Born and raised in India, Rut immigrated to the United States in 2015 with a dream to start his own business.
He knew no one, had no money and didn't speak English but that didn't stop him from starting his own engineering company.
This is a real rags to riches story, coming from a rural village in India to a job at Dairy Queen to traveling to 25 states and every major US city using drones and artificial intelligence to solve serious problems in energy, agriculture and infrastructure.
He's on a mission to create solutions that protect our planet and serve our communities.
This young Steve Jobs is leading his business with heart and he overdelivers with wisdom well beyond his age on this value packed episode of the Action Hour.
Today's his birthday so be sure to wish him the best.
And join us on the wild ride that is his life.
Rut came the US with no money, no connections and didn't speak the language.
What's your excuse?
Connect with Rut on Instagram and check out his company, Voyager Industries.
Born and raised in India, Rut immigrated to the United States in 2015 with a dream to start his own business.
He knew no one, had no money and didn't speak English but that didn't stop him from starting his own engineering company.
This is a real rags to riches story, coming from a rural village in India to a job at Dairy Queen to traveling to 25 states and every major US city using drones and artificial intelligence to solve serious problems in energy, agriculture and infrastructure.
He's on a mission to create solutions that protect our planet and serve our communities.
This young Steve Jobs is leading his business with heart and he overdelivers with wisdom well beyond his age on this value packed episode of the Action Hour.
Today's his birthday so be sure to wish him the best.
And join us on the wild ride that is his life.
Rut came the US with no money, no connections and didn't speak the language.
What's your excuse?
Connect with Rut on Instagram and check out his company, Voyager Industries.
Welcome to the action hour. My name is Jesse Simpson and I believe there's never been a better time in the history of the world to be alive. I'm on a mission to bring you the insights, ideas and inspiration, you need to uncover your greatness and take action on your dreams. If you want to start a business, write a book, take a big trip, or level up to a higher state of living in the world, mentally, physically, spiritually, or financially, the stories found in the show will provide the action steps and energy you need to succeed. No matter what you are going through or where you've been, you can at any time, break that cycle and transform your life. This show is going to show you how to do it. If you've got the itch to act, now is the time allow the inspiring stories within this show to serve as your guide. This is the action hour, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Ruth Patel, thank you so much for coming out into the action hour. I've been looking forward to this episode for a while. And I'm just really excited to get into your story share with some people and it's so inspiring man, what you what you're doing, what you're building, and how you got to where you are today. I am just super excited to to get right in. So to start off, can you give us a little introduction about who you are, and what you do? Sure. Thank you, Jesse. I appreciate you inviting me to the podcast. I'm very excited to be here. My name is Ruth Patel, and I'm from India. And I came to America in 2015, April 2015. And with a dream to start my own business with no money, no connection, without knowing the English. But now I own an engineering company and I work all over the all over America helping energy, agriculture, and infrastructure companies, reducing their inspection cost. We use drones and artificial intelligence to inspect their assets and make inspection process fast, safe and very accurate. Beautiful. I don't want to do too much of a spoiler, spoiler alert on this episode, but Ruth to me, you were like young Steve Jobs. You're like a genius in the making. And I think it's just like the rags to riches story come from nothing. Now you're here and you're doing this and like, and how old are you 25. Like you got a whole life to live. And you're just now getting started. But it's incredible what you've already built. But let's take us back to India. Tell us about what that was like, and take us on that journey to what brought you to the US. Sure, growing up in India was very, very interesting. And I'm grateful that I got to born in country like Indian. Grew up there and then come to America in my adult life. Because when I came to America, I was 19 year old. But until then I grew up in India. And it was very different than here. We didn't had an internet. The first time I use the internet when I was in 11th grade at the school. So it was kind of interesting, but I have always been interested in technology, how stuff works. We have a lot of people in India, so the opportunities are very low. Because whatever you're about to do to get the job, the 15,000 other people are doing the same thing and willing to do the same work for half the price. So the competition is ruthless. So that kind of helped me build my character off being being very good at competing. So that kind of helped me a lot in later on in the business. But when where I grew up, we didn't have a lot of resources. So it pushes us to come up with new resources. So that's what it was like growing up there. I'm the only kid so I got my both parents attention and love. So I'm very grateful for that. And yeah, in school, I wasn't very smart when it comes to schooling. That's why then I went to college for a year and I dropped out after it. But I've always been interested in other stuff other than the school and I'm glad I focused on that stuff and that have helped me a lot. So what was it I think we talked before about you know, you had water like one hour a day and that kind of stuff. Tell us more about the village and like what kind of stuff did you did outside did you do outside of school that kept you engaged thinking about technology. sure! So that time when I was kid I have always been interested in technology. So I would I would not waste any chance to look at any electronics in anything that something different. So for example, I would open up whatever I have at my house that's not working and trying to repair it, fix it. I was pretty popular in my neighborhood because they all knew I could fix things, I could make things out of electronics so every time my neighbors they had a problem they will come to me they're like oh Ruth, can you fix this? Oh Ruth can you.. here we have this thing is broken, we're not going to use it do you want to keep it, you probably do something with it. So always like that. I used to ride a lot of bicycle when I was kid so that was a big part of my life. Just go to school riding bicycle, come home riding bicycle and when you come home from school, you ride bicycle with your friends. So that was kind of nice. So cool. So what.. very basic life there. It sounds.. simple life.. simple, but like joyfilled, you got a lot of love from your parents. Sounds like a really cohesive community. You're looking out for each other people coming to you. You're you're giving your skills like how old were you when you're helping these people with their technological stuff. I'm in like, seventh grade, eighth grade, I was pretty young that time is good. I was like getting in fights and getting kicked out of school when I was your age. You had something well, that happened to me too. I wasn't, I wasn't very good at school. So and I never did my homework, never ever did my homework, and failed every exam after sixth grade. So they had to push me to another next grade. So you're held back? No, they had to push me because they didn't want it to keep me hold me back in the same grade because I was a good kid just wasn't smart enough to pass the test. But I was smarter the other things? Yeah, I think there's a big difference between like, being smart within the rigid confines of