CRAIG VENTER

"Science should be the most fun job on the planet... And I think working hard and playing hard are good approaches. Most people don’t work hard enough and therefore don’t deserve to play hard enough. Our success — despite how many good ideas you have — comes from hard work, and 18-hour days are not atypical for people who work on our teams. Playing hard to blow off the steam from working that hard is not only creative but rejuvenates what you can do. If you don’t work so hard, maybe you don’t need to play so hard"

CONFIDENCE

• Like Elon Musk, part of Venter's creative skill comes from confidence to do what others view as the impossible
• Venter is somewhat strange and eccentric as he set out to recreate Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle and created the first man made microbe

RISKS

• Venter believes taking risks and making mistakes have been essential to his creative success
• "I joke that I know an awful lot because I learn from my mistakes"

FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION

• Venter believes doing a different high intensity activity helps free his mind to come back to his work with creative ideas
• Venter enjoys the intense adrenaline rush from sailing and thinks it helps feee his brain from "daily garbage"

"I do think diversions that require intense concentration—risky or not—force you to clear your mind and step away from the daily issues, from the two steps forward and one step back, or the one step forward and two back. That’s been a key part of the creative process for me."