转自 http://meditic.com
按：看过此文感触很多，很多时候空谈理想不如扎入现实，马上行动。
9月下旬，Roy过来找我说想在3个月内做出一个在线销售珠宝的网站。我的第一个反应是：为什么要3个月，而不是7天？
Roy感到很意外，7天也太短了吧。前期想花2个礼拜做市场分析，然后花2个礼拜做系统架构和主机租用，再一个月编写代码，再两周集成支付系统，最后两周用来调试。。。。。3个月已经很快了呀。。。。
我还是坚持“7天之内必须做出来”。Roy说“十一正好要结婚，还要忙准备工作呢”。“那好，除去结婚的7天，14天后必须上线。今晚回去就上GoDaddy把域名注册了，去mediatemple租个主机，几分钟后就能开通。利用5天写代码，花1天集成Paypal，最后1天做调试和部署。”
14天后，Roy的网站Bypoo真的上线了，而且真的可以卖了。
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10月初，阿宏过来找我，说想在2个月内上线一个家居设计销售网站。我的第一个反应依然是：为什么要2个月，而不是7天？
阿宏说“我有很远大的计划，我的网站将成为一个跟和淘宝一样复杂的家居交易平台”。。。。“打住！不管你将来计划多大，先给我上线，卖出第一套家具再说。这个周末去联系好10种存货，花5天写代码，7天后上线开卖。” 阿宏终究没有7天上线，最大原因是他一开始就建立了一个不小的团队，而团队成员却分散在各地，7天时间不够协作。
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互联网创造奇迹的地方有很多，其中一个很大的方面是：你可以在24小时内完成一个网站并开始做生意。互联网的硬件和软件成本已经低到了难以想象的地步，除去营销费用，一个网站只需要100块钱加上几天时间就能架起来。这是多么美妙的事情啊。
但是，很多人都被混蛋的MBA思维给套住了，什么市场分析，战略定位，用户调研，架构设计。。。。。都是Bullshit，这个时代什么都缺，就是MBA太多了，危害青少年健康。当你有一个想法的时候，就应该在几个小时候内把商业模式和系统逻辑想清楚了，然后7天内做出一个雏形（或者说比Beta版更Beta的版本），推出这个雏形之后，才去跟大家讨论，获取建议、想法，并改进成真正的Beta版，然后每天迭代开发，不断改进，直到成为一个完善的网站。绝对不要想着上线的第一个版本就能用上一年。事实上，第一个版本甚至连1个月后的情况能否应对都不是关键。
很建议有MBA思维的人士去读一读37Signals专门为网络startup定制的初创指导书“Getting Real”，看看这家成功的互联网公司是踢开MBA套路，直捣创业核心的。对网络创业犹豫的朋友，建议去看看美国的Startupweekend是如何每个周末纠集一小帮人、让他们在周六、周日两天之内搞出n个新网站来run的。
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前天，我突然发现，一个非常好的朋友，到现在还是单身。我想给他找个女友、我想到了互联网、我去搜索了一大堆交友网站，我立即无数枯燥的交友网站给淹没了，我感到我进入了很多生猪卖场，我发现一切都标准化了，我发现我在按照猪的体重、三维、价格来给我朋友挑选一头母猪。。。。。
我想给我的好友找一个女友，可是没有一个我看得上的交友网站。
你不是号称7天内就能做出一个新网站么？为什么不干脆自己做一个？
我也是这么想的。
这次我把目标定为了24小时（包括睡眠时间）。
首先确定网站的核心诉求：每个人身边都有单身的好男孩或好女孩，却由于各种原因而单身。那么，请你来向大家推荐你的单身好友，并从别人推荐的朋友里选择可能适合TA的对象。
从昨晚7点开始，花了5分钟从已有的空余域名里挑了一个，Zircy.com，然后花了10分钟想名字，叫“择悉”，和Zircy谐音，反正名字可以随时改的，先这样吧。
功能目标：
1、注册和登录
2、能提交自己的好友信息，包括姓名、性别、地区和照片
3、能够看别人推荐的好友，如果觉得某人不错，就可以点击按钮发送“感兴趣”的信息，促成对方的朋友和自己的朋友来约会
花了5个小时，用php+mysql把代码编好（没有用框架，但从以前网站里借用了一些常用函数），实现了上述基本功能，但bug一大堆，而且完全没有考虑美工、UI设计什么的，不管如何，5小时后的凌晨，Zircy.com就公开上线了。
然后花了8个小时睡觉。
今天上午醒来，开始修正了一些大bug，然后花了一个下午调整CSS、美化布局。所有用到的图片、网站介绍、用户协议、隐私政策等都是从我以前的网站里搬过来，或者在网上现找的，其实这些东西不要也没关系。到下午6点搞定。
最后花了1个小时用photoshop设计了Zircy的logo和一些图片按钮，还做了一下初步的SEO，填充了一些原始数据（首页里可真的都是我的好朋友啊。。。。真是对不住哥几位了。。。）
大功告成。
现在大家看到的Zircy.com，就是花了24小时做出来的。有兴趣的话，可以去注册玩玩。邀请码是ZircyRocks
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后记，对于一个技术高手来说，24小时做出一个网站根本不是问题。这篇博文也不是为了炫耀什么，只是想表达一个看法，一个对创业的看法：如果你相信自己的点子，请不要拖，尽快把它做出来，只有尽快做出来，才能prove你的点子是否可行。如果蒙头做半年才上线，很有可能出来的玩意儿已经一文不值了。
创业不是一件简单的事情，但也不是很艰难的事情。
8.19.2010
6.08.2010
Three things I learned at a d.school class
I took one d.school class-Play Innovation this quarter and I learned a lot from it. Compared to classes like ME310, d.school class projects are not quite engineered. Actually sometimes their prototypes look pretty sloppy. But I truly believe that smaller and a little more projects are ideal to practice design thinking.
Basically I learned three things at that class.
1 Environment is very important.
This class created a very SAFE environment for creation, which means besides the universal phrase in d.school classes "I wish, I like", it also encourages students to push the limit of crazy ideas. No one will be blamed for any idea. The results turned out to be fabulous. For all of the three small projects, there are some truly awesome ideas. I do believe this is working, and I began to think how do I create a safe environment for myself to be creative. Choosing the environment around me is definitely one choice. Besides that, I also need to expand my mind to accept more things, to appreciate different angles, to push the limit of my imagination.
