To continually grow, evolve, learn, visualize, and to think great thoughts. Thoughts become things and you evolve to what you think. Therefore, I recommend to think big.
The career of Richard B. Hollis has been filled with extraordinary challenges, vision, and accomplishments, spanning more than three decades and ranging from medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and now digital technology.
In his current capacity, he is the owner, founder, and CEO of Holonis Inc., based in San Diego, California. He used his unique blend and scope of experiences to build and craft a talented group of young Internet thought leaders in 2010, each of whom have achieved individual successes and were eager to be among the architects of the next wave of Internet evolution. Richard and his team found that the internet is fragmented with multiple moving parts, and as new fast evolving technology adds to the fragmentation daily, users are faced with the challenge, complexity, and cost of keeping pace.
Where did the idea for Holonis come from?
With my decades of experience in carbon code and biology, when researching the internet, I got the epiphany that silicone code has many parallels. With the big gap and void on the Internet, I saw that there was massive fragmentation and an abundance of software that was not assembled like a biological system where everything is connected to work as one complete system. Therefore in understanding Holonic principles where a something is simultaneously a part and whole, allowing me to understand how components of commerce on the Internet can be interconnected and coded as one complete system for users.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Everyday is a new set of challenges so on a typical day, it’s picking up where I left off from the previous day. It’s continuously solving problems and creating opportunities to execute the company’s vision that is done with consistent review of progress in all departments whether it’s finance, marketing, R&D, or operations, coordinating all those pieces to work together to achieve corporate objectives. So my days are spent providing consistent vision, leadership, and execution of company goals to produce favorable results of value creation.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Continual research to stimulate thoughts that translate into ideas that are worthy of time and resources to execute for results.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
I’m intrigued by the unlimited possibilities that this new era of technology represents, especially when it comes to commerce and how we can take business wisdom, logic and create algorithms that empowers businesses to succeed online. I’m also excited by the convergence of multimedia, commerce, and analytics so companies today can be media, customer, and data driven.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
The discipline to continually stay abreast of relevant information and conduct ongoing research to continually learn and grow: the ability to consume massive amounts of information right at my fingertips to be ahead of the future before it arrives.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
In high school, I flipped steaks for Sizzler’s Steak house. I learned to never have a job where you stood on your feet for 8 hours a day, flipping greasy steaks – not an ideal situation for an adolescent trying to prevent acne breakouts.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
When you’re on the journey, you do things that appear at the time and make decisions with the knowledge you have at that time. All of this results in your own personal growth and evolution that continues throughout your life. So I don’t believe I would have done anything much different because I was on my journey. But if there’s one thing I want to continue, it’s to be bold and courageous because in the final analysis, we all have an expiration date and and our journey will end. So I want to use up all of my time on the journey to be the best I can be to be of service to others.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
To continually grow, evolve, learn, visualize, and to think great thoughts. Thoughts become things and you evolve to what you think. Therefore, I recommend to think big.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
To anticipate the future and to be there before anyone else arrives.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
During the Great Recession and the financial crisis, I learned that even the most loyal business acquaintances will act in their own best interest versus the interest of the company’s best interest; I lost control of a company I founded and ran for nearly 17 years during this time. I learned that a founder/owner should do whatever they can to maintain ownership control so they can stay the course until their vision is realized.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
In this new digital age of constant information and communication, a great idea would be to start a company that specializes in multimedia content creation.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
A nice pair of Johnston & Murphy shoes because they look and feel great. I love a great pair of shoes.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
I love my Kindle where I essentially have an entire digital library right at my fingertips and I-tunes because it holds all my favorite songs in one place. I also enjoy applications that help me stay organized like my Calendar app that notifies me of all my meetings and GPS so I never get lost. When it comes to my health, I like to measure my activity and how healthy I am through my Heart Rate and Pedometer application.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Great Fragmentation by Steve Sammartino because he’s painting a picture of the future and the global revolution.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
Alfred Adler, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Ayn Rand, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Ken Wilber, and Peter Drucker. Brilliant people.
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Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.