I watched this video on youtube about Mark Zuckerberg's interview in
the startup school 2013.
It is amazing experience to hear from Mark talking about his road
which lead to the Facebook today.
1. Learn by through yourself into it. If you are interested in
something and passionate about this thing, and probably wonder about
if you want to be part of it. Don't worry too much, just go for it and
through yourself completely into it.
2. Making mistakes is not really avoidable thing. You will definitely
make mistakes as long as you really want to do something. It's okay to
make mistakes, but more important is that by bouncing back and rethink
what you have done, you learn from it.
3. One of the method Mark believed which could identify good people
from the reasonable people is by asking a question---" Does people
want to work for this guy?". A real good person not only need to be
good at techniques, but also need to really know how to work with
people.
As an example, I am not really nice person. What I need to do is
trying to consider about the other people's feelings about my
behavior, and try to be a reasonable people. Do not hesitate to help
people and grow with them, learn from them, listen to them, discuss
with them, and be considerate about them. At the same time, improve
yourself to be a person who the others would like to learn from.
15 Reasons Why Start-ups are !@#$ing Hard
371
15 Reasons Why Start-ups are !@#$ing Hard
Derrick Fung
Votes by Ron Gross, A Xoogler, Shalin Shah, Martin Stoyanov,
Christopher Own, Tom Li, and365 more.
Today I read an interesting article on LinkedIn on why start-ups
aren't all that glamorous and often run on fear (you can read it here:
Startups Are NOT Glamorous – They Run on Fear). It's true.
Having been a "start-up guy" for the last year and a half, I've
learned that although starting a company is fun and exhilarating, it's
also one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I've written a few
posts about the finer things of start-up life (see
http://startuplife.quora.com/Why...
orhttp://startuplife.quora.com/25-...) but often don't speak about
some of the challenges. Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg,David Karp
and Kevin Systrom make it seem like a piece of cake, but it's a lot
harder than it seems. Here are some reasons why starting a company can
be !@#$ing hard (but you should still do it). Some are things we've
faced, but many are things others I've met have faced as well:
Building a team of "A-team players" is difficult when you don't have
the financial resources to attract/retain them and when
Google/Facebook are knocking on their door every day offering them 2x
what you can offer
Everyone is motivated by different things and you need to cater to
everyone's (employees/investors/customers) unique and constantly
evolving needs. Not everyone is driven by money. Some people may love
recognition , but others valuehumbleness.
Investors want to see a product and traction before they invest, but
sometimes you need their money before you can create the
aforementioned product and traction ... say what? (this is especially
relevant for Non-Technical Co-Founders)
Starting a company means you should know everything about operating a
business (accounting, HR, legal, finance, operations, strategy,
marketing...the list goes on) [Full Disclosure: I am horrible at
accounting, so I let my co-founder take care of that - best decision
ever]
Although this isn't always necessarily the case, starting a company
often consumes your life. This might mean sometimes living like a
hobbit for quite some time. This takes a toll on all relationships
(friends, family, romantic). You need relationships to be happy, and
you need to be happy to succeed. You need to find balance.
When you raise financing, you should only raise just the right amount
- this often means that your company will have enough money to survive
for only 12-16 months. Entrepreneurs should be in the business of
creating something awesome - NOT in the business of constantly
pitching to investors.
The thought of knowing that you only have $X left in the bank, and
that this amount is depleting every...single...day
Waking up and finding out that Google or Facebook decided to replicate
your whole business overnight...as a FEATURE for one of their products
(didn't happen to us, but to many companies I've met). See Snapchat
(company)
Keeping calm, happy and optimistic even when you probably just had the
shittiest day of your life because someone quit, your biggest customer
left, your servers blew up, etc. :)
Keeping your spirits up when everyone is saying NO to you
Trying to convince a customer who has no money to spend money on your
product. Consumers are taught to notspend money; businesses are taught
to spend.
