Ellie’s List 100

Do business around the world, using enterprise as a way to understand different countries and civilizations.

Have the freedom each year to choose a country or region and live there for a while.

Build solmate into a globally recognized Solar+ brand.

Establish three steadily growing core markets for solmate: North America, Europe, and Asia.

Create three iconic products that people will still use ten years from now.

Bring one solmate product into one million homes, robots, or intelligent devices.

Become a key energy partner to AI edge-device and robotics companies worldwide.

Create a Solar+ co-branded product with a world-class brand I genuinely admire.

Build long-term strategic partnerships with ten leading global companies.

Build a global company that can operate well without depending on its founder being constantly present.

Build a truly commercial AI photovoltaic power-forecasting system.

Enable the forecasting system to serve more than 10 GW of new-energy assets.

Create an AI Energy OS that connects devices, energy, data, and operations.

Build a multi-agent system for market analysis, sales, delivery, and business operations.

Create a home energy agent that autonomously optimizes generation, storage, and consumption.

Complete a demonstration project for a solar-powered robot or AI hardware product.

Establish a fully operational AI-autonomous microgrid laboratory.

Develop and secure an invention patent with genuine industrial value.

Build a research laboratory that connects scientists, engineers, and founders.

Help develop an industry standard for flexible photovoltaics, self-powered devices, or AI energy.

Become the first author of a paper presented at a top-tier academic conference.

Earn a doctorate in computer science, neuroscience, or psychology.

Publish an article in The New Yorker.

Read and truly absorb 1,000 books over a lifetime.

Write a book about the practice of AI × New Energy.

Release a Python package that is used by real users.

Create a programming language of my own.

Design and officially release a game.

Write an episode for a television series I am following.

Write, film, and release a short drama of my own.

Appear in a film or advertisement again.

Speak at TED, COP, the World Economic Forum, or a platform of comparable stature.

Return to HKUST to teach a graduate-level or entrepreneurship course.

Join or invest in a publisher focused on mathematics, science, and engineering books.

Learn an instrument and perform a favorite piece in full.

Learn salsa and complete a dance naturally with a partner.

Dance onstage at a concert.

Attend a Broadway performance in New York.

Host 50 intimate and thoughtful dinners, salons, or idea gatherings.

Create a work that brings together solar energy, technology, and art.

Learn to fly an aircraft and complete a solo or instructor-assisted flight.

Learn to operate a submarine, or at least complete a genuine crewed dive.

Ride in a hot-air balloon and watch the sunrise or a dramatic landscape from above.

Learn to surf in Hawaii and complete a real surfing session.

Complete a full marathon.

Swim one continuous mile in the open sea.

Complete a long-distance horseback journey across the Mongolian steppe.

Trek to Everest Base Camp.

Complete a classic trekking route in the Andes.

At 80, still be able to swim, pole-vault, travel, and carry my own luggage.

Take a journey to witness a wildlife migration in Africa.

Camp in a desert and experience the stars, silence, and life completely off-grid.

With a comprehensive safety plan, hitchhike or travel overland across Africa from Egypt to Mozambique.

Live in West Africa for at least one month rather than merely making a short visit.

Travel to Eswatini to experience the Reed Dance festival in person.

Visit the Great Pyramid of Giza and, if legally permitted, experience climbing it.

Spend time living with an Indigenous community in the Amazon, with respect for local culture and ecology.

See the aurora from a place without city lights.

Travel to Antarctica or the Arctic and experience the scale of the Earth firsthand.

Sail around the Caribbean, either at the helm or as a passenger.

Travel systematically through Eastern Europe to understand its complex history and cultures.

Share a vodka with local friends in Russia.

Visit Tehran if conditions allow and safety can be assured.

Visit the Vatican and study its religion, art, and architecture in depth.

Explore Sicily deeply through a period of slow travel.

Visit an Amish community and experience a different view of life and technology.

Complete a biblical journey through Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, Bethlehem, and Nazareth.

Visit Mecca in full compliance with religious requirements and local regulations.

Learn about bullfighting traditions and their cultural controversy in Spain.

Watch a football match at Camp Nou, or at Old Trafford.

Build genuine, lasting friendships with people from cultures around the world.

Take part in a Passover celebration in Israel.

Visit 100 countries and regions and document ten journeys that truly changed me.

Live for at least one month in each of five unfamiliar countries, rather than merely visiting.

Take a long, multigenerational journey with my entire family.

Build a relationship with my life partner that allows mutual growth, appreciation, and individual freedom.

Set aside ample, phone-free time with my parents and important elders.

Build a lasting circle of twelve exceptional women who support one another with honesty.

Long-term, support and mentor ten promising young people or women founders.

Arrange one meaningful journey or private gathering each year with my closest friends.

Define my own financial-freedom number instead of accepting society’s default answer.

Build a global asset-allocation and risk-management system for myself and my family.

Have recurring income fully fund my ideal life, no longer tying income to working hours.

Invest in ten AI, new-energy, or hard-tech companies I genuinely believe in.

Complete an investment exit that I am deeply satisfied with.

Own a home I helped design that uses solar energy and approaches energy self-sufficiency.

Build a sustainable long-term system for strength training, sleep, nutrition, and physical recovery.

Run a 30-day life experiment without pursuing output or efficiency.

Grow ingredients myself and use them to prepare a dinner for friends.

Work in a casino or deeply experience its back-of-house operations to understand probability, human behavior, and business systems.

Complete 1,000 hours of volunteer service, focusing on companionship and support for older people.

Establish a scholarship or venture fund for women founders in hard technology.

Create a public-interest program that brings clean energy and digital capabilities to remote regions.

Bring solar-energy solutions to 100 communities that genuinely lack reliable energy.

Create a public AI × Energy course that ordinary people can understand.

Use content and practice to help one million people rethink energy and the future of life.

Support a school, laboratory, or research institution in conducting innovative work for more than ten years.

Build systems for company succession, knowledge transfer, and talent development that do not depend on Ellie personally.

Leave behind a complete and honest archive of entrepreneurship and decision-making that others can continue to use.

Ultimately leave behind not only wealth and companies, but better people, products, systems, and possibilities.