Recreating Silicon Valley

dngo11 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011 Posts: 2

Hey team,

I haven't responded to the email yet, but I'll just introduce myself shortly here. My name is David Ngo, I am a sophomore from Richmond, VA, and I am trying to design my own individually major in Behavior Design & Innovation. You can read more about it here: http://bit.ly/fTm6MM
Basically, Behavior Design studies what actually shapes lasting behavioral change -- for example, switching from using walmart.com to amazon.com, or creating a lasting habit of recycling, etc AND designing new technology that works with changing behavior.

My biggest failure...I can't really remember my recent BIGGEST failure... but I have many small ones that I can think of--- Many applications and interviews to different clubs that I thought I was interested in... finance, consulting, trading stocks, nonprofit education team. Recently, I asked two professors to be advisers for my major, and I couldn't really persuade them -- but with good reason. I'm sure there are many more, and there is a biggest one, but I can't remember right now. I'm really excited to work with you all!

And Oleg, of course we can be friends Smile

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_________________
David Ngo

amartinsu13 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011 Posts: 2

Hey team,

Brief bio about myself: I'm Andrew Martin, sophomore in Economics. I was born in Italy, and have lived in San Diego, Washington, northern Virginia, and I currently live in Hawaii.

I've had many, many failures, but I don't think I've had any "big" failures yet. I'll say my biggest failure so far has been taking so long to figure out what to major in. Coming to Stanford I had no clue, and was trying to decide between CS, MS&E, and Econ. I didn't really decide until recently, so now I'm behind in my major. I'll need to take some classes this summer to catch up, but it's all good. This is a pretty bad answer for "biggest failure," but I felt like I haven't lived enough to have any good stories. Other recent failures: not accepted to the summer job I wanted, not staying motivated to keep lifting at the gym last quarter, and letting my grades bomb in fall quarter. Let's talk in 5 years and I'll have some good stories for you.

See you all tonight,
Andrew

ponfilenok · Joined: 04 Apr 2011 Posts: 1 Location: Russia

Hi everyone!

Some words about me: I'm MSc in Applied Physics and Math. The last 3 years I'm deeply envolved in startups. I'm the COO of http://firmbook.ru (webinars, videoconferences and online video streaming). I also interesting in mobile social activities, location based services, financing, society, artifical intelligence and medicine startups.

I thought that fail is every missing of good opportunity. I've missed enought opportunities but now I'm thinking that my biggest failure is my first startup MyRange (myrange.ru). The initial idea was to create the mobile social network with a proximity communication (find new friends in people near you on the range of Bluetooth). Three years ago I have thought that it's not a big deal to do things that I have no any idea how can I do it. So, I get some frustrating when I didn't get what I expected and I throwed my hands down. I didn't give up so fast and have made the new try. I redesigned my technology to another project. The new project was the conference organization system. It was included website and mobile applications modules that provided registration, upload promo materials, management of delegates, exchange electronic business cards, chat, twitter wall and personal meet scheduling system. The system has been tested on 15 events. I made only three sales but was unable to organize a good sales channel or raising the investments. So I had to close this project at the end of last year becouse I didn't have enough money to keep my team working on it.

Despite the failure I've enrich by a lot of knowledge and experience. Now I try to approach a more responsible for my endeavors, but I still keep drive to turn into the real goals that seems so hard to succeed!

jaekyun · Joined: 10 Apr 2011 Posts: 2

Hello team,

Before I begin, I would like to apologize formally for my delayed post. The past two weeks have been very difficult for me, as I was transitioning from a much enjoyed spring break and failing to adjust to the changes. I have also been somewhat sick. I am sorry. But fortunately, I decided that it's about time that I got my butt off this sluggish state and started getting things done.

To introduce myself briefly, my name is Jae Kyun Hwang. Some people mistake Jae for my actual first name Jae Kyun (the pronunciation of which I will not go into in this post). But to make things easy, you can simply call me Jack. I come from Seoul, Republic of Korea, and have lived in the UK, France, and finally the US at different points in my life. Like Andrew, I am an Econ major who has had the advantage to decide his major early enough, but never had the time to understand fully why. Like David, I have been interested in entrepreneurship and innovation all throughout my recent life, but never had the opportunity to develop those interests properly. Like Oleg, I have always dreamed of creating startups, but never had the courage to do so. So, overall, I am very timid and lost. Nevertheless, I have taken the important first step of recognizing my weaknesses, and am trying to learn and transform myself through Recreating Silicon Valley, working with you guys.

Biggest failure. I have probably had numerous minor failures in my life. But I would say that I was able to achieve most of my goals during at least the recent years of my life I can remember. However, this probably means that I did not have any challenging goals, especially in the domain of entrepreneurship, and not that I was successful in any admirable way. I wish to have more failures in the future because that would mean that I have started to take challenges. But if I had to choose one, I would probably say ending a relationship that I had been in for three years in a very selfish and hurtful way, and realizing that it was too late to put it back together after months of wandering and regret my biggest failure. Yes, I know it has nothing to do with anything grand or entrepreneurial, but it made me suffer greatly, and I consider that the greatest failure.

See you in class!