244 - TZL - Peter Johann

You know, and it's funny you say that because I know I've been involved with this industry for a long time.

And one of the challenges that we're always talking with leaders about in the C-Suite and otherwise in a multitude of design firms is that you have to create a way for your younger people to see what the future looks like. Was it that you saw that the trajectory that you were originally on as a structural engineer, the timing and everything else was going to be markedly different than had you pivoted the way that you did to start Pirros and go that route? I have nothing but love for your approach to this. I think you epitomize your generation and the fact that you see a problem, you want to provide a solution for it, and then you go all in, which is not the way things might have been had you been born 20 years earlier.

You might have just said, you know what, I'm just going to put my time in. I'm going to be a structural engineer. I'm going to work my way to the top, and it's going to take me 15 or 20 years to get there.

But that's not the case for your generation.

And I would love for you just to speak to that mindset, because I think it is a mindset that is sometimes lost by the graying leadership of the design industry, and you are the epitome of that.

First of all, I applaud you for the work that you guys are doing with Pirros. I always tell people to go after what you want, and you guys did that.

But I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that because I think there are some kernels of truth in there for leadership to take on and think about as they're training this next generation of design professionals. Peter Johann 00:08:41.836 - 00:10:26.316 Absolutely. I mean, it's interesting. I think you touched on it. I don't think 20 years ago this would be an option for us.

And I think that's what we also recognize. We had this unique opportunity and the stars kind of aligned for us to do this.

We were both in the same mindset and both really bought into this problem and this solution, and it was the right point in our lives. Also, there are so many resources at our disposal now to start a company, and especially like a software company.

There are a million reasons why we wouldn't be able to do it 20 years ago.

Also, I think just the mindset of, like, this is something that a lot of people are doing now and a lot of people are doing at a younger age.

My initial hesitation to it was, hey, I'm in my late twenties, I don't have nearly enough expertise, experience or anything to start my own company.

I think that's a mindset that a lot of people have and a hesitation to why people will start their own thing earlier rather than, or later rather than earlier, and doing kind of a bunch of research before I actually realized, hey, this is actually the right time. This is the perfect time.

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