a educational system, and passing standardized tests and stuff like that, versus like being you can think of, and what we're gonna get into some of the stuff you're doing is like, just really, really incredible. And you had a gift right there, even at a young age, you know, fixing just have a really deep intuition or something like that guiding you to understand that I think I was just extremely curious. Yeah. And that's what I'm in. I'm still am. And I just like to, I just like to see how things work. When it comes to people what now it's before it was just technology and the physical stuff. But now it's more like people how system works. So the Curiosity is the same. Just the focus has changed. Is there a process you walk through? When you're you know, you're curious about something? Is there a process you walk through, or quite specific questions you ask when you're trying to uncover? Yes, yes. I never... one rule I have since I was kid, I never look at the instruction manual, and try not understand anything by myself without looking at the book or reading about it and trying to analyzing. So what I would do is if I'm researching something, or if I'm looking for something, I would just do as much research as possible. First, I look at it, see how it's built, or analyze the situation and what's going on. And then I write a lot about it, like what my observations are. And after a write up my observation, I tried to come up with some kind of conclusion. And that's how I tried to figure stuff out. And then do you ever check back on the instructions or anything or you just, you know, go from there? No, I never, that's a rule. I have never checked the instruction. The first thing you open the box, the first thing you do is throw out the instruction. That's just who I am since the kid. I like that. Alright, so tell us then a bit more about coming to the States, like what was that? Like? What was going on your parents life? Maybe that that led to this call to come to the states and tell us about that? Sure. So growing up in India was different than here, because we lived in a joint family, my father's siblings he has three brothers. So all four siblings, we all lived in one house, my grandparents, we had a huge house. All the aunties, all my cousins, we all lived in a one house. But my uncle, when I was born, I was one year old and he got to come to America and he applied for his whole family to come to America when he got here. But we had to wait 18 years. So when I turned 19 my visa got approved. And then I got to come to America in 2015 sort of 18 years for your uncle put the paper we're gonna take 18 years for you guys to finally get approved. Yes. 18 years Yes. Yeah. So growing up I knew that my uncle's in America but when I was young, I knew what America was I knew was some other country but then you must didn't pay much attention but as I started getting older in my age, I started to understand what America is and what he's doing there. He was a pharmacist and I started having my own dreams one day I will go to America and have my own business one day and so yeah, it was always knew that I will come to America eventually. Wow. So what was like your perspective as a young kid you're riding your bikes doing your thing and not really worried about it but the once you started to learn about America, you know, your uncle's here and that sort of stuff? Maybe you're hearing stories from him? What was your perception of what America was like before you got here? I thought everyone in America was celebrity. Every car is fast. every woman's pretty. And every building saw that was my perception. And I landed in Miami airport and realized that's not the case. You're like, what the hell? These people were totally celebrities. I thought I thought everyone in America wore suit. And when I came to Miami airport, I saw people and the flip flops and shorts. I'm like, Oh, what is this? So it was different than expected but um, yeah, cuz you know, they show you different in TV show different and I didn't have much access to the internet to do research and all that. So whatever I learned in TV and from heard about other people. That was kind of basically it. Yeah. So I just had a thought about I'm curious to know, okay, I had heard of Bollywood, we have Hollywood here in the States. Yes. in Bollywood in India is what's what's up with that? Bollywood is the biggest film producer in the world. It has, like, ridiculous amount of movies like more than 30 movies a day. That's insane production. So it's, it's a big deal there. They make a lot of movies. I used to watch movies when I was kid. Not anymore. I haven't watched a movie like six years since I came to America. Yeah, I mean, you talked a bit about, you thought everyone would be dressed in suits. And no one can see this. And no one really knows this about you in this episode. But Ruth is always dressed so sharp, he has a nice suit on. He's always got a smile on his face. He looks like he's a man from the future. And he's always looking really good. We're about to go on a hike after this. And he's wearing, you know, even dressed up for that. It seems like I got shorts and a T shirt on and he's dressed up. But where did your taste for? I don't know, fine clothing or looking good. Did that come from back then in India? Or was it what you saw from the states? came from? I think it came from my parents. My father, I always seen him. I never seen him wearing a suit. But I always seen him very drescher and dress pen that he had he always dressed better than his peers. And so I'm grateful for my dad. Dressing always nice. And I wanted to do the same. And one thing I realized early my age was is people we all say people don't judge a book by its cover. We all do. Because we are human. That's what we do. We make judgment and we make our decision based on our judgment. And I'm a young when it comes to business. I'm very young, I started my business as 22 year old. So I was when I was going to all the meetings and trying to sell my services to the client, they were looking down on me and kind of not taking me seriously. So I'm like, Okay, I have to switch it. I'm not going to give them control how to look at me. I so I took the charge and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna dress for the what I am, who I am and who I want to be. And I started dressing that way and like to be honest with you, life has changed. Its dressing has a lot of power. How people look at you how people treat you. You know, when I came to America, I first two years I worked at Dairy Queen, my first job was working at Dairy Queen selling ice cream at night, I worked at warehouse of a working on a conveyor belt, filling up the boxes with medicine, stuff like that very labor oriented work, very hard work. But even those jobs, I was trying to, I was trying to dress the best I could. And that actually helped me get ahead of my colleagues or coworkers, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's very interesting how people treat you differently. Like, you go to a restaurant and you have a suit on and you go to restaurant with the shirt on. You can see the difference how people treat you. Even if you don't say anything, you just go and stand there. People have different view. about you. Yes. So that's why one of the reason I dress sharp because what I'm doing is very meaningful to me. And I'm solving a lot of problems. And I want the world to see that way. Yeah, just like it's like a sense of pride in what you're doing. And you're dressing about the man you want to become instead of you know where you come from maybe, man, that's powerful. I love that. And I think it's a reminder to all of us to take pride in like who we are and what we're working on and other people will respect that you know whether we're dressing up sharper, keeping our head up high, good posture, whatever it is treating ourselves with that respect. It's amazing man. The tacos you got off the airplane. I think you said what Three days later you're working at Dairy Queen and the first part. Sure. So I come to America on seventh April and as