A Passionate Idea – AMD’s REAL Race

I just watched Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD Corporation (the OTHER x86 microprocessor guys). Moving. Stretching.

I grew up in a middle-class but empowering environment. Six kids and a Dad who worked his butt off as an HVAC sheetmetal worker. Mom? Did I mention 6 KIDS? You know how she spent her days.

But I was blessed with parents who “got” that my interests in science and the future were more important to me than anything. I would come home from school, even at 6 years old, and run to my shed in back of the yard to play with chemistry sets, work on electronics and see how hot I could make a Bunsen burner, often late into the night (who needs food when you have a Jacob’s Ladder arcing to the sky?)

Hector’s story is so much more. It’s the power of passion ignited and fanned into a blaze that continues today:

If you have kids, make sure to find ways to escalate their interest in life, science, technology, the environment, reading, exploring, asking questions. Make it safe to do so. And make it fun to learn. That is your greatest gift and legacy.

To you and your child’s continuously expanding mindset,
Mark Alan Effinger
Chief Evangelist
ThoughtOffice Corporation