Then things started to take off. I have to preface this next statement because every day I am reminded of something I can do better, some way I can be safer, healthier, a better business person, a better partner, etc. but sometimes one concept sticks. This one came from Seth Godin’s Linchpin. I just had a problem shipping. So shipping has been my big project for the last several months. I successfully fundraised for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and ran a half-marathon in June. I continued to set smaller, more achievable goals in my business and am continuing to meet them. Last month I launched a major project that I thought might never come to fruition.

Without further adieu, I present The Backburner Project that Actually Happened: cincyveg.com

It was a collaboration with a lot of different fantastic people around town who are doing fantastic things. I was very happy to finish this project with them.

My company, Watercourse Technology, is moving forward. This is in large part due to the actions of several talented contractors and now employees. We’ve achieved a few small business milestones and are looking towards the stability a sustainably growing company can provide. We’ve upgraded software and hardware offerings, our capacity for getting things done is greatly increased, and everyone is having fun. Check out our recently refreshed website and leave some feedback if you get a chance.

Next year I’ll be shipping a marathon, some academic achievement and my wedding. Mazol tov!

His successes and failures are relative; while he died broke and lonely, his work laid the foundation for much of our current thinking about electricity and just about anything having to do with waves. As an inventor, a thinker, and a contributing member of the scientific community he was wildly successful. He was a firm believer in gender equality, a vegetarian, and a developer of powerful weapons. Perhaps the most poignant aspect of his success were some of his ideas which later resulted in the decline of Tesla’s reputation. These ideas were grand, difficult to prove or explain, and even more difficult to monetize.

Irregardless of his definition of success, Tesla lived and worked in a world where people made discoveries about the natural forces that surrounded them at an unprecedented pace. Inventions harnessed the powers of these forces, and patents secured future income from these inventions. Tesla was only good at part of this equation. He was relatively fastidious about securing patents, but lost the part about negotiating the future incomes from these patents.

Where does this fit into the open source business model? It’s easy to get into a pity party for Tesla, complaining about greedy robber barons who stole his ideas and made huge fortunes while he toiled away in a mostly self-funded laboratory. And it’s not easy to really grasp the meaning of “open source business model.”

So what is an open source business model? How can a company give away its products for free and still make money? The answer to this question is nuanced and almost completely dependent on the individual company. For many businesses, income is based on providing a service, creating something, and customizing open source platforms for a client. For other businesses, in the words of Dirk Riehle, “Using a commercial open source approach, firms can get to market faster with a superior product at lower cost than possible for traditional competitors.”

Tesla’s self funded lab and obsession with new discoveries fall in the latter category. His operation was nimble and forward-looking, while companies like The Edison Company were stogy. Once they invested huge amounts of resources in something like direct current electricity, they were stuck, and went to great lengths to stay stuck. At one point during the development of the Niagra Falls generators, Tesla claimed that he could transmit the electric generated there without the tremendous amounts of copper, trees, and other resources that would have to be committed to the project, but the contracts were signed and this lighter, less resource-intensive implementation wouldn’t, and can’t be possible.

Some of the modern comparable situations are obvious: Unix to Apple, Google to Microsoft, and Microsoft’s sponsorship of BarCamps and open source code sprints make fascinating parallels to the early days of electricity. It seems that in the days of more democratized communication, the nimble and forward-looking may have their day.

Some further reading:

I’ve personally read and can strongly recommend the biography Wizard: The Life and Times of Nicola Tesla by Marc Seifer, an incredibly thorough look at all aspects of Tesla’s life; business, social, family and even some Freudian analysis, and also recommend the PBS documentary Tesla: Master of Lightning.