soon as the plane lands here and we are about to walk called the plane. I just feel it. I'm like, Ruth, your life is about to change. Your life is completely about to change. And now you're like, I felt like I'm the king of the world. When I get off the plane. I felt like now the new beginning, everything starting here new no one knows me in America, I don't have a penny in my pocket. I don't know, English. This is I have to start from like scratch in. That was exciting time. I wasn't afraid I was excited. So I come to America in three days, I find a job, help off my uncle. He's been here for 20 years, 26 years now. But at that time, six years ago, when I came to America, his one of his friends owned a dairy queen. So he took me there. And he was like, he told me you have to one thing you have to do in America is work very, very, very hard. And I was very, very, very ready to work very hard, because I was excited to make money because I have never worked in my life before. And I was excited because I was about to get paid $8 an hour. And that was a lot of money for me that time. So I started my first job before my jet lag was over. And yeah, ever since it's been going so well tell us more about that. Because you worked at your Dairy Queen for a couple years. And then how'd you get into drones from there? Sure. So when I was in India, as I said before, I was really into technology and understood. So I was right before I came to America, I made a drone. And I was selected, I presented that in the eye fast 2015. I was selected in India's top 40 for innovation, and it was a big deal. I when I came here, I never had any money. I knew I was gonna do some kind of business in my life, but I knew what. So I just started working at Dairy Queen and McKesson pharmacy, doing the labor job saving money as much as I could learning English. But at the same time, I was doing a lot of research, I was doing a lot of research because I'm like drones and technology is my passion. So I want to do I have to do something to turn my passion into profit. And so I just did a lot of research. And in two years, I had it I haven't done enough research in one day one night I was coming home like 4am from them my case a pharmacy job I worked hold dead Dairy Queen, I work all night and my kids and pharmacy super tired, like my eyes about to like, I'm like ready to fall asleep. I'm driving home. And I hear this podcast. And he was telling a story about Captain Cortez. And so the story is Captain Cortez was going to Aztec to fight for the treasure. I don't remember the exact but he had 500 men. And when they were on the way there they heard that the army against them. It's very huge, like way outnumbered they are very outnumbered. But Cortez didn't do anything that time. But when they arrived on the shore, everyone was like, Oh, we gonna, what are we gonna do now we're going to big army. So he burnt he didn't say anything. He burned out all the ships. And he said, if you go in home, you're going home in their ship. So no plan B, Plan A. And that's what I heard. And that's what I needed to hear. So next day, I talked to my boss and told him that I want to start my own business and I'm quitting my job because if I always do my job, that I'll never be able to focus on my business. So I quit my job both of them very risky, very dangerous. It's been only been two years in America, I don't know anybody only have enough money to buy the equipment. didn't have anything but you know, it always worked out. It Cortez, they they burnt the boats. And then they won. They they burned the boats, and they won. And that's what I kind of did. And I feel like I'm running to here. So I think when you have Plan B in your always in mind, you cannot focus on Plan A that's why get rid of the plan B and just go all in on what you do. Because if your attention splits, your energy splits too. And when your energy if you don't give your 100% energy to what you're doing, it becomes mediocre. And I didn't come to America to do that. mediocre Yes, absolutely. Amazing, man. Well tell us more about your business and how you went from like burning the boats quitting both your jobs like what was like imagine you were like in it, but like what was your life like starting then moving forward? Sure. It was scary. It was very, very scary coz I didn't I didn't knew anybody and I didn't have any experience working in any kind of business. And I knew how business where I knew how technology work. So I was trying to show people like with my broken English like oh, this is what I do and hire me. No one did, because why would they? Why would they? So I got very upset. And I started, I started analyzing the situation. I'm like, What am I missing? Why am I not doing anything? Like I burned my boats? It's scary, like what do I do? I cannot go back and because it will be embarrassing, I cannot, you know, cannot do that cannot because one stop people looking at me that way that Oh, he gave up, they always gonna think of me that I gave up. So I'm like, you know what I'm going to keep pushing. So I started making lists of all the companies that I want to work with. So for example, I would make in the morning, I would make like, okay, Tampa, I wake up super early, like 4am. So I'd make and the biggest thing I had in America was internet, I had access to internet 24 seven fast internet. So I'm like, okay, I was doing as much as research possible. So I would make a list of one cities, all the construction company I want to work with. And that time I didn't had a business card or anything so I would print the photos from staples, and just start knocking on those doors like 30 doors a day, 40 doors a day trying to go to their office and talk to them. A lot of people got upset that I walked into their front desk or trying to talk to them trying to sell my services. But nothing like that stopped me about um, after getting so many rejections, I started getting few clients. And I started building upon that, then I realize people don't, people are not looking for you to do some work and hire other people to do work and put together something people are looking for something easy that they can have access right away. So for example, like a coffee, even you go to Starbucks, you don't make your own coffee. The reason you go there, they make this quick, it's good and it's for what you what you need right away. So convenience. So I'm like, Okay, I need to instead of doing just to draw photography, I need to get into more engineering work. So I started talking to engineers, and I hired an engineer structural engineering, we doing a lot of roof inspection. I'm like, you know what, this is going very good. So I stopped my old company and established a whole engineering company. And now we are working with Energy, Agriculture and Infrastructure company. So for example, we did huge project in California in 2019, and 2020, inspected 1000s, and 1000s of powerline poles, and trying to see what's wrong with them using drones to check every single nut and bolt, cotter pins, so they don't start any fire because it gets very dry in California. If the power lines have a fault, and they fall down, it could start a big fire. So in 2019, in 2020, we have prevented 11 fires. We worked with a lot of hurricanes in Florida, in Texas, worked with snow storms in Pennsylvania, Ohio. So stuff like that, that's what we do is solve engineering problem and create solution that protect our planet and serve our communities. also preventing fire, serving in the hurricane, serving snowstorms, anything, there's a disaster, we are there to help make inspection process fast. That's incredible. So you went from hopping off the flight at Miami airport to getting a job at Dairy Queen to getting interested in technology. You got the internet and you decided to quit your job burn the boats. And you started a drone photography business. Is that what the first one was? That's what it was aerial photography. Yep. But I realize I'm much more than that. And more. I since I was kid, I had technical mind. So I want to use all that all the knowledge I had. And good thing