Yu-kai Chou

Some people were curious about how Future Delivery managed to get both the founder of Google Earth and Google Adense, as well as top top people in the field of accounting and law onto our board, so here I will explain how we found each board advisor. I’ll go more in-depth on our management team on a future blog.

First of all, as a young team, we need a well-rounded advisory board who know what they are doing to guide us and prevent us from making bad decisions simply because of a lack of knowledge. We had in mind the exact expertise we are looking for, and applied good networking techniques to connect with them. As I pointed out in my eBook on networking I wrote two years ago, good networking has 6 Core Values: Integrity, Sincerity, Optimism, Confidence, Initiative, and Persistence. As long as you constantly apply these 6 core concepts in your life, doors will open up in life for you.

For Avi (founder of Google Earth, or Earthviewer by Keyhole), we found his website and thought he was the perfect person on our board. I emailed him and said, “Hello! I saw your site and found it very interesting. I’m creating a Virtual World company aimed to enhance Productivity, and I would love to catch lunch/coffee with you some time in discussion of you possibly being our Board Advisory.” And he said, “Sure! Lets talk some time!” There was actually a time where we had a miscommunication at the beginning, and the meeting did not happen. But after a few polite and happy follow ups, we finally got lunch, clicked pretty well, and he said our stuff is interesting so we can bounce ideas off him as an advisor.

For Eytan (founder of Google Adsense), we went to a speaker event (go to lots of those, and ALWAYS connect with the speaker), and he was one of the speakers. My CMO Jun made a really good connection with him, and after hanging out a few times, Jun asked if Eytan would like to be a board advisory, and he said sure. Eytan has been really cool and already helped out with some of Future Delivery’s tough decisions.

For Jake (our guru on accounting), I met him at a round-table event with UCLA Anderson School Board Advisors almost three years ago. The event is usually for Anderson MBA students, but I signed up as an associate and became one of the only undergrads who could go to all the MBA events. At the event, he was clearly one of the happiest people I have ever met. I respected the positive energy and influence he exerted towards the whole group, especially after experiencing so many things throughout his life. After the event, I scheduled a follow up and asked to meet up with him every once in awhile. As I started Future Delivery, I went for his advice, and he agreed to be part of the advisory board.

Finally, for Albert (our Legal Expert who worked on the Myspace aquisition), I met Arman, the founder of one of the early dial-up companies who is now running a infrastructure/server company at an Entrepreneur Conference called Startup LA towards the end of last year. I followed up with him and ask to catch lunch some time. Arman and I clicked pretty well too, and he wants to help out Future Delivery. Our of a lot of great advice and offers, he referred me to his friend Albert. I scheduled a meeting with Albert, and we discussed our mutual interest in chess as well as some issues start ups deal with these days. He says virtual worlds is definitely something he is very interested in and wants to be a Board Advisor.

Throughout my career, I have firmly believed that, when you meet passionate and motivated people with a sincere attitude, only good things can happen. Building relationships is one of the most important and meaningful things you can do in life, regardless if it is for professional or personal enrichment. Outside the comfort zone there is a harmless dragon that looks scary, but you are invincible to it. Once you realize there is nothing you can lose by approaching and talking to more people, you will be ready to slay the harmless dragon.

Yesterday I met with Avi Bar-zeev, a co-founder of Google Earth, who also built the 3D grid infrastructure for Second Life, as well as the 3D virtual reality aspect of the Disney Aladdin ride in the old days. We decided to catch a quick lunch in South Pasadena and discuss the possibility of being the virtual world expert on our board. Before I met him, I thought he’d be a guy who has a stern face, talks very fast, and would try to shoot down everything I have to say. After all, he is the expert in virtual worlds, for professional use or not. When I met him, he’s actually one of the chillest people I have met. He’s a lot taller than I thought and has a mild smile. He does not have the elitist feel at all, even though he is one of the top people in the field. He pretty much is a guy who is just passionate about building cool stuff and making sure it’s actually working. We shared the common problem of wanting to start companies that are usually years away in terms of market maturity. We talked about how he got to do what he is doing today, and the new venture he is working on Big Stage. We also just decided to eat a house salad and keep things light. That didn’t make our waiter too happy.

So we got Avi on our advisory board. He said we can bounce feedback from him about our products and plans, and he probably knows what are the best platforms and resources out there. Now we have the founder of Google Adsense and the founder of Google Earth on our advisory board, as well as a legal and accounting expert. I think Future Delivery is really establishing a strong foundation in making things successful.

For SEO sake (Search Engine Optimization), my company Future Delivery decided to switch main domain names in Bluehost from FDnetwork.org to FDcareer.com. What I was not informed of is that I need to not only back up all the files, but the databases too, however way it can be done. Once I realize that is the case, it is already too late.

In economics, we learn about sunk costs, which means that what is lost is already lost, and you need to make decisions based on the future instead of the past. I lost some of my most important thoughts, feelings and comments of times when I am angry, frustrated, delighted, impressed, confused, and rare times when I am insightful. To make matters worse, I also lost my planner/diary for 2008 very recently.

Would I be reduced to something less if I have lost my past? Would it change how I should live my moments, and how does it affect my future? The past may not be worth thinking about. I will take the present, and leverage it to make a better future. I will live on, and so will my blog.

Networking is tough, mainly because you are forced to cross through your comfort zone. Engaging and talking to strangers can be rather intimidating. However, the fear of reaching out is essentially based on illusions. In reality, there is really nothing that could be lost (assuming you don’t need to interact with the person in the long run, in which reaching out isn’t necessary for that person anyway). You might feel stupid (you don’t have to) for a few minutes if you mess up, but if your networking was unsuccessful, always by definition, you will never interact with this person again anyway. Nothing is lost. Fear in this case is a dragon, lashing its claws and teeth at you, breathing flame that seems like it could fry up your nerves. However, it must be realized that you are invincible to the dragon. Knowing that the dragon cannot hurt you, you must forget the scary look of the dragon and go out and slay it. Rewards come for
those who try.

One way to realize the harmlessness of the dragon is to think in other peoples’ shoes. If you were at a professional event and someone approached you to ask some questions, what would you think? More often than not, you would smile, try to answer the question, and not think much about the other
person right? Sometimes you would even be a little anxious if you might not be able to answer the question, but very rarely would you think anything negative of that person.

Now you think of yourself as that person who approaches. When you approach someone and start talking confidently, that person is probably thinking what you would have thought if you were in his position: not
thinking much, maybe even a little nervous. Why should that be a little scary for you? Now you might think, “That person is a highly accomplished professional. I am not. Obviously due to his high position he will have a different mindset than I have. If I was CEO of a large firm, I wouldn’t be nervous or anything!”

That’s partially true. But you also must think; this CEO might not be so different from you. Imagine you continued your career, promotions after promotion over a few decades, and one day you become a high executive or CEO. Do you think if someone approaches you, you will really give them a hard time? Or would you still be rather content that people reassured your importance? These are people too, they cried during childhood, had crushes in high school, worked somewhere or another, and due to a lot of hard work and/or luck got to their position. That doesn’t make them untouchable or sacred. You smile
and approach them, and unless they are douche, they’ll be ok.

If that person is simply too busy to give you the warmest response in the world, so be it. You live your life, and he will live his. (I recommend you try again when you have the chance.)

You must not let the harmless dragon scare you away.