sometimes seems impossible.

Henry Ford knew a few things about that.

This shed you see behind me is actually where

Henry Ford started about 100 years ago.

So obviously, Ford hasn't always been

a huge global international car company.

When he started, he obviously didn't invent the car.

Karl Benz did.

But he had the idea of bringing the automobile to everybody.

And he had the idea of creating the assembly line.

Something that was unheard of at that point in time.

And when he did it,

he actually changed the car industry forever.

Those types of things can still happen today.

Even though today we, of course, have brands

that are so iconic, that are so giant, so overwhelming.

If you think about these brands behind me,

they have amazing reach all over the world.

Coca-Cola distribution, marketing budgets, huge facilities.

And I'm sure if you go in a plane and take a trip over Africa,

and jump out the plane, the parachute lands somewhere in Africa,

there may not be any electricity,

no food, no water,

but within 5 miles you can probably buy a Coca-Cola.

That's how powerful they are.

So, when a guy suddenly had the idea

to start another soft drink,

which were not just about tasting good,

but about getting energy.

He was about delivering something different.

That was Chaleo that started Red Bull.

People told him that was insane,

he'll never going to be able to make it.

He knew, or probably thought, it was nearly impossible.

But he still took the risk, he still did it.

He believed in his dream, he had a gut [feeling]

and he went out and did it.

Richard Branson, Virgin Airlines.

When he had the idea about starting a new airline,

that's not so many years ago.

Just think about what it cost to buy planes, to get the licenses.

Everyting else is involved.

Now he got one license and one plane.

And the reason he did it was because

when he flew he felt there might be

something else we can do for the customer,

we could change it, we could make it more fun.

Maybe we could make a bar inside the plane where we can get a drink.

Maybe get a haircut at the lounge,

things that were never done before.

And, actually, you can get those things.

And he started Virgin Airlines.

And today, that's probably one of the most famous airlines in the world.

And the last one: Dyson.

Now he invented a new vacuum cleaner

because he thought all the current ones sucked. (Laughter)

Which they kind of do.

But he invented, of course, the one without the bag.

And he went around and presented this dream, this invention,

to all the makers of vacuum cleaners.

And they all rejected him and laughed at him.

And said: "This is never going to work."

So what he did was he obviously started it himself.

And years later he became the leading seller of vacuums,

here in the US and in many other markets in the world.

And the same people that rejected him are today copying him.

So it shows that it is possible to go out,

even today and make the dream reality.

It is possible if you take the risk.

Now, when I was 8 years old, I was sitting in the backseat

of my father's Saab 96, back in Denmark.

And suddenly, I saw that silver Maseratti passing me

and I got butterflies in my stomach.

And you have to think about it.

Denmark is a small socialist country,

where seeing something like a Maseratti

is like seeing a UFO or Big Foot.

It's very rare. (Laughter)

So, that was a huge event and at that point

I knew I wanted to do something with cars.

I didn't know if I was going to be an engineer,

I didn't know if I was going to wash cars,

build cars, sell cars.

I just knew I wanted to do something

with that fascinating thing called a car.

So what I did was I kept on drawing cars,

way beyond my age, so to speak.

So in school, instead of taking notes, I kept on drawing cars,

just like that notebook you see there.

And eventually I had a meeting with a counsellor,

when I was about 12-13 years old.

And I remember she said,

"What you want to be when you grow up?"

I said: "I want to be a car designer" and she said,

"There's nothing called a car designer. You can be an engineer."

So it was very discouraging, but I kept the dream alive.

I kept on sneaking my drawings here and there.

And even through college I did that.

Which meant I didn't do very good in school.

But after college I got a job,

the closest I could find, a technical draftsman.

And even at that job I started drawing cars.

And eventually my dad said, "Well,

why don't you write a letter to a car company?"

So I did, I wrote a letter to Volvo saying,

"I would like to be a car designer."

Because in Denmark, there is no car industry.

And Volvo wrote back saying:

"Well, look, you don't have an education,

but we can recommend a school in California

called Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena."

And they have another branch in Europe,

in Switzerland, which is the same school.

So I took all my drawings,

threw them in my old, rusty Alfa Romeo,

which is sort of a European Honda,

for those of you who don't know the car.

It's a little bit better.