2 Have clear time line at the beginning makes things going much smoother.
Three small projects, I did an experiment. The one we had the least time turned out to be the most efficient, the one we had a lot of time was in a hurry at the last minute. It is very obvious that with the one we had shorter time, we made a clear time line right after class and carried it out after that. But for the other one, we didn't do that because we thought we had plenty of time. Having clear time line and goal do help on productivity. Even if it doesn't turn out to be completely achieved, we should still make the plan early.
3 Have fun, relax, and trust the process and then good ideas will show up.
Engineering students are not comfortable when facing ambiguity generally. They usually tend to have some clear guideline to follow. Once they don't, they will create one for them to follow even if it is not the right one. For a typical design thinking process, I think we need to really relax and trust the process, trust it will all work out OK. It is very clear that some students they always have good ideas, I think that is because they had fun there and followed process to explore, and converge at a certain point. For those very engineering thinking student, their projects are usually well made but with less value-they didn't explore the space enough before getting their hands dirty to make prototypes.
5.07.2010
My risk profile
Maybe you can't tell, I'm a person that would like to take some risks. Entrepreneurship is about pursuing opportunities, leadership is about making things happen. So there must be many risk factors along the journey of entrepreneurship. How should I deal with risks? Where is the baseline for taking risks? Let me try to figure out my risk profile.
My happiness does not rely on earning a lot of money. It is nothing bad with making a lot of money, but when I'm not having passion for my work and I don't have time for a quality life, I'd stay one step away from making more money. On the other hand, I won't have problems living an life without a lot of money. I eat two meals a day, haven't been to supermarket for two quarters. So my only daily expense is meal, and that won't take much.
Imagine I'm only having a regular salary as many other 'white collar' workers in China. Will I have problems with that? I don't think so. Because my happiness does not rely on the money I earn, instead it is the things I do. Renting an apartment would be the ideal choice for me in the next a few years rather than put the burden of loan on my shoulder for years on a house that I only have the ownership for decades.
Pushing the situation to an extreme, will I have problems to earn something for my living in the future? Will I be so poor as to beg for money and food? I don't think so. This is enough for me. The worse scenario is acceptable for me at least now, so risks don't mean as much anymore.