about America, people are good. And it's easier to find good people. And I've been very blessed with having good people in my life. My, all the contractors that work for me. I just hired another lady who is a business admin. And she's incredible. So looking for that expansion too. And so, can you talk about like the you talked about commitment and focusing on one thing, what are the other keys you think, to success or lessons you learned on this journey that are really important to your success? I think number one thing, the first thing you got to have is your purpose. If you aren't, if you don't know why you're doing this, it's not going to you're not going to go very far. You know, use I'm sure you're going to make some money here and there, but you're not going to get the satisfaction that you get from doing the work. So I think the number one thing I will tell is to understand your purpose. Why do you want to do this don't just let it be purpose be money it has to be more than that. And you build you come up you find your purpose by doing the work you like, I really like flying drones in working with technology and I kept doing that and that got me the project to prevent fires. And after doing that work, we prevented those 11 fires, I found my purpose that I want to create solutions that protect our planet. So number one thing I would say, look for your look for your, your purpose. Second thing, you got to have a big, big, big vision, vision, having a vision is the art of seeing the invisible turn again, very having a vision is the art of seeing the invisible dime. Yes, because because, because look, if you don't have a vision, you don't know where you're going, you're just cruising, you just cruising, you're not getting out of anything out of life, you know, you're in that cruising level that or you're just going with the flow, only dead fish go with the flow. Sharks don't shark go against the flow, you know. And so having the vision is very important to find your vision, anyone if it's uncomfortable, it doesn't cost anything to dream big. You know, and because it actually helps you having bigger dreams, and bigger vision helps you because it's not the dream that you see while you're asleep. Dreams are something that you cannot flee because you have a big dream, because you want to work towards achieving those dreams. So those are the things commitment, purpose and having a vision and hard work. It's non negotiable. You have to work hard. I love that man. Yeah, that's good. Tell me a bit more about your vision and how it's morphed over time and how it drives you every day. I was, I was in California, I worked in 25 states in America, travel a lot, draw two more like I was out 300 days in one here, like on the road traveling, going to different states and all that. You see when you're traveling you see you know, people say travel makes you make some men wiser. It's not the travel makes a man wiser, it's the experiences you have and the people you meet. And when you think about it later on, that makes you wiser. So I had a lot of experiences, a lot of good and bad. And I was in California first day, we went to paradise city, and we have this project, we have to inspect the power lines, I get on my truck, and I put my foot down on the on the ground and just sinks in all ash, the whole city is burned down. That's when it hit me. Oh shit. This is like, this is not some play. You're not playing around. This is serious work. And that's when I realized if I could prevent one fire from happening, it could be the huge thing. So seeing that kind of helped me find my purpose. And I'm like, okay, after I saw the impact, I'm like, okay, it just me and my team could prevent 11 fires. Imagine what I can do in five years, 10 years. So I started developing my bigger vision. Right now we are using drones and other robots. But in the future, I want to have my own satellite in the space so we can solve even bigger problems. Damn, man. That's crazy. Can you talk a little bit about how the technology works and how you're really working to solve these problems? Sure. So so. So how traditionally, inspection are done in utility industries are using helicopters or bucket trucks or pole walking. We use drones autonomous drones, so and use artificial intelligence. So after inspecting 1000s and 1000s of structures, we have a lot of terabytes of data to train the AI model. So I use the use the data, I hired an engineer to kind of build an algorithm to kind of show the AI. What does the broken cell look like? What does the missing cotter pin look like what the corrosion look like? And we put that computer mini computer on the drone so while the drone is inspecting it recognize Oh, this is this bolt is missing a cotter pin. So it put it takes a picture annotates it and those data goes to engineer and engineers license. So he looks at it. he signs it in stamps, and that data goes to a recliner. So it's extremely accurate, extremely fast and very, very, very safe because you don't have to walk on the pole. You don't have to fly the helicopter too close to the line. And that just energy we work with infrastructure, which is very interesting work like using drones to do powerline inspection, bridge inspection. So after Hurricane Irma happened in 2017 in Florida we fly drones and just to do facade inspection, making sure buildings are safe for people to come back in who have evacuated safer to come back in people who have damaged their roof, hurricane have damaged their roof, we inspect those and trying to use that verified data from an engineer to send it to insurance company to get their claim approved and have the roof over their head right away. That's agric. That's infrastructure. There is more scientific studies, we do like traffic studies, which work I'm very, very proud of, because in America 6700 pedestrian die each year, each year in those are pedestrian related accidents. So we kind of came up with a solution, using drones to analyze the traffic, or mostly near schools in the busy traffic areas, understand how traffic moves there, how often people break, how quickly they accelerate how often people change their lanes, how people do how many people drive dangerously, in each window, in doing those analysis, we can come up with some kind of report. And we can make an adjustment in our infrastructure to prevent those accidents from happening. So stuff like that. In agriculture, we use drones to spray the fertilizer, pesticide. But before we do that, we use multispectral sensor that they use in satellite, but this is a miniature version of it. It takes a picture in different lights. So it looks at the leaf and how the light passes through the leaf of the tree. You can tell how old is the plant. And how healthy is the plant in what nutrition does it need. So for example, if we have a blueberry farm, we tell you the data like how much pesticide and fertilizer you need, in what spot and why do you need it? And how much do you need. So instead of spraying all over the farm, we tell you exactly how much and where and why you need to spray. So it saves company, tons of time, a lot of money and a lot of man hours. So those kind of work, what we do and continually come in with the new solution. That latest project I'm working on I got a grant from catapult$10,000. So I'm using that money to purchase a gas detector to using ennead. To use to put the gas detector on a drone, I'm building a whole drone six feet wide fixed wing drone look like a plane, but that's gonna the job jobs for that drones going to be fly all over the city and collect the air data understanding how much air pollution is in the air, how many toxic gases are in the air and trying to see what area of the city need more improvement because on the ground the data's are not very accurate because the all the cars are there and using plane is too high. So data is not accurate using drone, you can fly at any height from ground to 400 feet, depending on where you flying. And so yeah, you get a lot more accurate data, stuff like that. I love doing stuff like that, that actually do solve