has provided me with great support through a coaching program, an amazing network within my field, and an incredible group of people that are constantly feeding my brain with great ideas and resources with which to accelerate my project. I’ve been inspired personally by the work of such individual TED Fellows as Marcin Jakubowski of Open Source Ecology. In general, I’m most thankful for the inspiration I get seeing such amazing people work from so many different angles to express and advance humanity.

A creative work-around to lack of flat space: hanging the Quesol battery box from the ceiling! Photo: Quetsol

What’s next for Quetsol?
We’ve been busy expanding our operations and infrastructure. We’re now opening up a second servicing branch in Coban, a part of the country where there’s the least electricity coverage, and where our sales were the strongest in the last year or so. Until now, we’d been doing all post-sales servicing via phone and mail. The new branch allows customers there to get their units serviced by walking into a shop. We expect the majority of our customers to be in this region in the long run.

So far, we’ve reached about 200 villages, and from July 2011 to now we’ve sold about 500 systems. And we’re about to hit a very heavy growth phase. Until now, we’ve had 60 distribution points with working in partnership with one microfinance service. But recently, we signed with the largest bank in Guatemala, which has close to 900 branches. We’re going to start with a pilot project, opening 50 distribution points at the bank’s branches where customers can buy the product AND get credit. Once those are up and running, we’ll distribute via all branches of that bank, which should take us to about 700 distribution points. Of course, we’ll increase our inventory accordingly to fulfill the increased demand.

There are many aspiring social entrepreneurs out there who are trying to take their passion and ideas to the next level. What one piece of advice would you give them, based on your own experience and successes?

Not taking “no” for an answer. The “no” can come in many different forms; from being told “It can’t be done” to thinking “No one is doing it, it must not be worthwhile” — from obstacles that hint it shouldn’t be done to apparent personal obstacles. “No” can be quite a frequent occurrence, and if you accept it easily, your idea is more prone to failure.

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TED App comes to the iPhone

We’re thrilled to announce that TED’s official app is now available for iPhone, optimized for a small screen and introducing several much-requested features!

Adapted from our award-winning iPad app, the new TED iPhone app allows users to browse and watch TEDTalks, videos ranging from 3 minutes to 18 minutes in length. TEDTalks feature great ideas from speakers on everything from genetics and geopolitics to sculpture and creativity.

The TED iPhone app experience is tailored to mobile phone users who use their devices when on the move. For instance, users at the gym or out walking the dog now have the option to simply listen to TEDTalks audio. With the iPhone app, TED introduces TED Radio, which streams curated audio TEDTalks 24/7 – click the button and start listening immediately. The app plays audio in the background, allowing listeners to multitask, using other apps like Safari or Mail simultaneously.

Also new to the iPhone app is Bookmarks, a user-requested feature, which allows users to flag and save talks they don’t have time to watch at the moment. They simply tap the Bookmark button, then access talks later from the My Talks tab – with no obligation to wait for a video download.

Many popular features of the TED iPad app can be found in the new iPhone version:

Browse + share: Users can see the latest TEDTalks videos as soon as they’re published. Browse the TED library by theme, tag or rating. Search for a talk or speaker by name, topic or popularity. Share a talk over Facebook, Twitter or email. And download videos directly to the device for offline viewing.

Discover new ideas: Using the “Inspire Me” feature, users can tell the app what kind of talks they want to see (Inspiring? Funny? Jaw-dropping?), dial in how much time they have, and let the TED app build a custom playlist to fit their schedule — for viewing immediately or watching later.

AirPlay: Built-in AirPlay support on the iPhone app allows users to play TEDTalks on any Apple TV-enabled television.

TED’s official app requires an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 4.3 or later. The iPad app requires an iPad with iOS 4.3 or later. Audio works great over 3G and WiFi. Video streaming works over 3G, and still better over WiFi. Downloads require WiFi. The apps are available today for free in the App Store. Like the iPad version, the iPhone app was created with support from Rolex.

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When it Comes to Work Relationships, Let it Be

Allow me to be straight about something.  I have fought against certain professional relationships my entire life.  Why?  Because I’ve continually wished that some people were different, and I’ve been convinced that others were out to get me.  I have turned away potentially fruitful relationships because I was afraid of getting hurt or I questioned a person’s motives.  It’s a shame, and if I can, I’d like to prevent you all from doing the same.  Here are some lessons I’ve now tried to incorporate:

If you like and respect a colleague, let it be.  Look for the best in that person. Focus on the traits that prompted you to want to work with them in the first place. Remember that no one is perfect, and one person can be all things to all people.  Accept the things you don’t like and don’t try to change them because that will only result in frustration and friction that could be perceptible to your team.

If you basically like and respect someone at work, believe that they mean well and will do right by you. Don’t over-analyze why they behave a certain way, and don’t assume the worst if something happens between the two of you that you don’t understand. Always address issues proactively through open communication, and don’t expect them to read your mind.

If they make a mistake or a decision with which you don’t agree, forgive them.  Trust that they will learn and do things differently next time.  Beware of sky-high expectations. If you’re annoyed that they are not as talented or as articulate or as consistent as you are, recognize that they are probably better than you are in some ways so it evens out in the end.

Go out of your way to spend quality time with the important people on your team, especially if you usually work virtually.  Don’t rely on email or social media – it’s not the same as calling someone or seeing them in person.  The more you’re in one another’s presence, the easier it will be to ensure you’re on the same page.

If you find yourself having the same problems with co-workers over and over again, the time has come to look at yourself and what you may be doing to cause roadblocks.  Taking responsibility for your own behavior will open the door to improve your workplace relationships in immeasurable ways.