Failures is very natural. In a d.school class, my teammates asked me what if the users don't like our design. I said even if it is a failure, it is still something very important we learn. That class is working very hard to create an safe environment of creating things, which means you can try every wacky idea you can think of, but the students are still feeling unsafe about failures. This reminds me about how to create a safety environment for myself to create and explore along my life. I think it is to figure out the baseline of my risk profile.
And I think it is very clear for me now. Deal with failures properly, they are not good things, neither bad things.
My happiness does not rely on earning a lot of money. It is nothing bad with making a lot of money, but when I'm not having passion for my work and I don't have time for a quality life, I'd stay one step away from making more money. On the other hand, I won't have problems living an life without a lot of money. I eat two meals a day, haven't been to supermarket for two quarters. So my only daily expense is meal, and that won't take much.
Imagine I'm only having a regular salary as many other 'white collar' workers in China. Will I have problems with that? I don't think so. Because my happiness does not rely on the money I earn, instead it is the things I do. Renting an apartment would be the ideal choice for me in the next a few years rather than put the burden of loan on my shoulder for years on a house that I only have the ownership for decades.
Pushing the situation to an extreme, will I have problems to earn something for my living in the future? Will I be so poor as to beg for money and food? I don't think so. This is enough for me. The worse scenario is acceptable for me at least now, so risks don't mean as much anymore.
Failures is very natural. In a d.school class, my teammates asked me what if the users don't like our design. I said even if it is a failure, it is still something very important we learn. That class is working very hard to create an safe environment of creating things, which means you can try every wacky idea you can think of, but the students are still feeling unsafe about failures. This reminds me about how to create a safety environment for myself to create and explore along my life. I think it is to figure out the baseline of my risk profile.
And I think it is very clear for me now. Deal with failures properly, they are not good things, neither bad things.
5.06.2010
Several tips for engineers to prepare for thinking and working in a bigger box
Today we had a guest speaker at 310, Mark Schar, who is a design researcher and angel investor. He talked about how people trained as engineers can think in a bigger box and prepare for working in a bigger box.
Here are a few tips he gave at the end of the speech.
Understand the Business
Here are a few tips he gave at the end of the speech.
Understand the Business
- Read the WSJ
- Profit forecast
- Jack Welch-Winning
- d.school-world class
- customer and consumer
- Explore, Evangelize, Sell
- Practice
- Other people shoes
- Observe those who are clearly an leader in an organization. Role model.
- So different from product management!
- Get'er done.
5.05.2010
How I deal with pressure and anxiety
I'm determined to become an entrepreneur soon. So every time I feel I'm having too much pressure, or feel too anxious about something, I will tell myself that I will encounter way heavier pressure and anxiety in the future when doing start up. And I need to prepare for that. Then I'm feeling much better about the pressure I'm dealing with now.
Take one step away to see our lives, those things that we felt helpless, hopeless, or too difficult before just fall into pieces and disappear. They don't really matter anymore for us now. So don't put yourself in a situation that you think you are stuck at somewhere that you can't move on anymore.
Crystal, as an entrepreneur, told me that it is too stressful to be an entrepreneur. I'd say if we look at it from another angle, if you love that, it is not an concern anymore. A good entrepreneur should be able to go to bed and have a good sleep even if his company is facing huge crisis on the very same day.
Take one step away to see our lives, those things that we felt helpless, hopeless, or too difficult before just fall into pieces and disappear. They don't really matter anymore for us now. So don't put yourself in a situation that you think you are stuck at somewhere that you can't move on anymore.
Crystal, as an entrepreneur, told me that it is too stressful to be an entrepreneur. I'd say if we look at it from another angle, if you love that, it is not an concern anymore. A good entrepreneur should be able to go to bed and have a good sleep even if his company is facing huge crisis on the very same day.
4.04.2010
Sherman Ting's speech
Sherman Ting's speech is one of the best speech I've ever attended. It is very inspiring to me.
1 Entering companies that are growing fast is better than entering a mature company. The former allows you to try different positions, while the latter is highly competitive and you have to compete even for a very low position. In his career path, he joined Oracle in the fastest growing period and he managed to try manager's position very soon.
2 Glass Ceiling is for people for believe in it. Most of the Chinese people here at the valley encounter the so called Glass Ceiling. In Sherman's opinion, most of them don't deserve a promotion. If you don't have enough network, don't work harder to bring extra value beyond the 8-hour work, why are you qualified to be promoted? I agree with this point and I think this reflects the situation for lots of Chinese here who are still doing the basic work after graduating for many years. Challenge yourself and get fit to the environment, then you can live better.
3 Participate in new projects and functions. Same as entering growing companies, joining new projects and functions give one larger possibility to lead a team, a department, or a market.
4 Tips for being an entrepreneur:
-Vision with a passion.
-Eternally optimistic.
-Determination.
-Leadership.
-People make or brake a business.
-It's an unforgiving world out there.
5 Lessons learned during his entire career.
-Effective communication is key.
-Participate, be a consistent contributor.
-Learn from the best.
-Networking is a way of life.
-Hire the best to replace yourself. /I think this point is really interesting. Don't try to be the best at everything, but the question is where should I actually stop trying to be the best?/
-Never stop building new skills.
-Never stop asking and learning.
-Never afraid of trying the unknown. /I strongly agree with this point. There is surely risk but trying new things makes me happy and exited./
-Competition is about being better.
-No shortcuts.
-Go to where opportunities are. /Sherman told us that one Chinese student asked him about whether stay in the states or go back to China, he pointed out this and that student decided to go back. It is not an universal law for everyone because different people define opportunity differently. Some may think working in a big company here is a good opportunity./
-Be patient. /BE PATIENT!/
6 Sherman also pointed out the solid foundations for everyone.
-Communication.
-Problem solving.
-Functional and Domain Expertise.
-Ethical, high integrity.
-Good reputation.
-High Standard.
-Marketing plan for yourself.
-Have goals, make decisions which fits the goals.
-Good network.
-Adjust to different culture.
-Management experience.
1 Entering companies that are growing fast is better than entering a mature company. The former allows you to try different positions, while the latter is highly competitive and you have to compete even for a very low position. In his career path, he joined Oracle in the fastest growing period and he managed to try manager's position very soon.
2 Glass Ceiling is for people for believe in it. Most of the Chinese people here at the valley encounter the so called Glass Ceiling. In Sherman's opinion, most of them don't deserve a promotion. If you don't have enough network, don't work harder to bring extra value beyond the 8-hour work, why are you qualified to be promoted? I agree with this point and I think this reflects the situation for lots of Chinese here who are still doing the basic work after graduating for many years. Challenge yourself and get fit to the environment, then you can live better.
3 Participate in new projects and functions. Same as entering growing companies, joining new projects and functions give one larger possibility to lead a team, a department, or a market.
4 Tips for being an entrepreneur:
-Vision with a passion.
-Eternally optimistic.
-Determination.
-Leadership.
-People make or brake a business.
-It's an unforgiving world out there.
5 Lessons learned during his entire career.
-Effective communication is key.
-Participate, be a consistent contributor.
-Learn from the best.
-Networking is a way of life.
-Hire the best to replace yourself. /I think this point is really interesting. Don't try to be the best at everything, but the question is where should I actually stop trying to be the best?/
-Never stop building new skills.
-Never stop asking and learning.
-Never afraid of trying the unknown. /I strongly agree with this point. There is surely risk but trying new things makes me happy and exited./
-Competition is about being better.
-No shortcuts.
-Go to where opportunities are. /Sherman told us that one Chinese student asked him about whether stay in the states or go back to China, he pointed out this and that student decided to go back. It is not an universal law for everyone because different people define opportunity differently. Some may think working in a big company here is a good opportunity./
-Be patient. /BE PATIENT!/
6 Sherman also pointed out the solid foundations for everyone.
-Communication.
-Problem solving.
-Functional and Domain Expertise.
-Ethical, high integrity.
-Good reputation.
-High Standard.
-Marketing plan for yourself.
-Have goals, make decisions which fits the goals.
-Good network.
-Adjust to different culture.
-Management experience.
3.23.2010
Entrepreneurs and business leaders from Stanford University
- Kurt Akeley, (MS, Ph.D.), co-founder of Silicon Graphics
- Jim Allchin, (MS) co-President of Microsoft
- Mukesh Ambani, (MBA candidate, dropped out) Reliance Industries Limited Chairman
- John Arrillaga, (A.B., MBA) - Silicon Valley real estate developer
- Steven A. Ballmer, (MBA candidate, dropped out in 1979) CEO, Microsoft
- Diosdado Banatao, (MS), venture capitalist; S3 Graphics, Chips and Technologies, Mostron co-founder.
