#257 Richard Garriott (Video Games and Space Exploration)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso, or four energy drinks before or during the show, so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. It was almost three o'clock in the morning when the sound of a glass door being smashed woke me up.
I was alone in my house.
A few seconds later, I heard someone walking on the broken glass.
The stranger had come back.
Hours earlier, my house had been filled with friends who had come to watch huge fragments of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashing into Jupiter. The first time in history, it was possible to watch an extraterrestrial collision in our solar system.
I'd built this house on the highest point in Austin just for nights like this, and its centerpiece is a large telescope. When my friends arrived early in the evening, I had opened the security gates in the front of the house and turned off the exterior lighting so it would not interfere with our observation. The spectacle lasted only a few hours, and by 10 o'clock, my guests were gone. When the doorbell rang just after midnight, I didn't think too much about it, guessing that someone had just left something behind.
I had forgotten to close the front gate.
I went to a window. Standing at the front door, shifting nervously from side to side with his hands jammed into the pockets, was a stranger.
He was wearing a baseball hat. The hat was pulled down over his eyes.
I didn't answer the door. Instead, I stood there watching him to see what he was going to do.
I stood at the window for about a half an hour.
Occasionally, he would walk around the side of the house and I moved from window to window to follow him.
He didn't leave.
I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Then it occurred to me that he was waiting for me to get home.
I began wondering how I could encourage him to leave without letting him know that I was home.
The front gate could be opened remotely. So I closed it. And as I'd hope, he looked around, surprised, watching the gate slowly shut. He must have realized that he was on the wrong side of the perimeter because he hopped over the fence and disappeared into the darkness. I watched for several more minutes to see if he'd come back.
Weird, I thought. But when he didn't return after 30 more minutes, I went back to bed.
Three hours later, someone hurled a large rock through my rear glass doors.
It was the stranger.
I realized that he must have been standing in the darkness for hours, just watching my house and waiting.
I rushed to the window and looked down to see him cautiously entering my house.
If this was simply a robbery, he probably waited and watched until he was certain that no one was home.
So if I banged on the window above him, I thought he would realize somebody was in the house and probably take off.
I started banging on the window, and I was so agitated that my fist went right through the glass.
The window shattered.
The intruder stopped and looked up at me.
For a few seconds, we stood like that, just glaring at each other. Then I said to him in a clear and loud voice, get the fuck out of my house.
He stood perfectly still for a few more seconds, and then he walked into the house.
I called 911
The dispatcher told me the officers would be there in 15 minutes.