Making the right business decisions when you don't have any data to
back it up and basing everything on your "gut".
Many entrepreneurs will raise many rounds of venture capital. Every
round, they are giving away more and more (20-40% on average per
round) of their company. It's bloody hard sometimes to maintain your
motivation when you're giving away your baby. That's why it's very
important to properly setup the capital structure of your company from
the get-go.
Waking up and remembering the stat that 90%+ of start-ups will fail
and that you will probably be one of them and constantly telling
yourself that you will not be part of that statistic
Reciting the two infamous quotes "the most successful entrepreneurs
never give up" and "if you're going to fail, then fail fast" and
trying to figure out which one comes first
Still want to start a company? These are just some of the many things
that entrepreneurs face on a daily basis - but that's what makes it so
fun and exciting. It is indeed one of the most stressful "career
paths" to take on, but also one of the most fulfilling.
"So if you can't live with fear, don't ever go into the startup
business. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Just be
content to read all those glamorous stories of the billionaire
startups in Forbes magazine."
15 Reasons Why Start-ups are !@#$ing Hard
Derrick Fung
Votes by Ron Gross, A Xoogler, Shalin Shah, Martin Stoyanov,
Christopher Own, Tom Li, and365 more.
Today I read an interesting article on LinkedIn on why start-ups
aren't all that glamorous and often run on fear (you can read it here:
Startups Are NOT Glamorous – They Run on Fear). It's true.
Having been a "start-up guy" for the last year and a half, I've
learned that although starting a company is fun and exhilarating, it's
also one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I've written a few
posts about the finer things of start-up life (see
http://startuplife.quora.com/Why...
orhttp://startuplife.quora.com/25-...) but often don't speak about
some of the challenges. Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg,David Karp
and Kevin Systrom make it seem like a piece of cake, but it's a lot
harder than it seems. Here are some reasons why starting a company can
be !@#$ing hard (but you should still do it). Some are things we've
faced, but many are things others I've met have faced as well:
Building a team of "A-team players" is difficult when you don't have
the financial resources to attract/retain them and when
Google/Facebook are knocking on their door every day offering them 2x
what you can offer
Everyone is motivated by different things and you need to cater to
everyone's (employees/investors/customers) unique and constantly
evolving needs. Not everyone is driven by money. Some people may love
recognition , but others valuehumbleness.
Investors want to see a product and traction before they invest, but
sometimes you need their money before you can create the
aforementioned product and traction ... say what? (this is especially
relevant for Non-Technical Co-Founders)
Starting a company means you should know everything about operating a
business (accounting, HR, legal, finance, operations, strategy,
marketing...the list goes on) [Full Disclosure: I am horrible at
accounting, so I let my co-founder take care of that - best decision
ever]
Although this isn't always necessarily the case, starting a company
often consumes your life. This might mean sometimes living like a
hobbit for quite some time. This takes a toll on all relationships
(friends, family, romantic). You need relationships to be happy, and
you need to be happy to succeed. You need to find balance.
When you raise financing, you should only raise just the right amount
- this often means that your company will have enough money to survive
for only 12-16 months. Entrepreneurs should be in the business of
creating something awesome - NOT in the business of constantly
pitching to investors.
The thought of knowing that you only have $X left in the bank, and
that this amount is depleting every...single...day
Waking up and finding out that Google or Facebook decided to replicate
your whole business overnight...as a FEATURE for one of their products
(didn't happen to us, but to many companies I've met). See Snapchat
(company)
Keeping calm, happy and optimistic even when you probably just had the
shittiest day of your life because someone quit, your biggest customer
left, your servers blew up, etc. :)
Keeping your spirits up when everyone is saying NO to you
Trying to convince a customer who has no money to spend money on your
product. Consumers are taught to notspend money; businesses are taught
to spend.
Making the right business decisions when you don't have any data to
back it up and basing everything on your "gut".
