Meet The Inventors: Mark Fuller of WET On How To Go From Idea To Store Shelf

Learn everything you can while in school. — There is nothing you could learn that if you do won’t come in handy someday. We remember Steve Jobs who said he wandered into a calligraphy class and that led into script writing onto a computer, who would have thought. I took theatre classes and they ended up finding their way into the engineering I do now. Learn everything you can, I promise it will come in handy. And when you’re up for a promotion, and you’re up against those that just followed the college catalogue, you’ll have something you learned that they didn’t.

As a part of our series called “Meet The Inventors”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Fuller.

Mark Fuller is the CEO (“Chief Excellence Officer”) and visionary force of WET (Water Entertainment Technologies), the world leader in water feature design and technology. His creativity and innovative spirit have led to the creation of The Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas, The Dubai Fountain, Revson Fountain at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the Cauldrons at the XXII and XIX Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and Sochi, Wynn Palace in Macau, and Aquanura at The Efteling in the Netherlands, to name just a few. The company has launched over 260 features in 20 countries and is comprised of over 300 designers, architects, engineers, scientists, animators, choreographers, cinematographers, machinists, and a myriad of other talents.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up in a small town in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a conservative, modest family. From the outside view, we were considered poor. I remember every Wednesday driving up to get a hamburger for $.15 and that was a treat for us. My grandfather (who never went beyond the eighth grade), was always inventing something like the table for us to eat our hamburgers in the back of our sedan. My father was born in 1915 and wanted to be a creative writer. He published stories and wrote a book that never got published during the Great Depression where he worked on the Civilian Conservation Corps for President Roosevelt. My father was very creative in the literary sense. He rode the rails in a boxcar under the freight trains and would stay in hobo camps. I remember vacationing next to where Steinbeck grew up. We were always a very close family. One of my most memorable trips was going to Disneyland. Disneyland was a big deal for us, given our family economics. We never owned a new car, and if we got a new one, even if it only had one previous owner, we thought we were in the money. We drove to Disneyland when there were no divided highways at the time — it was a 10-hour drive to Las Vegas, and another 5–6 hours to Anaheim, California. We didn’t have air conditioning in the car either. Once we arrived to Disneyland, I fell in love with the idea of creating these wonderful worlds — creating a vision of what life could be. I went on to work for Disney post-grad, as a Disney Imagineer — a dream come true.

I don’t claim to be a published writer, but my mind works in stories on putting things together. Even for our most recent launch, the Expo Dubai 2020 Water Feature, that was just unveiled, we published a book on the making of the feature. As human beings, I believe we invest ourselves in stories. Even before the written language was handed down, it was told in stories, encapsulating versions of people. This informs a lot of the work we do. We need to be able to tell the story to hang all the pieces together in our work.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I love Steve Jobs’ quote: “Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

I like to do things that change the world, that affect people. When people see the work we do, I want to make them feel something — cry, stand in silence, and view water as a driving force. With our most recent feature for the Expo Dubai 2020, we are bringing together some 25 million plus people from around the world, creating a fantastic place.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I love Mary Poppins; it’s one of the last things Walt Disney made and the storyline is really magical. I also love Jurassic Park- someone digging in the ground and you’re wondering if they can really find that petrified DNA. Game of Thrones is another favorite. I think the story people miss here in the writing is the idea that miracles only existed in another time. Throughout all of history and religion, we say there was a time when there were miracles. What Game of Thrones has in the rock eggs they use to hatch dragons later, we have to remember that the story starts grounded in a setting without magic and then the magic comes to life later. I want to create a world where magic exists. In our Expo 2020 Dubai Water Feature, the water comes down the walls and reverses, and even as the waves come sweeping over the wall, a look of terror on people’s faces turns to joy and fun really quickly; that is the kind of magic I like to create. That’s what Walt Disney did in Disneyland, he came up with the idea that maybe there is a way we can visit magic lands. The desires we have in our dreams — in the middle of the night — the dream worlds can be a prettier place, and I want to make the real-world match that.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. What was the catalyst that inspired you to invent your product? Can you share the story of your “ah ha” moment with us?

I’ve always had an inherent fascination and liked to play with water. When my dad built me a sandbox, I’d always flood it by damming off the water. The crystal-clear themes and fountains at Epcot Center came from the work I did on my thesis at the University of Utah. Disney was so good at animating things in film in the rides; I loved the idea of animating playful water jets, jets that jump in and out of the gardens. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t doing something more with water and realized that we could give personality to water. You can give water emotion. While we can’t copy people, you can bring an expressive part into an inanimate object. I grabbed a couple of friends from Disney and formed WET. I still remain friends with Disney and consult with them from time to time too.

