<p>That guy is a narcissistic poser - because he didn't do well in school, he decided to group himself with Steve Jobs and use that as justification for his own self-acclaimed accomplishments, which to this date are still nonexistent to me. Sucks so bad he can't even redeem himself as "asian" fail. And one more thing, respect your elders. Don't lie and treat your grandparents like s.hit.</p>
<p>yukaichou?
yukaichump.</p>
<p>Well to be honest, I think all of us have heard some form of this or the other... the fact that asian kids study a looot more than others. I firmly believe this is just generalizing, but fact is many people actually believe it. I'm an asian and and I know many who study a lot more than others, and others who don't so much. I've moved to India now (from the Bay Area) and I'll tell you that Indians here (in india) don't study at all.</p>
<p>It's the history, it's all in the history. I'll tell u my story.</p>
<p>Both my parents were born in India. They went to school here and both of them weren't too well off, if you know what I mean. Very large, extended families. America, for them, was a dream. It was a dream of a better place, a better life, which was the same to the numerous immigrants at that time. Both of them couldn't afford American education. Heck, even the rich in India couldn't afford it. So what did they do? They studied. Studied their butts off and got nice fat scholarships to study in a good US university. They studied, got citizenship, and got good jobs.</p>
<p>Before we left the Bay Area about 5 years ago, both my parents had fat, 6 figure salaries working in the silicon valley. My parents always tell me this story, the story of how they had nothing, and how they worked to get what they have now. </p>
<p>What I'm trying to say is this isn't just my story. It's they story of most of the asians out there, all the asians who's parents were immigrants. That's why they want their kids to study like crazy, because that's what gave them the life they have now. Education. It's not culture, something back from the seventeen hundreds or any such bull$hit. Its just that they want their kids get even higher in life.</p>
<p>mor99 summed it up very nicely.</p>
<p>
[quote]
mor99 summed it up very nicely.
[/quote]
^^^^^^^^^^^</p>
<p>Hahaha, interesting engagement.</p>
<p>@Sephorazn18: Yea, sorry about the bad English. I haven't been in the states for that long during the time, and I posted it very casually on my blog. During that time no one really reads it so I didn't think about quality control that much. I had no clue someone would post on other forums and what not, so I have had a fair share of being discredited due to the grammar. But again, I apologize for that.</p>
<p>@yahooo: to sum in one sentence, our company seeks to combine work and play through technology and social media. Our goal is to get everyone to play their entire lives by doing things they are passionate about. Due to the economy, FD World hasn't launched yet and we put it on hold. However, we are launching Viralogy.com very soon and it has won 1st place at the 2009 CINACON VC Pitch Competition and 2nd place at the Show Case Competition. Our other site FDcareer.com also got rated on Mashable.com as one of the Top 10 Social Networks for Gen Ys. So overall things are going well. Thanks for being one of the friendlier people on this forum :)</p>
<p>@Fav: hahaha, you don't have to sarcastically thank me for generalizing. If you show me some well elaborated article about society and culture that does not generalize at all, let me know and I will definitely try to learn from it. In the mean time, I just respond to questions that I hear a lot from other people. I can also prove how many people make the same generalization by showing you the search traffic that went onto the post. Everyone searches "why do asian kids study like crazy" "asian parents force their kids to join the ivy league".....literally thousands.</p>
<p>I also thank you for being polite too on this post though. I don't really know if I was praising a single culture. The reason why you feel I put down Asian culture too much is because at least I don't want to sound like I'm just saying that Asians have academic elitism and that's good. As you know, generalizing always get you a lot of criticism, but at least its safer to be harsh on your own group and NOT someone elses. </p>
<p>@Nit: haha, yes. I did say this is a very late reply :) However, people who graduated still read these forums ya know :D</p>
<p>@Jolius: hahaha, alright lets see how can I really respond to your post, since it sounds like no matter what I say, it won't make a difference. I still really wonder why a few people hate me so much...if you can tell me how can I prevent that I would be more than glad to do it :) </p>
<p>I want to talk about your narcissistic poser comment, but I guess I'll go into your reasoning instead. Why do you say I didn't do well in school? How do you know that? So if I DID do well in school, then your argument no longer holds? I can tell you I didn't do badly in school and being an entrepreneur is really a lifestyle choice. Or else, I would have joined a management consulting firm since I was training so many people to enter it (I was the founder of Bruin Consulting). Also, I don't remember comparing myself to Steve Jobs. Can you remind me of where that is? Perhaps somewhere I talked about making similar career choices as Steve Jobs, who knows, but I can assure you that I have never compared my accomplishments to him. Like I said, I do have small accomplishments listed above and more. I am the board advisor of a few companies, including one run by a Caltech PhD. This isn't to say that there isn't WAYYYY more in this world that I don't know and have yet to learn, but I do work hard (90 hours a week) and enjoy what I do. Like any entrepreneur, I have failed more than I have succeeded, but I am still enjoying it and trying to make the world a better place. If you say that being happy with what you have done is narcissistic then I have no argument against you. I've gotten some decent results in my company through lots of hard work but would you only be happy if I sold a 9-digit company? I feel you might dislike me even more :/</p>
<p>@mor99: you definitely have a very good point. Its very true that a lot of immigrants study very hard because their parents came here for a better life for their children. As you can see my post was long enough so I didn't want to cover all the little details and factors. I'm not sure about India, but at least in China and Taiwan, I know people study their butts off in middle school and high school. Once they get into college, they start having fun and no longer study as much. It is typical for a middle school student to go to school at 7:30AM, finish school at 6PM, then go to their after school school, finish at 10PM. Go home, finish their homework from school AND their homework from after school school, and then sleep at 1AM. As far as I know, American middle school kids don't do that. Also, there are tons of cases where middle school and high school kids in Asian commit suicide because of school pressure. I don't see it that often in Western cultures either. So I feel there is at least SOME truth to the different cultural academic values. </p>
<p>Whew, alright that's everyone again (I'm assuming etti and MadeInChina don't need adequate responses). Post more and I'll respond to you. Hopefully one day I will find a supporter on this forum (really practicing the think skin and not getting hurt thing, hahaha) :) Take care guys and good luck on finals!</p>
<p>Yukai, BC Spring Case Comp in a few weeks (April 4th @ De Neve), you coming out?</p>
<p>Haha, no...I'm in the Bay Area right now. Not too easy to get there :/</p>
<p>How's it going?</p>
<p>read through the article. May be only people have a strong Eastern culture background can truely understand whay Yukai said. I did once believe school's name and degree are the top priority too, but right now it just work out not the same as I thought.
Degree, GPA are still highly valuated in Western Culture, but more quality are expected such as leadership skills, team player, networking.... Not being said that those quality are not valuated in Eastern, but they are not that concerned like in Western Culture!
In short, in West, GPA/degree are things that would get u into the door of a good company, then your "skills" would decide whether u get the job or not. In East, GPA/degree are more likely the only major deterministic factors.</p>
<p>Woohoo! Someone agrees with me, finally :)</p>
<p>s_dragon has a very good point. The way colleges here in India do it, you have an entrance exam and your high school GPA. They take the avg of that and give you a number. Then they see how many they can accommodate and have a cut-off number. I think that's absolutely ridiculous. The judgment is purely based on your grades, and that's as stupid as it is unethical. That's why people care so much about GPA in the top colleges here.. I prefer the whole, complete western culture.</p>
<p>Swaying a bit from the topic, though, yukai, have a question about "I can tell you I didn't do badly in school and being an entrepreneur is really a lifestyle choice." I've not been in California for some time now, but is entrepreneurship being taken as only for people who don't do well in college? I'm an entrepreneur myself, of course it's not a multi-million dollar company, but for a kid in school I'm getting there. Main question- Is entrepreneurship being looked down upon now?</p>
<p>@mor99: Hey thanks for the response. Lots of Asian countries have that policy about just using your grades to determine where you go. And these people who created the systems are also parents too who fully believe in it, hence my point about culture.</p>
<p>Most people don't look down upon entrepreneurs. A lot of them respect entrepreneurs a lot and admire how they take that leap of faith. However, whenever you are doing something big, you will always find people who criticize you, especially when its anonymous. This forum is one of the only places that I saw people bashing me, so that's why I wanted to put in a bit of my own words. Recently, I have had a PhD from Caltech invite me to be his Board Advisor. Also a Lawyer who also has a CPA asked me to be her mentor. That doesn't happen very often if you are a 22 year old working in corporate. </p>
<p>One reason why a small group of people bash you as an entrepreneur could be because when you run a business, you try to promote it to people it can help, and it may get on peoples' nerves. Plus, because the entrepreneurial path is so tough and filled with failures, you have to be a bit over-confident to keep doing it and keep your sanity. That could make people think you are conceited. Finally, there are people who hate you just because they hate their own lives and want to put down others who are doing something more interesting. Either way, being an entrepreneur is an exciting but lonely path.</p>
<p>I hope this information helps!</p>
<p>Yukai, I hear you. Everyone I've met so far has encouraged me, but I guess the whole world isn't that way, haha. Thanks!</p>
<p>Haha, everyone I have "met" has encouraged me too. But when you start doing a lot of stuff, its the people you haven't met and are anonymous that are the party poopers :)</p>