Comfort is the Enemy of Success | Bertrand Nepveu | TEDxHEC Montréal

The speaker's life was transformed at age eight by a ColecoVision, igniting a passion for gaming and leading to learning English through titles like "Legend of Zelda" and "Super Mario Brothers." He realized games taught mental models and the consequences of actions. A pivotal moment came with the Power Glove, sparking the desire to be "inside the games." Despite gaming being counter-culture in the 80s and 90s, he embraced the discomfort, viewing it as a path to learning. This mindset led him to computer engineering with a co-op system, where constant new teams and projects fostered growth through discomfort. During his MBA, Microsoft's Xbox 360, with Nvidia graphics, reignited his "inside the game" vision. He convinced colleagues to join an eight-year venture, enduring many moments of wanting to quit, but his passion for virtual immersion kept him going. A Kickstarter launch for their product garnered $100,000 on day one, but Oculus's Facebook acquisition two days later caused their campaign to flatline, a public failure. Instead of stopping, they listened to community feedback, which suggested augmented reality (AR) with their cameras. They scrapped all existing code, doubled the team, and developed a new headset in five months for E3. Later, at CES, without a booth, their mixed reality demo impressed Tom's Hardware, leading to an acquisition by Apple. He joined to work on the Vision Pro, observing that Apple's data-driven culture contrasted with his belief that innovation stems from intuition and discomfort. The "reality knob," a key feature from their acquisition, became the Vision Pro's Digital Crown, a testament to their uncomfortable bets. After Apple, he founded Canada's first VC to back ambitious founders in unconventional markets like B2C, hardware, and gaming. He advises embracing discomfort and originality in an AI-driven world, as AI struggles to follow non-mainstream paths. He concludes that comfort is the enemy of success, urging listeners to seek discomfort to foster creativity and make an impact.