There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How did you overcome this challenge?

In Steve Jobs commencement speech for Stanford, he said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” This is our life. We collect dots, and we don’t always know where they’re going. So much of our education focuses on “I’ll become this.” You only study and take those things that look like they’re stepping stones and then these things become the same path everyone else goes on. I look for interesting things off to the side; I put the “dots” into my knapsack. I believe that there isn’t a thing you could study or learn about that you won’t use at some point. If it interests you, jump into it. This thinking will expand your field, and you’ll pull in strange things — it was a mix of the physics and the theatre for me.

Before you can see the dots, you have to be aware of noticing them, many are not. Even before you see the dots, you need to have a sense of curiosity. The people that are most apt to get hired at my company are the people who are incredibly curious. My wife and I will go shopping and I’ll be wandering. She’ll ask me what I’m doing; I could see something I didn’t come for in a hardware store that might be useful to me some time; it sparked a dot for me.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

If you’re aware of what’s going on in the space, you usually have a sense if it’s been done. If you’re not aware, or even if it has been done, it may not be done as well as it could be done. You could think about how you could improve on it. I don’t think there isn’t anything that hasn’t been done that couldn’t be done better.

Did you have a role model or a person who inspired you to persevere despite the hardships involved in taking the risk of selling a new product?

Walt Disney, certainly. There is a wonderful family museum near the Presidio I would visit with his daughter Diane and son-in-law Walter. I remember discussing during those times and how close he (Disney) came to financial ruin at every turn. I don’t think he was close to any financial steadiness until Disney opened (1955), and he died in 1966. Even in the last decade of his life, he canceled his life insurance, sold a car to make it, and worked with his brother Roy who on the practical side, inspired what he did. He would do anything to keep the door open, working on training films for the army. Disney was always clever. For the 1964 World’s Fair (when Small World was done), he’d involve Ford on the exhibit, GE, or GM. He’d fly them into town to get them interested in sponsoring. He’d make a big presentation at the hotel, given them the costs, and the corporate guys would say, that’s a lovely idea, but not feasible once he gave them the costs. At 9:30 or 10:00 pm at night, he would knock on their door and ask about showing them just one more drawing and telling the magic. You can see his storytelling in how he introduces films and you just knew it was going to be great.

For the benefit of our readers, can you share the story, and outline the steps that you went through, from when you thought of the idea, until it finally landed on the store shelves? In particular we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Every project is a bit different. I filed my first patent when was in college. A lot of times, we’ll start on a project. You work on different ideas, look at it yourself, and you’ll know when all the pieces seem right when you just can’t contain your excitement; your heart races a little faster. We had a number of iterations on our recent Dubai Expo 2020 Water Feature; it was originally conceived entirely differently. I would go to the model shop at night, get to the job sites early, and get a feel for the space with our designers. I believe you’ll hear whispering from the spirit and fine-tune from there.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Once at Disney, an early project was Thunder Mountain that I worked on. It was designed, but the special effects needed perfecting. You’ll know if you’ve ridden Thunder Mountain that it goes racing down an old mine and at the first lift there is a waterfall that hits a stalagmite and the train goes through water on either side. I developed the water pumping for this. Once developed, you’d go for walk-throughs by ducking behind the scenes. Sometimes the maintenance people wouldn’t change a filter; on one walkthrough, it looked like only a drizzle was coming out instead of the waterfall, and I thought, “What’s wrong with this thing?” I went down with a friend before the next train came, climbed down the ladder, and opened the water valve. I told my friend to shout at me when it was open enough and I kept opening the valve. It was so noisy in the train tunnel and I didn’t hear my friend, so I just kept opening the valve more. All of a sudden, I hear the waterfall gushing hundreds of gallons of water and people terrified. In that moment I thought “I’m so fired.” I ran out to the station and people were soaked with water up to there. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have touched the valve during the operating hours.

The early stages must have been challenging. Are you able to identify a “tipping point” after making your invention, when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

In all fairness, I remember when Steve Wynn as with me and my wife at dinner, talking to me about putting me on the map with The Bellagio (with the Fountains at the Bellagio we ultimately created). Steve was such a believer and knew how profoundly different with the right water, music, equipment this could be. I learned a lot from Steve, even when he wasn’t the easiest person to work for in a good way. I would think we worked so hard, and he would still tell us to go beyond this. He was a fantastic motivator. When we first tested the jets 12–15 stories high and I saw Steve dancing like a kid first seeing it, I thought, we can relax, he’s loving it. He ripped into us. “That’s the tallest fountain in the world now, but it can’t be about the numbers. We’re not stopping now. It needs to be more grand.” It would have been easy to think we crossed the finish line, especially when you’re tired, but we knew we could go bigger. We took three deep breaths and got up and started running again.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Invented My Product” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Learn everything you can while in school.

