Given his background at BP and his current affiliation with U.S. Oil, I was skeptical of John Melo's dedication to solving the world's energy crisis, but after hearing him speak I, like others I'm sure, am convinced that he and Amyris are on the right track. The fact that he had the willpower to leave a lucrative job at BP to focus on green technologies speaks to Mr. Melo's commitment to playing a leading role in affecting global progress. I appreciated his passion and his foresight as well as his optimism that our problems will disappear provided that people can focus their energies on solving them.

I was really encouraged by this seminar. The comment that got my attention was that the company uses the number of lives that they can save as their major goal for performance. This goes along the other social entrepreneurship seminars that we have had this year and shows that it is clearly expanding. Additionally, I was really encouraged by Mr. Melo's advice of being patient and not being afraid to wait until the right opportunity appears depending on what one really wants to do. To me that is stepping out of the comfort zone because most times those opportunities take a long time to come and others that are not so good start to appear better, and one can end up taking those due to the lack of patient. Good talk.

I would agree with most of the posts in this thread that John Melo should be commended for making a transition to a seemingly competing sector - that is, from BP to Amyris.  But my take from the talk was that he wasn't "leaving behind" his great job at BP for a more worthy cause, or however we interpret Amyris' work to be; rather, John saw another great career opportunity and went for it.  His job title at Amyris is, after all, CEO.

I've often thought about my own future career choices - whether to search for those esteemed lucrative jobs that don't quite catch my interest as much, or to be satisfied taking up something perhaps less rewarding in monetary terms but supports a cause I feel strongly about.  I think John's career path shows that you can do both - have your cake and eat it too.  He works for a company that is geared towards change that he is proud to be a part of, and at the same time, it doesn't sound like he took a step down on the corporate chain since he is still in a great position career-wise.  This point further emphasizes his last message of being patient for the right opportunity.

Coming from a place that has nothing to do with biotechnology, his achievement of having worked at BP is already beyond imagination.   His move to become an entrepreneur from already such a superior position is nothing most people could do.  And his work on reducing the cost of curing malaria for those who need help is nothing but impressing.  His positive energy toward possibilities as an entrepreneur is something I have to look up to and something I always wanted to have.  His last comment during the presentation encouraged me a lot because this is what I have always believed; “just be patient, the best opportunity will come to you.”  It means a lot when I hear what I believe especially from someone so successful.

A truly inspirational man, I was greatly impressed by his patience and passion.  It seems that those are very important qualities for any successful entrepreneur and Mr. Melo embodied them to the core.  The switch from BP to Amyris demonstrates his commitment to entreprenuership and his courage to follow his passions.  A very admirable man.

I have consistently been more intrigued not by the content of each speaker's presentation regarding their company or group, but rather by the advice and anecdotes they can impart upon us regarding how they reached their success. For John Melo, his advice at the very end to not be impatient and jump on early opportunities is interesting advice. He encourages everyone to not stop pursuing their dreams, and to be patient to wait for the right opportunity to come along. I'm hesitant to follow that advice, because I feel like as we get older, the window of opportunity begins to close up; who can say whether our individual success manifests itself in months or in years. Obviously Mr. Melo is reflecting upon his own success, so there is some merit to his advice, but I do believe there is risk in this approach, with the expected higher reward for taking such risk. I guess this would be considered stepping out of one's comfort zone.

I am really impressed by John Melo’s courage to pursue his dreams and change his career path. He mentioned he dropped out from college to start a business. That requires courage. Not to mention his success in BP without any related background because his major was electrical engineering. The latest jump from BP to Amyris also demands courage.  Not everybody has courage to switch from high position in a big company to a startup company. It seems to me there are always opportunities in our lives. But not everybody can grab these opportunities. I think one of the reasons is that not everybody has that kind of courage to step out of his comfort zone.

Coming from a corporate background myself, I can imagine how much courage and and vision John must have had to leave such a major oil company and start a new career advanture.  His advice at the end to not jump on early opportunities was an insightful one.

With the discussion on this forum, many people highlight key points of what entrepreneurship should genuinely be about. The main one, I believe, goes back to Melo choosing to resign as vice president. As Daniel alluded to above, when people can see beyond the financial components of industries and can avoid the self-titles and recognitions, we see the characteristics of the people who are fit to effect change in the world flourish. These people, thus, are the ones who value passion and genuine interest over what will bring personal self-gratification.