100 Facts you did not know about Yu-kai Chou

Since my co-founder Jun Loayza wrote a post about the same topic, I figured I need to write one too just to be cool. I mean, people have a lot of different opinions about me, but few can deny that I’m a pretty unique/weird guy, so I’m sure I can beat Jun in being more interesting:

1. I can write different things with both hands at the same time
2. I have a scar with 26 stitches on my lips because it split in two when I ran into a metal trash can at the age of 3
3. My father has been a diplomat for Taiwan for over two decades
4. My mother has Master’s Degree in Chinese literature
5. I was born in Taiwan, but grew up in South Africa (6 years), Taiwan (7 years), Kansas (5 years), and California (7 years), and Vancouver Canada (1 year)
6. I started my high school chess club and I spent 4 hours a day learning so I could coach the team
7. My high school chess club won the State Championship in my Junior Year, and won the championship for the next 5 years. They also finished strong nationally.
8. I married an amazing women who is quite a bit older than me
9. I have records of gaining 15 lbs in 2 weeks as well as losing 15lbs in 2 weeks.
10. I can play the violin on the back of my head
11. I can beat many of my friends in chess without looking at the board (shout the moves)
12. When I was little, my dream job was to be a factory worker in a ramen factory
13. When I was little older, my dream job was to be either an actor/singer, or a professor at anything

1. I thought I was going to be a Biochemist during high school. I applied to schools with chem majors
2. In South Africa, my favorite pet dog is named Icy
3. Icy was smart enough to press the doorbell when she was locked out of the house on accident
4. Before I was 17, I was constantly working to be accepted by others. I was a pushover
5. When I was small, I felt that I had an obligation to be happy because people around me are sad. When I cry, I do it secretly and shamefully
6. A huge chunk of my education was derived from business podcasts
7. On my iPod Nano, there are no music but 4 gigs worth of podcasts
8. I graduated from UCLA with a degree in International Economics in 3 years while running my businesses to save my parents money
9. I became a devoted Christian when I was in 10th grade, after rejecting a church invite from a friend six weeks in a row.
10. I made enjoy Subway
11. I enjoy sleeping in my jeans and button ups
12. I am a co-founder of Bruin Consulting from UCLA
13. I once rejected sex from one of the most attractive girls I know from high school
14. I became an entrepreneur when I was 18
15. My first business was on eBay, when I “coincidentally” won 2 football tickets by drawing myself from a raffle
16. I started four businesses, one non-profit, and one student organization before I was 24
17. My goal in life is to make people around me successful
18. I can beat Jun Loayza at Super Smash Bro Melee
19. I used to be called Eric
20. My best friend when I was in South Africa was called Luwazi, although I don’t know how to really spell it
21. I put ice cubes in my fried rice
22. I have eaten an eight-by-eight at In’N’Out and thought it was nothing
23. I met my wife in a Chinese church in Fremont California
24. In middle school, I was obsessed with martial arts and would spend hours a day practicing/reading about it
25. I was a heavy Starcraft and Diablo II player. Then I became a slightly heavy Starcraft II and DIablo III player
26. There is nothing in my life that I truly regret up to this point
27. I have over 2500 real friends (if you count friendly acquaintances too)
28. I was heavily involved in the green/sustainability movement
29. I was one of the 100 young leaders in California that was invited to the Governor’s Global Climate Summit
30. I took a dump in a bush outside my college apartment once and wiped with leaves because I lost my keys:(
31. I look smarter than I actually am. I was impressed by a guy when he said he is as smart as I seem to be.
32. I have the worse phobia for earring. I can’t even stand paperclips on ears.
33. I joined the debate team the first year I came to the states. Got slaughtered without knowing much English, but made it to varsity my junior year
34. I literally eat four times faster than some of my friends
35. I used to write string quartet music and perform in a group call BoPo MoFos
36. My first relationship was opposite attract. She was pessimistic with low self esteem
37. I have global expansion plans: LA, SF, Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, London, Argentina, Brazil, Dubai
38. I used to be addicted to this online pure text strategy game called Utopia
39. I have awkward body language
40. My violin’s name is Marian. I named her after a Danish girl I liked in high school.
41. I had one of the most important epiphany’s in life from Diablo II
42. My favorite movie is Brave Heart. I have watched it over 30 times, and it made me cry even watching it the 4th time.
43. I think I am pretty impressive for my age, but am always shocked when others think I’m impressive
44. I created a business analysis system in college called Octalysis
45. I prefer living in a triple than a double. I would pay a bit more for a third roommate
46. I have never smoked cigarettes or done drugs
47. I can only bend down to touch my knees
48. In South Africa, my family received a certificate from the government, stating that my family is classified as “honorary whites”. Now you know why I am so well-respected.
49. When I was in 5th grade, I led a team to clean the restrooms used by kids with special needs. I can confidently say that I was the No 1 poop cleaning expert in my school (being a pushover in everything else)
50. I feel that a leader should take care of the grunt work while the team focuses on what they are best at
51. I can make a strange eagle cry noise that no one I have ever met can reproduce
52. One of my new hobbies is to hulahoop and DDR at the same time
53. I can beat the entire Mocap Boxing game in arcades within 2 tries
54. When I was younger, I was obsessed with ninjas
55. My brain makes connections between things that most people think are random
56. Sometimes people seem to think that I’m a good leader
57. I realized that Twitter has the potential to take over my life
58. I swam varsity for my high school team
59. I shaved my head twice, one for swimming, the other because of a girlfriend hear cut mistake
60. I had a $8 budget a day for food when I was bootstrapping my startup
61. I took Spanish for three years, but didn’t learn much
62. I am trying to really learn Spanish
63. I am into promoting acupuncture
64. I started doing Gamification stuff since 2003
65. I am generally not a sentimental person. I only look forward, not back
66. I am trying to lose 20 lbs. I starve myself sometimes for that
67. I’ve been an entrepreneur for so long that joining a corporate job is the scary leap of faith for me.
68. The most important physical trait of a girl to me is her eyes
69. I cannot write short blogposts even when I try
70. I have my own reality show called Living the Startup Life
71. I speak in explanations, not in sentences
72. I tend to over explain things.
73. Some people say I look like a Panda, but I think my animal would be more like a Dolphin
74. I do not care about living a luxurious life, but I want to make the largest impact possible
75. I now reside in Fremont, California
76. I often needed to do penalty problems till 3AM in the morning when I was in third grade because I just moved from South Africa to Taiwan
77. I have about 7-8 best friends in this world, all separated by geographic area
78. I made hundreds of people motivated and level up in real life
79. I wrote a Chinese novel that is 190,000 words with three years of effort, and only 20% done
80. My dream vacation is to fish and play chess at the same time with an attractive and smart woman
81. I am a typical O blood type Taurus
82. I once faced death and smiled, thinking that I lived a good life
83. I like to sing, but sing horribly
84. The worse drink that I ever had was a Durian Smoothy
85. I believe that one day I will be the leader in one or more industries
86. I recently stepped down as CEO of my startup
87. I’m not sure if creating this list is a good return on investment in time or not