Eric's space

(repost from Facebook)

So let’s talk about networking. It’s a very strange organic concept. It constantly grows and changes as time goes by. You really never know where it will take you. Some days it will lead you to dead ends and other days it will branch out into multiple paths. Much like life, we must keep travelling along a certain path and just hope that the pot of gold is at the end of the path. When you get to a dead end, you have to turn around and just take a different path. The minute you decide to pitch a tent and smell the roses is when your journey takes a pause. Constantly moving is the life of the entrepreneur.

Often times you’ll approach an intersection that can branch into 50 different paths. You can only take one or maybe explore two or three. But you can’t explore all of them, this is often the temptation of networking. I’ve found that there are numerous opportunities out there in the Bay Area to network. You could basically go to a different networking event on everyday of the week. Some are free, some cost money. It’s good to try out a few of the paid events. It’ll give you a chance to meet other entrepreneurs and hear their sales pitch or just hear about whatever problems they might have. But these events are costly, it ranges from $15-20 per event, varying if you have membership with host organization or not. I really don’t understand how entrepreneurs can afford this. I guess there’s bills to be paid. Sometimes it’s nice to attend random networking events but for the most part you need to do some research and see if the event you’re attending are worth your time.

So I went to 2 paid events. I’m not sure if they were worth it. I met some other entrepreneurs and talked with one VC. It was my first taste of pitching to a VC. The VC didn’t really help that much, I think he just wanted to use me as an example for other entrepreneurs to prove a few points about starting a business. So the advice was very non-specific. It’s interesting how VCs will always be very critical about your business idea but they always try to end on a good note. Despite how crazy your idea might be, there’s the slight chance that you will become successful and they want to make sure you’ll consider them for future rounds of funding. Speaking of which, VCs hate being the first person to invest, despite the possible high return they always want someone else to take the first step in investing.

Anyways, back to networking. I think I’ve collected about 50+ different business cards from actual talks and meetings. I don’t think it’s a lot but it’s not small. I have around 2-3 meetings a week to pitch my idea or just to talk with industry experts. As tiring it might be to do networking, it can also be fun. You never know who you’ll meet and who you’ll get introduced to. I’m amazed how nice people are in general. There’s a lot of people out there willing to help out the small guy. It seems like everyone I’ve met wants to see the small guy succeed. Despite the fact that the person I talk with may get no monetary benefit from helping out, they still find joy in helping someone else succeed. I’d like to think that this is the case in other parts of the world (or US), but that probably isn’t true.

So one of the most recent people I’ve talked to was a friend of a friend of a friend. (3 degrees if your counting). I almost didn’t talk to the 2nd degree person because he explicitly said he couldn’t help but was willing to hear my idea. I really didn’t feel like talking to him either because I didn’t want to waste my time talking with someone who couldn’t be of help. But it turns out this guy may be the most crucial person I’ve talked with. After I talked with him on the phone he decided to refer me to another friend that he thought could help. I guess he wanted to talk to me first before he referred me. Anyways, I talked to his friend and she has been amazingly helpful. Btw, she is the first woman I’ve talked with. Apparently she is well connected in the startup world and she doesn’t even work in a startup. She just knows these people. It was funny, while I was talking with her, she was just constantly scribbling down names of people that would be interested in hearing about my idea or people that could help. And slowly she’s been introducing me to these different people on her list. And she just does this out of the goodness of her heart, well that and she likes my product. If people like your product, they will go out of their way to help you succeed.

The other day, I was reading an article about video graphics and saw the usual quotes from industry experts. I decided to lookup one of the industry experts on Linkedin. He was connected to someone I had met at a previous networking event, so I decided to send an email to the industry expert and see what would happen. I didn’t expect much, but low and behold he replied in a few days. We met up and he loved my idea as well. He said he would help introduce me to people if I wanted the help. I haven’t taken him up on the offer yet, but only because I’m Canada right now. Soon as I get back to California I’ll probably taking him up on his offer. Oh, so apparently when you get referred to someone, you need to reply or be ready to meet them as soon as possible. As soon as possible meaning in the next few days, not next week. I talked to the industry expert on a Wednesday, I told him I’d be flying back to Toronto on Saturday. He asked if I could fly to LA before I went to Toronto! You think he was trying to help the airline industry or something. But that makes me wonder, perhaps in the future I will have to do these last minute flights to “wherever”.

