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.