There is nothing you could learn that if you do won’t come in handy someday. We remember Steve Jobs who said he wandered into a calligraphy class and that led into script writing onto a computer, who would have thought. I took theatre classes and they ended up finding their way into the engineering I do now. Learn everything you can, I promise it will come in handy. And when you’re up for a promotion, and you’re up against those that just followed the college catalogue, you’ll have something you learned that they didn’t.

2. Work hard and be smart.

When I was in school, I remember them saying you just have to work hard. But guess what, in life, you come up against people who do both. Develop a great work ethic, develop the ability to work hard, and of course the more you learn, the smarter you’ll get.

3. Explore more.

You don’t always need to dig super deep into the subject you’re studying. Think of life. Think of walking down the sidewalk. If you’re looking for life or something new, you know where you’ll find it? Not in the middle of a concrete block, but where there’s a crack; where there’s concrete that has rubbed up against a tree; two different subjects that have come together. That’s where life springs up. Explore dance while you’re studying engineering or astrophysics.

4. Stay curious about everyone you meet.

You might go to a party and say, this guy is a truck driver, how interesting can he be? You’ll be surprised how much you don’t know about driving a truck. And if you are genuinely interested, you will learn so much about anyone with whom you engage.

5. Stay curious about everything.

It’s not just people, it’s anything. I drive my wife crazy when we go shopping. She’ll be targeted on something she’s buying and I’ll be walking down the aisle looking and saying what’s this stuff over here? It’s those things that you’re not looking for — that your mind is just free-wheeling with — next day, next week, next year — you’ll remember that. And those are the pieces in the back of your mind, in the middle of your sleep, you’ll put together.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

You need to ask yourself, is this something the world really needs? Most companies get stuck in the one thing we can do; it doesn’t mean that’s what the world needs. You have to be filling a need/want/desire. The world may not need a new hammer just because you’re good at making them. Most companies get good at doing only one thing. Go back to Disney example. He first made short cartoons at beginning of movies, then went to color, then full length films, and then live action and amusement parks. These ideas were all related, but were all expansions around the concept of wonderful, inventive, family entertainment. Hold on to what you do, but have related ideas and expansions. Don’t get locked into the one thing you do, think about how you can expand it and ask, “Will people love this?”

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I’m not big on consultants and don’t want our business to feel like a consultancy. Consultants are good in their field, but the mindset of a consultant is what’s my next job. I would rather have someone not as experienced in-house on the team helping me figure it out.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

A lot of the folks you read about or talk about, want to build a business/IPO. That’s a lovely mindset, but it’s not mine. It wasn’t Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, or Elon Musk — the people I admire. Find something you love, do it well, but money shouldn’t be the primary objective. If your product makes life good, the money will come. Investors, unless they’re an early part of your company, usually have an exit plan, and most the time, this is a delaying tactic, in my opinion.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Life can be a struggle and you need moments of inspiration, whether that’s connecting with a family member, nature, or in a dark moment of silence with yourself. When I stand by one of our features, I don’t look at the fountain anymore. I look at the people reaching out and touching the person next to them; the people that have a tear in their eye. What we do is draw fantastic crowds from all walks of life (you can see a homeless person on one side, and a billionaire on the other side), but who paid the same price — FREE — to see what we create and put out into the world. I love creating things like this. There are not a lot of things in the world that cost millions of dollars to create but is free for people to see and love.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I find it tiresome that people who want to do good things think that good can come from scolding people. You can’t scold people into good behavior. To get people to do things that are worthwhile, you need to make the doing of that thing exciting, enjoyable, and enticing to someone. You look at ways — take Elon Musk with electric cars — he made them so fun and so cool to drive that people will drive for the experience. We want people to appreciate the beauty of the water; that’s a much more resonant message than telling them about its scarcity. Make good behavior more rewarding than bad behavior and then people will exhibit good behavior.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. City well planned and they have a minister of Happiness — what’s bothering my citizens.

Someone I’ve met, but whom I’m tremendously inspired by, is Sheikh Mohammed, the leader of Dubai — it’s admirable how focused he is in making life better for his people. In the time it takes for us to build a bicycle lane, they build half a city. It’s exciting to be around someone who is genuinely a good person and who is also very good at getting things done. Dubai is going from a nomadic desert to a city in every way, well-planned and built for all of its citizens. I’d also sit down with Elon Musk. I think he’s genuinely amazing at whatever he thinks up. I like the people who say they’re going to do it, who start with a good idea and determination to do it, who get it done and get it done pretty fast.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.