many of the teams pursuing the Orteig Prize spent more than the $25,000 prize. The front-runner, Admiral Bird, spent $100,000 to try and win the $25,000 prize. Beyond that, competitors have the opportunity to be the first suppliers in a new industry. Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites, who won the Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital spaceflight, partnered with Virgin Galactic and announced SpaceShipTwo, which will be capable of space tourism. A team that wins the Automotive X PRIZE will have a product that can be sold to the public. Even many nonwinners of our competitions will be able to take their innovations to market. The publicity generated by competing for a prize will help them make that leap. And, of course, there is nothing as stimulating and exhilarating as a good old-fashioned race to the finish line, whether that line is in a laboratory or on the moon.


Are certain personality types more drawn to this modality than others? I’m asking because some studies


suggest that academic types are inherently less competi- tive than other people. Have you found that to be true? I don’t know if I would make that kind of generaliza- tion. But, in my experience, prizes do typically bring out nontraditional players. Participants in almost all of our prizes come from many different walks of life. Some are professionals in a field, some are students, and some are weekend garage engineers. The trait they all have in com- mon is a passion for what they are doing and a drive for accomplishment.


Is there any difference in a system that encourages people to compete as a team versus one that encourages


individual competition? I think that working as a team as opposed to individu-


ally forces a greater level of innovation. No one has all of the answers; that’s why X PRIZEs are open to anyone and not just the established experts in a field. Great ideas can come from anywhere – from the chief engi- neer or an intern. There are no rules stating that an indi- vidual cannot compete. But these grand challenges are just too difficult to complete alone. The greatest feats of the human race have been team accomplishments. The X PRIZEs are no different.


If you had to describe the link between competition and motivation, what would you say? Is turning something


into a contest inherently motivating, or does that contest have to have “a big dream” to really inspire people? We had a very rapid growth in the exploration of space during the ’60s – going from no space program to landing on the moon in fewer than 10 years, which was amazing! The driver for that acceleration was competition between the United States and the Soviet


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I probably pitched to 200 CEOs and CMOs over six years, and, with every presentation, I convinced myself that this was a viable concept.


Union. Competition between people, companies, or countries drives amazing results. In the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s we didn’t have that competition, and space has been too expensive for governments to rationalize large expenditures for just scientific purposes versus national pride. This is one of the reasons I created the X PRIZE Foundation – as a method to reengage people in a competitive spirit. But not all competitions are inherently motivating. There


are several factors that must be considered: Is it a real breakthrough? Will it engage the public? Is the market po- tential there? Is it achievable? With each X PRIZE, we are trying to design a challenge at the intersection of achiev- ability and audacity.


What do you see as the future of the X PRIZEs? Since the winning of the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, the


X PRIZE Foundation launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the Automotive X PRIZE, and many others that will offer new prizes for breakthroughs in the areas of life improvement, exploration, equity of opportunity, and sustainability.


Finally, do you think athletes, scientists, and business- people all view competition differently, i.e., are they all


motivated in different ways, or is the competitive spirit similar in all people, no matter what their training? I think the spirit of competition among true competitors is very much the same. To me, a true competitor is someone to whom all that matters is the results. Complete the objective better and faster than the opponents. But there’s more to competi- tion than the opponents. Many people are competing against the idea that something can’t be done. A great athlete dreams of breaking records. Scientists strive for breakthroughs that no one has discovered yet. There is a common spirit of competition across every industry and field, and it is that spirit that drives breakthroughs. 


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