Many entrepreneurs will raise many rounds of venture capital. Every
round, they are giving away more and more (20-40% on average per
round) of their company. It's bloody hard sometimes to maintain your
motivation when you're giving away your baby. That's why it's very
important to properly setup the capital structure of your company from
the get-go.
Waking up and remembering the stat that 90%+ of start-ups will fail
and that you will probably be one of them and constantly telling
yourself that you will not be part of that statistic
Reciting the two infamous quotes "the most successful entrepreneurs
never give up" and "if you're going to fail, then fail fast" and
trying to figure out which one comes first
Still want to start a company? These are just some of the many things
that entrepreneurs face on a daily basis - but that's what makes it so
fun and exciting. It is indeed one of the most stressful "career
paths" to take on, but also one of the most fulfilling.
"So if you can't live with fear, don't ever go into the startup
business. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Just be
content to read all those glamorous stories of the billionaire
startups in Forbes magazine."
25 Things I've Learned About Life
Note by Harvey: some of the points I think are very good, but some of
them just simply not, such as drink beers and go to the club etc. Life
is not easy and of course need to try everything you can, believe
serendipitous.
-----------------------------------------------------------
25 Things I've Learned About Life
Derrick Fung
Votes by Alex Wu, worked at Facebook for >4 yrs., Marc Bodnick,
Co-Founder, Elevation Partners, Edmond Lau, Ex-Google Search Quality
Engineer, Aaron Chiu, Software Engineer at Facebook, Luke Bornheimer,
I worked there from 8/2010 to 9/2012 doing prod..., and 4088 more.
When I turned 25 a few months ago, I wrote down some of the things
I've learned over my short time on earth. The last year has been a
crazy roller-coaster ride which has enabled me to see certain things
like never before. Last year during this time, I was working at what I
would consider my "dream job" - well, before I discovered my current
"job" (I don't think I can even call it a job). Over the last year,
I've tried to learn from people who have "made it" in life -
entrepreneurs, figureheads, lawyers, bankers and even politicians.
I've realized that there is no formula to success in life, but there
are definitely lessons that can be learned to help along the journey.
I came up with the following list which I hope to someday come back to
- but for now, I think it's a pretty accurate depiction of how I
think. So without further adieu:
Take risks when you're young. The older you become, the harder it
gets. But they should always be calculated.
The most important thing you learn in school is how to learn. Once you
master that, nothing will stand in your way. Never stop learning.
I would rather say that I tried and failed than live a life of regret.
You miss every shot you don't take.
Dream big. Life is too short to only be mediocre.
Music is the cheapest and simplest cure to life's problems. Queue up
your favourite play list, put on some headphones, and take a walk.
You'll instantly feel better.
Drink beer. Lots of it. It makes you think more creatively. Oh, and wine too.
Join clubs and put yourself in as many different social settings as
possible. It will help you understand people and make you a better
communicator.
Start your own business as young as possible. Even if it's a lemonade
stand, it will teach you business lessons you'll use for the rest of
your life.
If you're going to fail, fail fast and make it public. Don't drag it
on. Then pick yourself back up. Knowing that others watched you fail
will encourage you to prove them wrong.
Meet lots of different people. Life is serendipitous in many ways and
you never know what can happen.
When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade. Then pour it for all
your friends. Be optimistic. It spreads like wild fire.
Success does not lead to happiness. You need to be happy first before
you can become successful. Find what makes you happy. Don't stop until
you find it.
Many people don't want to start businesses because they are scared.
Successful entrepreneurs got to where they are because they were
willing to tread where others wouldn't. If you're too scared to leave
your 9-5 job, entrepreneurship is not meant for you.
Surround yourself with people way smarter than you. That is the only
way you will be challenged to grow.
Only those who are with you during the struggles deserve to be with
you when you celebrate the successes.
