The trip has finally come to a glorious end. Much have been inspired, and on top of that, there is now a change in mindset.

Few days ago, while we were sitting in the reception lobby of Hilton Hotel, Joon asked if do we feel that our perspectives have broaden? Everyone began to nod their head, including myself, whom could not agree further. A year ago, when I have stepped into this sunny state, I was intrigued by American’s way of life already. From the architecture in the toilets, to the warmth of service waiters and waitresses, there was an indescribable feeling that brightens your day. Joon commented that even the lowly paid workers such as the bellboys are enjoying their jobs. Some of you may support this assumption with the tipping culture, however, I feel that there is definitely sincere warmth beneath the dollar signs.

Patterned this into Silicon Valley, I saw how founders always sing high praises of their employees, the lack of partitions amongst departments, the burning passion that exudes in the people. The culture of Silicon Valley is not built in a day, it is being shaped by the country’s, the state’s, the environment’s culture. Zooming back into the Singaporean culture, we have our own way of doing things, as secured by the power of “face” (mian zi) and careful mentality. We are more conservative and are less transparent with our counterparts. In our country so small and inconspicuous, many of us tend to stay in our own little world instead of having the curiosity to think deeper, going beyond our shores. On the other hand, people in other parts of the world have, not only their town, but their state and country to think about. USA is not just Los Angeles, it is California, it is an united states of 50 states. People here are forced to learn even more to keep up with their changing surroundings.

My strongest inspiration came from the female entrepreneurs and a guy named Thomas Bukowski. What all of them had was boldness and intense passion. Laina Greene, Annamaria, Ooshma, Maria Ly, Joyce Kim. Each of them have different interests and backgrounds but they were able to break out of their comfort zones and hold on to what they really wanted. What amazes me is that they have supportive friends and families to help them reach for their dreams as well.

It is no doubt that in the society, there is still a little prejudices on women. Joyce Kim from Soompi was saying that she was once being called to be a competition panelist. It was supposedly an honor until she learnt that they just need a female to be on the panel to balance out the judging. Due to these subconscious gestures, it has made female entrepreneurs more determined to succeed and be stronger in their undertakings.

So, what’s next after hearing all these? It has strongly hit my heart that all the problems I have faced before, I should put in my effort and responsibilities to it. I want to be submerged into an open culture and start to have a responsive attitude towards learning. Thomas Bukowski, only 21 years of age, deferred school and left his family to the West Coast just to gain experiene in startup companies. He came with a roadtrip mentality and never regretted his doing. My jaw dropped to the bottom of the seabed upon hearing his story. How many people would ever do that? And what could drive them to have so much courage?

It’s time to do something.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.