In my continuing series on entrepreneurship, and more specifically, entrepreneurs who are blind, I found myself in awe of some of the brilliant individuals who generously, even enthusiastically, agreed to talk with me about their career. I’ve also been brought up short by those who have refused, choosing instead to question my motives and insult my efforts.<\/p>\n
In this second category, responses were the generally understandable, "I have no time for this," or "Who are you?" rejections, but on occasion, I’ve also been treated to the suspicious, "Why should I participate in an interview with you? What are you getting out of it?"<\/p>\n
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Well, I’ll answer that. It’s a legitimate question. Why do I devote so much of my blog space to promoting the efforts of others? Probably for the same reason that I’ve spent over ten years speaking to groups about disability awareness in the context of my own vision loss. Because it gives my own pain meaning. So it’s not for nothing. To let people know there are others in the world who work to make the life of a person they will never know a little bit easier. To show appreciation for an industry fueled by the passions of innovators like my guest for today’s post: Ted Henter.<\/p>\n
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If you are blind, you may use his brainchild every day, yet know nothing about the person behind the synthesized voice you know as JAWS. You will certainly find plenty of other articles written about Mr. Henter, and many industry insiders will acknowledge that there is a certain amount of controversy regarding the operational management, strategic planning and creative vision of what is now Freedom Scientific. However, my purpose was simply to ask a few questions as to what motivated him as an entrepreneur who is blind.<\/p>\n
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LL: What personal attributes or character traits do you feel have held you in good stead as an entrepreneur?
TH: Perseverance. I’ve had many setbacks in my career, being blinded in a car accident is only one of them. But, you must keep on keeping on.
and a bit of faith helps too.<\/p>\n
LL: What \u201cexpert\u201d advice are you glad that you ignored?
TH: "There is no money in the blindness business". This was generally considered a fact when we started Henter-Joyce. When I tried to hire Glenn Gordon, the CTO for HJ and Freedom Scientific, he asked me if I thought we could make a living developing software for blind people. I said I did not know, but we were going to try.
LL: For someone facing tough choices due to the economic downturn, and who may be considering starting a business as a \u201cplan B,\u201d do you have any recommendations?
TH: follow your passion. Do what you like to do, and figure out a way to make it profitable. This works in good times too. I was blinded in 1978, bought my first "talking" computer in 1979. It would just spell what was on the screen. It was made by Deane Blazie, and it sucked. So I gave him enough free advice ("why doesn’t it do…?"), that he hired me. I was passionate about making the access better, and the doors opened up.<\/p>\n
Mr. Henter goes on to suggest that sometimes the expert advice is worth following:<\/p>\n
TH: About 1979 I went to talk to the Deane of the Computer Science Department at University of South Florida, Tampa. I wanted to get a Masters in Computer Science. I already had a BSME. He told me he did not want any blind people in his class, he had one recently, and that person took up too much of his time, needed too much assistance. I did not know much about advocating for my rights then, so I left, and enrolled at the same university, but attended a campus in St. Petersburg. I learned a bit about programming, met a guy, talked a bit, and he hired me. That was the start of my career, and I could have spent several years working on my Masters, but went the entrepreneur route instead. And I am glad I did it.<\/p>\n
So are we, Mr. Henter.
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You can read more about Ted Henter, his bio and business profile if you click here: <\/p>\n
en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ted_Henter<\/a><\/p>\n LL<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In my continuing series on entrepreneurship, and more specifically, entrepreneurs who are blind, I found myself in awe of some of the brilliant individuals who…<\/p>\n