There's one thing that the CEOs of the world's most successful companies all have in common: they are all engineers. Mike Lazaridis, the CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), the company that created one of the most profitable devices in history, is one of those engineers.

At just four years old, he built a music player using LEGO blocks, and as a teenager, he was a child who came up with hundreds of new ideas to invent and create. In 1984, while studying electrical engineering, he founded his first company. RIM was initially funded by Mike's parents and the Ontario government's New Ventures Loan program, an organization that provided loans to new businesses. This is how RIM became North America's first wireless data technology developer. While researching wireless digital devices, they created a wireless radio modem that could be used for computers in all business sectors, as well as for vending machines and credit card payments.

The first Blackberry was born in 1999, giving users the ability to check their emails instantly, anywhere, and at any time, without having to go home or to the office to access the internet. Less than a year after its launch in the early 2000s, it seemed that prominent figures in society—such as managers of major companies and banks, investment analysts, economists, and CEOs—who needed to receive information every second, were all armed with a Blackberry. Blackberry even won the prestigious Product of the Year award from InfoWorld magazine.

Two things led to Blackberry's success: the quick and simple QWERTY keyboard and a flywheel that allowed for quick transitions between the screen and email. Throughout its history, RIM consistently took the rules of the communication market to a new level with its product development, design, manufacturing, and marketing, earning countless awards for its product innovation. Blackberry's simplicity and clarity were a major factor in its ability to stand out from competitors who offered similar products.

Moral of the story: Be simple, and be clear.