Interview #1 with Darrell Rodriguez

A REALLY COOL GUY

Did you grow up where you thought one of your dad’s friends was really cool? Like he flew airplanes or made movies or just did something totally awesome? I’m not sure if it’s because we are both from the same hometown or because his daughters are close to my age, but Darrell Rodriguez is that cool dad that everyone wants to know.

I had the privilege of meeting Darrell last summer when I was co-founding a start-up business, Ethic. Darrell and I quickly connected through nerding-out about games like League of Legends and World of Warcraft and exchange stories and wisdom from each of our experiences within the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly. Needless to say I think Darrell is super cool.

With our shared interests for hands-on entrepreneurship as well as our aptitude for creative leadership, it was an obvious choice to ask Darrell to be my first interviewee. His passion, experience, and wisdom is worth sharing with other ambitious youngsters like myself.

He was the conversation that solidified and amplified my idea to start interviewing unconventional entrepreneurs.

We began our conversation like most, me asking about what he was like in college and what his ambitions were. Darrell explained that it was his goal and dream was to work at the greatest theme park in the world. Wow that’s a big one!

DARRELL’S CONTINUATION OF EDUCATION

Another goal of Darrell’s was a continuation of his education. Darrell decided to go after a Master of Business Administration (MBA); he thought it would give him the discipline and diverse skill set to transition into any industry that he wanted.

“Getting an MBA really helped me mix the left and right parts of my brain.”

For Darrell, getting an MBA was an invaluable asset that opened up a lot of opportunity to him. It is important to understand, as Darrell explained, that the credibility and recognition of getting an MBA has changed from the time when he got one. It is important to understand the context of today and question it’s relevance as compared to years ago. 

For Darrell, getting an MBA was a great place to meet other like-minded ambitious entrepreneurs and foster connections with meaningful mentors. Most importantly, it gave him the credibility and skills to transition into any industry he wanted.

BEING A LEADER, GENERALLY

The two biggest takeaways from Darrell’s upper education experience were leadership and project management.

Darrell believes in the concept of a generalist. This means being familiar and able to understand topics across a diverse range of industries as opposed to “putting all your eggs in one basket” and focusing on one technical skill or field, better known as a specialist. 

Being a generalist has allowed Darrell not only to explore and discover a myriad of industries including gaming, theme parks, and both corporate and start-up ventures, but, he has also cultivated himself as a leader in project management.

  “Don’t let inertia keep you going in one direction.”

WALKING WITH GIANTS

Darrell relied on persistence and personality to land him some of his major early opportunities such as working for Disney.

A lot of students gearing towards graduation like myself wonder if they should strive for a big corporate job or work for a smaller boutique company or start-up. Darrell has done it all.

Darrell dreamed to work for a big company before creating his dream to start his own. He explains his reasoning behind wanting to work for a bigger company was

  “… to walk among giants.”

Meaning, he learns from the best of the best. He is surrounded by highly experienced experts that fought long and hard to be at the positions that they are. By gaining this corporate experience he was able to shadow such talent and learn skills and practices that are of the most highly recognized in the world.

  “80% of my graduating class went on to investment banking. I knew I wanted to do something different.” 

Through his corporate experiences at vastly different companies like Disney, EarthLink, Electronic Arts, LucusArts, IGT and more, Darrell struck his talent for overseeing products and projects, managing teams, and delivering concrete results all with creativity and organized leadership. 

What stood out to me as a common thread (and an incredibly intriguing thread if you ask me) throughout Darrell’s corporate job experiences, was “the creation of other worlds.” Whether it was building a new theme park at Disney, or setting the creative vision for IGT, or collaborating on how to launch and bring to market a new game within Lucasfilm, Darrell is the pinnacle of creative leadership.

Undoubtedly Darrell learned so much from his corporate experience. But he also felt like a small fish in a big pond. So he took the skills and experience that he now had to start something of his own.

GOING SMALL

The great thing about startups, Darrell explained, is their ability to quickly adapt to changes in the market and outbid their competitors.

 “When you’re small, you’re agile, can turn on a dime, and undercut the giants.”

Darrell has since led and launched two startup companies, castAR and Spatial which are both in the immersive gaming and AR space.

CULTIVATING YOUR EQ

In wrapping up our conversation, Darrell ends with parting advice of learning to navigate via your “emotional quotient” and your gut.

An emotional quotient, also known as emotional intelligence is a life skill that is necessary not only to better understand yourself and your own emotions but to use these emotions to inspire, communicate, and influence the emotions of others. Undoubtedly a very important quality for a leader and innovator.

When you are faced with a fork in the road and different paths to go down: maybe it’s two different job offers, community college vs a four year university, or simply whether or not to continue a friendship with someone, listen in to your gut. You probably already know the answer.

I am extremely grateful to have spoken to Darrell Rodriguez. He set the example of how to find and interview greatness for a project like SUMMR 2020.

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