IAM2179 – Internationally Recognized Thought Leader, Venture Capitalist and Author Passionate About Building Sustainable Cities

In this episode, we have Scott Amex of Amex Ventures, an internationally recognized thought leader and venture capitalist.

Scott shares his mission of helping cities worldwide develop economic resilience and combat climate change.

He delves into his background, growing up during South Korea's challenging times, and discusses his work with smart, sustainable cities.

Scott highlights the importance of identifying comparative advantages and pursuing demand-driven technologies. He also outlines his ‘STRIVE' methodology for achieving success by doing uncomfortable yet essential tasks.

Finally, Scott offers insights into creating a disciplined, humble leadership culture for impactful organizational growth.

Website: scottamyx.com

Books: scottamyx.com/books
Newsroom: scottamyx.com/newsroom
Business website: amyxventures.com
Personal website: scottamyx.com

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Transcription:

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Scott Amyx Teaser 00:00

I see my personal mission for the rest of my life is to travel and to help people around the world, in particular city focus on how they can create economic engines to support themselves.

And to be resilient so that we can actually withstand the impact of the climate change.

Intro 00:15

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:42

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Scott Amyx of Amyx Ventures. Scott, it's awesome to have you on the show. Mr. Scott Amyx is an internationally recognized thought leader, venture capitalist, speaker and author on smart cities, exponential technologies in the fourth industrial revolution.

He has appeared or spoken on TV, New York Times. Time, Forbes, TechCrunch, TEDx, CIO, Washington Post, Wired, Forrester, G20, European Commission, United Nations, ITU, Pew Research Center, Environmental Defense Funds, and other major media events. Mr. Amex was voted the most influential leader in smart cities and awarded the 50 most impactful smart cities leader by Inc.

Magazine, Internet of Things Institute, HP Enterprise. World CSR Congress and numerous institutions. He received the Cloud and DevOps World Award for Most Innovative. He is an IBM IOT Futuristic Tribeca Disruptor Foundation Fellow, Singularity University Slash Smart City Accelerator Mentor and National Sloan Fellow.

Woodrow Wilson fellow. In addition, Mr. Amex has been nominated to the World Economic Forum as a committee member for the future of the internet. Scott, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Scott Amyx 02:02

Absolutely. I think you just basically wrapped up the podcast, so thanks for having me and I'll talk to you later.

Gresham Harkless 02:08

It was hard for me to say all that, so I can't imagine, how hard it is for you to be putting in all the hours and the work to be able to accomplish all that. So I wanted to kick everything off just to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and how you were able to accomplish all these things and get to where you are now.

Scott Amyx 02:21

Thank you so much for the introduction. As I actually. Mention some of this in my TEDx talk. I grew up in South Korea during the 1970s, during a volatile time of its young democracy. We were actually one of the poorest countries in the entire world, believe it or not. And our GDP was lower per capita than most of the sub-Saharan African countries.

So the question is, How did half of a peninsula, half of a country with absolutely nothing in the next 34 years, become a G20 OECD nation? That has been a question and a personal goal that I have actually personally undertaken. Our focus at Ames Ventures is about smart, sustainable cities, and particularly addressing the essential sustainable economic developments and the sustainable development goals as defined by the United Nations.

Part of the reason I had to leave South Korea and come to the U. S. Is because it was lack of choice, lack of opportunities. So coming back to the question around my CEO story is the way I see my personal mission for the rest of my life is to travel and to help people around the world, in particular city focus on how they can create economic engines to support themselves.

And to be resilient so that we can actually withstand the impact of the climate change.

Gresham Harkless 03:34

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And obviously you're doing phenomenal work. And I think, just to have an opportunity to talk with you a little bit and read your bio here, all the things you're doing, you're obviously, you're well on your way to fulfilling that mission.

So. I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper in here. Exactly. Like how are the ways that you are, helping these countries in these places, be able to be sustainable.

Scott Amyx 03:52

Every region. And again, I'll take a city-focused perspective is that every city has a relative comparative advantage. In other words, just because every country is focusing on AI, blockchain, robotics, and so forth, doesn't mean that you can't also focus on it.

But if you understand from your local region, what you do best relative to another region in different parts of the world, As long as there is a difference, that's sufficient for comparative advantage. And that's the fundamental of global trade. So let me give you an example in Czech Republic, and I spent several weeks there cumulatively, there is a region in the Northern part of Czech Republic above Prague and below Dresden, Germany, and it's called the Usti region.

And this is a remnant of the first industrial revolution. Where you have significant heavy pollution from coal and chemicals that polluted the water, the air. And what you have is a legacy of brownfields, abandoned buildings since the first industrial revolution. And that is an area that even their own people completely eschew.