problems. Yeah. So you're you're providing the your client to the city or whoever the data that's very precise. So they don't have to be out there, climbing up ladders and fly helicopters around, you can be on their computer and look at the data and like holy shit, this data is accurate. And they can see insight on their actual asset. Because let's say if you if your utility company and the Hurricanes come in, you want to be ready for you don't want to be the company that you don't want to be the company that's behind who's always reacting, you don't want to be that you want to be the company that's preventing from stuff from happening. So that's why we help utility big utility companies preventing from stuff from happening. Amazing man, you talked before about the artificial intelligence and that sort of stuff. And this is completely out of my realm and maybe a lot of the listeners. So can you can you help me understand a little bit a high level of because you I believe you're developing those sort of things, right? So you're building the drones now and you're in you're developing the artificial intelligence, like what is that like? It's very interesting word. It's not as hard as it seems people think it's too complicated. It's actually very, very easy. I don't have any expertise when it comes to coding stuff like that. But I have expertise when it comes to hiring, I can put together team I can put together people and I can come up with ideas that team can make it possible. So I I got connected with this engineer who worked with BMW, some autonomous driving system. And he had just a quarter that time he was in very low position in that company. And I reached out to him and we talked and he was a very intelligent guy. I'm like, I have this terabytes of data for all the assets we have inspected, can we use that data to train the AI model to recognize when it sees that thing again. So for example, roof, we use drones to inspect roof and we usually takes 9 to 10 minutes to inspect one roof and get the data in 24 hours. So when the drone flies above the roof, it takes picture and it sees, oh, this is a broken tower, a recognized because it has seen 1000s and 1000s 1000s of pictures of broken tower. So it recognized immediately and captures it. So it's very simple. It's it's very simple for me to say it I can understand for audience, it's hard, hard to understand AI. But AI is, is AI is going to play a huge role in our future. So it's important for us to get on it right now and not get on it just kind of understand what it is and how it works. It could be used for good and bad just like everything we are trying to use it for good. I want to go down that a little bit more. What do you mean it can be used for bad? Can you talk about like some worst case scenario sort of stuff, just like money, just like any resources we have, it could be used for good and bad, like guns could be used to protect yourself and gun can be used to kill somebody or kill yourself like you know, and just like that. Drones could be used for good and bad, we try to use it for good. Like, I'm sure you heard about drone strikes and people use drone put the buck bombs on and hit the thing and all that that's a human nature that we cannot do anything about it. But what we can do is hold ourselves accountable in trying to do good with it. Or take us talk to us a bit more about well I think something that came up was no college education right but you took one class that was important that still relevant to you today. This you're applying to business tell us a bit about your ESL class English as a second language I took for like two months and that was it. But when I was in India, I went to engineering school for a one year and I feel every single exam so they were like alright, you can one semester, two semester I did and they're like I fail so I either do repeat the same year or a drop off so I dropped out and luckily time worked out perfectly that my visa got approved and I got to come America so I didn't go too much college but mostly my education came from reading I read a lot of books. And yeah just experimenting with different things that's came Yeah, it struck me when we talk one time before about you you and only let's say you fail each class but you took one class you're still applying today, Wasn't there a mechanical engineering class or something like that that you took or writing? Engineering writing or something like that. Engineering drawing. Drawing. Engineering drawing and then when I was in when I was in college I I used to I love technology. So I was like okay, engineering drawing is very very interesting because I could use it to make drones and use it for my own thing. So I took that class I actually paid attention in that and it's still helping me a lot right now. The drone I'm building the six feet wide fixed wing drone does gonna fly all over the city and collect the air pollution data. Yeah, um, because of the class I took in engineering drawing Yes, you fill all those classes but then you took you pay attention this one is still paying off for you today. Yes, I think was it Steve Jobs had he took a calligraphy class but fail all his overclocked other classes. And that's how he wrote the computer code. Yep. And that's why we have beautiful fonts in the computer right now because he took the calligraphy class because before that he was just all calculator looking boxy looking font, and it was just not pleasing. You know, it's good for computers. We are human. We need something artistic, because we are human and we have heart. Some of us do. Some of us do. Yeah, I think all of us do. People just haven't explored their you see it yet. Okay, tell us more about that. How do you explore your heart? You explore your heart by being extremely honest with yourself. Yeah. What's the process you that you go through? Or is it A lot of people. A lot of people lie to themselves. You can lie to anybody all over the world. But just don't lie to yourself. We all have been in deposition that you lie to yourself and trying to solve all things are good but actually are not. So how you explore your heart is just by being extremely honest by being tough on yourself not like because all people all over around you are good to you. People don't want to tell you the truth because they think they might offend you or stuff like that. People hold that back and we cannot let that happen to us because.. The only way you shine is by grinding because like, or, like, it's extremely important to have the right criticism, constructive criticism, and I think no one can give you better than yourself. because deep down inside, you know what's right and what's wrong. We just choose to ignore it. And when you stop ignoring, you can't explore t even furthe just automatic at this point that or that you would recommend the listeners if they need to be radically honest with themselves. tuned into their heart a bit more. Sure. Stop taking pride in yourself, and what do you do and start looking at yourself . Don't undervalue yourself, don't undervalue yourself. That's all. Yes. But then when you stop undervaluing yourself when you actually like, understanding your quirkiness and understanding your flaws, is good to have. It's good to have a inside offer, but it's not good to just only focus on those things. We understand your weaknesses, but don't dwell on them. Yes, exactly. Use that like my, I'll give you an example. When I came to America, my biggest weakness was communication. I could not talk to anybody. Like english, I didn't knew english, I was afraid. I was so afraid that I do not even went to a restaurant for two months, two, three months because I didn't know how to order food. Even I worked at Dairy Queen, I wasn't allowed to serve customer because I didn't speak English. I was afraid. My boss took us to breakfast place. And I was embarrassed to go there because I didn't know how to use fork and knife to eat pancakes. Like, but you can't dwell on that because I grew up differently. I grew up eating with my hands in India, like we grew up very traditionally. And we we never sat on a