Naveen Jain is the founder and CEO of one of the biggest companies from the dot-com boom era, and now he has set his sights on the moon.

His company, Moon Express, plans to send a rocket to the moon as a business venture to collect rare minerals and resources, and then bring them back to Earth. He also plans to make travel to the moon and other planets accessible to all of us at some point in the future.

Naveen is the founder of InfoSpace, the first company to develop services that were sold to other companies that then white-labeled those services on their own web sites. According to Naveen, InfoSpace was the first company to realize that people would eventually want to use the internet on mobile devices.

Naveen co-founded Intelius, the information commerce company that gives users access to basic information about people all on one site.

In 2010, Naveen started Moon Express with the goal of bringing rare minerals back to the Earth for use in a number of applications, such as energy uses. Going to the moon is not the only goal of Moon Express, and Naveen sees it as the start of developing a multi-planetary society.

Naveen explains how Moon Express will become both commercially viable and also sustainable as a company.

In addition to space, Naveen sees the medical diagnostics field as another big industry in which he sees potential large growth over the next five to ten years. Naveen says the biggest societal problems offer entrepreneurs the most opportunity.

Education is another field in which he sees a need to address training for current jobs that weren't around 20 years ago.

Also, another important area is looking for solutions for at-risk countries that do not have accessible, clean drinking water.

Naveen believes we need to first solve our own internal problems before we tackle the world's problems. He thinks being at peace with who we are, and finding our purpose and mission, are key factors to finding that solution.

He says the process of becoming more fluent in producing ideas lies in having intellectual curiosity, learning for the sake of learning, and getting basic fundamental knowledge in the areas that interest us.

As far as finding our own mission in life, Naveen says ask yourself "What would you do if you had a billion dollars?" He says do that career now, and you'll find a business around it.

Resources and Links

• • Moon Express
• • X Prize Foundation
• • Singularity University

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