Well anyways...these are just a few thoughts on networking. The main point is, keep talking to people regardless of how crappy or depressed you feel about the business. Anyone willing to listen to you, you should talk with them. You don’t know if the next person you talk with could be the person that could make everything happen. They might have a rich uncle some where, could be close friends with Mark Zuckerberg(of facebook fame) or maybe their dad knows Bill Gates. As ludicrous as this may sound, it can happen. Hang in there.

It's strange. I'm starting to get a lot of pressure to make this company successful. Although it's not really bad pressure, it's kind of positive pressure if you wanna call it that. These days people really want me to succeed. Despite all the criticisms that I get from people, the same people hope that things will still work out. So now I feel like I need to keep persevering. Not because I need to fulfill other people's expectations but because people believe in me and share in the same vision.

I met with a big company yesterday. The person I was meeting with gave me some harsh remarks (which is ok) but then commended me on what I'm trying to do and said "you cannot fail". Strong yet effective words.

So this is something I learned from an MBA class about leadership. It's was taken from a TED presentation about success. I'm finding all the 8 tips are essentially for a startup to succeed.
The Keys to success: ("The 8 to be Great")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixRK5ZpoEO4

Passion – Do it for love not money.
Work – All successful people work really hard. Successful people have fun working.
Focus – Dabbling is ok at first but eventually you need to focus.
Push – Continue to push yourself, push through shyness and self-doubt.
Ideas – Everybody is creative. Listen to people. Be curious. Look around. Write it Down.
Improve – Continuous to improve. Practice, practice, practice.
Serve – Serve others something of value
Persist – Persist through time, no overnight success. Persist through failure and CRAP (Criticism Rejection Adversity Prejudice)

Ok, I talked about how I was reluctant to start a company because I just felt really ill-equipped. But you know surprisingly, business school in China helped a lot. Not just business school itself but the combination of China and business school. I think if I were at business school in US, things would be different. Everything is well laid out in the US, you have established processes and a history of how things were done. For instance if you wanted to organize some trip somewhere, you always had the previous year to use as your reference. In China, business schools are very young, typically about 10 or so years. The point being, that everything we did was always a first. This meant dealing with a lot of problems and obstacles. Sure it’s difficult, stressful and painful but that’s the best way to learn :) I helped organize a study trip to Shanghai, it was painful. Half way through the organizing I wanted to quit. There was just too much crap to deal with in addition to all the school work we had to do. But thankfully I had a few good friends that helped pull me through the difficulties. I’m so thankful for that. Once again, good friends are indispensible. It’s always better to have a few good friends than to have many friends you don’t know that well.

Anyways, if I were in US studying my MBA I’d probably never had started my company. I wouldn’t have learned the necessary skills and it’d be too easy to get decent job at a decent company. (thus I would never consider starting a company). You know, they say that people who study MBA are very risk-adverse. You just learn too much in school and you find out how difficult it is to start a company and sometimes just over think about all the possible problems. Young entrepreneurs are good because they’re young and naïve, they don’t realize all the obstacles they will have to face. You just gotta go out there and do it. Despite what all the studies people have said about the odds being against you or despite how big the competition seems, sometimes people are wrong. If you believe in something, just do it. Think smart and find out the results yourself. Oh, if I studied in US , I’d also be broke. There’s no way I would’ve been able to finance a business. My education in China basically cost me less than 1/6 of an education in US. But keep in mind there are tradeoffs. If there’s anyone interested in studying in China, ping me and we can discuss more.

So ya, I’ve never thought about starting a business. When I went to China I had always thought I’d get a nice high tech job doing product marketing. My passion is to create useful products for people. Being part of that design process and getting something out there that’s good for the consumer. So I was thinking to work at a company like Lenovo, Intel, or some local brand. Well it didn’t turn out that way. After my first year of business school, I had come up with this idea that has become the business that I have now. Actually looking back, I had a previous idea that I was about to pursue. It would’ve been something that I’d work with another classmate. We had a few meetings to discuss the idea but then eventually things didn’t work out. If your curious, the idea was to create a kind of facebook to be used by companies internally. This would allow people within the company to get to know each other better. I found this would be especially useful in China because employees often came from all over and when they moved to a new city, it was extremely hard to meet new people.

So ya, how did I overcome the fear of starting a company? Well, I guess it’s because I had all the resources available right at my finger tips. The idea that I had was too good to give up. The product was something that I’ve wanted personally and couldn’t see it being developed unless I did it myself. (or the big electronic companies would take too long to make it). Maybe it was a little naïve but ya, I don’t know any better :)
I guess there’s another aspect that helped me overcome my fears. Basically it’s based on my religion. God put us here on earth for a reason. Everything I have now is because of Him. Friends, money, health, all because of Him. This may be hard to understand for non-religious people but religion is a big part of my life and it helps me get through tough days. Maybe I’m getting a little too “deep” for this blog....