Pick and choose your battles carefully. There are only 24 hours in a
day. If something isn't worth your time, just say no...or outsource it
to India ;) (thank you 4 Hour Workweek)
The most important asset to invest in is yourself. Take classes to
make yourself a better person and never stop learning. Buy books. Lots
of them.
True friends will never question why you disappeared off the face of
the earth. They will be there for you unconditionally.
The more comfortable you are with a job you don't want to be doing,
the harder it will become to leave it and chase your dreams. Learn
what you can, then go change the world.
A dream job does not exist. You have to create it.
Travel as much as you can. You will come back with a wider perspective
of the world and more ideas on how to change it.
"Thank You" - the most powerful two words in the English dictionary.
God gave us all a purpose. Don't settle until you find yours. I didn't
think mine was to sit in front of computer screens and trade foreign
exchange, so I kept looking.
The world may seem big and scary. But the older you get, the more you
realize that everything is man-made. Nothing is set in stone. Don't
stick with the status quo.
Life is not easy. But having the right support group with you during
your journey goes a long, long way.
Thanks for reading! Check out my other posts on my blog:
1) 15 Reasons Why Start-ups are !@#$ing Hard
2) 50 Ways Ordinary People Reached World-Class (Robin Sharma)
3) Why We Rejected Our First Takeout Offer
4) How a Business is Like an Airplane
them just simply not, such as drink beers and go to the club etc. Life
is not easy and of course need to try everything you can, believe
serendipitous.
-----------------------------------------------------------
25 Things I've Learned About Life
Derrick Fung
Votes by Alex Wu, worked at Facebook for >4 yrs., Marc Bodnick,
Co-Founder, Elevation Partners, Edmond Lau, Ex-Google Search Quality
Engineer, Aaron Chiu, Software Engineer at Facebook, Luke Bornheimer,
I worked there from 8/2010 to 9/2012 doing prod..., and 4088 more.
When I turned 25 a few months ago, I wrote down some of the things
I've learned over my short time on earth. The last year has been a
crazy roller-coaster ride which has enabled me to see certain things
like never before. Last year during this time, I was working at what I
would consider my "dream job" - well, before I discovered my current
"job" (I don't think I can even call it a job). Over the last year,
I've tried to learn from people who have "made it" in life -
entrepreneurs, figureheads, lawyers, bankers and even politicians.
I've realized that there is no formula to success in life, but there
are definitely lessons that can be learned to help along the journey.
I came up with the following list which I hope to someday come back to
- but for now, I think it's a pretty accurate depiction of how I
think. So without further adieu:
Take risks when you're young. The older you become, the harder it
gets. But they should always be calculated.
The most important thing you learn in school is how to learn. Once you
master that, nothing will stand in your way. Never stop learning.
I would rather say that I tried and failed than live a life of regret.
You miss every shot you don't take.
Dream big. Life is too short to only be mediocre.
Music is the cheapest and simplest cure to life's problems. Queue up
your favourite play list, put on some headphones, and take a walk.
You'll instantly feel better.
Drink beer. Lots of it. It makes you think more creatively. Oh, and wine too.
Join clubs and put yourself in as many different social settings as
possible. It will help you understand people and make you a better
communicator.
Start your own business as young as possible. Even if it's a lemonade
stand, it will teach you business lessons you'll use for the rest of
your life.
If you're going to fail, fail fast and make it public. Don't drag it
on. Then pick yourself back up. Knowing that others watched you fail
will encourage you to prove them wrong.
Meet lots of different people. Life is serendipitous in many ways and
you never know what can happen.
When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade. Then pour it for all
your friends. Be optimistic. It spreads like wild fire.
Success does not lead to happiness. You need to be happy first before
you can become successful. Find what makes you happy. Don't stop until
you find it.
Many people don't want to start businesses because they are scared.
Successful entrepreneurs got to where they are because they were
willing to tread where others wouldn't. If you're too scared to leave
your 9-5 job, entrepreneurship is not meant for you.