Now, when we looked at that region and said, okay, how do we actually revive this region and this city? We looked at what is that region doing better relative to anyone else. In that sphere of the world. One of the things that's very strategic for that region is their proximity to Germany, and particularly the auto ecosystem.

So already they export some 1 million Skoda. Skoda is a car brand that's been acquired by Volkswagen. That was originally from, Czech Republic. So they're very much integrated into the auto ecosystem and more. So there is a mountainous region that just barely borders the Germany line called Sinovac that is sitting on one of the largest mountain of lithium and 10 mineral deposits.

And lithium is one of the core ingredients that's needed for electric vehicle batteries. So what I'm proposing to The ministers of environment, ministers of trade and education and the prime minister is that we can actually develop that area to become a electric vehicle battery storage and a hydrogen fuel cell industrial corridor.

Now, why is that important? Because right now, the German auto ecosystem relies on Japan, China and Korea manufacturers for those electric vehicle batteries. But as the electric EV batteries grow to some greater than 600%, they want to be able to insource, be able to control it and not have the economic rent leave that region.

So here's an opportunity where we can basically ensure that Czech Republic for the next foreseeable several decades. We'll have a strong economic engine by focusing on EV batteries and storage. And then the next generation, which is the hydrogen fuel cell. So that's an example. So what we focus on from a fund is looking at the technologies that support smart, sustainable cities.

And more importantly, from our comparative advantage that we think we do all better than anyone else is that we take a demand driven focus, which means that startups fail, not because. They have bad technologies or bad team composition, but they feel because it can't cross the chasm, they can't get enough pilots, they can't get enough cash flow and to generate and to scale it.

So we start with the city side first, and we have access to hundreds of cities and the kinds of projects and what they're needing in terms of technologies. And then we bring the best startups to them. Only when the cities, the industry say, yes, we want to procure pilots only then we then invest into those startups.

So what you have is a portfolio of winners. That's going to drive significant returns for LPs and investors, but also the growth and the sustainability and the resiliency that these cities will meet.

Gresham Harkless 07:26

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, I love that high-level kind of perspective, but just being able to see, like you mentioned, the startup ventures and the ventures that you all are investing in, but also be able to see the strengths of the countries or cities or locations and be able to bring those two together so that you can create solutions for the startups and also for the people of these different countries and these different cities and these localities.

So I think that's pretty awesome. And I wanted to ask you for a secret sauce and it might've already touched on that, is that what you feel is your secret sauce or a differentiator? It is,

Scott Amyx 07:54

I think one of our core secret sauce has to do with the fact that we take a very much demand-driven supply network, which means that we actually start with the buy side and we think that it's not always best to Create or support technologies that are solutions to non-problems, but rather if you really spend the time on the buy side, then it becomes very clear in terms of what they actually need and what they're actually willing to procure and spend money on.

Let me give you a quick example of just from a metaphor is when you look at GE and GE is going through a lot of issues from an organization and they lost significant market cap. Compare them to Xerox. GE focused on mergers and acquisitions and divestitures for the last several decades. Xerox, on the other hand, where most of us know them as a printing company, spent the last several decades really conquering down and talking to their clients or customers about what they need for their business, and then developing new products and services based on the specific feedback and insights that their customers are delivering.

Telling them and letting that drive their organization and their organic growth and their product development management. So as a result, Xerox is much more robust, much more resilient, much more forward and strategic because they focus on the buy side first.

Gresham Harkless 09:10

And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

And this might be an app, a book or resource or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Scott Amyx 09:21

Part of my life experience that I was alluding to in your first question. Resulted in one of my first mainstream books called strive. It's about how doing the things most uncomfortable leads to success.

And it's been endorsed by Tony Robbins, Forbes, Singularity University, Tribeca Film Festival, and many global influencers. And it's about regardless who or where you are and what you do, or have you done for a living, how young or old we are, but the secret to outstanding achievement and success is not just simply talent.

But doing the things uncomfortable that I call strive to really drive success is not just simply intellect or opportunities or even network because in my book, I talk about all different examples of people who had those, but yet they didn't have sustainable success. But it's about pursuing personal change that's most uncomfortable for you at that given moment.

So that's my CEO hack.

Gresham Harkless 10:14

I love that and it's a great reminder because sometimes like you're the most talented quote unquote or you work the hardest but if it's not directed towards those things that sometimes are uncomfortable but actually move the needle, it's a great reminder. I know through your TEDx talk you also spoke a lot about that as well too.

And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a your CEO nugget and this might be a word of wisdom or piece of advice or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business?

Scott Amyx 10:36

I thought that what this audience will really derive value is not just a single sentence nugget, but a brief summary of my strive methodology.

