Touch Down in Silicon Valley, 1st 2 and a half days
July 22nd, 2009, Posted in Events, Meebo, Stanford, Talks, Tesla Motors, Uncategorized by kenny chuaI was not very impress with ****** air flights…there was an air steward that was very rude. i asked him for extra immigration forms on board the plane and he replied: “can you please wait” in a very irritated tone..argh…what happened to their services? I asked for water and they forget too…argh…
It was really off to a bad start but everything changed when we touched down in San Francisco, Palo Alto…the weather was fine, got back my appetite and i no longer felt nauseous.
Seriously, the weather makes the difference. I still perceived the fact that if i stayed in Silicon valley, the physical environment alone would just propel me further ( i feel smarter and more energized just by being physically present in Palo Alto - you just do not feel the stress, which, in my opinion, can severely hinder innovation and creativity). Even further, the people here were amiable and warm-hearted… you can just say hi to the person beside you.
Prof. Tom also did mentioned that people were more willing to share, and this helps to create trust among people just by being open to others…(not so back in singapore). In the discussion we had today, though there are always exceptions, most operations and culture tend to be more secretive. this actually boils down to the proprietary information that the company holds. If it is tacit, people will not seek protection for their technology, products or services etc since the information involved cannot be understood easily.. . Or the other way round when it is codified when things can be too easily understood and you just have to find ways and means to protect it. Again, strategic IP management does plays it roles but insufficient to prevent intelligent people from reverse engineering what is out there, rendering existing products/service market share even smaller (just look at the chair - shape, size, design can be change-whats the point of patenting those chairs, people just protect their designs through registered design regualtions, tats all, reduce intellectual property patent fees).
Prof. Tom also reiterated 3 important points that Singapore lacks in becoming an entrepreneurial hub like Silicon Valley and they are:
1. Live & let Live
2. Believe in the young
3. Failure is ok
While, general and motivational statements like this do helps once in a while to remind us not to give up and the really observe and learn from the Silicon Valley cultures and beliefs. But in Singapore, you just cannot afford to fail - you will be condemned… even if it was just once. Think about why big companies cannot afford failure, they need to maintain their reputation !!! They have to answer to their shareholders, people want to keep their jobs etc…if i fail, what happens? who will employ that loser next time? But its really kind of different here. Its OK to fail (as long as its not really repeated mistakes or blunt stupidity that’s the cause of the failure). The entrepreneurs here behave more optimistically, empathetic & compassionate.
I learnt from Casey (a graduating student from Stanford who is working in water technology), the phrase:”AWESOME”. The way she puts it was really jovial and you can see an “enthusiasm aura” around her. The gist is, just by being positive towards others and showing more encouragement and giving them a little space and liberty to express thoughts and ideas, sharing (not accepting until it is properly justified) is part and parcel of the culture here that is largely absent in Singapore (again, there are exceptions).
I gotta end here since i am using the common computer at the lobby, as my LAPTOP SUFFERED SOME JET LAG AND GOT RETARDED AND SEEMS TO HAVE BROKEN DOWN!! What an awesome start to Silicon Valley trip!! There’s a guy waiting for me in queue and usage is restricted to 30 mins…Stanford happenings, IDEO, Maple, Apple store & Nanosolar shall be another time soon…(stupid laptop once again)!!