But what’s the worst that can happen from trying to start a company? Lose a little money, lost a little time....well...it’s been tough on my personal life. I ended a relationship partially because of the business (that’s a separate sob story). On the positive side, you put to practice almost everything you’ve learned from business school. I’ve really been challenged and have grown a lot from this experience so far. You learn to deal with rejection and how to talk with total strangers. Btw, did I mention I hate small talk?

You know the most difficult thing about starting a company is the psychological aspect. You’re on a constant psychological rollercoaster. Some days people will really grill you on your idea and criticize it’s worth, while other days people totally understand your vision and share in the excitement. Thankfully, regardless of how much people may or may not like your idea, they are always willing to help. Networking.... this is a very interesting phenomena that I’ll have to explain later.

(taken from my facebook notes)
Ok, well. I've been in California three months now. It's been an interesting time.
I'm going to attempt to highlight all the different events over the past 3 months or even the past year since I first started my company. So, yes, for all those who don't know, I've started a company. Incorporated June 2008. If you're really curious about what kind of company I'm starting then ask me personally via chat or in person. I'm not going to bother trying to explain it through an email. There's just too many questions to answer. And I figure, only the people that really care about what I'm doing will bother putting the effort to ask me for more information.

I'll start writing some stuff now just to kick things off. It's getting late so I won't write too much. Hopefully I'll be able to write everything down before I come back to Cali in about 10 or so days.

For those who don't know me that well, I was born in Toronto, graduated from University of Waterloo (if you haven't heard of UW, think of it as "better than Cal") and then moved to Silicon Valley to work, then went to China to study my MBA and now working for my company. To set the record straight, before 2007, I've never once thought about starting my own company. It just felt like it was too much work, too much risk, and I just wasn't the type of person who could lead a company. I was very risk adverse when I was younger and also super shy, super passive and super complacent. I never really took initiative to do anything. Man was I lazy. I remember I'd always do my high school home work in bed.....not exactly the best study environment. I slowly kicked those bad habits during my first year of college.

So ya, it's strange being at where I am now. Slowly I've changed my mentality on life and learned to step outside of my comfort zone. I've changed a lot in some aspects but I think in other regards I'm still the same guy from high school, which is a good thing (so my friends say). I'd like to say I'm keeping things real.

ok..getting tired..I'll keep writing during my 12 hour flight back home to Toronto. (which should normally take 6 hours if I had paid regular fare)

wow what a concert. Just finished at like 11 pm. Later than I expected. Definitely enjoyed the 2+ hours of entertainment. No regrets despite I'm still not sure how I'll get back home. ON the way to hong kong. I'm thinking maybe I shouldve just stayed at the
hotel and just take the earliest ferry back to Shenzhen, instead I might have to brave the night somewhere in Hk. Hmm I could be wandering the streets for a while. Anyways whatever it was still worth it. I don't think I'll ever do this again. I'm getting a little old for this.

Well the concert was amazing. WLH just kept it up for more than two and half hours at the Venetian. He sang a whole bunch of songs from different albums and with different styles. I think of the first hour there was a lot of rock music  which was kinda unexpected but fun to hear. After the first hour I was wondering if it was all just going to be rock. After a small video transition he kicked into the slow songs. Swapping the electric guitar for the piano and violin. Cool. Sang some the old goodies but he didn't play my favorite songs from last album but still good.  He ended it off with a litle magic trick where jumped into a box and appeared at the back of the concert area. He played another two songs from the back and inteoduced his last song. Of course a encore was needed.  a few minutes after he left (obviously to run back to the front of the stage ) and a hard effort by the band to stir up more noise from the crowd. He did his encore. Awesome. Another three songs to call it a night.

Coming out of the concert I totally have no idea how to get back home. I just kinda followed the crowd hoping they can "take me home". I
just listened for the people talking Cantonese and English and assumed they were heading to hk, so far so good, I'm on the ferry to hk right now. Now I gotta find out how to get to shenzhen. 11:46pm,30 minutes till I reach hk, what to do next? sleep

observations in hong kong (central)
1 am - expats drinking, still people walking around outside
2 am - expats drinking, just as busy
3 am - expats not drinking but still walking about
4 am - expats start to head home, still see a whole bunch of benz and bmws parked along the street (near the bars)
5 am - at Mcdonald's, bunch of hk kids come in. not sure if they woke up early or stayed out late.
6 am - go home.