dining table to eat. We all sat on the ground in a circle like with family. We just eat with our hands traditionally, here it's things are different. So, but I could see like, Okay, oh, I'm different. And I don't know how to do it. And I keep it to myself and don't go out and don't. that blocks the progress and you cannot do that. So even though I was very uncomfortable that time. I'm glad I did that. You know? Is there a process you walk through now to keep yourself honest? I don't have any process but I just try to catch myself bullshitting. If I'm bullshitting, I tell myself okay, yeah, you can say that. But you know, it's bullshit. So just extremely honest with yourself brutally honest with yourself. You have any examples? Recently of times you called yourself out in your own bullshit. Yeah, I have many example. Like in the morning. I wake up early in the morning like 4am this morning, I didn't wake up early because I I, I was up late last night here working but when it's usually so I can understand that but like, sometimes even though I go to sleep early, and when it's time to wake up, the alarm goes off. Sometime I feel like I want to be in the bed. But I tell myself like don't be a bitch and be in the bed just get up and just you just have to be tough on yourself sometime because you know the reason we are having a lot of problems because people are too damn soft. Because people are their parents are soft to them. Society soft them all you cannot say anything to anybody, because they might get offended. No, fuck that. Be honest with yourself. Because you know, that's how you're going to, that's how you're going to grow. Like, literally that's like you blocking yourself by not being honest with yourself. Like you can lie to everybody in the world I don't give a fuck about but just don't lie to yourself. I think that's a big problem with like drugs, distraction, whether it's TV or overworking or food, or whatever, you know, we're distracting ourselves from feeling the discomfort of the reality that we're not living up to our true potential. You know what we're not we're not being honest with ourself. And that's a huge problem. And that's now having been here in the states and having lived here and really assimilated very well. You learn languages, you speak four languages, four languages, and you learn this, you know, really quick, your English is very good, obviously, and you build your business, everything else. How is your mindset shifted on the United States, you're thinking you're going to come here and see a bunch of celebrities. How is your perspective on the US shifted now? Um, well, it was the perception that I saw what wasn't TV I, I saw the reality as soon as I came here. And that's when I quickly realized, okay, this is the reality and what's the reality? That it's not on the TV? Like, what? It's completely different than what they show. So it's different. And now I see that so I have to adjust or move in a way. It's good to see. That's why what I said about vision, it's good to have the vision. So you can so let me give an example. Like, let's say, we live in Lakeland, right? If you want to go to Tampa at night, and you have a car, and but some people might say, Oh, shit, it's dark, I cannot see anything outside. And the light can only go 200 feet far, I cannot see anything further than that. But if you know, you're going to tampa while you drive that car at night in you see 200 feet, but more 200 feet, further you go, the road gets even more clear and clear. And eventually you get to your destination. So I think how my perception have changed, is it's it's always changing. It's continuously changing. Because what I know today, I didn't knew yesterday. So it's helping me navigate through the systems a lot easier. Now. I'm curious to know from you know, having now lived here for five years, there's a lot of like, political unrest and all this sort of stuff going on at a high level within within the United States. What does it look like from your, from your eyes, what's going on here? I try not to associate with myself in any political, I have never voted in my life. I turned 18. In India, I got, I gained my right to vote. But I come to America, there was no election that time. And when I came here, I cannot vote until I become a citizen. So and I've been in America for six years, I'll be citizen this year. What I've seen with people that they are just fighting, they're looking for a reason to fight in this politicians are using and leveraging that divide, to gain the power or people. So that's what I see with the politics. And it has became clear that is not only in America, it's in India, it's in Sri Lanka, it's in Australia, it's in Canada, its in Mexico, it's all over the fucking world. So people use use, people to fight against each other. And they gain power. Because more divided you are more vulnerable you are and more easily it's easier to rule population that is divided in that's what all, all the other. That's what been happened since the beginning of humankind history. And people are still fail to see that. That's what's happening right now, that happened 1000s of years ago, hundreds of years ago, 10 years ago and it's going to continuously happening. The only way to predict the future is to understand the history. But people don't want to his day. They don't want to learn the history. They want to learn the selective history that makes them feel good. Or gives them the facts that they can talk to their friends, make them look cool. But do they really want to do that? It boils down to being honest with yourself, you know, why do you want to do this? And it shows a bunch of a bunch of people unwilling to be honest with themselves and face their own flaws and weaknesses, perhaps and they're projecting on other people. Yeah, and we all been there. That's what we do. We are humans, we are not robot, we not supposed to be perfect. But the thing we have is we have the understanding, but after we understand we cannot continually doing that. That Yeah, and that's why people have a problem with anxiety, stress, all that because they know they're showing themselves as something else. But in reality, that they're different. So they have to find, always look for that. And that's why people having a lot of mental issues. 100% I don't know that. But that's what my conclusion is. No, well, I'm 100% agree with you on that, for sure about, really about all areas, but it even comes, it seems like it boils down to, you know, we're thinking about the masses, let's say are being controlled by these corporations, or the politicians or whoever it is just pulling the strings and the way they're doing that by keeping us divided. But the way we can take back our power is by being radically self honest. And understanding where we are playing, you know, a role on this. And so it's interesting that, you know, all comes back to you and you know, you have clearly taken ownership of your life. And you've really created some really powerful here, man. So it's inspiring to see what sort of get up at 4am you tell yourself stop being a bitch. But what sort of like habits and routines that you have, beyond being radically self honest, that are still serving you here today? Well, reading books, I like reading books, because reading books are the greatest friends of humankind, if you have a book and a garden, you have everything you need, everything you need in the world. And so just just educating yourself, just because I didn't go to college, doesn't mean I'm not educating myself. You can educate yourself from you can even educate yourself from kids, you can educate yourself from the older people, other people are people different than you, there's always something to learn from that people because the how we learn is based on our experiences in everyone else has a different experience than you had. So what they know, is probably different than you know. So just keep it's good to have the open mind and learn from others not look at yourself that you know everything. I mean, we like to think that way. And it makes us feel good. But