- Craig Barrett, B.S., Ph.D. (1964) - past Chairman of Intel, former CEO of Intel (1998–2005). Former Stanford Professor of Materials Science (1964–1974).
- Andy Bechtolsheim (Ph.D CS/EE 1977-1982(Dropped Out), Co-Founder of Sun Microsystems.
- Jeffrey Bewkes (MBA 1977), Time Warner President and COO
- Len Bosack, (MS 1981), co-founder of Cisco Systems with his girlfriend (later wife), Sandy Lerner
- Sergey Brin, (MS), Google co-founder
- Orkut Büyükkökten , Founder of social networking service called Orkut
- Ray Dolby, audio engineer, founder of Dolby Labs
- Burton A. Dole, Jr., (BSME, MBA), President, CEO, and Chairman of Puritan Bennett
- Richard B. Evans, (MS Management 1978), Alcan, President & CEO
- Richard Fairbank, (A.B., MBA), co-Founder, Chairman, & CEO, Capital One
- David Filo, (MS), Yahoo! co-founder
- Carly Fiorina, (1976), CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 - 2005.
- Paul Flaherty, (M.S., Ph.D.) co-inventor of the AltaVista search engine
- Victor Grinich, (Ph.D. 1953) one of the "Traitorous Eight" that founded Fairchild Semiconductor
- Andrew Grove, (Lecturer) - founder and former CEO and Chairman of Intel
- Reed Hastings (M.S. 1988), Netflix founder
- Trip Hawkins, (MBA) - founder of Electronic Arts and 3DO
- Christopher Hedrick, (A.B. 1984) - President and CEO of Intrepid Learning Solutions
- William Hewlett (1934), Hewlett-Packard co-founder
- Mamoru Imura, CEO of Vita Craft Corporation and Vita Craft Japan, inventor of RFIQin.
- Guy Kawasaki - CEO of the venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures
- Howard Kerzner - (MBA 1991) - former CEO of Kerzner International
- Vinod Khosla, (MBA), Sun Microsystems co-founder, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner
- Phil Knight, (MBA 1961), founder and former CEO, Nike
- Omid Kordestani, (MBA), Senior Vice President Google
- Sandy Lerner, (MS Stat & CS 1981), co-founder of Cisco Systems with her boyfriend (later husband), Len Bosack
- Richard Li, (College dropout) - founder of STAR TV (Asia) and Chairman of the largest Hongkong telecommunication carrier PCCW
- Victor Li, (BS, MS 1985) - Hong Kong businessman
- Mao Daolin, (MS in EESOR) former CEO of Sina.com
- Craig McCaw, (A.B.) Founder and CEO of McCaw Cellular, founder of Clearwire
- Henry McKinnell, (MBA, Ph.D.) - Chairman and former CEO of Pfizer
- Scott McNealy, (MBA) - Co-founder, Chairman, & former CEO, Sun Microsystems
- Hamid Moghadam, (MBA 1980) - Co-founder, Chairman & CEO, AMB Property Corporation
- Robert Mondavi, (A.B. 1937) Vintner
- John Morgridge, (MBA 1957), Cisco Systems Chairman
- Mark Oldman, Vault.com co-founder
- David Packard, (1934), Hewlett-Packard co-founder
- Larry Page, (M.S.), Google co-founder
- Azim Premji, founder and CEO of Wipro Technologies
- T.J. Rodgers, (Ph.D.) - founder and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor
- James Sachs, (A.M. 1979), IDEO co-founder
- John Turner Sargent, Jr., business associate of Doubleday (whose father was CEO) and CEO of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
- Charles R. Schwab, (1959, MBA 1961), founder, chairman, and CEO of Charles Schwab Corporation
- David E. Shaw, (Ph. D. 1980) - founder of D.E. Shaw & Co. and Chief Scientist of D.E. Shaw Research, LLC
- Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder, Clarium Capital founder
- Alan Tripp, (A.B. 1985, MBA 1989) founder of SCORE! Educational Centers and InsideTrack
- Jerry Yang, Yahoo! co-founder
- Lance Leelie, [Leelie Corp][1], founder
- Min Zhu, founder and former CTO of WebEx
- Hernán Kazah, co-founder of Mercadolibre.com
- Scott McGregor, President, Chief Executive Officer of Broadcom
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