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In December of 2005, Sridhar Deivasigamani was standing in his basement, ankle deep in water, looking at his leaking water heater. Little did he know, it was a moment that would change his life--and change the world.
In Hot Water reveals the power of finding your purpose--and the power every single one of us has to make a difference, to take small actions that can truly change the world.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One: All Great Ideas Start in the Basement
Chapter Two: Origins: Town and Country
Chapter Three: School Days
Chapter Four: Into the Real World
Chapter Five: Siva Akasam—Cook, Creator, and Master of the Prototype
Chapter Six: Inventor to Entrepreneur to CEO
Chapter Seven: Building a Business, Being a Leader
Chapter Eight: Air and Water: The Nexus of Energy, Health, and Safety
Chapter Nine: The Climate Is in Crisis—and We Are All the Solution
Conclusion
Appendix
The Intellihot Water Heater
Contact
About the author
SRIDHAR DEIVASIGAMANI is the CEO of Intellihot Green Technologies, and co-inventor of Intellihot's unique and groundbreaking water heating systems. Born and raised in the small town of Tiruchirapalli in India, Sri moved to the United States in 1996, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Clemson University before working at Caterpillar as a mechanical engineer with a focus on marine engines and control systems, gaining 16 years of experience with non-perfect mechatronics. In 2009, Sri left Caterpillar to found Intellihot with his co-inventor, Siva Akasam, who is now CTO of Intellihot. In his spare time, Sri likes to work on motorcycles and robotic lawn mowers at his home in Vernon Hills, Illinois.
Summary
We are all interconnected, extrinsically and intrinsically. We all live on the same planet, breathing the air and drinking the same water. There is no doubt we are all affected by global events affecting our air and water— and each and every one of us is responsible for our collective fate. Climate change is not someone else’s problem. It is our problem.
Unfortunately, our air and water are currently more contaminated than they have ever been. This overwhelming, globe-spanning, life-threatening crisis may seem like too enormous a problem to tackle—but hope should not be lost. Even the most seemingly insurmountable problems can be solved if many people all take small actions. All those individual choices made by individual people can add up into something huge.
In this remarkable book, Sridhar Deivasigamani, CEO of Intellihot Green Technologies, shares his journey from rural India to the forefront of cutting edge of green technology, taking us through the series of seemingly unconnected events that led him to his true passion and calling: reinventing technology in our Built Environment starting with water heating, an industry that had not seen any major innovations in a hundred years.
Creating an innovative new product in this industry was not a smooth and straightforward path. From experimenting in the basement, to building prototypes from scratch, to getting the product certified and bringing it to market, to finding customers and investors, to building a brand and figuring out how to successfully scale up production, Sridhar was always pivoting, always reinventing, and always repeating his mantra: How hard can it be? Here, he shares the countless lessons he learned on his path from inventor to entrepreneur to CEO of business bringing an innovative new technology to market and disrupting a stagnant industry—most important among them the lesson of always staying true to your passion, vision, and values.
Sridhar also demonstrates that “going green” or adopting a sustainable lifestyle doesn’t always require spending more, changing behaviors or being saddled with complicated tasks. Intellihot has proven it, with products that cost less to own, cost less to operate, occupy less space, are more reliable and more efficient, and are safer and healthier. It’s a value proposition that is economically compelling—while also being vastly better for the environment.
In Hot Water shows us the power of finding your purpose, the power of innovation and entrepreneurship—and the power every single one of us has to make a difference, to take small actions that can truly change the world.
