How superstar geneticist Craig Venter stays ahead in science

"I get good ideas every day. The secret is learning how to execute them."

Craig Venter is the ultimate late bloomer. As a child, he preferred going surfing to doing schoolwork, performed badly in academic subjects and spent his formative years on Californian beaches. Despite this, he would go on to make his name as a pioneer in synthetic biology.

In 2000, Venter led the private team that raced against the government-sponsored Human Genome Project to sequence the complete human genome. They succeeded - years before the expected end of the programme. In 2010, he announced that he had created the first synthetic cell.

Venter is now chairman and CEO of the J Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit genomic research organisation. He is also executive chairman and co-chief scientist of synthetic biology company Synthetic Genomics, as well as executive chairman and head of scientific strategy at genomics-based health firm Human Longevity. Not bad for a slow starter. WIRED asked him how he manages to achieve so much.

Where do you get your work ethic?

The Vietnam war changed me. I was shipped out to the Da Nang Hospital during the Tet Offensive. I dealt with thousands of young men who didn't make it back and learned at an early age that the worst thing you can lose is your life - taking risks and suffering setbacks is part of moving forward. I came out of it highly motivated and I try to put that to use every single day. What people miss today is how 99 per cent of success is what they call 'sweat equity'.

What’s your philosophy?My mentor at the University of California, San Diego, was the late Nate Kaplan, the co-discoverer of coenzyme A. I studied under him when I left the Navy. He always used to say that ideas were a dime a dozen. He probably had ten brilliant ideas every day, but he didn't have the means to make them real. I think the same thing. I get good ideas every day - the secret is learning how to execute them.

What do you let slide?

I am competitive, but some races are not worth winning. When hierarchies don't allow you to make progress, I'll leave the track they've set and find a new way to do it. That's threatening to some people's social order. I've come in for a lot of criticism in the past for that reason, but I've learned to deal with it. It's one thing when people shoot criticisms at you. It's different when somebody's shooting rockets. It puts things in perspective.

What’s the secret to managing a team?

I'm not a micro-manager. I have a philosophy of hiring the best people and giving them complete licence to do their job. That's how we sequenced the human genome in three years when the government said it would take ten. I said at the start it would either be the most spectacular success story or the biggest flame-out. But I had no trouble sleeping because we had five teams of the world's top scientists who knew that if they failed the whole operation was in trouble - and each team exceeded expectations.

Craig Venter's secrets for success

Motivating a team: Most people are happiest when they're working hard on a large team, dealing with a big idea. It doesn't matter if it's Nobel laureates or kids just out of school.

Morning routine: No two days are the same. My genome is a fast metaboliser of caffeine, so the one thing that's always there is the two to four cups of coffee I have when I wake up.

Top email hack: I either answer them instantly or not at all. I'm getting close to a strategy where I don't read most emails, because it encourages people to find other ways to tell me.

Key mantra: That you'll always get a second chance.

Worst habit: Not suffering fools gladly.

How do you make decisions if you’re torn?

There’s a fine line between intuitive thinking and delusions of grandeur – although I personally never have any doubt that things are going to work. Creating the first synthetic cell is the kind of research the government wouldn't have funded because I doubt we could have convinced a grant committee the problems were solvable. But I was certain we could.

How do you handle stress?

My English teacher in community college said most people are at their most creative when their pleasure tanks are full. I have adrenaline-junkie hobbies: sailing, riding motorcycles and racing cars at high speed. Knowing that if you don't give something your full attention you might die clears out the baggage of the daily grind. After that, ideas just come to me. Not from sitting down trying to have an idea.

How are your people skills?

I'm not known for being a patient person - though I'm getting better. There are people in both business and science who can't bring a project to completion; they're not closers. But usually they self-select out of our organisations.

How important is a good night’s sleep?

We can detect diseases up to 20 years before you have the symptoms, and that's only going to improve. Age is the number-one risk for most diseases, so avoid hypertension and diabetes. Don't eat too much and exercise a lot. I have a personal trainer three mornings a week and, yesterday, I rode 500 laps of a track on my motorcycle. If you do that you'll sleep pretty well.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK