Edith Yeung

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.

“Which road should I take?” she asked.

“Where do you want to go?” Cheshire cat asked.

“I don’t know.” Alice answered.

“Then…” said the Cheshire cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

Life is that way.

If you don’t know (or never answer the question) where you want to go, every road will take you there or no where. Just like a boat in the ocean. If you don’t set your compass towards a certain direction, you would still float. You have a good time here and there, but somewhere along the way you will feel that there is just something missing.

Some people say: “It’s not just about the destination, it’s about the journey.”

I agree except if you don’t know where you are going… you can enjoy the sun, the dolphins or the octopuses swimming around you all day long, but it will still feel empty and boring.

I bring up these stories because today is my birthday. I am thankful that I had the chance to experience some amazing stuff in life: amazing people, things, journey, books, music, and places. Where do I want to go from here? Where did I go in the past that I really enjoy?

You can’t really get more of what you like if you don’t know clearly what you really like. Because of this I will write down a list of things that I truly enjoyed and know that I will reminisce for the rest of my life. Plus why not give myself a little pat on the back on my birth day.

Here are experiences that I remember and truly enjoyed (in no particular order)

1. Moved to Indiana by myself when I was 16. First feeling – what the hell?!
2. Climbed Inca Trail for 4 day and reached Machu Picchu – Wohoo!
3. Scuba Diving in Great Barrier Reef – Scared to death! Thought I couldn’t breath.
4. Traming in New Zealand South Island – Brought cooked lamb from the Chinese restaurant to the mountain and made all the hikers really jealous
5. Drove my mom and uncle across New Zealand and felt like we were in Lord of the Ring – the movie!
6. Visited Thailand with my of 3 best girlfriends and took pictures with beautiful ladyboys
7. Drove across the Midwest cornfield with Lin in and got a ticket – doh!
8. Watching Madame Butterfly in Munich – Front row seat and truly felt like a million bucks!
9. Drank Kiwi Caipirinha on the hottest day in Brazil and felt so refreshed beyond belief
10. Hiked in Mount Rainer and saw Edith’s Creek – I am not kidding! There was such a creek.
11. Cave diving in Yucatan, Mexico. Could not control my BCD and got stuck. LOL!
12. Sky diving in Monterey. Felt like life just passed me by and actually enjoyed the free fall moment.
13. Quitted my job and left corporate America without much planning. Would I do it again – of course!
14. Started organizing entrepreneur Meetups ‘cause I felt like it
15. Started putting together BizTechDay feeling that was the right thing to do
16. Started a company – man this is more scary than anything else I have ever done.
17. Went to Egypt and Muslim women wanted to take pictures with me and touched my hair.  Thought I was the tourist…
18. Saw the real painting ‘The Kiss’ and felt it took my breath away
19. Went hiking with my mother on Hong Kong Island
20. Ate (will eat more) my mother’s mom made dumpling
21. Arm wrestling with my grand father. He was a strong man even his 80s
22. Hitchhiking at the San Juan Island with my friends and got on the back of the truck
23. Went protesting in Hong Kong for Tiananmen square
24. Swam with the shark in the Melbourne Aquarium
25. Every time I drank Archery Summit Oregon Pinot or Penfold Bin 389
26. Sang jazz at Tula’s, Seattle
27. Walking down Parisian street with mother and pointing out all the dog shit
28. Biking across all the canals in Amsterdam and feel quite high afterwards
29. Ate the best Raman on the street of Tokyo – in heaven. Really!
30. Ate the best sushi the Tsukiji Fish Market – wow.  Beer/sushi at 10:00 a.m. My first for sure.
31. Saw rap/jazz dancing in a Korean club. All the girls dressed up like MC Hammer.
32. Ate fried locust on the street of Thailand
33. Drink whiskey from the Scottish Whisky Society in Edinburgh
34. Saw a naked artistic show in Edinburgh Art Festival – Wow.
35. Realizing what I am truly good at while I am still fairly young J
36. Told my mom how much I love her on my birthday
37. Went to a wedding in a Castle in England

And here are some things I still want to do:

1. Live and learn Spanish in Barcelona and Madrid
2. Have a sip of Chai tea while looking at Taj Mahal
3. Work in a French Restaurant in Paris while leaning French
4. Party at Ibiza and be a bartender there for a day
5. See all the ruins in AnkaWot
6. See the Northern Lights while sipping a glass of Champagne
7. Climb Grand Canyon from bottom to top or the other way around.
8. Pet animals on Galápagos Islands
9. Eat Pho in Saigon, the real Saigon
10. Start an nonprofit helping kids to learn entrepreneurship skill
11. Learn how to cook Thai food in Thailand
12. Take the Sound of Music Tour at Salzburg
13. Visit the birth place of Chopin
14. Meet Jason Mraz and sing a duet with him – I am yours
15. Run a marathon in Hawaii
16. Archery in Scotland – Scream Brave Heart!
17. Play Soccer with the kids in Brazil
18. Play Frisbee in Bali
19. Build a multi-million dollar business and sell it
20. Own a Penthouse apartment free and clear
21. Be inspired by the person I love every single day for the rest of my life
22. Make a difference in someone important in my life
23. Build a school
24. Make my mom a grandmother
25. Watch the “Before Sunrise” movie in Vienna and walk the trail
26. Watch “Before Sunset” movie in Paris and walk the trail
27. Witness a solar eclipse
28. Paddle a boat on the Blue Lagoon
29. Do public speaking in front of 10,000 people
30. Be a leader in a rally
31. Write a letter to at least 3 of your closest friends to let them know how much they mean to you
32. Beat a video game
33. Watch god father in New York
34. Write a book on something that means a lot to you
35. Put together a 10,000 person conference
36. Learn how to walk like a model in New York
37. Do a photo shot with cool women in Hollywood
38. Join a social etiquette class and further refine your mannerisms
39. Go on a blind date! (for the singles!)
40. Learn how to play the Violin
41. Sing and play piano with Diana Krall
42. Win a lucky draw for a million and buy a home that day
43. Learn how to dance Tango in Argentina
44. Yoga Retreat in India
45. Go on a road trip in Africa
46. Take 3 months off travelling around the world
47. Volunteer for a year
48. Act in a film with Jude Law
49. Be on the cover of Fast Company
50. Celebrate New Year with 10 of my loved ones every year for the rest of my life
51. Have dinner with Obama and Nelson Mandela
52. Go to the World Cup

Let me know when you want to join me on any of these items, and I will let you know when and where we are going to do it.

On April 6 evening, I am going to be part of a stellar panel at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, discussing “Doing Business in China: For Better or Worse.” Click here for full information and to sign up.

The club describes the event as follows:
Google’s recent struggle with China over censorship has raised the possibility that China’s regulatory regime may be too restrictive for the free operation of American technology companies. HBS’s February review of the Google/China skirmish says that “the Google issue has become a cause celebre that exacerbates the already fragile and festering U.S.-China relationship.” Is it worth it for American businesses to acquiesce to the Chinese government’s control and censorship requests in order to operate in China’s ever-growing market? What do the Chinese people think about their government’s censorship of information technology? How will American tech companies survive in China’s Internet environment? Experts and insiders weigh in.

The panelists will be the following:
– Dan Harris, International Lawyer; Harris & Moure, Author, China Law Blog
– David Gorodyansky, CEO and Co-founder, AnchorFree Inc.
– George Koo, Ph.D., Special Advisor, Deloitte China Services Group; Member, Committee of 100
– Jeff Richards, Partner, GGV Capital
– Edith Yeung, Founder, BizTechDay
– Quentin Hardy, National Editor, Forbes – Moderator

The Commonwealth Club is at 595 Market Street. Check in is at 6 p.m. The program itself will be from 6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. and a networking reception will follow. Click here if you want to attend.

Promises that inspire me

Have been doing a lot of rethinking about life and business lately. Did tons of research of various companies and found these few business promises (company tagline) that are super inspiring and caught my eyes right away.

Promises (to me) means the expectation you set with your community (or partner, customers, suppliers essentially your ecosystems) when they first walk in to your store, your website or hearing your messages and all for the first time.

Why should they care and spend more time with you?

Check this out!

Muji
We would like our customers to feel that rational sense of satisfaction that comes with “this is best,” but with “this is enough.” “Best” becomes “enough.” There are degree of “enough,” however. Muji aims to the standard of “enough” to the greatest extent possible. By raising the bar of what denotes “enough,” we cast away that resignation and slight dissatisfaction; we create a new dimension of “enough” to attain a clear and heart-felt “This is enough.”.

Meetup
Meetup’s mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

Startup Digest
We e-mail you the best startup events every week. Enjoy! 

99Designs
Whatever you need designed, count on us to get the job done right.

Twitter
Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.
Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately.

TED
Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

Google
To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Flickr
We want to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them.

Hotfile.com
Free one-click file hosting!

When you are doing the work you are mean to do, it feel right. And everyday is a bonus regardless you are getting paid.

Watch this amazing speech by Oprah at Stanford Commencement Address. Love it…

It’s Friday! Watch this video and LOL.

140 characters messages are way too long.

I have no idea what they are saying. But this is a COOL commercial.

Kinda like the Mendelssohn’s piano music I used to play ‘Song without Word’. You don’t need to know lyric to understand what they are saying.

A friend ask me over email “3 tips for using Meetup.com to generate buzz for events”…

Since no one has ever asked me before… I decided to put it on my blog so I would remember.

1) Be Relevant
Why would people want to attend your meetup?
Why would people ever want to spend two precious hours of their time with you?
Give them the benefits. Give them a reason that matters. Give them something relevant that they feel it’s worth while.  At the end of the day, if you want people to come to your meetup. Think from their point of view and give what they want and hungry for.

If you are running a classical music lover group, may be “An intimate evening with Yo Yo Ma”?
If you are running a cooking group, may be “5 Cooking Tips from Thomas Keller?”?

2) Be Unique
What make you different from everybody else? May be the people, the benefits, the vibe, the meeting spots, the whatever, however, or the whoever.
Whatever it is… It got to be something that worth talking about.  And something that YOU can truly stand by.

Your meetups are like one of those many magazines on the rank. Think about the one that you would pick up. That’s the one you want your meetup to be.

3) Be Real

I tried to copy other gurus and their marketing styles before. Trust me. I tried. And it was a disaster and it did not work.
Not because the tactics weren’t good. It just wasn’t real and I couldn’t stand by it. When you are not being you, people could smell it and sense it. Meetup is about people, face to face. People know when your tone changes. People know when you sound different. Just be yourself and you will be a lot happier being an organizer.

Anyway… being a meetup organizer is not easy.

Being a successful one is definitely hard work.

Being a successful and happy organizer is even harder!

At the end of the day, don’t try to be everything for everyone. Create your own rule and own niche. Do your best to serve and give your people (whoever they are) your best (your standard, not theirs). That’s what meetup is all about.

Your pal. Your people. Not all people, but your kind of people who really gets you.

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Deep down…when you see someone follow you. You feel like somebody care.

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Here is where you would find out real time:

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• Carlos is holding back his tears while watching
• Mary is singing while watching
• Jimmy’s daughter interviewed Jimmy Carter on Obama

It’s this cool or what?

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