Breaking the rules, for a better future.

On April 21, 2016, Bertrand Piccard is about to embark on perhaps his most daring exploit: a three-day non-stop flight leg across the Pacific in the cockpit of his solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse. He writes one last text message to his family and promptly hears back from his three daughters: “Long live the spirit of exploration!”

Piccard’s grandfather, the experimental physicist Auguste Piccard, had already been a legend in his own time. In 1931, he became the first human to enter the stratosphere, reaching an altitude of 15,781 meters in a hot-air balloon. He was immortalized by the famous comic artist Hergé in the character of Professor Calculus in Tintin. And then there was Bertrand Piccard’s father, Jacques, who in 1960 together with a naval lieutenant descended to the lowest point on earth, diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10,916 meters below sea level in a submersible designed by the Piccards.

Curiosity is not an end in itself

Jules Vernes would have found kindred spirits in this family. Yet its adventures and records were never an aim in themselves. Every experience at the extremes had a substantive goal: to better understand the world and make it a better place. Thus, in the stratosphere, Auguste Piccard succeeded in experimentally proving part of the theory of relativity; his scientific partner in this experiment was one Albert Einstein. Jacques Piccard, in turn, was able to show through his dive that there are currents even in the deep sea – and warned against dumping radioactive waste there. As for the third Piccard: With all his projects, he has sought to create impetus for a more sustainable future. Hence the name of the sunlight-powered Solar Impulse, the plane he took turns piloting around the world with André Borschberg. “You fly silently, conscious of the sun giving you its energy, and you could keep flying forever without releasing a gram of CO₂,” recounts Bertrand Piccard. “It felt as if I were flying through the future.”

Curiosity as the key to entrepreneurial success

All spirit of inquiry has its origins in childhood, as children are naturally inquisitive. He himself, says Piccard, was a hard pupil for his teachers to manage. “I did not accept any rules that I did not understand for myself.” He always overflowed with questions and curiosity. Unfortunately, he says, curiosity is often stifled in children by parents and teachers, and later discouraged by supervisors at work. In actuality, Piccard believes, a lively curiosity is crucial not only to personal happiness but also to corporate success. For him, every job has the potential to become a personal adventure, provided that one constantly questions one’s tasks and that this is tolerated. “It’s a question of our inner attitude, but naturally also a matter of the organizational culture,” he says. He does not believe the desire to know has any natural limits. “It’s always just us humans, our rules and routines, that limit our curiosity.”