Clay Alexander

“Don’t be afraid of failure. I think you have to be willing to take big risks all the time, and when you get knocked down, you’ve just gotta get right back up. That's been my formula to success.”

Location

WestLake Village, CA

Average Work Week

80+

Most of the world’s most ground-breaking inventions feel like big ideas and small ideas at the same time: half fantasy and half detail-oriented tinkering. Clay Alexander founded his company Ember right along those lines, taking the minute idea of temperature control for individual portions of food and applying it to every conceivable kind of dish ware. Following its inception in 2012, Ember debuted the world’s first self-heating coffee mug to wild success, and the journey continues from there. Look out, plates and bowls.

Though Alexander’s family was nomadic when he was little, his mother always made sure her ingenious young son had a designated space to invent and create. Watch the video above to learn how Alexander turned a career dream as vague and ambitious as “inventor” into a reality through internships, problem solving and more.

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My Advice

Don’t be afraid of failure. I think you have to be willing to take big risks all the time, and when you get knocked down, you’ve just gotta get right back up. That’s been my formula to success.