And it's really the formula by which you can activate strive for yourself in your life. So number one is to set a goal. One of the worst things you can do is just simply just plow ahead, not knowing exactly where you're going, but in good to great Jim Collins talks about level five leaders, and it's about leaders who have greater purpose than themselves, and when you set a goal that is looking at the big picture, then all of a sudden you have a guiding North star for the rest of your life.

And it's not just simply about money, fame, or glory. Number two in strive, which is T stands for think about how to get there and plan for success. One of the most important things to executing on your dreams is about making sure you have step by step plan to execute and it's literally comes down to being able to go from lifetime, decade, annual, monthly, to daily and everything you do, you have to know where you're going.

Number three is are in stride, which stands for risk embraces, and this is probably the hardest for most of us because it's the things that we have to do, but it scares us. Maybe we have to speak in front of a stage, or maybe you have to take our savings and then invest that into a new business or changing a career or going back to school or marrying or maybe using a certain relationship.

So whatever that hard thing is, the key is you have to take the first step. Step, and it's only when you stretch yourself that you begin to make huge gains. Number four in strive is I for insights, meaning what did you learn from your uncomfortable change? One of the biggest dangers of being a CEO or boss of your own business is the fact that we lose touch with our sense of awareness or feedback.

So the only way you can ensure that you're progressing in the right direction is to intentionally self examine every iteration, meaning it's okay if you fail, taking a particular step. But what did you learn from that? And how do you use that insight to better yourself and increase your likely chance of success in the next round, and to continue to tweak and to iterate.

And lastly is V in STRIDE, which stands for Verify Progress. You have to be able to quantify your success and making sure that you're going the right direction. Just like we check Waze or GPS when we're driving, you have to verify your direction. And I'm sorry, and last one is 6 is E in STRIDE, which is Enhance Yourself Mentally and Physically.

Over the years, I've been such a workaholic that I've, at some point, neglected my body. I have a herniated disc and all sorts of physical issues, but I realized that if you really want to succeed and go back to that setting, that goal, you have to focus on your holistic. It's physical, emotional, spiritual, relational.

So I start my day with reading the Bible. I exercise and meditate. And in my mid forties, I'm actually going back to take on those work on my secondary black belt. So it's when you are mentally, physically, spiritually, and relationally at your optimum, that's when you become most productive. So those represent the strive methodology and I hope that is a seal nugget for everyone listening today.

Gresham Harkless 13:38

Yeah, definitely I appreciate you sharing that and it's like a mountain more than nuggets So there's so much value in there But I love the idea that it's an acronym you can break down and it's so holistically driven where you know start out from Like you mentioned, you know checking the gps to make sure that you're taking care of yourself doing all those aspects in order to be Successful, so I think you know any entrepreneur business owner can definitely, benefit from that.

Now I wanted to ask you for my absolute favorite question, which is the definition for being a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So I wanted to ask you, Scott, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Scott Amyx 14:07

I'm actually going to be in not original. I'm going to actually refer to good to great by Jim Collins again, in terms of level five and level five leaders.

If you really look at them, they tend to be very humble, modest, willful in the sense of intentionality. And they focus on the larger goal. And one of the things that they're very mindful is they let their personal ego aside, meaning they let it aside. They don't carry them with them. And they're very disciplined in terms of their ambition.

They're very disciplined in terms of their will. They're very disciplined in terms of the way they make decisions, but yet they're humble and they're able to channel their personal ego to something greater than themselves. And the three things that a CEO, regardless of your organization of size, needs to focus on is.

Discipline culture, discipline, thought and discipline action. And when we surround ourselves with the right people in the right position that are also level five leaders, what you have is an organization that becomes incredibly powerful because you don't have individuals that are doing things for selfish reasons, but you have a cohesive collaborative that is working to push the mission statement and the goals of that organization to serve the people and the customers that they want to affect.

And that to me. is what makes a great CEO.

Gresham Harkless 15:22

Awesome, awesome. Yeah, I love that. Again, holistic perspective and keeping in mind all the different aspects of what it takes to kind of like run a business or be a CEO, so to speak. And I, I truly appreciate you for sharing that definition. And Scott what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak.

I wanted to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know how they can get a copy of your book or get in touch with you and then how best people can get ahold of you.

Scott Amyx 15:43

I want to make sure that this particular podcast is useful and practical. And the way I can do that is, Let me ask a quick question to all of you that's listening.

Regardless of how you choose to define success, most of you that's listening today, one more success out of life, right? I want to challenge you to do the things that's most uncomfortable for you. You have the opportunity to realize great success and to help you get started on your journey. I want to give you my strive VIP sneak preview of the book, the chapters one and two.

All you have to do is simply email press press@scottamics.com, and we'll make sure to get you a free copy and get you started on striving for success.

Gresham Harkless 16:21

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Scott. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Scott Amyx 16:25

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Outro 16:27

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CB nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase. It's a community.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at blue16media.com. This has been the, I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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