Surround yourself with people way smarter than you. That is the only
way you will be challenged to grow.
Only those who are with you during the struggles deserve to be with
you when you celebrate the successes.
Pick and choose your battles carefully. There are only 24 hours in a
day. If something isn't worth your time, just say no...or outsource it
to India ;) (thank you 4 Hour Workweek)
The most important asset to invest in is yourself. Take classes to
make yourself a better person and never stop learning. Buy books. Lots
of them.
True friends will never question why you disappeared off the face of
the earth. They will be there for you unconditionally.
The more comfortable you are with a job you don't want to be doing,
the harder it will become to leave it and chase your dreams. Learn
what you can, then go change the world.
A dream job does not exist. You have to create it.
Travel as much as you can. You will come back with a wider perspective
of the world and more ideas on how to change it.
"Thank You" - the most powerful two words in the English dictionary.
God gave us all a purpose. Don't settle until you find yours. I didn't
think mine was to sit in front of computer screens and trade foreign
exchange, so I kept looking.
The world may seem big and scary. But the older you get, the more you
realize that everything is man-made. Nothing is set in stone. Don't
stick with the status quo.
Life is not easy. But having the right support group with you during
your journey goes a long, long way.
Thanks for reading! Check out my other posts on my blog:
1) 15 Reasons Why Start-ups are !@#$ing Hard
2) 50 Ways Ordinary People Reached World-Class (Robin Sharma)
3) Why We Rejected Our First Takeout Offer
4) How a Business is Like an Airplane
On reading paper and doing research
READING PAPERS
I believe this paper was the first one that I tried to seriously read.
Looking back on it, it was pretty funny. Basically, I did the thing
that any geeky, hyper-serious, and clueless student would do: I
started highlighting any phrase that seemed interesting. By the the
end, my paper looked something like this:
Needless to say, utterly useless =)
I'm embarrassed to say that I actually showed this paper (with my
highlights) to the professor teaching my machine vision class, asking
him for advice on how to read papers. Looking back, I'm surprised he
didn't burst out laughing on the spot.
I've since accumulated more experience. Nowadays, I read most papers
fairly quickly. If the paper is in my area, I usually skip the
intro/related work (unless the paper has a very novel take on the
area), and go straight to the technical part of the paper. I try to
map the model/assumptions in the paper to work I've done/encountered
in the past, in order to understand what's new (if anything).
I read a few papers more carefully (typically because they're more
interesting/relevant to my research interests at the time). In these
cases, I struggle just like how I've always struggled, because
understanding new technical content is hard and takes time. I am able
to process certain things faster than before, but understanding truly
new stuff takes about the same amount of time as before. There are, of
course, shades of grey between these two extremes.
For me, the biggest difference between when I started out and now is
how quickly I can make a high-level pass over a paper to tease out the
main contributions, and to decide if it's something I want to
understand in detail. This also has the nice side-effect of me being
able to quickly write introduction & related work sections because
I've developed a nice global view on research in my area.
WRITING PAPERS
There are actually two things to consider here.
1) How do you approach a research project?
2) How/when do you decide what part of the project to package into a
paper submission?
I really want to emphasize this dichotomy because being too paper
driven can lead to bad/mediocre outcomes (since papers in of
themselves are not the goal, but rather scientific impact is).
When I was a junior PhD student doing my first research project, my
advisor decided on 1) for me, at least at the macro and intermediate
levels. At the macro level, he wanted me to work on interesting
extensions of an approach his group was working on (structural SVMs).
At the intermediate level, he wanted me to work an a specific
extension to an interesting application. Given the rather structured
nature of the project, it felt more like a super-glorified take-home
algorithms project. The project culminated in this paper. My advisor
had a lot of input in 2), helping me decide what to put into the paper
and what to leave out.
