We the Possibility

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Problems as Opportunities

The ratio was telling.¹ Just one safety check to two camera checks. It was spring 2016, and Franky Zapata was about to try a four-minute trip on the flying hoverboard he had built. It would dart thousands of feet above the ground at fifty-five kilometers per hour. Four engines, each with 250 horsepower, would give him flight, and Zapata wanted to be sure the cameras were ready. His team at Zapata Racing would later post the video to YouTube. They’d better get some good footage.

Beyond that, Zapata, a former champion Jet Ski racer turned entrepreneur, had not much of a plan. “You know when you decide to have a child, you decide to have a child because you want it. You don’t decide to have a child because it will become ...