How I made it: He's spent 18 years doing R&D for Sony — and it hasn't gotten old

Richard Marks is the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment's Magic Lab, a four-person research and development group that has worked on some of Sony's most cutting-edge technology, such as the PlayStation Move controller and PlayStation's virtual reality system. He has been with the company for more than 18 years.

Marks, 48, grew up in Michigan and Indiana, where his parents worked in education (his dad was a high school math teacher before becoming a vice principal, and his mom was a math and English teacher). Whenever he showed an interest in something, his parents encouraged it. "I was really good at math