is it the truth? No, we don't know anything. We don't know everything. There is no such thing as the facts. It's all our conclusion that human have made, you know, so just reading and just I just tried to be like, very conscious of what my older said older self think of me because because my older self not gonna think of me like, Oh, yeah, you didn't. You didn't, you didn't succeed. You didn't succeed in business, because you didn't knew how to speak English. No, that's the stupidest reason to give, like, you know, we all know, like, if you just put in an effort you can learn. And I'm the example I have learned, you know, and I really like this quote from I read long time ago by Marcus Aurelius. What we do now echoes in eternity. What we do now echoes, and it always stays with, you always know that you did that. So I try to be very mindful of what I do and how I do it. Because it's always going to be part of my existence that I did it in the past, you know, so clear, man, I love it. Alright, so when I think about technology, I think about science. And when I think about those things I think about on the opposite end of the spectrum is like spirituality. And things, you know, that on the opposite end is things you can't see. And some of these mystical things. I'd be curious to know like, where you're at with, like, your spirituality. And if you ever dive into any of those sorts of different that, you know, the other side of the spectrum there? What's that, like, for you? Sure, I think spirituality, spirituality and the science are two sides of one coin, they go both hand in hand, you cannot have one with other. So. So what I think about is, is just because you're good at science good gives you like, deed once the advantage of stuff makes your life better. And all that what spirituality gives you it's kind of like you see like a morals and ethics, and stuff like that kind of like use that for good. So you science for good. So that's why, My what? I don't know much about being spiritual. But what I do know, because my intentions are good. I'm using this technology for do something for good. I mean, some person can use the same technology to destruct. Why, you know, instead of making weapons of mass destruction, why do we Why don't we make machines of mass construction that helps people you know, so just being a good person allows you to be connected more with yourself, being honest with yourself, and that allows you to create things in the world that are going to serve humanity. Yeah. Love it, man. Tell me more about well, is there anything else that you would want to pass on to a 19 year old kid? Maybe he's coming over from a different country or he is wanting to start a business? What would you What do you tell a 19 year old kid right now I would tell a 19 year old kid that don't be afraid to break rules that society have made. Everything around us is made by just people like you and me. And we kind of have this thing that, Oh, this is a reality. We have to accept it. No. No reality is very, very flexible, and everyone has power to bend it. So if you're a 19 year old, don't worry about the rules that society have made for you that Oh, yeah, you have to act a certain way you have to do this certain Way, No, fuck those rules, make your own. You know, I'm saying I'm not saying go break the law. I'm not saying that don't take me wrong on that. What I'm saying is just stand for something. If you're 19 year old, don't worry about the rule and stand for something. Because if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. And you don't want to fall for anything you want to fall for something that you stand for. So find what you want to be what kind of man you want to be what kind of women you want to be how you want your older self to look at you. You know, being in the arena is still better than being outside in the arena. being criticized in arena is still better than criticizing those in arena. You know, history book only favored those who are in the arena, not outside. So don't worry about the people don't worry about anything. Just worry about you enduring about the rules. I love it, man. That's amazing. So tell me a bit then push a little bit further. How does someone know which arena they want to go into? Because I think what you just said is relevant for the rest of our lives. Guaranteed. But what if I'm lost? I feel like I want to be in the arena. I know that these rules are bullshit, but I need to go somewhere. What do I need to do? Try it out. Don't be afraid to try things out. Don't be afraid to fail. That's the biggest advantage we have that we can fail. You know, we can fail. Robots cannot fail the robot if the robot fail it get replaced human have the upward ability to faill because we are humans, we understand. We can improve robot can improve. So we have to understand that we are not some kind of machine. We are human and human fails. And just because you were thinking this yesterday doesn't mean you have to stick with it your entire life you can change my you can change your mind and be open minded. So if you're a 19 year old and people all your friends are all talking about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and you don't want to do it, don't fucking do it. Do it. Do if you're artistic person you like making stuff out of clay. Do that. If you like looking at the bird, do that be so damn good at looking at the birds that people come to you talk about birds, when when they want to design an airplane, they want to talk about the aerodynamics, they come to you talk to you because you know the birds, you know, so and I'm just giving you that as an example. So don't be bounded by like, okay, I studied computer engineers, the only thing I can do is this. No, that's a rule society has set for you. Those are the rule. I'm talking about breaking my parents when I grew. When I dropped out of college, my whole family ready to disown me. Because if you're Indian, you only supposed to be engineer, doctor or lawyer. And I was a failure to them. Because I wanted to start my own business in people like, Oh, you playing with drones? toys? Good. Very good. What are you going to do? What's your future plan? What are you going to do people still come to me and tell me like, Oh, you need to get a college degree? Hell no. No, like, just because it worked out for somebody else doesn't mean it's going to work out for me, you know, so. And I'm not afraid to fail. Even if I fail. I take responsibility. And that's why actually helping me venting a lot in pushing because, see, when you become fearless people feed off your energy. People are kind of see you like, Oh, he's not afraid to fail. So you win if you fail if you join him in when if he fails, it's all gonna be on him. And I'm not afraid to take any responsibility to fail. And that's why it helping me. Dude. That was good. But one thing you said said in there that was just like a really stood out to me was one of our biggest advantages of being a human is that we can fail. Yeah, that's like a huge paradigm shift. We were you know, everyone's so scared of failure. They don't want to be seen this way. They don't be seen as a failure. But to flip it around and say that's our biggest advantage. Makes you invincible. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Like if you like, you know, in some political opponent, like if you're a politics like all you have some shared in, in your past that you did, and people use that against you. But if you just go out and say it publicly accept that, that they don't have any power over you, just like that. When you understand that you are allowed to fail, because we are human. Then you become then you don't feel like profound man. That's beautiful. I love that I feel that we keep going here. But is there anything else that you think would be important for important to share with anybody who might be listening to this or this coming up for you that you want to talk about? I think just what one thing I say is just be proud of who you are. No matter what you're doing, even if you make in french fries at McDonald's. I did that. I did that be so good. making those french fries because how you do one thing, that's how you do everything. So be good at one thing, if you're writing something, write it with passion. If you're writing email, don't worry about if it's going to take two days, three days to write that email. You know, people say like, you know, one thing I learned about from Leonardo da Vinci, a book I read about him, he says, masterpiece is never finished, it's always abandoned. So don't worry about keep make try and keep perfecting it. Make yourself a masterpiece and keep perfecting it keep perfecting don't get stuck on that. I do this that society want me to do this. My parents want me to do this. My friends, look at me this. I have this opinions. Because and if I change it, how are they going to look me? Don't worry about any of that. If you have opinions, and all your followings are because of that opinion. In the morning, you feel different, do that. You will have other followers, people might hate you for doing that. But you know what, at least you will be proud of yourself that you did something for yourself, not for everybody. So that's all I say. That's That's good, man. So tell me I want to since you're here, I want to talk a bit more about the future. What is the future look like? And you know, you talk about a satellite some of these other things. But like, at a macro level, though, what is the future going to look like here in the States or maybe even around the world in the next 5-10 years? That voyageurs my company's name is Voyager. So it's going to be known for the most innovative problem solving company in the world. That's the thing that's in I'm not doing that because I want to I want to get that title. I don't give a fuck if I get the title or not. I just want to get the satisfaction that with technology, that's something I created something is my passion, something that I started and I'm doing very good with it. And I'm creating jobs for that and people loving those job because who doesn't like driving trucks and flying robots, they come on, you go up in the mountain you do inspect stuff, autonomous work, got to work with the cool technology. So creating jobs creating solution solving more problem helping people that's the future what looks like I don't have a plan because no one has a plan. plan doesn't work because we never get a trial life. We only get one shot. And we all try to view all all every human on Earth is experimenting. We don't know the truth. We don't know what's holding next second. We don't know what the meteors heading our way. It's going to hit us. No one knows that. So I try not to make plan but I try to see the bigger picture like okay, this is what I want to go. And when it comes down to what I said earlier vision. I don't know how it's going to be but I have a vision. And I'm seeing the impossible right now. Like innovative company solving bigger problems, massive problems that so that's kind of where we are headed. crazy, man. Well, I don't know, man. I feel like I want to keep you ask great question by the way. You are like one of my asking more questions favorite podcasts I've done I've done like six podcasts. But this my favorite one because you are such a great questioner and actually get the stuff out of me. I love it. Well, you're dropping a lot of bomb. So thanks for making so easy. What else should I ask you right now? Whatever. Ask me whatever.. keep going. Ask me whatever So so you guys can't see this. But Ruth just made a gesture of what he wants me to ask them. So, so and what that specifically was was about psychedelic mushrooms. And just where you're at with that, what got you into that and how it's affecting your life and and what would you What would you want to say about that? Well, it played a huge role, to be honest with you understanding in understanding myself, because it's something that no one knows about. See, we all are experimenting. And I'm not saying anyone to go experiment with that kind of stuff like I did, but like I was in California, and we were inspecting and one off my coworker. He was like, Oh, you see this we have a lot of cow poop around it because we were like working up in the mountain like deep in the mountains. And I've never seen the psychedelic mushroom before and he was very all into that. And he was like, you know, this is a this is it. This is then he educated me on it. I'm like, you know what, I'll sure I'll try it. And I tried it once and it was it was a great experience and It was, I got to see inside of myself. And it was kind of good, it was a good mystical experience that I had. And I recommend, I would recommend somebody if they want to do it don't do overdose or anything. I think you should consult an expert about it. But it's a great, great tool that human had. Seeing the inside that sometimes we get too worried about, the stuff outside goes outside of herself, and all the extra nonsense. And I think, when it comes to psychedelic, it helps you. If you use it in the right manner, it helps you look into yourself and be better. Well, if we're talking about the idea of our own personal problems, then also multiplied out to societal problems. A big part of that is we're not being radically self honest with us. And my experience with psychedelics, which we can talk more about on another episode, or go a bit more into because I think you said a lot of really important things, this isn't for everybody, you need to consult the expert, you need to understand what you're getting into. But there's an opportunity with these medicines, this, these mushrooms or some other ones we're working with, there's the opportunity to really get look yourself in the mirror and pick out these things. You're you're missing out. That's what it does. I think psychedelics, put a mirror in front of you, and shows you who you really, really are not the self you show to the world that you want to show it to the world. No, but the thing that you are, that's, and that's when you realize you cannot lie to herself too much, you know. And that's when I realized in that things have changed a lot. And I'm very grateful for that experience, because I wouldn't be here if I hadn't that. Haven't had that experience, or I say spiritually, I wouldn't be here spiritually where I'm at, you wouldn't be made of the same quality of character. Yes, if you if it wasn't for the mushrooms, yes, I would be working for money not solving problems, or, I mean, you know. So I want to be bold and say that everyone needs to try some mushrooms, and especially at the high levels of politics and corporate corporate structures, so they can have a bit more of a heart, which is where that came from a bit more integrity, a bit more authenticity with how they're showing up. You know, they're not put on this front at work, but then go home and beating their wives and dragging themselves into oblivion. Exactly, exactly. It gives you the good insight, it gives you what you need, not what you want. Yes. It's like nature's technology, nature's technology. And that's why it goes right. It goes right along with science, you know, because science is good, but science sometime lacks morality and ethics. We can balance that using the natural medicine, man. I love it. All right. Well, let's wrap it up here, man. But I wanted to ask one more question before I go. What's the legacy you want to leave behind when you die? I never thought about it. I never thought about what legacy i want to i i thought about it many time, but I never actually came up with an answer what I want to leave behind. But I would like it to be something good, not money. I would like it to be something maybe creating a company that even if I die continually solving the problem and helps the humanity continually protecting our planet. And in the future maybe other planet that will live on Ruth Patel. I'll link all your information in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on. This has been value pack man. It's really really good. I appreciate this. And yeah, let's have you back some time. Thank you very much. I really really enjoyed it.