Software Monetization Featured Article

Change is hard. But sometimes, when realize your lifestyle or business plans are limiting your potential – and maybe even harming you – it can spark change.

That’s what happened with Rich Roll. And it’s what’s happening at many organizations in light of digital transformation and the related need to embrace new licensing platforms and processes to support software-centric business models.

In an effort to help businesses decide to embrace change, Gemalto (News - Alert) hosted ultra athlete Roll at its recent LicensingLive! event. There Roll emphasized “the power of decision” and told the story of how he transformed himself from an overweight, middle-aged alcoholic into an elite athlete, vegan, and best-selling author.

It all started, Roll said, when he became winded and had chest pains after climbing a staircase. His mother had warned him of heart disease in the family. And Roll, although a successful corporate lawyer with degrees from Stanford and Cornell, had a drinking problem that caused him to have scrapes with the law.

However, the staircase event provided Roll with a moment of clarity that led him to a rehab facility in rural Oregon, where he stayed for 100 days. His counselor there said he only had to change one thing: everything. That led Roll to surrender, realign his compass, eat only plants, lose weight, gain energy, focus on things that create primal joy, consider human potential for change, and ultimately catapult himself into the world of ultra-endurance sports.

In 2008 and 2009 Rich was a top finisher at the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii. A year later Rich and his pal Jason Lester completed five ironman-distance triathlons on five Hawaiian islands in less than a week.

Since then Rich authored the book Finding Ultra, collaborated with his wife to write The Plantpower Way, launched a podcast, and began delivering motivational speeches such as the one at LicensingLive!