For my second project, my advisor explicitly asked me pick an
intermediate level project direction by myself. He basically told me
to scan through the SIGIR proceedings and identify some fundamental
technical problem that could be automated using machine learning.
After brainstorming together for about a month, we eventually settled
on a project that led to this paper.
After this, my advisor basically started treating me more like an
equal, and we started exploring high level research directions
together.
For me, 1) is very much tied to understanding trends in technology as
well as neighboring fields. For machine learning, example trends
include bigger datasets, or having humans in the loop a la
crowdsourcing. These trends are indicators regarding good research
directions to take your own field, since all fields have synergy with
each other. Believe it or not, writing research proposals for
fellowship/grant/award applications is actually very useful because it
forces you to synthesize these ideas into concrete research
directions.
Once you have a project and results worth writing a paper about, I
found that 2) becomes pretty easy with practice.
I believe this paper was the first one that I tried to seriously read.
Looking back on it, it was pretty funny. Basically, I did the thing
that any geeky, hyper-serious, and clueless student would do: I
started highlighting any phrase that seemed interesting. By the the
end, my paper looked something like this:
Needless to say, utterly useless =)
I'm embarrassed to say that I actually showed this paper (with my
highlights) to the professor teaching my machine vision class, asking
him for advice on how to read papers. Looking back, I'm surprised he
didn't burst out laughing on the spot.
I've since accumulated more experience. Nowadays, I read most papers
fairly quickly. If the paper is in my area, I usually skip the
intro/related work (unless the paper has a very novel take on the
area), and go straight to the technical part of the paper. I try to
map the model/assumptions in the paper to work I've done/encountered
in the past, in order to understand what's new (if anything).
I read a few papers more carefully (typically because they're more
interesting/relevant to my research interests at the time). In these
cases, I struggle just like how I've always struggled, because
understanding new technical content is hard and takes time. I am able
to process certain things faster than before, but understanding truly
new stuff takes about the same amount of time as before. There are, of
course, shades of grey between these two extremes.
For me, the biggest difference between when I started out and now is
how quickly I can make a high-level pass over a paper to tease out the
main contributions, and to decide if it's something I want to
understand in detail. This also has the nice side-effect of me being
able to quickly write introduction & related work sections because
I've developed a nice global view on research in my area.
WRITING PAPERS
There are actually two things to consider here.
1) How do you approach a research project?
2) How/when do you decide what part of the project to package into a
paper submission?
I really want to emphasize this dichotomy because being too paper
driven can lead to bad/mediocre outcomes (since papers in of
themselves are not the goal, but rather scientific impact is).
When I was a junior PhD student doing my first research project, my
advisor decided on 1) for me, at least at the macro and intermediate
levels. At the macro level, he wanted me to work on interesting
extensions of an approach his group was working on (structural SVMs).
At the intermediate level, he wanted me to work an a specific
extension to an interesting application. Given the rather structured
nature of the project, it felt more like a super-glorified take-home
algorithms project. The project culminated in this paper. My advisor
had a lot of input in 2), helping me decide what to put into the paper
and what to leave out.
For my second project, my advisor explicitly asked me pick an
intermediate level project direction by myself. He basically told me
to scan through the SIGIR proceedings and identify some fundamental
technical problem that could be automated using machine learning.
After brainstorming together for about a month, we eventually settled
on a project that led to this paper.
After this, my advisor basically started treating me more like an
equal, and we started exploring high level research directions
together.
For me, 1) is very much tied to understanding trends in technology as
well as neighboring fields. For machine learning, example trends
include bigger datasets, or having humans in the loop a la
crowdsourcing. These trends are indicators regarding good research
directions to take your own field, since all fields have synergy with
each other. Believe it or not, writing research proposals for
fellowship/grant/award applications is actually very useful because it
forces you to synthesize these ideas into concrete research
directions.
Once you have a project and results worth writing a paper about, I
found that 2) becomes pretty easy with practice.
订阅：
博文 (Atom)