The Stone That The Investors Rejected

Those that meet Francis Pedraza, CEO of Invisible Technologies describe him as a deep thinker that excels in communicating vision and motivating his team. Today he sits down with Earl Foote, CEO of Nexus IT on this episode of TechBeat to discuss his take on being a contrarian in today’s entrepreneur landscape.

Introducing Francis Pedraza

Freshly graduated from college Francis started his first company, Everest, an iPhone app to help people achieve personal goals. Think Instagram for your goals. With over a million downloads and product awards you would assume this was a huge success but sadly – we failed! Francis took this failure back to the drawing board which led him to his next journey to develop Invisible Technologies.

Contrarian Strategy as an Entrepreneurial Approach

One of the things that give Francis an edge over others is his contrarian strategy and unique process of thinking and developing ideas. Midway through this episode, Francis brings up the topic of Aikido, which is a form of Japanese Martial Arts, and references Books as Aikido. He attributes this training and ancient wisdom to the philosophy by which his foundation was set, and as a guide for modern strategy. 

He brings up the point that Books such as Aikido is a real theory, although it’s part of the Contrarian Strategy. He reiterates that “theory is real; theoretical unfair advantages are real,” leading to unfair business and strategic advantages.

Three Dimensions of Leadership

Throughout the Podcast, Francis explores three different dimensions of leadership and strategy following the same path guided by the ancient wisdom through Aikido. These three dimensions explained are:

• Seeing the Unseen – Reading, Writing, and Thinking
• Gateless Gates – Communication, Application, and Feedback
• Escaping the Labyrinth – Pivoting, Iterating, Following Through, and Dialectical Progression

Francis demonstrates how it’s important to implement these techniques as a leader to have a greater impact on those you’re leading, and also to become better internally as a leader and human being.

Surround Yourself with Wisdom

From the discussion within this episode, you can see the importance of gaining knowledge and then utilizing that knowledge for further improvement and development. One of the last thoughts Francis leaves us with is to “surround yourself with wise people.” Absorb as much wisdom as you can, and you’ll have an advantage. 

Be sure to listen to the whole episode above to get all of the details from Francis’s discovery.