Alexandra Levit is a career and workplace expert at the Intuit Quickbase Blog , a daily source for advice on how to be exceptional at your job. You can follow her on Twitter at @alevit.

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Where mind-mindedness comes from

On childhood and memory. by Charles Fernyhough Where mind-mindedness comes from Why are some parents more mind-minded than others? Published on March 22, 2011

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I have written previously on this blog about the concept of mind-mindedness, which refers to parents' ability or willingness to represent their children's likely thoughts and feelings. In our research, we have found that maternal mind-mindedness relates to some important developmental outcomes, such as security of attachment and theory of mind. In our first studies on this topic, we assessed mind-mindedness in terms of the extent to which parents focused on their preschoolers' thoughts, interests, feelings, and intellect when given an open-ended invitation to describe their child. More recently, we became interested in whether parents show mind-mindedness when their children are much younger, and investigated mind-mindedness in play interactions between parents and their six-month-olds. Even at this early age, we found that most parents infer that their babies' behavior (at least for some of the time) is governed by things going on inside their heads: desires, emotions, likes, dislikes, thoughts, beliefs.

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The majority of parents will find this unsurprising. What was most interesting to us, however, was that mums and dads varied in how accurate their baby ‘mind-reading' appeared to be. When it came to defining mind-mindedness in the first year, we focused on whether parents commented appropriately on what their baby might be thinking or feeling, a measure we call appropriate mind-related comments. A comment would be classed as appropriate if it matches the child's behavior: Oh, you want the teddy (as the baby gestures towards it), or Are you making a decision about something? (as the baby sits quietly with a pensive expression on his or her face).

In contrast, some comments involve the parent attributing an inappropriate internal state to the baby. For example, a mother might say, You're not interested in that one any more (while the baby is still actively engaged with a toy), or Are you scared? (in the absence of any startling event or fearful response from the baby). We call these non-attuned mind-related comments. A parent who makes a lot of these comments will be considered relatively low in mind-mindedness, while a parent who makes mostly appropriate mind-related comments will be considered more highly mind-minded. 

In a study that has just appeared in the journal Infancy, we addressed the question of why certain parents are more mind-minded than others, by looking at how these two measures of mind-mindedness (obtained by coding videotapes of mothers and babies at play at eight months) related to certain key variables relating to mother and child1. We investigated characteristics specific to the baby (temperament) and to the mother (socio-economic status, educational level, depression, social support), as well as measures relating to the earliest indicators of the mother-child relationship (attitude towards the pregnancy, and recollections of first contact with the baby). We also looked at whether the pregnancy was planned.

In focusing on these pregnancy-related variables, we figured that they would enable us to trace the very earliest origins of maternal mind-mindedness. It is one thing attributing thoughts and feelings to a preschooler; it is another to impute mental states to a newborn whose behavior might not, on the face of it, appear to have much thinking behind it. Heading back even further along the developmental timeline, a mother who is prepared to impute mental states to a fetus would seem already to have a clear representation of that child as a person in its own right. We already know that pregnant women who are able richly to describe what their babies will be like in the future are likely to be more mind-minded with those babies when they are born2. The crucial thing about mind-mindedness is that it taps into parents' representations of their children, rather than the child's behavior in itself. These parental representations have a long history, arguably beginning to be determined as soon as the decision is made to conceive. 

We therefore wondered whether mind-mindedness can be explained in part by factors that predate the birth. Our results showed that the two indices of mind-mindedness (appropriate and non-attuned mind-related comments) were both unrelated to mothers' social background and mental health. In contrast, the variables relating to pregnancy—planned conception, reflection on the pregnancy, recollection of first contact—predicted mind-mindedness. Mothers were more likely to comment appropriately on their babies' thoughts and feelings if they had intended to conceive and then reflected positively on their pregnancy. Mothers were less likely to comment in a non-attuned manner (indicative of greater mind-mindedness) if they recollected exclusively positive feelings in relation to their first contact with their baby. The good news is that, of the 206 mothers who took part in the study, 58% recollected their first contact with the baby in a purely positive light, with 17 giving effusively positive recollections: I started to cry with joy. It was the best feeling of love I have experienced. We also excluded the possibility that these relationships might be confounded by actual difficulties with the pregnancy, by factoring out medical complications to do with the pregnancy, labor and birth. In a second study reported in the same article, we focused on infant temperament, and found no relations between measures of temperament and mind-mindedness. 

These findings allow us to start to evaluate some different possible explanations of individual differences in mind-mindedness. They lead us to reject the idea that some mothers are more mind-minded because their infants are somehow 'easier' (if that were the case, we would have found an association with infant temperament). They also suggest that mother-centered factors, such as educational and mental health status, are less important in determining a mother's mind-mindedness than factors that relate to the specific relationship in question.

More research is needed to determine how accurate a woman's retrospective reports of her pregnancy and birth might be, and also how stable these representations are in light of subsequent experiences. Until we can fit these further pieces into the jigsaw, it seems reasonable to conclude that a mother's attitudes to her specific infant begin to take shape before the baby is born. They are then molded further by the particular experience that that woman has with her pregnancy, such that the highest levels of mind-mindedness in our sample were seen in women who had planned to conceive and then perceived their pregnancy as 'easy'. It is not so much whether the pregnancy is actually easy, in a medical sense, as whether the mother represents it to herself as such. In the earliest days of mind-mindedness, perceptions are everything.

1 Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., Arnott, B., Leekam, S., & Turner, M. (2011). Mother- versus infant-centered correlates of maternal mind-mindedness in the first year of life. Infancy, 16, 137-165.

2 Arnott, B., & Meins, E. (2008). Continuity in mind-mindedness from pregnancy to the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 31, 647-654.

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