And I drove down to Switzerland,

and got accepted at that school.

A few years later, I started at BMW,

in Germany, in Munich.

And that was really when I started

to learn about the car industry,

and how complicated it is.

And the dream I had about creating my own car company,

sort of faded quickly away as I realized

it's hundreds of millions of dollars,

it's very complicated.

And I had a very exciting time.

I got to desgin BMW Z8, a sports car,

which eventually got into a James Bond movie,

which was way beyond my dreams.

until I saw the film and they cut it in half.

(Laughter)

But then I migrated to Aston Martin and did a couple of things there.

But the point is that I did learn about the industry.

And I got to do some fantastic stuff,

but I still thought that there must be something more.

I realized that the passion I had as a kid,

with those exciting cars,

looking at the cars I saw in last 20-25 years,

little of that passion has kind of disappeared.

And you look at some of the three best selling cars today --

I am a car designer and I can barely say which ones they are.

So what happened in the last 20 years is

cars have become more of an appliance.

They used to be all about emotion and fun.

And they used to be fairly cheap to run.

And now they've become an appliance.

Gasoline is expensive.

In some countries you get taxed on them.

And on top of that, we start feeling a bit guilty

about driving a car.

Because it pollutes.

They use a lot of gasoline.

So I thought to myself, "What if you could create a car,

that took all of the environmental aspects,

that we know it's possible and basically

unite that with the emotional side of a vehicle.

Why [do] electric cars, or small,

fuel-efficient cars always have to look dorky?" (Laughter)

"Why can't we make a beautiful, gorgeous car?"

So the what-if was really saying,

instead of a normal roof,

what about putting a solar panel on the car

that can help charge a car.

You know, when I was working at Aston Martin,

like all car manufacturers we would go to Brazil

and pick up the wood in Brazil,

and bring it back, go over it with a flame thrower,

sand it down and put it in the car after it was lacquered.

And I said, "What if we got wood from the California fires,

we don't need the flame throwers, it's already done." (Laughter)

And it sounded funny at that time, but it can be done.

So, that was something I thought about.

And I also thought about,

If you think about how the car is designed,

it hasn't really changed in the last hundred years.

When we first developed a car,

you saw a car in the single road in the middle of nowhere.

And its still how the advertising looks today.

You jump in the car and drive around on a free open road.

But the reality of course is we sit in traffic,

like here, like you see behind me.

That's reality.

That's how a lot of us drive to work every day.

So I thought, "What if you could create a car where,

when you sit in traffic and you listen to music,

your air condition on, you need power.

What if it's just electric?

And what if, because you want the freedom,

that if you want to drive from LA to Las Vegas

or New York or San Francisco,

after maybe about 50 miles the gasoline engine turns on

and you create electricity while you drive."

Why can't we do that?

So I thought there must be a way we can do that.

A lot of people, of course, as you talk about this type of ideas

start telling you, "Can't be done, it's impossible."

There is doubters. But I still said, "What if?"

I decided I was going to take that risk.

Now one of the two things that inspired me was,

first of all, everybody saying it couldn't be done.

That gave me sort of extra fuel and power.

And the second thing was that I thought

even the biggest car companies in the world,

they still are only run by humans.

In fact, any giant companies in the world. (Laughter)

They might look giant,

but behind them is a human being.

And I am a human being and these guys,

they need to sleep, eat, and do everything else that we do.

And they have the same problems.

So I thought, "Why couldn't I then do it?"

That was part of my feeling of being able to take that risk.

Now, when you stand on that cliff,

and you are ready to jump off into the ocean --

And when I did that, I did see an island out there

and I felt I could swim there.

And as soon as I jumped in the ocean,

suddenly that island kept on moving. (Laughter)

So it's pretty clear that it isn't as easy as it sounds.

And "new" is never that easy.

But, for those of us who take the risk,

and jump in the ocean,

I think that doesn't matter.

We still feel that it's worth to pursue the dream,

it's worth to do it.

And one of the reasons for me is because

the doubters that are out there

they're rarely the builders.

And those who are the skeptics

are never really the inventors.

And I feel there is a possibility

to go against the nay-sayers,

take the risk, go out there,

and follow your dream and get people behind you.

Because there is a lot of us out there

that believe that dreams are possible.

So with that --Thank you very much.